Ira

So, it grows when there's no nitrates or more than 30PPM of nitrates and dies if there are more than .05ppm of phosphates? Wierd, I'd have thought it'd be the exact opposite for both. :-?

Where did you hear that wet pets doesn't sell fish? Oh, I see, Cat meant marine fish when she said, "They don't sell any fish" They definitely do sell freshwater fish. Pretty good prices and selection, much better than anywhere here in Wellington. I've got a gold and green Severum from them. You'd think the capital of the whole country would at least have a good fish store. Oh well...Anyone in the Wellington area want to help fund me starting one?

Why does everyone have such a problem with sucking on the hose to get the water flowing? It's the quickest, easiest way to do it, especially if you have clear hoses. Just put the end in the water, suck on the other end until either it's close to full or if you've got a long hose that's drooping between you and the tank, suck until the water comes up and then down the hose below the water level in the tank. Easy, takes like 2 seconds.

I'd make an educated guess that they're probably pretty similar in reliability to the average in tank heater. I think the biggest reason that they're not seen often is that they're more expensive, I think the ones I saw were about 50% more expensive, and that they can really only be used if you have a cannister filter. Which would limit the people that might buy it because it seems most people have little tanks with undergravel filters or in tank filters.

I tend to think similarly about most things to do with fish. Things like, "Big water changes stress the fish! Changes in temperature stress the fish" etc. I think having the water temp a little unstable, say varying a few degrees is probably good for them. They get used to having temperature variations so that if something does go wrong, like the heater breaks, then they can handle it better. So, when I'm doing water changes(Big ones, hehe) I usually try to get the water temp close, but don't worry much if the water ends up being 25° instead of 26°. As long as the alarm isn't going off on the digital thermometer, I say it's good.

From the sound of it, it's just a huge sponge filter. I can't see how you'd get away without cleaning it ever, though. If you want to go with sponge filters you'd probably be better off having a couple smaller, easier to hide ones in the corners or somewhere. Personally, I'd suggest a cannister filter like a fluval 404, don't need anything really exotic for a tank that size.

Bigger fish wouldn't notice much if you used cold water. And less if you only do small water changes. I use warm water even with my bigger fish, but I do 50% changes.

Me too.

Yeah, it's very yuck. After blending it up, it's green...VERY green. Must be the spirulina. Smelly too. Glad I don't like tea, or I'd be put off by "Popping liver" remind ing you of tea.

My puffs haven't bitten me. But they've only got little bitty mouths. Don't really have teeth, more like beaks. Most vicious fish I've seen would have to be guppies. When I had a bunch every time I put my hand in their tank they'd swarm it and start nibbling on me.

And I've discovered that chicken livers are disgusting. It's not just the way they look, it's how they feel when you squeeze them too hard. They kinda pop like they're made of tiny little bits of bubble wrap. Anyway, I'm trying some lamb heart, chicken liver, a bit of brewers yeast, peas, a bit of spirulina, a couple vitamin pills and some gluten flour(Instead of glutenized rice flower like last time) to hold it together.

Pull the big tube off your gravel siphon and use just the hose to try and suck up the fry into a bucket. The hose would be easier to get into small spots. Worth a try anyway.

Fins and fangs in Wellington had 1-2 marine tanks last time I was there...But they looked like they'd been ignored for several months and I couldn't actually see anything alive in them. I THINK Wet Pets in Palmerston North had a bit, so they're the closest to Wellington that I know of.

Where do you work, Janey? I'm gonna come visit so I can see the tank. I was considering making my 100 liter tank into a marine tank. But, I gave it up for now because there doesn't seem to be anywhere local to get equipment and fish, and because it was going to be a bit more expensive than I was planning. Anyway, the conclusions I made when I was considering it is seem to need heaps and heaps and HEAPS of current and filtration. Most people say cannister filters are bad for marines because it just collects debris instead of eliminating it. I think for a 500 liter you'd need something like 4000 liters per hour going through the skimmer and you'd probably be best off setting up a sump. A couple powerheads to circulate the water would be good too. As for light with corals I think you'd need about 500 watts, maybe more. Hope that helps a bit, but someone that's done more research and has more experience hopefully will help.

Fish don't really sleep, but they can find places without much current easily. Well, I guess they do kinda sleep, but it's more like just being really relaxed than totally zonked out like people. Although...My Keyhole seems to only have two levels of conciousness. Awake and dead. Then he comes back to life. He's an undead dwarf cichlid. Oh, and if you were constantly turning off your filters from the very beginning I wouldn't worry about losing your bacteria. They'd just colonze the tank more densely so there wouldn't be many in the filter to kill. BUT, I also don't believe leaving a cycled filter off is that big of a deal, I've done it several times accidentally with no noticable increase in ammonia.

Actually I did visit. Didn't have too good a look around though, because I was busy with something else at the time. Anyway, I'm off to bandage my ego. I had a little stoplight drag race with the instructor of my class tonight on the way home and got beat bad...Bad launch...Yeah, that's it...Need a rematch, 2 out of 3.

Get yourself a whiteworm culture. It should love those. Mealworms also are pretty cheap, but it might be a bit small to eat those. Have a look at http://www.ak.planet.gen.nz/~bio/ They sell heaps of live food.

Looks like the PH has settled around 7.1-7.2. Just about perfect, I'd say.

I usually just read here, aquaforums.com and occasionally fishprofiles. Fishprofiles message board drives me nuts sometimes.

Hmmm, Sand, that's a good idea. I was was thinking you needed something other than just airspace under the tanks to conduct the heat through. Hadn't thought of sand though. Definitely would be cheap.

You know, I should take a look at the community tank.

How can he live like that? No internet?!?! I could handle the no power, but no internet?!?!?

From smallest to largest, I guess...Here we go... 100L Hex Approximately... 12 Epiplatys Dageti 10 White cloud mountain minnows 10 Cardinal tetras 6 Rummy nose tetras 6 Serpae tetras 4 glass bloodfins 3 bristlenoses 1 julii? cory 200L 1 common pleco 1 bristlenose 2 blue tetras 1 head&taillight tetra(I think that's its name) 1 glowlight tetra 1 black tetra 4 threadfin rainbows 4 longfin zebra danios 2 jewel cichlids 2 brazilian puffers 400L 2 Geophagus Jurupari 2 Geophagus Surinamensis 2.5 gold severums 1 green severum 1 silver mystus 1 striped mystus 1 redspot pleco 2 bristlenoses 1 pictus 2 blue rams 1 firemouth 2 jewel cichlids I think that's it.

Yeah, just a single big pump would probably be more than enough for all the tanks. Maybe two for redundancy.

Apparently epsom salt is a good laxative for the fish. And it's in a few plant fertilizer recipes, but it's magnesium chloride? not sodium chloride. Different type of salt, so I don't think it would work the same.