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Thanks for the advice everyone. Looks like I will have to set it to 27 and see what happens to the tank temp, I will use an empty tank to testing the temp after a few days and leave all the others with heater in them. I tried to get a new fan heater today from Mitre10, but it is no longer winter, so they have none in stock.. go figure... haha. Wayne

What about the water hardness... This can effect the PH of the water, along with CO2. if your water is very soft and the co2 levels high the PH will swing. By the sounds of it, the air pump could be dispersing the co2 (via the surface agitation) as well as increasing the oxygen in the water.... Hence the PH swing... Not sure on the size of your tank, but must be fairly small if it only takes a couple of hours without air bubbles for the fish to gasp for air. I take it there are few or no plants either as they will add oxygen to the water also, given enough light...

Have had one of the SUN SUN brand filters for quite some time now, coming up to almost 1 year.... Excellent trouble free filter, no problems at all, it just works. Goes together easily and primes even easier... Would not hesitate to buy others when and if the need arises... Wayne

I am looking at switching from individual tank heaters to heating the whole fish room, in an attempt to reduce the number of leads and power boxes I am using... Fish room is fully lined with styrofoam. Currently all the tanks are heated and the fish room stays at around 25 degrees... what temp will I have to have the room the keep the tanks at approx 27 degrees... I am assuming the 2 degree drop from 27 in the tanks to 25 in the room would work the other way as well.. so heating the room to 29 degrees will keep tank temp at 27 degrees... Can anyone shed more light or knowledge on this for me... Cheers Wayne

Lamp specialists on the shore will have them.. Wayne

A picture is worth 1000 words, but then again so is 1000 words, so here is both for those interested in this lovely little fish. Sadly mine succumbed to the wrong water conditions as I found this information some months afterwards. Enjoy Wayne Chocolate gourami biotope http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=151

Actually the tank is a mess, it needs a LOT of weeding.... Anyone want some long Val....???

We use T5's on our 600mm deep tank, 4 x double tube 3ft (900mm) ones we got off that auction site. Very nice slim design, alloy units. I would highly recommend them as they are cheap, and work very well for us. Tank is heavily planted with co2 and needs weeding about every other week, tanks is 6ft long so we use two end to end to cover length of tank. The 3ft units only have 2ft tubes inside, but still put out a lot of light. Look for boxturtle on 'that' site. Cheers Wayne

There are some things you just cant have too many of; plants, fish, tanks and girlfriends (just don't tell the wife about about the girlfriends)... Ha ha.

If you are serious about collecting rain water for use in you fish tanks then this is the best way to do it, you could either buy this setup or make one yourself as the bits are not that hard to make from various bits of PVC etc. This system has a nice bleed off of the initial few minutes of rainfall ensuring anything that has settled on your roof is washed off before going into your catchment tank.. Enjoy.. http://www.marley.co.nz/afawcs0119272/C ... tails.html

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Lynnie, Here is an interesting article I found some time ago. Perhaps something like this would work for you. http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Uthup_Sump_Filter.html Cheers Wayne

I hope you have put ALL the beetles in the freezer or have them contained in the food container. Definitely report it to MAF, there may be other containers contaminated and they will want to check them. I suspect a shortage of Wardleys fish food in the near future.... Wayne

I beg to differ, Silicone will not adhere to acrylic and the Methylene Chloride, also known as Dichloromethane (common name) is a solvent and will dissolve the acrylic in the joint and literally weld the joint together once it has evaporated. Most of the "plastic cement" you buy from a shop such as the Glue Guru on the north shore is created by adding a portion of the plastic to a solvent such as Methylene Chloride to "thicken" it. Much the same way as polystyrene cement for plastic model making is made from M.E.K (Methyl Ethyl Keytone) and polystyrene beads (I know, my father used to make the stuff for one of the model suppliers here in Auckland). And yes I mean the same Polystyrene as you have under your tank, just drop a bit of MEK on it and watch it disappear into a milky clear sticky goo.... Thanks to all those who helped with suggestions by the way. The outcome of my search... I purchased today 1 litre of Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane) from Marketing Chemicals of 343 Church St, Penrose for $10. More than enough to do what I wanted but a lot better than having to buy 5 or 20 litres. All in all these guys were pretty helpful and I recommend them for anything like this you may need. No hassles no fuss. Cheers Wayne

Were the tanks of the curved corner variety, and did they crack in the curve, or was it on the base. You mentioned swelling of the base, this could very well have caused the cracking... Cheers Wayne

Here is what I have found so far.... Thanks for all you suggestions... Scientic supplies in Panmure? Penrose sells 1 litre for $22. but you need a materials handling certificate and an account with them to purchase it. As well as some other certificate they mentioned.... However Marketing chemicals in Church St penrose will sell me 5 litres for $45 inc. no hassles. Go figure... I had not heard of using Methyl Trichloride (chloroform) for this, is it as good as the Methylene Chloride. I have enough acrylic here to make a couple of small tanks and was going to "have a go" at that as well... But dont want the hole thing bursting apart on me if I have used the wrong stuff.... I did get some acrylic glue from the acrylic sheet supplier, but it is very thick and needs thinning (hence the MC as well). but for longer joints this stuff dries to quickly and I need something that will "seep" into the joint. Model shops only stock plastic cement based on M.E.K (methyl Ethyl Keytone, or something like that) as models are made from styrene based plastics and does not seem to work well on Acrylic's. Thanks for all the help, if anyone else needs any of this stuff, I should have about 4.8 litres of it spare by the end of the week. Cheers Wayne P.S. Love the "does this smell like chloroform to you?" - ROTFL

Looking for the above for a repair needed on an acrylic tank, anyone have any, only need small amount, but smallest I can purchase is 5 litres. Cheers Wayne

You could try Lamp Specialists on the shore. Cheers Wayne

I currently have E.yellows (breeding) in with my Maleri Red colony (also breeding) and had 4 Cobalt's in there as well and everyone was happy, until the cobalt blue male decided to kill off his harem one by one when they got to breeding age, now I have him in a separate tank as he wont leave anyone alone..

Hello everyone. I am planning a trip to Thailand and Singapore later in the year, and I am wondering if it might be a good chance to source and bring back some of the harder to find fish, should I be able to find a source (anyone know the best places to go) I plan on getting an import licence before I go. I only need to sort out what to do about quarantine facilities, do I setup something myself or does anyone have one already licensed I could use/hire...??? Not sure if any of this would be worth the hassle, but there is no harm in asking... Your thoughts please. Cheers Wayne

Damn, pity there so far away....

If you find any females I would also be interested, I have 4 males. I have breed these only once before, not may survivors as I was new to all this way back then, and they breed in a community tank.

I too have been looking at acrylic tanks, but mainly from the point of view of a breeding set-up, as it would be easier to drill and plumb an acrylic tank than it is to do so with glass. However anyone I have asked about making me some ask absolutely crazy prices for them (+$250 for a 90cm long tank). I came to the conclusion that making my own was the cheapest and best way to go. A small 60x30x30 @ 10mm, square edges (nothing fancy here) ran to about $50 each for the material, but had to buy enough material to make 5-6 tanks.

Hi, How much were you wanting to pay for this, and for what size tank. I have built a few but depending on what you want it can work out quite expensive. I am in Auckland, but it's not that far to Hamilton. Cheers Wayne

Yes, any updates..? Put me down for a few if your going to sell some of them. Cheers Wayne