Ianab

yip.. there are 3 goldspots and a small common in there :oops: I'm planning on getting a bigger tank next year, I know they are gonna outgrow this one 8)

Finally finished off my dual purpose project. Lights for my 1.2m tank and a shelf to keep my computer bits away from the 9 month old thats just learning to crawl :-? As the tank is packed with big plecos I haven't even tried to plant it, so the lights are just cheap daylight compact flouro lamps. Real budget, but I just needed some light so you can see the fish, and the plecs are happier with lower light level anyway. Total budget about $15, plus the wood, which I saw myself anyway. Just the tank. And now I have enough light to actually get pics of the plecos 8) Cheers Ian

Only a problem if the heater sticks in the ON position If the heater is sized right there is a chance that you will notice the fish looking a bit stressed, check the temp and fix the problem before they cook. BEST option is 2 smaller heaters, if one fails on it shouldn't cook the tank, and if one fails off, the other one will stop the fish from freezing. Cheers Ian

I'm not a loach expert, but from what I know they prefer soft and slightly acid water. Ph around 6.5. They just may not be suited to living with Africans at pH 8+ ? Cheers Ian

If in doubt, do a water change. If you have ammonia problems due to a new tank or overfeeding (or both) then changing out a decent percentage of the water will help. Guppys can handle temps from about 19 to 29, but around 25 is their 'ideal' temp. Cheers Ian

This time of your you might be able to find a few mosquito larvae around - they will LOVE those 8) Cheers Ian

Lots of things can be used as biological media. It just needs to be inert and have lots of surface area for the bacteria to live on. Ceramic filter beads are probably the best, they are made to have zillions of tiny holes that the bacteria can populate. Other options are plain nylon pot scrubbers, cheap way to fill up empty filter space, lots of surface area and open space for water to circulate. Filter sponges and nylon wool obviously work as well, as most small filters only contain a sponge that does everything. Scoria is similar to the ceramic media, just not as much surface area per litre of media. Heck you could use plain gravel, it would be better than nothing, and works in an Undergravel Filter situation. You would just need 10 times as much. If you want the best, use the ceramic media. But if you have empty space in your filter or sump, then loading it up with scoria is a big (and cheap) improvement on an empty box Cheers Ian

They are hard to sex, but once they get to adult size (about 30cm) they develop a slight difference to their vents. But you need a HUGE tank (pond) to breed them. You are correct, they do need more food than they can find in a normal tank, but if there is a build-up already it may take a while to get caught up. Cheers Ian

Hard to tell from a picture, but it looks a bit short of bracing for that size tank. It's going to be holding up ~300kg of weight. It will probably support that, but it's earthquake or someone bumping into it thats the problem. A sheet of plywood screwed and glued to the back and sides would make it about 10 times stronger though. Cheers Ian

You might be suprised how much algae is actually in a normal tank. Sure we can clean the glass, but the rocks, driftwood and stuff wont normally get cleaned and will have a yummy layer of slime all over it. Once the pleco cleans that up it will start looking for some more food. If it's pooping - then its eating something Cheers Ian

Cutting down the light that the tank gets while doing some big water changes should help. I'm battling the same thing in a 2ft tank that sits on my kitchen counter (by the window). It was fine there for six mouths, then summer comes along and the morning sun hits the tank now. GREEN city Cant see the back of the tank :lol: I couldn't see the FISH unless they swam up to the glass! I have rearranged the pot plants to shade the tank and done about 6 x 50% water changes over the last 2 weeks. It's STILL green, but I can see the back of the tank now, so I'm winning. The main problem is too much light and nutrients in the water. Best fix is less light and more water changes Yes you can get algae killer in a bottle, but it's pretty much liquid weed killer... you really want to pour that in your tank ? :-? The ultimate is a UV filter, works by suntanning the little algae plants to death as they circulate through the filter. No nasty chemicals dumped in the tank - much better. Cheers Ian

A school of tiger barbs will work fine with kribs too. Similar size, water conditions and they dont hassle each other. 8) Cheers Ian

I have to put bigger fish in with my guppys to STOP them breeding Well technically it doesn't stop them breeding, but the kribenisis is happy, and there are no guppy fry left :-? Many fish will try and breed in a community tank, some will even succeed. But generally the fry get eaten by the other fish Cheers Ian

