paekakboyz

sounds as though they are 'flashing' which is when they rub themselves against the substrate, plants, ornaments (anything really) and sometimes shake or twitch. It can be an indication that your ammonia levels are high (test and perhaps try a 30-50% water change) or that they have some sort of parasite. Possibly could be flukes (little parasites that live either in the gills) or on the scales of fish) as well. I think they may even act that way with the onset of ich too? search the site for Flukes and/or flashing and you should find some threads that have more info

I've got three skunk loaches and they dealt to the snail explosion I had in my tank. when I do my water changes I often stick the siphon into a hard to reach area and have heaps of emplty snail shells swirl up - finally found out where they are hiding the bodies - loach mafia!! I thought the clicking was them eating snails as well - I read that they make that sound when they are interacting and it lets them settle the groups hierarchy without actually getting physical and risk getting hurt. Seems Zebra loaches are the loach least likely to get nippy (other than Clowns but they get big) but if you have a group they seem to play together and leave other fish alone.

was it the food itself or the amount of it in the tank? if there is uneaten food in the tank its not going to help the water conditions...especially if you continue to add more.

You want to add fish slowly and in reasonably small numbers to build up good bacteria in your tank and help it cycle. After that happens (see posts about testing your water for ammonia, nitrates, nitrites etc) you can continue to add fish... you don't want to add a large number all at once - at any time - as you will overload your tank... Many people use neons at the start as they are cheap. Danios are also good 'cycling' fish as they are pretty hardy and also neat community fish. Neons are definitely happier in groups as they are a shoaling fish - 6 or so would probably be the minimum number, but over time you can increase the number as long as your tank size/filtration etc are ok. Most people on the site will advise that you just need to be patient and test your water conditions. Better to go a bit slowly rather than having fatalities all over the show! more satisfying and better for you bank balance (not to mention the fish!) Search the site for threads about 'cycling tanks' and you'll find heaps of good info and advice.

if you are rinsing out the filer (the wool, or the filter pad etc) make sure you do it in the tank water rather than under the tap... otherwise you'll knock off all the good bacteria etc. You could clean the gunk off the top of the gravel with a siphon but you probably don't need to fully clean it unless there is a huge buildup of waste.

I've had a jebo 810 and a 819 for several years now and they are both going sweet as. Not overly difficult to clean and while there is a bit of a knack to getting them re-started its pretty easy. Only problem I had was when I broke a ceramic impellor shaft when cleaning one of the filters... Hutt Pets were excellent and got the part in for me but the more expensive brands (eheim etc) have readily available parts. seems there have been instances where people have talked about faulty filters of all brands but certainly some are more robust/reliable than others (although they also tend to cost more!)

deep enough to anchor them firmly... for stem plants maybe 3-5cm deep and if you're dealing with swords etc (rosetta plants I think they are called?) then make sure the roots are covered but the 'crown' is partially above the substrate surface - that is where the new shoots etc will grow from. I've got about 2-3cm of daltons with another 4-5cm of gravel over the top - the plant's roots will get to the daltons as they get established...

H*W*L then divide by 1000 and you have the capacity of the tank (remember that you'll be adding gravel, rock, wood etc so there will actually be less water in there). You were pretty much spot on, I got 113.58 so roughly 113 litres in the (bare) tank. Things get a tad more complicated if you have an odd (curved, hex, etc) shaped tank!

they're probably on their New Years diet by now and slimmed down!

I've got a pair oframs in a 360L with... cardinals (fancy neons!) pearl danios Skunk Loaches corys flying foxes and there have been no problems at all... Hatchetfish will hang around the top (don't they like the water a bit brackish?) so they won't tangle too much with the rams... I doubt the mollies/platties are going to cause any problems either. I've read that skunk loaches can be a bit nippy but my 3 have been sweet - they chase each other around but don't give the rams any hassle (actually sometimes its the other way round!). hope that helps : )

something like over 1 million party pills consumed since they went onsale with only 2 or 3 deaths (and they involved mixing other drugs/alcohol which is clearly warned against on the labelling). compare that to alcohol or tobacco and you get a far different story. I'm pro-choice - however there are always going to be certain people (and not just the young ones!) within society that abuse (take too much, mix substances, take drugs etc and drive) that freedom of choice. Making them illegal isn't going to achieve a great deal other than giving gangs and other dealers another product! people will still get hold of them (sooo many people stockpiling these things at the moment) and continue to take them... worse yet they might try and make their own. A wide range of people are taking them from clubbers who want to stay up all night to long distance truck drivers etc... It seems (according to some of the industry spokespeople) that there has been some success in getting people of meth/P with these pills but this is only a small part of the market. It'll be interesting to see what happens once they become illegal thats for sure - unfortunately I don't think we'll be seeing many of those 'loose units' behave any better or treat drugs (inc alcohol) with any more respect!

a quick search of the site showed a few instances of people using scoria instead of bio balls or noodles etc... the main advice was to wash it really well. Some brands of noodles aren't that expensive (aqua one) and are purpose made to have a heap of surface area - I guess it depends on how much you want tho!

cool - I was a bit concerned that bit changes in the temp would cause issues. I could easily rig a bit of shade for the tub so the plants don't cook too. thanks for the advice guys - now to sell it to the wife and evict the hedgehog that's living under the tub at the moment!!

