Warren

I'm not making another one! This one has just about broken me.... heavy work, yip.

I've done the calcs and if you want a tank 1400 long and 900 high with the standard safety factor of 3.8, you will need 22mm glass. If you use the 12mm glass, it may hold up, but it will only have a safety factor of 1.185185185 (approx)? I wouldn't gamble!! I don't know why everyone is complaining about deep tanks. My new tank is 950mm from the water surface to the gravel. I'm not complaining. I've just adapted some tools to reach the bottom when the tank is full. It is easy to move the plants around when needed during water changes (water change is 50%). Tank Specs: Length: 3050mm Width: 1000mm Height: 1200mm Water Depth (including gravel): 1050mm Water Depth (to gravel surface): 950mm Front viewing window: 950mm Volume: 3150L Tank Weight (when full - including gravel): 4500kg Glass Thickness: 19mm Glass Safety Factor: 2.2 Tank Type: RHS Steel Frame with Fibreglass over plywood walls, glass on veiwing side only.

Stainless would be better in Oscar Tanks where they keep breaking the heater!

Have you considered Echinodorus tenelus? It grows about 40-50mm tall with leaves 2-3mm wide. It looks pretty much like grass. You need a good iron rich substrate and quite strong light. CO² also helps a lot. It is a medium speed grower. It propogates by putting out runners under the gravel and a new plant will pop-up every 25-50mm. You will only need about 10-15 plants to start you off. It will take about 6 months to fully cover the bottom of your tank. If you get stuck, I've got lots. I also have heaps of other Amazon type plants, some Crypts, some stem plants and a couple of exotics. I'm sure an acceptable price could be reached.

FNZAS Handbook Hello Fishkeepers, For some time now some club’s members and some members of the FNZAS have not been sure just what their job is. Also certain events and cut-off dates have been missed throughout the year. There is a plan in progress to help the FNZAS and all other clubs in New Zealand (and maybe some overseas) to become more aware of their responsibilities to their members. Since the FNZAS AGM 2002 on 1st June 2002, I have been made responsible (self inflicted) for making a FNZAS handbook and Welcome Pack. Every member of the FNZAS will get a copy of the handbook and Welcome Pack once completed. The Welcome Pack will be of special value to new members who are trying to understand what the FNZAS is all about. It will also help clubs organise competitions and all events using the same standard as everyone else in the country. Then, when there are national competitions, everyone will be using the same rules. The handbook will have the following information: FNZAS Constitution Rules for Competitions - Breeding Scheme. - National Fish Shows. - Tank Judging. - Pond Judging. - Breeding Standards for species available in New Zealand. Guidelines for officers duties - both within the FNZAS and general guideline for other clubs to adopt. FNZAS Calendar - showing all events and deadlines throughout the calendar year. - Dates of meetings - Due dates for return of specific information (eg Remits). Various important information from the Incorporated Societies Handbook (in the form of references). The Welcome Pack will have the following information: A General welcome to the FNZAS. A List of what the FNZAS can do for them. A List of the documentation available from the FNZAS for them to use. The idea behind the handbook is to raise the awareness of the function of clubs and to help ensure all the events for the year are coordinated well. To date I have just been collecting information. I am about to start on assembling it into a handbook format. It will take some time to complete so there is plenty of chance for YOU to have your input. Please advise any information you wish to see in the handbook. Please post replies relevant only to this topic under this thread. If you have anything specific you don’t want to post, email me direct [email protected] Don’t wait, do it now!

I've had problems trying to use RO exclusively. If no salts are added back into the water my fish suffered. They started to get little holes in their heads. It never developed into Hole-in-the head disease but it didn't look good. There is also risk of long-term osmotic shock to the fish. If the water had no salt in it, it will tend to strip salt out of the fish through its gills, endangering the fish. Adding some of the salts mentioned in the previous posts fixes the problem. I also add a little marine salt mix from time-to-time to keep the trace elements present also. The fish seem to like it better with a small amount of the right slat added. I use RO on my Discus, Large Cichlids (Oscars, Jags etc), and in my fishroom with Eartheaters, Tetras, Uaras, Killifish and many more. No problems with any if you add salts. Lots of problems with general fish health if you don't. The fish don't die, they just don't look as good and don't breed much without a very small amount of salt (40-60ppm total seems to work ok as a minimum).

Keep in mind that trade accounts are only for people who are in business as Retail outlets, Large Breeding Facilities (that are a business) or Fish Farms. They should also be a registerred company. There are some people who come up with a business name, GST register then get an account with the wholesalers to get cheaper pet supplies. They sometimes also buy items for other people and make a profit (probably without declaring it too). They are however not a registerred company. It is this type of action that gives many retailers a bad attitude towards fish clubs who have members doing this. If you have an account for your business and you are not a retail outlet, you should keep your account for your own business use and not tell others about it. Happy Fishkeeping.

