paekakboyz

I'd been thinking of giving one of these a go. Was really keen to try and create some pockets midway up the wall to create a kind of hanging garden - not sure what I'd plant in them though. Could also make attachments for a easy installation of a moss wall or aniubus or java fern. I did wonder what the impact would be in terms of lighting though - having plants (esp those that are low light) that much higher up might pose some problems... Can't wait to see that background up and running. Looks really good!!

flying Korean Airlines. Have worked out that I'll have just over half a day to have a look around. Get to Seoul around 4pm and leave around 5.30pm the following day. Figured I'm only really going to have time to check out a couple of places and I'd love to see a really big aquarium. Looks like its pretty central and there are some good instructions on transport etc. hmmm I'll have to check whether there are any aquariums in Tel Aviv as well!

Hi All, I'm off to Israel in Oct and have a night in Seoul on the way there. Had a search for aquariums and it looks like COEX is the one to see. I wanted to check if anyone have been there... http://www.coexaqua.co.kr/english/main1_1.asp Not a huge amount of details on the actual displays but... "It is the greatest theme aquarium in Korea, with 2,500 tons of water , and 40,000 marine wildlife of 650 species " Oh yeah!

I had a similar problem after taking skunk loaches out of my tank - replaced them with chain loaches and the snail population is back under control... I tried the lettuce trick and also removing as many as possible after the lights were out. You'll never get all the young ones or the eggs for that matter. But once the population was under control I didn't have too many problems with the trumpets in my planted tank - they seem to do a good job of turning over the substrate, but when there are too many you do see some damage to plants etc. chain loaches are faaaar more friendly than the skunks and extremely social - not sure if adding some for a month or so would kill off all snails but you could try it. I wouldn't go back to skunks loaches now. good luck

As Dixon pointed out you are sailing pretty close to the wind with stocking levels. In addition there are a wide array of fish in your tank with quite different preferences for water temp etc - It would only take a small change in conditions (knocking off too much bacteria during a clean of the filter etc) to upset things... Always sucks losing fish but water conditions are the key - increasing the size and frequency of the water changes would be top of the list but re-evaluating the stocking levels should come a close second. Don't take the advice so far as an attack on your fish knowledge or experience, there are plenty of people on this site who have been into fish for ages and are still learning... new situations always crop up and people around here are great at helping out. good luck and let us know how things pan out

pm'd

Hi All, experiencing a snail explosion in my tank after rehoming my 3 skunk loaches - they had outgrown all the other fish in the tank. They didn't harass or bully the other fish but were constantly flying all over the tank and freaking the fish out. Tank has a way more relaxed feel to it now - cardinals and corys are out and about which is great...however the snail problem isn't! I was thinking about a small group of chain loaches (google search indicated these are the most mellow/community suitable snail killers!). If people could share their experiences of keeping chain loaches that would be much appreciated

Woo Hoo power tools!! not that I need an excuse! cheers guys, will let you know in a month or so if the dreaded BBA returns

Doh! Just what I didn't want to hear!! :lol: The good thing is that the outbreak isn't really bad, up till now I've been able to pluck bits and pieces off - I'll try as many options as I can (sun, scrubbing, boiling water etc) and see what happens. Fingers crossed as I don't really want to add Siamese Algae Eaters to the tank. Sheesh that is an awful lot of work to wipe out the BBA!! must be one of the toughest algaes to knock off!

how did you get it in the tank then!! or is it just too deeply buried in the substrate? I had to take mine out to catch some fish and ended up rejigging the tank - one piece was a real pain to get out as its an odd shape but the other was pretty straightfoward.

Hi all, I've just been rearranging the tank and pulled out two large pieces of bogwood that have some black beard algae on them. At this point I've left them out in the sun to kill it off (hopefully). The pieces are too big to boil but I was thinking of pouring boiling water over them and then giving them a good scrub... what are the chances this will work? has anyone dealt with a similar situation? I'm about to redo the aquascape and am really keen to knock the BBA on the head! thanks

I've had two types of film build up on tanks I've owned. The first was similar to what you describe - like a light but not shinny oil building up - surface agitation seems to keep it at bay and I think it relates to too much protein heavy foods? The second had the film being like a green algae or surface scum. This was a real hassle. In the end I got a surface skimmer that replaced the intake for my canister filter. It worked really well although I continued to find other ways to get rid of the scum. So the two things I'd try initially is to reduce feeding (and check protein levels on the food you have) and increase the size of water changes - maybe a 50% then some 25-30% every couple of days. If possible increase the surface agitation, that should help as well. good luck!