Yup.. start slow at first. The first 2 weeks are the tricky part, but if you only add a few fish to the tank it will be OK. Leave them for 2 weeks before you add any more. If all is well (and a water test is a good idea) then you can build up the numbers a few at a time over the next 4 weeks. If you have an established tank already you can take filter material from a running tank and use that to 'seed' bacteria in the new tank. Either swap some of the media from a working filter with a new one, or squeeze a nice gungy filter sponge into the new tank. The gunge has a few zillion good bacteria in it, and they will get sucked up into the new filter. Just take it slow and you shouldn't loose any fish 8) Cheers Ian

Either ask the local council for their water test results.. or maybe some of the other Nelson forums members that use the same water will be able to advise you. The main problem is if there is a technical problem at the water treatment plant, like they have to use unfiltered river water in an emergency. Then they chlorinate heavily to make the dirty water 'safe' to drink, and some residue may remain in the water. If it ever smells like a dirty swimming pool coming out of the tap - dont use it in your tank!! Cheers Ian

As long as chlorine is the only thing in there.. yes. Most NZ water is pretty good quality and is only lightly chlorinated, most of that evaporates before it even gets to you. I generally just top up my tanks with a garden hose set on a fine spray setting, but only do that if you are sure your local water is good quality. Cheers Ian

Cant hurt anything - it's their natural food. Another advantage is it's hard to overfeed live food, if you put too many in they just wriggle around untill the fish can eat them. Means the fish have an all you can eat smorgasboard Cheers Ian

Dont worry about the ceramic filter media, they are basically an inert lump of ceramic that just provides a home for the filter bacteria. More media = more bacteria = better filtering. They wont mess with pH. Cheers Ian

What Blueit said. The problem is that your filter has a population of bacteria that processes the ammonia that the fish excrete. The amount of bacteria is related to the amount of ammonia released into the tank. So if the tank only has a few fish, it will also have a small bacteria population, but they will be in balance. Now if you add a couple more fish, the bacteria will multiply to bring things back into balance and nothing serious happens. But if you suddenly dump in 5 times the number of fish the ammonia may rise faster then the bacteria can multiply. If the ammonia level gets too high.. the fish die If you remove fish from a tank then the number of bacteria will gradually fall untill the balance is re-established, so even if the tank has had a full population of fish before, you still need to take care when building up the numbers again. Like most things there are no exact rules, but if you are aware of the problem and spread out the fish additions over several weeks then you will be fine 8) Cheers Ian

When they are small they will be fine together. As they mature you will notice if they pair up and start getting aggressive. You can move them about / sell off the extra ones then. Just be aware of whats going to happen in the future. Cheers Ian

I wouldn't mix neons / guppys with Angelfish. Angels get pretty big and start looking at the smaller fish as a snack :-? Also the number of Angels, remember they can grow to 15cm long, and will probably pair up and get territorial as they mature. Cheers Ian

It will be fine as long as you have given even a basic clean up. A fish tank isn't a sterile environment at any time, it full of all sorts of bacteria and micro-organisms anyway. A dead fish will pollute the water for sure, but mostly because there is too much ammonia etc released by it's decay for the filters to handle. Boiling it wont have hurt, but hosing it down would have been fine. All the bacteria you killed off in the big boil of 07 will just have to move back in now :lol: Cheers Ian

Yep, 25deg is a good average temp for the more common fish you will probably have, but different species prefer different ranges of temps. Hilstream loaches and White clouds prefer the temp down around 20deg, while Discus would like up it close to 30. But 25 would be a good average for most common tropicals. Dont believe the numbers on the thermostat either, 90% of the time they wont be correct. Plug it in, leave it overnight and see what temp the tank actually is in the morning. Then adjust a couple of clicks to where you actually want it. Cheers Ian

Thats a prety cool fish 8) Have a read up on them here. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile97.html Hope you have space for it (30cm adult size). But at least it appears to be pretty peacefull for a large cichlid, even it they have a habit of re-arranging the furniture. Cheers Ian

Plenty of smaller cichlids that will be fine in that size tank. The odd shape wont worry the fish, tanks are generally built taller because that way they look bigger to US, the fish dont care. In fact a shallower tank can be better becasue you have more surface and floor area, making the tank 'bigger' for the fish. Kribensis would work fine in that size tank, and you can keep them with most other community fish too, unless you have a breeding pair They dont need any special water conditions etc. Or you could set the tank up with crushed coral substrate to raise the hardenss and pH and keep some of the smaller African lake species. I'm not up on the exact species, but many of them only grow small as well. Check Foxgloves link for more info there. Cheers Ian