David R

Nice pics, the weta was just a baby thought... How did you go bringing the dogs over from the US? I bet the tail end of winter in Auckland is a little different to Ohio!

Very nice! I saw the top half of the pic and had to do a double take, looks remarkably similar to my pic from the other weekend!

Ron, I was thinking about it, but it would be a real hassle to get them out of the tank and set up another specific breeding tank (which I don't have) and then I'm not set up for raising the fry either. There are a few others around with them, hopefully someone else will...

Slightly more serious thread now, in an attempt to breathe some life back into the place! I have four L190 Panaque nigrolineatus, and two of them have quite a different "look" from the other two. I'm interested to see what else is out there in the NZ marketplace... The "thin stripe" look with narrow stripes of light and dark; Fish #1 #2 And the "other" look, more of a green base with wide gaps between the dark lines, that are broken and uneven; #1 #2 Side by side the difference is obvious (open the pic full size). Thoughts? The arrangement of their teeth shows they are certainly L190 (or not L27, at least). The armbrusteri/L27 group seems to be split into many different "types", is P. nigrolineatus equally as varied but nobody bothers differentiating as they're old and boring compared to the hot new L27? Anyone else got anything similar?

Here's some more recent pics. Largest altifrons 'Peru Altum' angels, laying eggs again One of the six young angels from Pupuke, starting to colour up nicely They know where their food comes from too Largest L190 'Thin Stripe' L190 ex Henward Another L190, ex Jamosfish Two different patterned L190 And a hint of what's to come, apologies for the quality of these two pics, but the quarantine tank isn't exactly photogenic And a short clip of the two thin striped royals having a little tiff. http://youtu.be/GW7KCFdzhbo

and another picture, just for the "holy crap" factor...

Was mildly concerned they might do away with this forum due to lack of traffic. Good to see I'm not the only who still likes them. and here's a picture...

Does anyone still keep catfish?

Sketchup!

That pool with the window would make an epic pond!!

Best just to experiment IMO. I usually glue all the joins on my return except for where the spraybar goes into the last elbow, that way you can change it up and play around with it.

Yeah I've been meaning to get in touch too. Maybe once the weather warms up a bit, the new fish are unleashed into the big tank, and I get around to brewing some more beer I'll fire up the bbq one Sunday arvo and say "open home"...

Any time, bring the family too!

Brief update. This weekend I sold the three L14 sunshine plecs, 2 L128 blue phantoms, the L81 Baryancistrus and one L190 royal which had a deformed spine at the base of the tail (was still a great fish, about 22cm and solid, just didn't want any dodgy genetics on the off chance that one day I do end up with a pair of them). I also picked up six more young Geophagus altifrons as I was down to three adults in the big tank, and six tiny L18 (I think?!) Gold Nuggets. I'll be picking up another larger nugget from a friend shortly too, and the plan is to just keep a group of the nuggets and a group of the L190 royals. I felt the Scobi's weren't doing as well on the largely vege-based diet I feed, and it felt like a good idea to rationalise the collection a bit to create the [very] long term possibility of having a breeding group. I'm keeping a look out for another 1-2 L190 if I can find some nice looking ones. I have two "pairs" with very distinct looks; two have very fine stripes, and the other two have more of a greenish base colour and wider gaps between the dark lines, which are more broken and less regular than the "typical" look. The largest one now would be about 11" at a guess. Catching the fish to sell required the removal of all the wood except for the big stump, and it actually was far easier than I anticipated. When I first added the tangle of branches behind the stump I spent half an hour trying to arrange them so they looked natural but balanced, and still wasn't entirely happy with the result. On Saturday, after removing them to catch some fish I had sold, I hastily threw them back in before racing off to Auckland. Tonight I sat down in front of the tank after feeding them and realised that they look far better now than they did before.... Other than that everything is ticking over nicely, maybe one day I'll get around to finishing the façade around the stand and lights....

That's another good thing about a sump set up like this (with the Poret foam), any fish that do find their way into the sump are usually fine. When I first added the tetras to my tank I was rescuing 1-2 a day, it gradually tapered off to about one a week, now it's been at least 3 weeks since I've had to fish one out. Surprised such a small fish would be able to "learn" like that, but I guess they can!

Only reason for a pre-soak is to make sure it sinks and to see if/how much tannin it is leaching. Give it a goo clean, make sure it isn't rotting, and stay away from softwoods. Oh, and send me some!!

Alarm went off at 0600 for work this morning, raced down stairs to dose the quarantine tank with Stability in anticipation of new fish this weekend, just as I was about to dose the Stability I thought... "I'd better test the ammonia quickly while I'm here"... put cap back on Stability... grab vial and take sample for ammonia test... grab bottle of Stability and shake vigorously before dosing....... realise I had just sat the cap on the bottle and not screwed it shut as I shake half a bottle of stability all over myself and the surrounding part of the garage!! :an!gry should leave such things until AFTER I've woken up completely...

:thup:

I've got four 50x50 sheets in mine, 10ppi, 20ppi x2, then 30ppi and I can go for over two weeks without them clogging. When clean the water usually sits about 50mm from the top of the sheet and the level gradually rises as the crud builds up and slows the flow, and eventually it will go right over the top. Unlikely to happen in every-day use, but if you go away for a while (or forget to check! :oops: ) it is good to know it won't overflow when the media blocks up!

That sounds good, but what I was wondering is if the height of the Poret is lower than the edge of the sump, so that if the foam completely block up the water will just flow over into the next chamber. You probably want the Poret 3-4cm below the rim of the tank so it won't overflow if the foam completely blocks up.

Just not on the list of "approved imports", so can't legally be imported. They're readily available in oz though...

That looks like a good set up, but I hope you've left room for the water to flow above the Poret if it clogs, overflowing sumps suck! How many LPH is the pump? The return line looks pretty thin.

Sounds like a cool plan, I've only read over it quickly, but here's the first couple of things that come to mind.. One, you'll want to make sure there is plenty of spare space in the refugium to hold the water that will drain down from the main tank when the pump switches off. It looks like your drawings show a bit of excess height, so maybe you've already considered this. I'm no planted tank expert, but I believe sumps in general aren't ideal as the surface disturbance they produce drives off CO2 and adds oxygen, which is good for fish but not good for plants. Obviously you're going to want to design the plumbing to minimise this, which should also reduce the noise too. I'd re-evaluate your choice of filter media and look at doing something like an HMF-style filter in the sump using Poret foam. I'm guessing you won't be having a massive bioload, and even so with all the plants you shouldn't require massive amounts of bio media anyway. The Poret foam could act as bio as well as mechanical, the left hand end could have the drains flowing in at the back (below the water level for noise and minimal aeration) then it could flow through several layers of vertical Poret (in increasing PPI) before flowing over into the refugium. Last thing I can think of right now, with that large opening in the front of your stand you're going to want a fairly rigid member supporting the base of the top tank. 400mm is quite shallow (especially with 12mm glass) but you'll stillw ant something a little stiffer than a piece of 4x2 bridging the gap. My apologies if you've already considered all of this! It looks like a great project and I'll be interested to see how it develops.

I know I'm going to regret my two big L128s, but I know they're going to a good home, and being replaced with something every bit as cool....

If you want plants for reducing nitrates then your best option is Pothos; viewtopic.php?f=4&t=65309 You could grow them in your sump, you'd just need to provide some light for them (I grow mine under an 8W energy saver).