Ianab

In a 3ft tank tank, I dont think it will work. One breeding pair would be OK. In a bigger tank, yes. 2 pair in a 6ft tank would probably co-exist. Each pair could set up a decent territory, in a 3ft tank they would be in each others faces all the time. Ian

Should be, that one is doing fine in a 20l. Look for smaller ones if you aren't sure. They only grow about 5mm per year, so it's going to take a while for them to outgrow the tank. I believe they start breeding at about 20mm (4 years old) Ian

If your return goes to a spray bar just above the surface then there is no way it can syphon back out after another pump failure. The spray bar out of the water may appear to create more current, but it's more visible surface disturbance rather than strong current. If it's so strong it's worrying your fish then you can put a valve in the return line to restrict the flow. Ian

A couple of lumps of old weathered driftwood, the cray has excavated a tunnel underneath as a hiding spot. Hence Stella's suggestion to get some more pieces. Ian

He has excavated quite a cave under the little logs, it has 3 exits and seems to give him good cover. But another lump of driftwood is a good idea. I may set up a bigger coldwater tank once I get my new tanks set up, see how things go. Ian

Well I had a guppy tank by a window.. it went so green you could only see the fish when they swam up to the glass. They were all happy and healthy, but I did move the tank for cosmetic reasons. For rearing fry it might work well. As long as all the other tank parameters are fine, a bit of green does no harm. Ian

Tank is only about 18l, but it has been set up for a couple of years and is well established. I just took the heater out and dropped him in. Ian

Welcome to the world of spyware / adware / scumware. You can try using something like Ad-Aware to remove it. I wont get them all, but is pretty good against the common ones. http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php Otherwise you will need to get into some more in depth detective work. It will have come attached to some freebie download like a screensaver or game. It's generally buried in the fine print of the user agreement that they can show you adverts. :-? If Ad Aware doesn't remove it, post again and we can dig a bit deeper. Ian

Update, he seems to be doing well, has become a lot braver. Eats Sera vipachips and Wardly pleco tablets, pounces on them as soon as they hit the bottom. Has stopped excavating too, but only because it reached the bottom of the tank :roll: Cheers Ian

Imagine trying to catch one of those to move it to a new tank??? If it takes a jaguar to drag one down Ian

I also think it depends on the species of fish, and also the other tank dimensions. If the tank is 8ft long, then it doens't have to be as wide, there is swimming space, do a 3 point turn, swim back. Thats the theory I'm using with my 'new' 1.8m tanks and my plecos anyway. A gourami naturally comes from fairly cramped conditions I believe, Paddy fields and small streams. They aren't really an open water fish, so they can handle smaller dimensions, as long as your total tank volume is big enough. Something faster swimming like a bala shark on the other hand I would suggest you want twice the fishes length for it to turn around easlily, so a 30cm bala should probably have 60cm depth and probably height as well. Depth is also debatable. Many fish could live quite well in water not much deeper than their body, gourami and plecos for instance. The eels in by back garden seem quite happy in 10-15cm of water, and they are 50-100cm long. When they swim up the rapids they are actually 1/2 out of the water. But generally larger tanks are usually at least 40-50cm deep, plenty of depth for most fish. Ian

Google and ye shall find http://www.directron.com/2powersupplies.html Short those 2 wires and you have 10 amps of 12V goodness. Ian

Well .. in some ways 12v fans are an advantage when you are talking about DIY wiring and water. Very hard to kill yourself with 12volts. Ian

Most of the parts roughly cut to size, not finished everything yet, but getting there. Cutting out the large pieces for the tanks to sit on. Using 16x2s might be a bit excessive, but I have them, so why not. They are too big to go through the planer so they get surfaced with a router mounted on the mill. Even took a video of the process. Ian

So do I I haven't got that far in the planning yet. But something will come together I'm sure. But I have started construction anyway. Sorted out part of the wood stash first. Then break out the trusty planer. and plane up some 4x2s And a big pile of shavings. Ian

Bryce 3D It's not really a CAD package, more a raytracing and 3d drawing thing. I think the version 5.5 is still available as a free download. Ian

I picked up a couple of 'new' tanks the other day. They are 1.8m long, approx 300l each, so should make great homes for my plecos as they get bigger. I'm short of space in the house, but if I move out my 3ft stand and it's tank I can fit these in, and still have room for some chairs and computers etc. So I got to designing. And with some tanks and fish. The tanks have been drilled on the front left corner, so I am planning to connect that to standpipes inside the tank and run some home built sump filters under the stand. Next... start cutting some wood Ian

Personal preference Buy the biggest plain glass tank you can and get your B/F to weld up a decent stand. I'm into woodworking not welding, so I make mine from wood, but I still have a steel one my Dad build me maybe 30 years ago. Doing it that way you should be able to set up a 200l tank for about the $$ you want to spend. Lights, filters and heaters can be mixed and matched depending on what you want to keep. A home made light hood with a couple of compact flouros can be made for a few $, it will work fine if you aren't trying to grow plants. You can start with a basic filter and upgrade later (or double up) as your fish grow or you get more. Ian

6x6x6 = 216. Minus a bit for the glass thickness and the air gap at the top. So your 200l guess is about right. Ian

Is it possible to just get a glass lid cut for the tank? That way you can just sit a basic light like that, or a Mitre10 flouro kit on top of the glass. Ian

The problem is that any machine that runs Vista "OK" will run XP fantastically. It converts the latest model CoreDuo PC with 2gb of ram into a PC that seems to run as well as my lean mean 4 year old P4 with 700mb of ram. Yes it's pretty, but fluff doesn't actually make a PC faster or more stable, and Microsoft and Secure are not compatible. Yes we are going to be running Vista one day.. but for me it will be service pack 2, or Linux. Ian

Keep me in the loop. I dont have a lot of time between work and family commitments to be an organiser, but I would be interested in being a member at least. Ian

About 7cm I guess, a decent size. The neighbours little footbridge had washed away in a flashflood and was sitting under my steel bridge. When I went down to fish it out for him there were two of these hanging on it. I was able to grab this one Ian

Thats true, but it's still not a very good recomendation for 95 :lol:

Do yourself a favour and learn one of the new flavours of Linux (Ubuntu, Suse etc.) Learning Win95 is just computer archeology. :roll: Ian