Warren

It depends on your water quality. If you have very good water from a well (no chlorine) then it can usually go straight into the tank. In Palmy, the water is chlorinated. You have three options: 1. Use chemicals to de-chlorinae the water. 2. Put the water in a seperate container and bubble air through it for a couple of days before using it. 3. Buy a water filter to remove the chlorine. The second method is better as not chemicals are added but it's not nearly as convenient. Be wary of units that attach to the end of your hose. They may not remove enough chlorine. If you can smell it there's too much. Water should pass through the filter quite slowly so it can do it's job. If the filter is a very small thing attached directly to the end of the hose and the water comes out at pretty much full pressure and speed then it will be doing very little.

I agree with using acrylic. Glass would need to be 70mm thick. Since 25mm is the thickest commonly available glass, you'd need to get three pieces laminated. Sealing the edges of laminated glass is a big problem too. At that thickness you'd have one green looking tank. You'll need acrylic at least the same thickness, if not a bit thicker. Will be very expensive, especially the curved ends...

I had a dozen in a 5 foot comunity tank. They nipped the fins on most of the other fish. Killed a sword tail within 24hrs... I took them back after that. It doesn't mean you'll have the same problem. Just keep an eye on them to start with and be prepared to take them out. Ask the LFS if they will take them back before you buy them.

Bravo Pies, sell the FNZAS to the max!!

Mmmm, great tank!! 8)

SAE's are relatively easy to tell apart. They have a single black line right down the middle of the body that starts at the nose, passes through the eye, continues down the body and extends through the tail. There is no other markings. Don't buy ones where the black line doesn't extend through the tail. Don't buy ones with a gold line as well as the black line. That's about all there is to it. It's the line extending through the tail that's the key to getting the correct fish.

Will there be beer in the tanks? (as it's much like a pub crawl...)

Very Cool 8)

Pies, ever thought about putting a piece of quartz glass betwwen the lamps and the tank. I know quartz glass is expensive, but another couple of broken bulbs and it will pay for itself...

It will also have all the dust, oils, bacteria, viruses and any other contaminants that were floating round in the air. Unfortunately it's not the same as distilled water as the collection method is not closed. As it's stripping water out of the air, it will generally take anything else in the air with it. A good test would be to get some of the water and put it in a bottle but leave a bit of an air gap at the top. Seal it and leave for a few weeks. If the air in the top of the bottle stinks when the cap is removed it's no good. Even if it is ok it will still probably be a risk to use it.

It's critical to treat fish for sickness as fast as possible. They often go down hill very quickly.

The only pumps I know of that can run outside the tank are Eheim. There are bound to be others but these are amoung the best. If you look on a computer parts site (especially one for overclockers) you'll often find the same pumps available at lower prices. Eheim is very popular for water cooling PC's... (Although my water cooled PC uses a Grundfos pump).

This is often the case. To make a thread look consistant sometimes non-offending posts get taken too. In the future we will advise if this is the case. It would be nice not to have to... As Cees said, let's move on...

If you want to keep the 80l/min then no Eheim can move that much. The biggest one will do around 2250L/h (37.5l/min) with no head. You're looking for a pump to do 4800L/hour with a decent amount of head. As a general rule that will be about 6000L/hour at no head or approx 100W pump. If you need one in a real hurry you'll need to get something from a retailer. If noise isn't too much of a problem Laguna isn't a bad pump, - alittle pricey but will last.

I've lost fish before due to a long outage. I now have a UPS on the pumps and heaters, - enough batteries for two days holdup. Call me pesimistic, but we've had a 12 hour cut here before.

Keep in mind that not everyone has access to wholesale prices. In fact it's only a very small minority of the total number of fishkeepers. The shop normally has a good supply of heaters so when one stops it can be quickly replaced. The cost of handling warranties etc is built in to the price as well. Good luck with the venture in Marines petplanet. Sounds like you've scoped the market and think it's pretty viable. Hopefully the payback period won't be the years you origianlly quoted.

Ok, here's how it works: Alan's post was borderline, but if you check the rest of the thread it just carried on ok. It's when one post leads into a whole string of negatives, - that's when there is a problem. Also when it clearly crosses the line.

Oops, misread that part of your post, - sorry. I have no issue with that. We will be discussing it at the next meeting and your club will receive a copy of the minutes. You can read them at the meeting if you wish. I have support for this from the forum moderators and I know the committee will agree. I have a whole pile of printed posts that have been removed. It's not poor. We're sick of the mess a few members make of parts of the site. The only poor handling is not stomping on it much earlier.

Have a good look at the thread. People have been expressing their feelings and in most cases doing fine. Once the specific naming of shops and 'this happened, that happened etc' started, then there was a problem. If you want to discus negative aspects of a specific shop, do it privately, not in this 'Public Domain'. Also, there were personal attacks and they were also removed.

No it's not and I don't have to justify it either. It's part of the site rules and anyone who breaks them will have their post removed and recieve a warning. If they persist we may ban them End of story, not open for arguement or discussion. If you are not happy about it then find another forum to go to. I think you'll find very few forums that tolerate the general behaviour of a few people on this site. Well, we've now changed and we won't tolerate it either.

Anyone can be referred here. Any slanderous comments made about retailers will be deleted. Notice this thread is already shorter than it used to be? You may make negative comments about any bad experience you've had. You may not say where or imply where however... That also goes for negative comments about other members. Some posts are also deliberately designed to irritate others. These will be deleted and repeat offenders may get banned.

You mention the tank was really dirty and needed a good clean. After only 2 months it shouldn't have been all that dirty at all. Are you overfeeding? If so, it will be why the ammonia and nitrite levels are up. You may have reached a level of waste in the bottom of the tank the filter can't cope with. Try backing off the food a lot. The fish don't need very much food. It's best to have them quite hungry, - then they clean the tank up. Most of those fish could survive quite happily on 2 feeds a week. If you are going to feed daily, just use a small amount. Add a second small amount if needed. The idea is to have little or no food hit the bottom of the tank. There's also less poo for the filter to process as well.

Check your phosphate level (buy a test kit). You may need to use a phosphate removing resin. Most tanks using tapwater benefit greatly from phosphate removers if algae is a constant problem.

Don't know the yates product... Aquarium Phamaceuticals "pH Down" is sulphuric acid. It's strong enough for the job. Unless you have 1000's of litres to treat I'd go with it. It tells you the dose rate...

It is! I've been keeping discus and growing plants for 10+ years and still learning. I'm not very creative but can grow plants well. Not a good combination for getting things looking natural. Starting to get the hang of it at last. Mr Amano better look out, in about another 50 years I'll catch up... 8)