spoon

thank you for the advice mj after talking with navarre tonight and veiwing his tanks i have decided to use a black gravel and make a polystyrene structure with all sorts of caves and what not (sort of a large honeycomb) i will coat this with coral sand and possibly chips of oamaru stone to help buffer the tank this will be in the middle of tank but more to the back leaving enuff room behind it so i can get a net in and and more room in the front for substrate may also use more oamaru stone at the ends depending on how the buffering if going by this stage and how it looks (if no good then i will add extra buffering to the filters as coral sand in mesh bags) filltration will be 2 cf1200s with 1 posibly running a reverse undergravel filter(or undergravel jets -have to do more research) the other cf1200 will split into two with a adjustable valve on each side i will go directly into a spreybar in the tank the other will go via a small fluidised bed filter back into the tank(maybe filled with coral sand depending on how this this works otherwise white silica which is working fine at the moment) as for stocking im still getting there but think i have it sorted(thanks navarre!)

i read i diy article for making skimmers that had an idea that may help you it was a venturi made with airline drilled into a pump the airline recirculated the bubbles of air thru the impeller to chop them up even smaller this may be able to be adapted for use with co2 very interesting article tho

well been thinking once i have got rid of all the fish im not keeping i will suck most of the mt somers sand out with the python and go from there adding coral sand(note is there ane cheaper alternative to coral sand ? i have heard about this argonite sand but dont really know what it is or where to get it from ) thank you to the people who offered help with fish i will be in touch. i will update this thread as i get going and add photos. another question is lighting important for ane other reason other than asthetic value with cichlids(wont be having plants but mite have a few fake 1s thanks for the idea mystic)

it will be glass aneway

was an interesting day i have never seen turtles in a bath before thanks for sharing your experiences 2day. btw holding the snakeneck was cool too , i bet my flatmate had a story to tell his workmates about why he was so dirty when he got to work

my pleco shifts the sand incredibly all of the bottom dwellers seem to like it as well as the kribs which spit it around its not sharp edged at all as some sand is i think the coral sand i have is actually sharper. the footprint of the tank is 90x48cm roughly

thanks for your help guys, i didnt understand the attraction of them till i seen a few peoples tanks up and running in real life and i also got mts so that helped. the substrate in my tank at the moment is mt somers sand its a super fine white silica sand so its inert. i have some mixed with some coral sand in my brackish tank it looks ok mixed. i was planning on adding a cup of coral sand every 7 days till i got the desired ph (could somebody tell me this too?) question tho can you have too much coral sand or other buffering agents or say 8kg of coral sand and a few dead corals be ok until i can find some decent calcuim based rocks mite have to go on a roadtrip !

i like the pics yes this is the sort of fish im thinking of . my tank is a euroview 90 its 200l but only 3 ft long coz its a bit higher and deeper(front to back) than normal . i have 2 large clown loaches and a red spot pleco which is 25cm long i do realise 1 day he will be too big for the tank. im thinking i will sell the fish i dont want and pull all the plants out then slowly add some coral sand to the existing white sand till i have enuff to buffer the tank (is this a good plan?) so that the clowns and plec have time to adjust .am i able to leave the driftwood in the tank ? its been submerged for over 3 years so has long since stopped making the water yellow. filtration is 1 cf12oo though would probably upgrade to two of these. i have 2 kribs at the moment too are these fine with the above mentioned ciclids?

hi im wondering if a 200l tank is suitable for some of the smaller cichlids , im not sure on names of them yet but i like the bright yellow 1s . i realise they like a higher ph and hardness than most community tropical fish, but im wondering if they can be kept with large clown loaches and or a 25cm red spot pleco as these are they only fish in my 2ool tank i would like to keep i anebody could point me in the right direction with a few links to sites or something it would be much apprieated

yeah and besides cricket is just as boring as coro st haha

a new restaurant called wagamamas has opened on the strip its the first 1 in nz . they have a westernised japanese menu i ate there at the dry run before they opened . they dont sell sushi but will open ur eyes to a few different tastes

i can give u a hand 2moro donna as i dont have work, i have an indoor rabbit hutch like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bits-For-Pets-R ... B000LXYY80 the bottom will hold water perhaps this would be suitable as a temporary home for a turtle or two i will pm you my hme ph give me a ring 2moro morning

you should be ok to use tonic ive used it before on axies just dont overdose and do the waterchanges as directed. putting him in the fridge will slow his metabolism which can be helpful sometimes when they are sick but i have limited knowledge on this ,somebody will know how do this safely. they can last for a fair bit out of water but it is stressful and the heat will not be helping

dam it i cant get into a philosophy discussion on here i will end up talking about religion ! is this like a retro toy stella? or something still sold now brand new?

