dwalk

I definately enjoy the fish, It's good to see the fruits of your labour! I had a heater failure last weekend, consequently my other community tank got overstocked from Sat night onto prob this sat night. My 130L community tank has currently got.... 6 bristle noses 1 Siamese algae eater 1 red spot sailfin pleco 1 male vail tail siamese fighter 2 beonze corries 6 striata loaches 4 large pearl Gourami 5 blue dwarf gourami and lots of live plants Thankfully it's slightly overfiltered with a fluval 205 Just done the 3 std tests and all read nil

I'd use the thickest MDF you can lay your hands on, as a 5 ft tank would weigh a lot, and make sure that you have plenty of supports downwards to distribute the weight. If i made one like this I'd use a Biscuit joiner (similar to dowels but easier) and a good quality waterproof pva. I have made smaller stands this way, but used pine instead of MDf

I've got Elec yellows, and I feed them JBL Novorift , Bloodworm, and JBL pleco chips, is this a good mix or not, I'm new to keeping and looking after Cichlids

I'm looking at using Juwel heaters, are they fully submersible, they've been recommended by my LFS as equal to Jager and Fluval, What do you think?

Thanks everyone, I'm going to leave the sponge filter on fulltime

I'm having my first go at breeding Blue Ram's, and while I know they lay egg's on smooth surfaces, If I have a sponge filter running, would it suck the fry in when they hatch?? PS Any other tips on breeding would be appreciated

Err, approx 10kg of greenstone, (not NZ though)

At a good price on that site too!

I'm not too worried about the warp, it is minor, and it's not the lid, as I reinforced it with Jarrah epoxied into routed slots. Basically the corner joins opened up, and the back (behind piano hinged lid) lifted at 1 corner. Still looks OK

Try pet planet or wet pets Palmy

Thanks Mumzy50' i think that I'll try breeding them later this year, i'm just started blue rams in the last few days

They are def Yellows after checking on the net, and possibly a brighter yellow compared to others i have seen in P.N. lately. I suspect than I have 4 males and 3 females, so not ideal that way

Do I need to worry about PH levels? Do I put crushed coral sand as the substrate, will this buffer and maintain a constant PH?

Thanks for the reply Brad, Mine were bought from Pet Planet in akld, i haven't returned my 150w under warranty yet, i will do so, but no receipt for 200w and will live with it's death

That's me Ryan, the dwalk from levin that bought 10?? BN's off you, i've now decided to try A Lake malawi set up. Currently I have 7 elec yellow's and i prob need to reduce this. I also have some barbs in there, but they can be relocated to another tank easily. Do you have Demasoni's avail for sale? or Peacock's?

Having had several of there heaters fail in the last year, I thought I'd ask if other users have had the same problem. I have been fish keeping for only a year, and all have been bought new. My first tank was my 130l Community tank. This was set up with a Fluval 205 and Jager heater, neither of which have caused me any problems. The 2nd tank was a 40l tank, for breeding ( Siamese fighters ) The heater was a 55w Aqua one heater. After approx 5 months, it stuck on, so swapped it for another 55watt Aqua one. The 2nd one failed after approx 2 months, at which point I replaced it with a 50w Jager, no further Issues. The 3rd and 4th Failures happened this weekend on my 165l tank. I got home Sat afternoon, and water temp was 21 Degrees. On checking the heater It was deadl, and looks burnt out. Putting my 200w backup heater and setting ti up, I finally discovered that it would only maintain the water to a max of 23 Deg, with it turned right up to max 32! All fish are now in other tanks, (1 now seriously overstocked) and I've ordered a 200w Juwel heater. has anyone else had a similar experience, or is this just a run of bad luck?

I'm new to Cichlids, and i'm thinking of setting up a Lake Malawi Tank. 1st) i'm not sure which of the Cichlid species are from Lake Malawi, 2nd) Which species are friendly with my Elec Yellow's (thats what i was told they are when I bought a bargain tank last week) 3rd) What would a good lake Malawi tank look like, by good i mean similar in rock types, plant types, gravel (white sand??) 4th) Who has some of these compatible fish available in the lower north island? The tank I'm setting up is a Aqua One AR850, of approx 165L, but hooked up to a Fluval 205 Canister filter (see my other posts for plumbing info) All help appreciated, I've been keeping fish for approx 1 year, and now suffer from MTS, as of today I've got 5 Tanks active with 2 more in storage. I'll post pics of my non breeding tanks next week!

Congrats, I'm keen on trying to breed Dwark Gourami as well, what conditions do they need? what size tank did you breed them in?

I got my meter from Bunnings palmerston north for about $18, a lot cheaper than DSE, who for the same thing want $29!

Using my elto power meter, hoping it is semi accurate , i recorded 2.8 kwh over a 24hr period. The tank size and specs are: 130l Aqua one tank on Polystyrene, 150w Jager Heater Double 15w Light hood, 30w total, on timer 11hr day 10w Fluval 205 external Filter Fish 1 x Red spot Plec 2 x Bristlenoses 5 x Striata loaches 1 x Male Siamese Fighter 4 x Pearl Gourami's 1 x Siamese algae eater 2 x Bronze Cories. Plus 8 est plants, Hope this info is of use to someone, I can test a bigger tank anytime, PM me if you want

Nup, my ar850 only had a small gap for heater, light and pump cable's. hense my mods as shown.

I made a lid for a 40l tank out of macrocarpa, and used an oil finish. 1 yr on it still looks good, HOWEVER, the timber has absorbed moisture and warped. On my next hood for my 130l tank i'm going to use a polyurethane, hopefully that will seal it moisture tight!

I bought an ar850 just over 6 weeks ago, and last weekend decided to fit a fluval. Realising that it wasn't going to fit out of the box, I came up with the solution below. The 15mm right angle connectors came from a pump and pool shop for $4.50 each, and I needed 4 of them, plus 1m of 15mm pipe for $4, and two hose clamps for $2.20 each. The only Mod's I made to the tank hood were 2 15mm holes drilled in the back. Both holes were made 40mm down and approx 50mm from the side, so if I wanted I could still use the std filter. I used the plastic pipe to connect the hoses to on the back with hose clamps, and also to connect the std fluval inlet and outlet fittings. A tidy install of the filter with no leaks, and i'm still able to use the normal filter, what else do you need?

Hi, I've got a power usage meter hooked up to my 150L tank, which has an air pump, dual 60cm lamps, 150w Jager heater and a fluval 205 ext filter hooked up to it. I'll reset the meter now, and tell you how many Kw are used in a 24hr period tomorrow night. Multiply that by the kwh price and you'll have a close estimate for a 150l tank. I can do this on 165l and 130l tanks if you want as well.