Ira

Just noticed there's an Eheim cannister filter, the 2260, that's rated at 1900 L/Hr. I'd bet for the price of one of those you could probably get four fluval 404s. But 4 cannisters would be a bit ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, I keep reading some suggestions on water change amounts that makes me wonder how people that follow them actually keep fish. For example suggestions that in a heavily packed 20ish gallon tank that you should do 15% monthly water changes. And 15% biweekly will make the fish "really happy."

I'd say go with the 3-4 times per hour. I don't think only 1 time per hour would have a huge impact on the biological filtration, a lot of that would be done inside the tank if the filter can't handle it. But, it would make a pretty big difference in the amount of debris floating in the tank, imo. And keep in mind that filters are usually rated higher than they actually flow. Hmmm, a 6'X2'X2' tank would be...Ummm...680liters. Wow, that's a beast. That'd mean you'd need about 2800 liters/hour. I'd suggest 2 fluval 404s as an absolute minimum. Assuming you get two that actually flow the amount they're rated at,(None of my 3 even come close) then that would be turning it over 4 times. I don't know if there are any higher rated cannister filters that are easy to get, I can't find any. You might try making a sump and throwing in a couple of powerheads as pumps, fabricating some trays to hold the media and sponges. Lemme look up some specs for pumps...Something like an Eheim 1264 which is rated at 4500LPH as the pump(Or two of them for a bit of redundancy) should give you more than enough flow even with the 1 meter or so head I'm guessing you'd have. Wow, bigger than I expected. Some thoughts anyway, hope it helps.

Has anyone tested the PH of their mix? Mine ends up about 2.4 which is low enough to throw off the tanks. When I add baking soda to bring the PH up it foams like mad. Unfortunately turns it a nasty green color instead of the yellow it starts off as. I don't know what component is making the PH that low, or if everyone else's comes out about the same.

That looks like it'd be a perfect tank for a bunch of freshwater rays.

They had, If I remember right, 3 arowanas. A couple other pretty impressive looking fish(I'm horrible at estimating sizes) a 18ish inch albino pleco, similar length of some kind of shark, some kind of huge knife fish and a big borneo tiger...I think they had a big Midas too(What an quasimoto looking fish). Among a whole bunch of other really nice huge fish. Not often you get to see such a variety of full grown fish. The two new guys seem to be doing well. The green severum's acting like he belongs there and all the fish are ignoring him. He's starting to color up nicely, was almost black when I put him in the tank. The new gold severum I just let out of the net as I was feeding them, thought maybe it'd give him a chance to get some food and distract my big gold. He hid for a while but eventually came out and ate. The big gold isn't really being agressive but seems to just want to be very close to the new gold. End result is him basically slowly chasing the new guy around the tank. I'm really surprised at the difference in color though. The older gold is a nice orange/gold and the new gold is more of a pale yellow. Hopefully he'll get a deeper gold.

Very nice place. Good variety and the display tanks are very impressive. Picked up a gold and a green Severum too. Too bad they're all the way in Palmerston North. For some stupid reason I wouldn't let the wife buy me the Borneo Tiger. Right now my big gold severum is busy swimming in circles around the bag the new gold is in. So, I think I'll put the new gold into a net and maybe turn the lights off until this evening.

I've got a 5000 gallon freshwater tank with automatic water changing system out in my yard right now. Just a little work and it would have about a 1000 GPH of filtration too. Unfortunately, I don't think the wife would be too happy if I threw a bunch of cichlids into the water tank. hehehe.

I fail to see how wet t-shirts are a problem.

I definitely agree, really deep tanks SUCK. I've got one that's 3-4 feet deep(A tall hex) and it's an absolute nightmare to do anything with. I've got a little claw grabby thing, intended for mechanics to pick up dropped screws I suppose, that I have to use to do anything near the bottom of the tank. My 400 is 60cm tall, though and the only hard thing is getting my hands into the corners, everywhere else just requires a step ladder and leaning over the tank. Ummm, so, anyway, Maybe measure the length of your arm and make the tank a little shorter than that?

Unfortunately those are american oriented websites, so we'd end up burning up the price difference in shipping and the transformer we'd need to use it with our electricity.

That particular tank that the guppies were in actually has no gravel. Actually, the last guppy in the tank died a few days ago, all that's left are a dozen Panchax. I'm just going to turn it into a normal tank. Was thinking I might put in an undergravel filter with the 404 drawing water through it. I've never used an undergravel filter before.

Hey, yeah, if you're willing to sell some of your fry(When they're big enough to ship), I'll buy a couple off you too.