Hi All, We've just been cleaning up the backyard and surprise surprise I discovered the previous owner had left an old bathtub behind (hidden under some ivy). I was wondering if I might be able to set it up for some mountain minnows - planted with oxygen weed and a few flowering plants. We are in wellington and the spot I'd like to position it in is North facing so it'd get a fair amount of sun. I was planning to set it up and test how much the water temp fluctuates esp as we are likely to get some pretty hot days this summer. Would people be able to advise on their exp of WCMM in ponds etc and how well the fish dealt with changing temps? any advice etc would be much appreciated : )

I run a Jebo 819 on a 360l tank and it does a good job - stocking level isn't too high and its heavily planted as well. You could start out with a cannister that is specd for the size of your tank - if you add more fish just add an internal or something...

you can play around with the outlet to deflect the flow against the glass. Or perhaps you could check if a spray bar can be added to reduce the strength of the flow?

getting a tester kit would probably be useful - kind of takes the guess work out of checking your water conditions! Has there been anything (dust, dirt etc) settling on top of the substrate at all?

yup ignorance is bliss!! esp when it comes to the $$ spent on electricity

bro you are gonna give the conch a hernia! all the advice so far has pointed to your current tank not being suited to an Aro - unfortunately you can't get little'uns in NZ so that isn't an option either. We've all seen fish that we've gone ga ga for but because we do care about fishy welfare we do (should) stop and think if we can really give X fish a good home. No one is getting down on you for wanting an Aro but they are clearly giving the message that you should wait till you've got that 6ft + tank. how about hitting up ya mates and family to help you get that 6footer for Xmas mate!! that might make your goal of owning an Aro seem a bit closer

I've got a similar setup except I had a 1000K bulb and a 15000K bulb in each. I since swapped the 15000K bulbs for 6500K ones and the major change has been algae!! the plants are growing better/faster but I'm still trying to balance out the correct amount of time etc. If you don't mind spending a few $$ on 6500K bulbs from the start I'd do that - then you can tweak the lighting time etc to get the best results Now I'm thinking about having all four bulbs at 6500K and seeing what happens.

don't see why there would be any problems adding extra holes to distribute the current (and weaken it a little) - I've cut spraybars down a bit with no probs - just need to take it slow so you don't crack them and clean the end a bit so the cap still fits etc. A finetooth hacksaw or even a serrated kitchen knife would be sweet for this you might still want to try and have the current end up near your intake so that debris etc get swept toward it?

at what size does a tank really get complicated? a 4-5 foot tank while heavy isn't going to drop through your floor and can be catered for with a cannister or sump etc... you regularly see them for sale in petshops and on sites like trademe. However there are a couple of pretty big tanks on trademe that have been listed for a wee while now - waiting for the right person to snap them up no doubt but IMHO anything over 6 foot and starts to seem a little bit more daunting (but ooooh so tempting!!). I guess with decent planning etc you can make it happen you've just got to be sure you've done your homework! several posts on this thread had me nodding my head as I hadn't thought of those issues/advantages etc Just shows the value of pooled exp etc!!

I'm not surprised!! what a huge tank!

caryl I think that is what has happened for me - I went and bought a couple of 6500k bulbs to replace the ones that came in my Aqua one hoods. I've got a 4 foot tank with... 1x 4ft 40w dual tube Aqua one (one original tube and one 6500K one) 1x 3ft 30w dual tube Aqua one (ditto) hair algae has started to take over and I've reduced the lighting period down to 10hrs from 12... the other plants continue to grow well but algae has just taken off! a real pain as I hadn't expected adding 6500k lights to kick start such rampant algae growth... I guess I could go back to the original tubes? (I think took out the 10000k bulb and left in the 1000k ones)

ipod's will play music in mp3 format (like Macs and much of the music you get off the web). Other players tend to cater for both mp3's and wmv's my friend got a 4gig samsung player that is tiny - only a tad bigger than an ipod for $199. It recharges through a usb link to a pc. I'm a bit meh about ipods - you pay a lot more for the 'brand' and recent players on the market match them for sound quality and battery life now.