i have 2 southern bells in a 60x60X45 exoterra tank. putting more in would depend on there nature i guess there is plenty of room 4 them but wether they would fight, eat each other etc . if there are major size differences between the two lots of frogs consider the smaller 1s eaten

stress coat and stress zyme would be a waste of time unless you have chlorine in your water as well, it doesnt sound like you do tho as u arnt on a town supply. what about collecting rainwater?

i feed my pet rabbits NRM pellets 1 of there uses is to fatten rabbits up for meat

you two are trouble id hate to see both you 2getha in person if its got plantlets then its doin really well keep doin what u are doing depending on how big you want to grow them before you pass them on , i normally let the get roots the cut off a runner with 5 or 6 plantlets on it then cut them up separatly they grow so quickly though they will prevent light from getting to plants underneath them

ive got a 100w water chiller to play with this 1 is different to others ive seen the hot part has a sort of oil(maybe) fillerd radiator cooled by a fan on it. the cold side is in a aluminium cylinder insulated with foam , i feel this would work hooked up to a pump and a thermostat nicked out of an old fridge on the 240v side of the circuit (screw adjusted inside to get it to the rite temperature and probe coated with thin layer of expoxy so it can be submersed) im wondering if there is some thing i could coat the inside of the cooling chamber with to make it safe for salt water but without insulating to much of the cold

bring the sg up slowly like 0.02 a week . you dont need a skimmer and it will not work very well at 0.018 aneway if you were to decide to go full marine 0.024 (i think) a skimmer would be a better option as its a very good from of filtration for salt water. you could also use a cannister filter or a sump filter but you would be doing a lot more waterchanges than if you had a skimmer and the salt can get expensive

there is a library in langdons rd free parking at noel leeming next door! if they have the magazine it may not be at that particular library but you can just fill in an order form and they will ring you when its ready . most of the books they have are older 1s and more suited to beginners or people with only a few tanks and limited knowledge on th topic ie not really worth you reading evil elmo :lol: im pretty sure that the fnzas has a lot of books for members to borrow this may include the practical fishkeeping magazine too maybe caryl would know then all you would have to do is join TT (or another registered club) and you would be a member of fnzas

im wondering if a fan blowing air across the cool side of a peltier (with cold side heatsink of course) at the water would work ane better than submerging it , it would save the problem of putting metal in the tank if it worked (though i have read somewhere you can use adonised aluminium even in saltwater)

i would use an internal filter as you may want to increase the stocking levels at a later date and then you wouldnt have to go thru the hassle of cycling again at a later date. a small internal filter will be all that is needed and will be virtually silent (as long as you dont use ane venturi features) with reguards to aeration of a tank stella is rite but however its a common misconception that an air pump is needed , this stems from the earlier days in the hobby where people were encouraged to use them and an undergravel or corner box filter was the best thing out. (still have there uses tho ) gradually more was learnt and somebody figured out that pumping air into ur aquarium does not oxygenate the water however the current created by the moving flow of bubbles exposes more water to the air at the surface allowing more oxygen to dissolve.any form of water movement will also do this.i do not own an air pump ane more . there are just better ways of filtering out there for most tanks and having plants i wanted the least surface disturbance as possible(to keep the CO2 in the water, as dissolved oxygen forces it out ) this can however become a small trade off if i get more fish i may find i need more oxygen and will have to turn the spraybar a few degrees towards the surface to cause more agitation.

ive yet to find an easy compact and practical chiller although there are some semiconductor chillers on ebay for smaller tanks but they are expensive maybe could diy for freshwater as jaycar sell some parts you could use there

i wonder if the 1 on my filter will fit urs mines the 400l per hr 1 as im using another pump on it i wont really need it i can cut a piece of plastic to fit