Ira

In this case, 7.5-8 is NOT a workable PH. The tank is all south americans now that the two africans are dead. They were quite happy before the PH dropped.

Or in a tank with a lot of rocks. I've had them shift and break a heater.

Heh, Nope, wasn't the cats that made them leave. Both jumped out on their own. One Geo. Jurupari jumped out and just laid on the ground waiting for me to pick him up and put him back, did you know their dorsal fin is sharp? Ouch! And one silver shark, they're very jumpy fish.

Look, you stupid fish! When I've got you in a bucket to acclimate you to the new tank's water, STAY IN THE BUCKET! :evil: (And note to self, don't leave the bucket full of fish on the floor with cats around)

Got the tank! Spent about 3 hours cleaning it, cleaning the filters and rinsing the sand I'm using as the substrate. Unfortunately I need about 3 times as much sand as I've got and a couple power strips to plug everything in. The tank is a monster. *Tries not to look excited and impatient for the tank to finish filling up.*

Ok, I've got a 404 completely disassembled here, . I need a life, hehehe. Ok, first, here's a little drawing of how it's laid out. The red is the sponges, little boxes on the right are the media trays. Is a 204 similar? This is how I think the water normally flows. It splits off at the top, some flows through one sponge, the other goes down and through the bottom of the first sponge, then through a tiny gap at the bottom to the underside of the media trays and up. Also a bit probably goes straight into each of the media trays or straight into the outlet. And THIS is a way that I'm thinking might improve it a bit. Basically, eliminate the top hole and drill a bunch of holes in the solid tray between the sponges. Then remove the second sponge which is basically redundant because most of the garbage should be trapped by the first(Or leave it, shouldn't make a huge difference) Then the bottom tray either drill a bunch of holes in the side OR cut the top half off and raise it up somehow so there's more room for water to flow into it. Also put a seal between all the trays so the water can't bypass any of the trays and another seal between the tray lid and the water outlet. That should at least(If the seals don't leak) eliminate any water that isn't going through each media tray. Probably would only be a marginal improvement at best, But...I think too much.

That's an idea. Use some silicon instead of epoxy, I think, then do the same around the lid piece over the media trays so it's sealed off too.

Actually, John, I had a close look at my 404 when I cleaned it last because I thought of what you'd said. It's not as watertight as I was thinking bit unless the 204 is different there still shouldn't be much water(Or bubbles in this case) bypassing the sponges and media, I'm pretty sure the partition goes all the way to the top. I've never actually seen a 204. Could be that it's leaky enough and the water flow slow enough that the bubbles sit around the top and work their way over to the outlet side though. I'd have thought it wouldn't have a problem with the small amount of CO2 though, but 404s are a lot gruntier than 204s...Or I'm underestimating the volume of co2 you're putting through it. Warren, you just use marine salt mix? I'm considering trying it. (Then I think,"Isn't 4 tanks enough work? You want to start adding MORE to them now?)

What I did was just add a heaped 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the tank(premixed in a small glass) and then measured the PH again about an hour later to give it time to get well mixed. The end result was that the 1/4 teaspoon raises the PH by about .2.

Ooops, 11AM to 1AM. 14 hours.

I'm not too worried about it eating only live food, but flakes would obviously be a plus. Got a liveworm culture and working on some mealworms and flour beetles.(But 1000 mealworms are only about $30 if they eat them) How much did yours cost? I know wet pets has one, or did recently I just have to talk the wifey into going to palmerston north, it'll have to be next weekend at the earliest.

Anyone have any suggestions for an unusual fish to put in the old 200L tank? Possibly on its own if necessary? I was thinking two possibilities are a Siamese tiger or a couple Figure 8 puffers.

For the most part the fish really don't care if it ever gets dark. I suppose some would say that keeping the light on constantly upsets the fish's natural cycle or something like that...But you don't have anything to worry about in your case. My fish have the lights on from about 11am-1PM and they're happy and healthy.

Ah, so in freshwater the bubbles are too larger which makes it too inefficient? Hmmm...Ok. Now I'll have to try and figure out why saltwater bubbles can be smaller.

Just had a stray thought, I know skimmers are used on marine tanks but I was wondering...Why can't they be used on freshwater tanks? If I'm understanding how skimmers work they basically stir up the water so all the garbage turns into a foam then skims off the foam? Does this not work with freshwater or is it just much easier and cheaper to do a water change?

*Sigh* Guess I'll have to get off my butt and call to reserve a room.

Now I've gotta rearrange the whole house to fit it in. It's coming with a couple rainbows and possible 6 clown loaches. Not sure if I'll keep them or not, don't like clown loaches and not too sure about the rainbows. I'm going to put my cichlids into it though. $400 for the tank, stand, a fluval 404, a 403 and some misc stuff. Needs more lights, cleaning, sand, etc. Oh, and someone else post a new thread or something, I feel guilty having the top 3 threads being started by me and the most recent post by me.

Yeah, the "Glitter" on a Surinamensis is more of a blue and the Jurupari is more of a green. Or maybe the surinam is blue with a bit of green and jurupari is green with a bit of blue. My little surinamensis aren't really big enough to confirm, but I think my dear departed previous ones were more bluish. I'm sure about the jurupari though.

Hey, Caryl, could we possibly meet somewhere around Wellington and go as a group? I wouldn't have a clue where to go, but I think I'd rather have my own transportation while there. Seriously considering going, just need to make up my mind. Any rooms left?

Who knows, maybe it would work?

It's basically just a mud or sand that's got all the trace elements and minerals mixed in with it that you'd need for a marine tank and plants.

It'd probably cost you a lung to buy enough of it. Maybe you can find it cheap and it'll only cost a kidney, though. I guess you could import it yourself. I think in the US it costs something like $50US for 5 kilos, so that's $120NZ, plus probably the same again for shipping. REEALLY pricy.

Actually, the filter that got the 700+ L/HR was one of the older heads. I've got another one that I bought only a few months ago and that head flowed only about 380 L/HR. I don't remember if the newer one was an MSF or not, don't know if they're that different. Haven't seen many around.

I've got a couple Juruparis too. Completely different fish to the Surinamensis. The Juruparis are more of a punk looking fish and the Surinamensis are more suit as my wife calls them.

What's the recipe you use?