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This is one of the things on my todo list for my 6 foot tank. I was wondering if anybody has built these in their tanks. what was the major issues with them? Do they work properly? How do you control flow from the Jets? I'm open to any advice!

They look happy, I'm glad to be of service!

smidey, I do something similar but that is because I'm lazy. With UGJ's the tank will actually always look nice, provided I can actually solve my algae problem too.

I might just be able to do that. I'm currently thinking of doing UGJ's in combination with the FX5 - think extremely low maintenance tank!!!

Thanks Chazza I do how ever have a few questions about this setup. Where would the filter intake be? Does it matter or is it just important to keep the water flowing at the bottom? Will the muck eventually move towards the filter intake? Would it be possible to use something like an FX5 for this with a split in the outlets to direct some of the water to the UGJ's? This looks like an awesome way of running a tank, I can imagine how simple it would be to maintain a tank with these and the FX5 with its "drain" function. you'd be able to do a tank clean in 10 minutes with no hassles at all.

Actually with a UGF the muck gets stuck underneath it and you still have to vacuum it out.

I just spent a bit of time using a gravel vac on my tank and was wondering how those huge tanks are maintained. Are they not cleaned at all? Anyway my thinking lead me to believe there has to be an easier way to clean the gravel. I was wondering if there are any of you who has given any thought to this. My current thinking is along the way of leveraging water turbulence and spray jets under the gravel to force the muck towards the filter in take. Can anybody give me a reason for why this is bad and should not be done? If I can build a system like this and avoid "dead spots" in the tank surely this will automate the "gravel vacuum" process? I know the kiwi's are known for the ingenuity. Show your colours!!

It's a pity that there's not a replacement hood so you can remove the wet dry from the tank completely... Then again I think I'm probably just wanting a new toy. This probably wouldn't solve any of the laziness I have towards cleaning the tanks...

I think I might regret asking this question but here goes: I've got one of these http://www.aquaone.co.uk/AquaGrande_aquarium.php tanks. I use the built in filter and I have a whole bunch of Africans in the tank. 1 would this filter be better than the wet dry filter on the tank? 2 how the hell would I fit it to this tank?

I hope so too, that way I can pass the babies on to the people who really care about them!

I bought all my fish from Hollywood Fish Farm (both shops). They normally let me know when they get interesting Africans. But I suspect now that I've discovered this forum I will probably be getting a lot of my fish from the people on here...

The ones I have are about 4 to 5 inches big at the moment. I'm not sure if I have a male and female - they dont stay still for long and I also have no idea how to sex them, but these guys are the real deal...

Aragonite on it's own would probably keep the ph at around 7.8 too (I've got another couple of tanks with both dolomite and aragonite). I'm curious since I've read that a lot of people use sand as substrate in the tang tanks. Whats the best method for these guys? I would prefer a low maintenance setup. Also would 7.8 be optimal for these guys or would they do better in higher ph?

How do you keep you PH high? I've got dolomite mixed with my gravel but that only buffers it to about 7.8 I've acquired some Frontosas and I'm actually considering getting rid of all my Malawis and just collecting Tangs. How do all you Fronts fanatics keep the PH around the 9 mark (tangs require ph around 9 right?)?

I've got all those fish in my tank. They seem to be fine. The Kadangos are big sissies. The red zebras and yellows are a bit more feisty but fairly placid compared to most other malawis

I'd love to have a few duboisi in my tank but I've not been able to find any at a decent size. they are quite expensive for the size I've seen... Would one of those cleaning fish be able to deal with my 6 foot tank? there is a fair amount of algae in there...

Heres a pic of my little guys, had them about a week now

I've got malawis and tangs. I do feed them twice a day since I've been told that they are more active and thus probably require more food!? It almost seems like this could be wrong. I feed them in the morning and at night and enough food so they eat it all in a few minutes. I think putting any other kind of fish thats not from those 2 lakes would probably make my tank look tacky.

I have 2 njassae and 2 multi's but they do not really seem to eat it, or much of it. I know something is eating some of it since I can see the nibbling marks, but clearly thats not enough to control it

I've got an African tank with the ph around 7.8 I've got dolomite mixed in with my standard gravel to buffer the water. I have some terracotta pots that I've cut in half and a whole bunch of artificial ornaments. I've got some river pebbles in there too for the tiny guys to hide in the cracks. This tank has been running for almost a year now. I've got a constant brown algae issue. I've added 2 marine glo lights to the tank a wile back to see if that might make a difference - it didn't. I've tried rowaphos too and that didnt make a difference either. At one stage I had black algae in my tank but that seems to have mostly died out. I feed my guys spirulina flakes and pellets twice a day. I do about a 30% water change every 3-5 weeks. The tank holds 540L. I have also tested my silicate levels and they are very very low, far too low to cause what I see in the tank. I am constantly battling brown algae and I have no idea how to get rid of it. I've pretty much exhausted my LFS of ideas. Today when I was at my LFS I asked them about their tanks and apparently they are constantly battling brown algae too. I love my fish but I dislike cleaning my tank since it always takes me 2-3 hours to clean it all and get rid of the brown algae. Have you guys got any advice for me?

My multi's were selling for $190 each I got one of them free on a trade for fry. My Njassae was selling for $110 each again I got them cheapers since I traded some fish for part of their price. I would certainly not let them go for anything less than that though. How ever it seems like they are more common than I was lead to believe by my LFS

That is true, I've spent thousands of dollars on fish in the last 18 months that I've had my Africans. I've probably not even saved any money by breeding them, I think they probably eat what I end up getting for them. At the end of the day I like them and enjoy them. I think I probably spent way to much on my newly aquired Frontosa's too. But I believe these are hard to get regardless.

man I've been had! Where do you find these cheap fish? I piad more than twice that much

How's that? These guys are actually some of my favorites. But again I'm curious as to how much they are worth. I didn't actually pay what they were priced at since I traded fry for them.

I hope that worked http://picasaweb.google.com/geek01/Fish/photo#5073592292743508866