Ira

Unfortunately, I found it dead this morning with a big chunk bitten out of it. I'm not sure which fish killed it, but I'm thinking it was probably one of the severums.

My father in law bought me a fish for my Bday, can anyone help ID it? It doesn't move around a lot, and it's getting harassed a bit by the other fish. I think it might be a female bristlenose? Here's another pic, I think it's trying to dig around in the sand for food.

Good thing I don't expect to go on any trips in the next year or so.

Seems to be fine for the last two weeks. Don't know if I should be annoyed or pleased.:P

Doing my weekly water change and I notice the FX5 isn't pumping. That's ok, I think I cleaned it about this time last week, and replaced the impeller. And it shuts off for a few minutes the same time every day. 5 minutes later: Still not running. 10 minutes later: Bugger. I've pulled it out poked and prodded it, pulled the impeller out, put it back in. Out of the water it spins, but rattles a lot, jerking frequently. I've put everything back together and it *SEEMS* to be working fine. I don't trust it though. I can't find anywhere to actually buy one though, anyone know where to look? Nothing on Amazon, Fishpond doesn't have them available, redwood and Hollywood don't have them listed. Pretty FX5 and FX6 pumps are interchangeable.

180KG per shelf and how much total? Do you really think it will hold 5 fat people? The tanks fit really well though.

Why not use the hansen fittings to a length of hose? Probably would seal better and would give you a little bit of flex on the fittings.

Well...That's an embarrassing typo of my smartass comment.

Please, no, I don't want to c your aeneus.

What *DO* they look like in the wild? I think I've seen some that were claimed to be wild(Pics) and they just looked like standard discus to me.

That's good news then, they haven't rejected it.

Hmmm, from the FAQs and things on EQC's site, they don't specifically mention ponds. But it does say that landscaping isn't covered, which presumably a pond would be included in. Hope they do cover it though.

I don't think that's the way EQC works.

Yeah, the glue holding them down is garbage. So, I used a bit of liquid tape across them, you can see in the pic, it's surprisingly seems to be working. At least on those points, it's coming loose between them. If they start falling off I'll try hot glue, I love hot glue.

A small addition... Now the front panel of LEDs is on a switch, so it automatically turns off when I open the lid. That means I don't get blinded every time I want to feed the fish. This was in the original plan, but ended up being dropped because I was getting impatient. I used a screw to give some adjustment in the switch otherwise it would have been just luck if I got the switch to turn on and off correctly.

I tried to make it a little bit entertaining.

So, I bought some cheap LED strip lights and put them into my 4ft, 400L tank. So, a bit of a build log: Day 1, 0 hours. Here's the tank hood, was 6 24 watt CFLs(3 burned out) and two 4 foot fluoros(Dead) Day 1, 1.5 hours All the old lights pulled out, cleaned up, a bit of bleach and meths to clean up the wood. And I've started cutting wires ready to solder to the LED strips Day 1, 2.5 hours Pre-tinning the wires and then pressing down onto the little copper pads seems to work...HORRIBLY, These things are horrible to solder, little tiny pad and melty plastic all around it?!? Ok, well, I managed to do it, kinda ugly...But ok. Day 1, 3.5 hours Slowly working through all the strips, one by one and throwing them in a pile.... Day 1, 4 hours Laying them out in the hood, piling anything convenient on top of them to keep them from rolling up... Day 1, 4 hours I swear, I didn't do that.... Day 1, 5 hours All laid out, wires all joined together... Day 1, 5 hours Ugh...That looks horrible. I'll figure out how to tidy it up tomorrow. Day 2 I can't be bothered with it... Day 3 Oh, I know, I'll get some brass rods and solder the wires to it like bus bars. It will look cool! Should make expanding it easy too. Day 4 Can't get to a place to buy the rods. Day 5 Got them! Day 6 AHHH, this looks even worse! I didn't consider how much heat it would take to solder to giant rods, big, ugly cold solder joints EVERYWHERE. And I ended up pulling off half the solder pads and wires from the LED strips. I'm going to have to start this all over. Day 7 Hour 1 Got some chocolate blocks/ screw terminals, should work a little better.... Day 7 Hour 2 Looking much more tidy now. Day 7 Hour 4 I cut ends of the strips off, left the entire solder pad this time, should only lose a little bit of light. New wires soldered on, went MUCH better this time. Same process, pre-tin the wires then press down on the solder pads. Day 7 Hour 5 First set plugged in and powered up! Oops, one strip isn't working... Just didn't get the wire into the terminal before screwing it down so it came loose. Day 7 Hour 6 The rest of the strips are wired in and powered up, I've adjusted the voltage on the power supply to 13v and it's drawing 90 watts. Ok, 12.85 volts, the voltage dropped a little... Day 7 Hour 7 All ready to go, I've put some liquid electrical tape where the wires are soldered to the strips, and on each of the solder pads the rest of the strips. I've put on the sides too there, so hopefully it will hold the strips down, the adhesive backing isn't the greatest. Oh, and there are a couple LEDs in the lower right that are dead. I...Uhh....May have not noticed that strip fall on the floor at some point and then I may have stepped on it... Day 8 Fish are happy to have some light, I think. I turned the voltage back down to 12v, the lights are drawing 60 watts at this voltage. They look brighter than the 3, year or so old 24w CFLs, but that's not hard. It's a moderate brightness, I'd say, not really bright but good. I'm pretty happy with them. I think I'll buy more strips and add a bit more power. The parts: The LEDs https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D83BGVS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Total about $25 The power supply, 150w 12v https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DECSE8G/ref=pe_2602560_239856390_em_1p_0_ti Bought locally, $80 All the wires, screw terminals, solder etc you can find anywhere, I'm not going to link to those. A wire stripper, liquid electrical tape, odds and ends another $50 NZ Total cost: About $155 Maybe I should have spent a little more and bought a nice LED fixture....Oh well.

It's probably safe to use for now. But time to start saving for a new stand.

1. Yes. The standard half dozen or so. 2. They're basically non aggressive, so any other moderately sized active fish. 3. I'd say something in the 4 foot, 400L range minimum. More mature you're looking at 6-8 foot.

Are they little black bugs or snails? I'd have called them snails, but you say bugs so I'm a bit unsure.

None, because it's a hobby, if you're trying to make money it's become a business. Which then stops being fun.

Ah, those ones. I got the impression from some other threads that those were pretty poor color rendering and not a good spectrum for plants. But haven't looked too closely into it and there is a metric buttload of various ones.

Is there a reason you want to use plywood rather than glass? That small size glass is going to be pretty inexpensive anyway. And the whole tanks go for pretty cheap. Cheapest lighting would be something like a 4 foot fluoro fitting, or even a couple small clip on lamps. Which 10w floodlights are you talking about? Better to go with a good canister filter than a sponge filter.

That's sad. They sound pretty rare, would be worth setting them up their own tank.

Yeah, because it will take away space from the main tank. As large as possible.