Go to the Technical Section / Useful Links Page. There you will find a link to the Sears-Colin report. You should know this Ira because the link says you found it! Use their recipe, its a great starting point. My recipe is very similar. Its pointless me giving you my recipe because I've made small changes to suit my setup is all. For the chelated trace element mix, I use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Aquatic Plant Stimulant. It contains all the trace elements in similar % quantities to the report. How to work out how much to use is easy. Work out how much fertiliser you will add daily to your tank. Divide the total amount of fertiliser you are going to make by this amount. This tells you how many days supply you are making. Look at the Aquatic Plant Stimulant directions and it will tell you how much to add and how often. From this you can work out how much Aquatic Plant Stimulant to add to the fertiliser mix. eg if you add 50ml every 2 weeks and you are making enough fertiliser to last 4 weeks, you add 100ml. You will need to subtract this amount of water from the fertiliser mix or else you will end up with more.

Good Score!

I get all my chemicals from the local bulk chemical supplier. Some pool centers have most of them too. If you get really stuck, I could get them for you from the local supplier and courier to you. Most containers are 2kg and cost between $10-20 depending on what chemical.

Never seen this fish before??!!!!!!??!

Hi Campbell, If you use the plants Derek has suggested you shouldn't have too much trouble with the Clown Loaches. If you want to use stem plants, these will grow ok with an UGF but the loaches will probably bite them off near the roots. UGF is often no good with some crypts and echinodorus species (sword plants) as they get a large portion of their nutrients from the roots.

Oops forgot to mention, they like bloodworms and small live food. If you want to spawn them live food always helps.

Are you sure they are not Gold Lineatus or a Lineatus cross? If they are good Gold Lineatus, do you have a spare female. Mine does not look like it will last much longer (had it about 3 years). I hope it spawns one last time. I need a spare as the Lineatus seems to have almost dissappeared. I want to breed some more and spread them round.

I use a system similar to this to link lots of tanks together in my fishroom. I'm not using clear pipe however as I'm only interested in moving the water between tanks. On the 2 display tanks in the lounge however... Its a great idea and would be relatively cheap to make!

I cheat! It's probably not really automatic, rather it is continuous. I have a trickle of water (approx 300L/day) entering the sump. The excess overflows out a waste pipe at the other end of the sump. Its not as good as actually removing water then adding it again but its a whole lot less time consuming. At around 4-5% water change a day, it keeps the whole system pretty fresh. Combined with pleated cartridge filters (like on small swimming pools) the water is very clear and odourless. No need for carbon! It costs a bit in winter (heating 300L of water uses a lot of electrical energy), but I'm working on a heat pump system at the moment to reduce it (DIY again).

Hmmm... Even more reason to DIY. You could make small cap over the adjuster to make it kid-proof. Why pay for it if you can make it.

I'll vouch for the Siames Algae Eater or Black-Line Flying Fox too (Crossocheilus siamensis). They are really good at munching most types of algae. They do not seem to suck fish. They also do not grow as big as Flying Fox's.

I use my garage. About half the garage is lined with 50mm polystyrene all round (floor included). There are currently 32 tanks ranging from 10L to 750L with approx 7500L total. 3 Tanks are set up for quarantining new fish, but the rest are on a central filter. Will be adding 12 more soon. The system works great, almost no maintenance thanks to automatic water change and automatic pH control. It takes about 45 minutes every 2 weeks just to wipe the glass and siphon the muck from the bottom of the tanks. The system has been setup for over 2 years now and have not had any disease.

Have you considered affiliating to the FNZAS?

How is the CO2 added to the tank? Is it bubbled in from the bottom, or is a gas reactor of some sort used. I use a DIY gas reactor. 100% of the CO2 is dissolved into the water if the gas reactor is good enough. The bubbles per minute is useless unless it is specified for a certain bubble size and only if 100% of the CO2 if dissolved and only if the gas is 100% CO2. Anything else and more CO2 (or gas) will be required, - just how much who knows? Its a reasonable starting point but ...

Hi Andrew, Cool, could I borrow it please? The book Derek sent me is full of goodies. Mostly a lot I'd already learnt, but it reinforces most ideas and introduces a whole bunch of new things I'd not thought of. If your book is even half as good, it will help a lot. Regards Warren.

Hi Dawn, Re your tank depth. 36cm or 360mm is not very deep for a tank. 45cm+ is where light intensity starts to become more important.

As Derek says, multiply by 1. mg/L is PPM. ie 1mg per Liter = 1g per 1000L = 1kg per 1000000L Since 1000000L of pure water = 1000000kg (hope I got all the 0's right) 1kg of stuff dissolved in 1000000kg of water is 1ppm (one part per million).

I must be related to Britney!! Sorry Ira, don't know where that came from, should have been 'Midas'. Have edited the post (again) to correct. Must be having a blond day!