Ira

Everyone with internet access, yes. Here: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/files/ihs/fisornic.all.pdf Starting page 21, Appendix 2: APPROVED SPECIES OF ORNAMENTAL FISH AND MARINE INVERTEBRATES

Rule of thumb is to aim for about 5x turnover per hour. So the 2200 on its own will be fine, but having the 1200 also will be better. Always best to have some filter redundancy.

The fish seem to like it. Yeah, when using small ones I usually cut about half into quarters or slices and boil it. Lasts a few hours along with a handful of plecochips. More pieces means noone hogs the entire thing. I figure one or two slices of this big one is probably about the same amount as a half of a normal sized courgette. And I have a 12"ish redspot, an 8-9" inch goldspot and about 10-20 bristlenoses. Just looked up the screwcumber. Looks like it would make it a bit tough for anything but small fish to eat between the coil, and I'd have to dig it out of the tank all the time. Maybe if there was a string on it dangling out of the tank.

It goes a little mushy, but most importantly after boiling it sinks so I don't have to worry about weighing it down, just toss it in and it's all gone the next morning.

I'm going to boil it and then throw it in the freezer so I can pull out 1-2 slices at a time and throw them in the tank.

You want me to boil up fish food with ginger and make a jam? :sick:

Well, he IS smaller than the 5 danios in the tank.... But they're giant danios and they just want to have a look. :sml2:

Been a while since I bought a new fish. Soo... My new blue dempsey. Brat won't sit still, best pic of a bunch.

I think I'm set for a few months, what do you think? Just a plain courgette from the garden center.

Get a diesel lawnmower.

Interesting reading the specs on them. The Green Element is 18w and according to the specs produces 600 lumens. That's 33 lumens per watt. And that's for $38 US. (From aliexpress, not including shipping) An average 23w CFL will produce about 1600 lumens for 70 lumens/watt and cost about $5 from the warehouse. Make it 15 if you throw in a cheap clip on lamp to put it in. What happened to the legendary LED efficiency? :dunno: I've been looking at some to replace the lighting on my tank and it seems most of the cheaper LED pendants are significantly worse than a good fluoro setup while being significantly more expensive.

Already going to be swapping some this weekend, actually. Don't want to swap too much at once.

Most practical way is just swap filter media, I think. Cup or two of nice shiny new media from your filter in exchange for cycled media from a running tank.

Interesting, I've had CF1200s running for probably about 15 years between them(3 filters, one has been unused for a few years)and the only issue was a single noisy impeller. Much better record than the POS fluvals and eheims I've had.

Some kind of bacteria that seems to feed on something in the rubber or on it. It's common and harmless. Just wash it off, it will stop appearing after a while.

$30, some leftover pasta and a mummified rat I found in my attic, and that's my final offer.

That's dropsy, a symptom of some kind of infection or disease causing buildup of fluids in the body cavity resulting eventually in death. Black neon tetras do not get pregnant. But, good that you've quarantined the fish because it can be contagious depending on the cause. Don't want to infect anything else before it dies.

Yup, that's a pink kissing gourami, definitely not a gold severum. I don't think I've heard of silver sharks being particularly aggressive or eating other fish, especially if the black widows are as big as it looks in your pic. Maybe harassing them to death, but even then my silver sharks never even took notice of any other fish.

I don't think you can post pics from dropbox.

For some reference the intensity of sunlight on a clear day will be in the region of 100,000 lux. Your average planted tank with moderate lighting will be somewhere around 750 lux. An average house will be 200-300 lux. So, direct sunlight on a nice sunny day would be roughly 500 times brighter than your office.

I'm not convinced that sunlight magically causes algae like everyone seems to think. It's just brighter than most people's tank lighting, and just like a well lit tank, nutrients in the water+light=algae. Keep the tank clean and you should be fine, especially if the sun isn't shining directly on the tank. You could just put up a single shade to minimize the sunlight on the tank if it turns out to be a problem.

Looks to be more shells than bones.

Easiest would be probably to buy something like this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/f ... 433283.htm Mine I made using a float switch, connected to a relay that switched on an air pump. The air pump pumped air into a 25L container of water which pushed the water out into my sump. Worked pretty well, but I had to DIY it.

Nope, that sounds like I'd expect. Intermittent faults are a PITA, and I wouldn't expect them to replace it solely on your word that it sometimes doesn't work without some testing.

Nope, 10 is fine.