I'm also in the process of adding dwarf rainbows to my tank. Planning a school of 10-12 to go with a school of 25 cardinals. I reckon that blue shimmer the dwarf rainbows have will look great with cardinals. Agree with comments re LFS prices for rainbows, pretty steep to buy all at once but it would be very cool to see a decent sized school cruising around!

that is going to look wicked when it's done. Love seeing larger scale tank builds like this - esp when they are well documented with pics!

you can also push a piece of airtubing through it to work loose any gunk... then rinse and repeat. I tend to do this every second or third time I clean the filter... don't know whether I'll need to with a FX5 though hmmm actually does a (dramatically) higher flow rate reduce build up? also the tubes are much bigger than my last filters which did accumulate crud in the pipes...

whoops had forgotten that I was going to update how things were going with the FX5 - had been having a bit of an algae issue due to moving plants etc around but that has settled down and the water is crystal clear. Have tinkered with the flow to get it just right and I'm stoked with how well the FX5 is working out. Haven't bothered to open it up for a clean etc as the flow is still strong, and I've resisted the urgeto open it up just for kicks etc as well! One really great aspect of it is the strainer attachement on the intake - does an excellent job and hasn't even looked like clogging. Overall I'm very happy with the filter and loving the fact that if (ha ha when!) I upgrade to a larger tank it'll handle it no worries.

I've had a bunch of WCMM in a bathtub I setup late last summer - it's been planted with lillies and some rushes and the fish were in there over winter without any loses. As they hadn't had a full summer I was unsure if they'd manage to breed etc - there wasn't much in the way of plants to start with so any fry probably got munched! looking forward to some some fry this summer tho!! Really keen to see how peoples outside tanks work out - def a lot easier to catch and bring em back in over winter (if they can't hack the colder temps).

Had the FX5 going for nearly 2 weeks now and I'm stoked with it. Setup was easy and the instructional dvd was pretty cool. After tinkering with the outlets I've got the flow moving how I want it and the fish love it - pretty wicked watching 25 cardinals 'surf' the current... its like those turtles out of finding nemo! I totally packed the FX5 baskets with noodles from my old Jebo 819 - obviously new sponges so there was a slight spike but reg water changes sorted that out. will update in a couple more weeks.

A tip for planting the crypts is to trim the roots right back - to only 5mm or so long. Apparently this encourages them to kickstart growth and can help avoid 'crypt melt'. I read about this technique on the PFK site... george farmer I think was talking about it. It's certainly worked in my tank - I've planted about 7 crypts and none have had leaves etc die off.

FX5 it is! off to lfs this arvo and home to install afterwards... asked for a demo from the one setup in the shop as well. thanks heaps for all the advice etc folks - will report back once its been running etc for a bit. cheers

oh no contrary advice! I'd just about committed to a FX5! I did a bit of surfing during lunch and there is a really, really strong Eheim v Fluval debate out there. Heaps of reasons to choose one or the other but I did notice many comments that the FX5 had less issues than previous Fluval filters... The FX5 will easily handle any tank size increase I make given I'd be maxing out at 5-6 feet. I still have a jebo that could run alongside or take over in case of issues and a 3 year warranty is pretty sweet as well.

yeah there is a great deal on FX5's ($499) at the moment - having only 1 filter to worry about does appeal and I've got my old clunky jebo as short term backup if req. omg that almost sounds like a decision!! thanks for the advice all!

8.5ft tetra tank!! man we really need a drool icon!! Has anyone out there with a FX5 needed to reduce the flow at all? if I can get a sense of how easy/effective that feature is it'll help with the decision

linking them to your pc!! that is tech! I guess the 2 versus 1 decision comes down to how reliable the model is... Eheim seem to have the best rep for that but I'd imagine the FX5 has been around long enough for any really serious issues to surface. Have to admit having to clean only 1 filter is appealing tho! I wouldn't be able to afford a top range Eheim so thats why the decision is between the FX5 and the two smaller Eheims.

the yellow shed? man I'm sure I'm missing something here!! (standby for realisation as soon as I hit submit!) yeah I think 2* the 2215 would be the better option - more pipes and plugs but 1 on its own would be fine for the current tank anyways and would still have the grunt for a (much!) bigger tank.