I think it'll be an improvement over the 18 watt just because it's twice as much light, but it won't be ideal. I think the ideal color temperature is 5000k? Definitely sounds like the setup for a small reef tank, but wouldn't be bright enough for that. Anyway, should at least be an improvement.

Hmmm, Not sure. You'll get to Wellington about 2ish, I think. I think we were planning on leaving earlier than that, give us some time to do whatever in Napier beforehand. I'll check with the wifey though.

Map link? Good thing I joined the UHAS, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get in. Fair enough though.

I've been feeding my white worms baby cereal. Seems to work well and they'll eat about a teaspoon a day. But lately the culture has been getting a bit...Ummm...Sparse. I think I might have been pulling too many worms out. I'll try bread like you do for a while, pegasus. Last time I tried soaked bread they pretty much ignored it, but I only used small pieces.

Could we get someone that has all the dates, times, addresses etc that we need to post them? I've decided that I'll probably be driving up the day of the auction and home that night.

Shrimp sex sounds kinda like something you'd find on a really perverted porn site. Hehehe. Sorry, not helpful, I know. But I couldn't resist.

Would people send me enough fish to make any money though? Cause, guppies don't really count and they're pretty much the only fish I have dying on a regular basis. How many fish have you lost?

Looks like 1 tsp(About 5 ml) per 10 liters drops the PH to 5.85 from the beginning 6.9. So, if I scale that up to the size of the tank, that would be about 200ml per 400L. I probably add about 5 ml per day, so that would be 35ml per week which would make the concentration settle with 50% weekly water changes at about 70 ml per week. I don't know the exact math to convert what 1/3rd the 200 ml dose would do, but I'd make a guess it would be somewhere around halfway between the two, about 6.4. If I'm adding more than that, it could bring the PH lower. Guess I'll add the dolomite to the mix to bring it up to 7, might as well put it to use. If this fixes the PH problem I'm going to feel like an idiot. Oh well, fish wouldn't be nearly as interesting if everything worked perfectly the first time.

If it's something in the tank that's causing the PH to drop, I don't have a clue what it is, all the gravel, rocks, a few bits of driftwood, none should have any real effect on the PH. That makes the only other things going into the tank would be food, water(PH 7) and my fertilizer mix...Hmmm, I just tested the fertilizer mix and the PH is 2.6, ouch. I've never actually tested its PH before, but it never seemed to have an effect on the PH of the tank I put big doses of it in when I was testing it.. I also still had the PH problem when I stopped using it for 2 weeks because I ran out. (The plants definitely seemed to slow down and the algae went nuts) But, I've adjusted the mix a bit so maybe that's changed the PH a lot. I'll do a test to see what kind of difference a teaspoon makes in a bucket of water.

I managed to find a place with dolomite in upper hutt. Unfortunately, they only had it in powdered form, I grabbed some powdered anyway since it was just $3. The woman there had never heard of it in tablets. She said the dolomite is just calcium and magnesium, so maybe I could get calcium tablets from a vet, so I went to a vet, they said to check a pet store. If they had what I wanted don't you think I'd have it by now? Anyway, went to a pet store and had a look. Looks like maybe turtle neutralizer tablets, the little turtle shaped white things, or goldfish oxy-shells or similar might be a possible alternative. They should do the job but I don't know how long they'd last and might get a bit expensive for long term use on a big tank. I grabbed 2 of them anyway, might as well give them a try. Anyone know how they make these things? They look like they're just something like plaster mixed with whatever ingredients. I wonder if I could mix a bit of plaster and water with the dolomite and form it into tablets. Don't know if that would dissolve right or be toxic to the fish or not.

Hmmm, I THINK there might be a livestock feed place in Upper Hutt. Not really sure because I've never really paid it any attention. I'll have a look next time I'm nearby. If all else fails I might have to take you up on your offer, Pegasus.

My part of the world isn't contaminated by acid rain. I think the reason the PH is dropping so rapidly is because the rainwater doesn't have any buffering capacity so any acids will cause a larger drop in PH. And the tank has a pretty heavy bioload. I've just upgraded the fish to a 400 liter tank and the PH was just barely over 6 when I tested it today. It's only been set up for less than a week. And apparently the nitrogen cycle creates nitric acid which lowers the PH. Need to get some crushed coral, limestone, dolomite or something to keep it up. Can't find any though. The rest of the fish that the two africans were in with were 2 Geophagus Jurupari, 2 Geo. Surinamensis, a firemouth, 2 gold severums, a Keyhole, 2 Mystus Catfish, a pictus, a redspot pleco, 3 bristlenose, 3 silver sharks and...Ummm...I think that's it.

Those bristlenoses better be full grown for that price.