David R

Big kok! Nice to see some new strains of something coming in, even if they're not really my thing.

Or you just order it yourself from kensfish.com. I'm all for supporting local retailers, but not to the extent of buying inferior product at a higher price.

Haven't read the entire thread, but I'd be inclined to take Neil/RD's word about it; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... rn+delight This is also a good read, starts getting interesting on page 5; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... r-cichlids with regards to Southern Delight...

Comparing the ingredients is the best way to analyse foods, how readily your fish eat it shouldn't be the main concern. You only have to look at our own species to see what happens when taste is put ahead of nutrition! With NLS the two main ingredients are whole krill and whole herring, the Fluval food is herring meal (a by-product made of the left-over bits of herring) and the third main ingredient is potato. The Fluval food also has mussel meal (watch out for anything "meal") and soybean meal. There have been many in-depth discussions on food ingredients in the MFK cichlid forums, especially from a guy by the name of "RD" who has/had? a lot to do with NLS in the early days, and is passionate about the subject and very knowledgeable on the ingredients that go into fish food. It's worth searching thru and reading up on if you're interested, but long story short; NLS trumps pretty much everything else in terms of quality ingredients.

If it's a good eater I see no reason not to add it to the big tank at 5-6", especially if there aren't any other large fish to out-compete it for food. You'll certainly see better growth with it in the big tank.

Pair of dwarf flags, rams or apistogramma? More similar in terms of water requirements to your bristlenose and would give you options for stocking other non-cichlid fish (corys, tetras, pencilfish etc). IMO 160L isn't enough for dems and yellows, probably barely enough for yellows alone if you want a decent group. I think shellies and/or Altolamprologus would be your best bet if you want rift lake fish.

Yeah it's handling the flow well, but I did need to support the last sheet with a piece of egg crate (cheers Hovmoller!!) to prevent it flexing too much.

My bio media is about due for a clean, and I intend to put it in laundry bags to make the job easier in the future. I'm happy with the clarity the poret provides (you'll never have gin-clear water when keeping Panaques anyway!) and I love the long intervals between cleaning the media. Nearly 12 months on it seems to be holding up well, and I'm thinking about replacing one of the 20ppi sheets with a 30ppi (currently running 10-20-20-30ppi).

Good to see you guys getting back into it, I won't waste my breath suggesting you try something different...

Having the room dark is a big advantage IMO, you just need sufficient light on the aquarium, either from the aquarium lights or an external flash set up above the tank.

Finding a long-term fish-sitter is about your only option, other than keeping all your gear and selling the fish, then starting again when you're settled. Certainly consider selling off some fish that are easier to replace, unless you have a big sentimental attachment to them you may find it's cheaper (and certainly less stressful for the fish) to start again with locally sourced young than have someone care for then ship large adult fish.

Great shot! I could have done with that a few days ago when someone posted the incorrectly names pic of the P. endlicheri on the FNZAS facebook page...

If you want to do them with the system running, then you'll want the drain to be at the "on" water level in the last compartment. RE the socks and maintenance, what are you planning to stock the tank with? IIRC Henward gets over a week from his four 100micron socks on a heavily stocked 2000L+ system, I think if you had 3-4 socks on your tank you'd probably be able to get 2-4+ weeks out of them. The poret is ok as mechanical filtration, but you're never going to have gin-clear water with poret alone.

Or look into making something like a 'radial flow separator' so you can get the heavy waste settling out. Bot as said, unless you've got some big messy fish (the settling chamber section on mine works well for catching the copious amounts of sawdust made by my Panaques) it isn't really necessary. If you end up running a filter sock before the poret it will basically make the poret redundant as mechanical filtration. IMO you'd achieve every bit as good a result by simply suspending a couple of filter socks into an old aquarium and having laundry bags full of ceramic rings, or matrix etc, no baffles.

No new pics, everything just ticking over nicely. I've just been away to the US for four weeks and everything went well with minimal feeding and maintanence. I'll try to do a proper update soon.

Looks great! Love the two-sided viewing.

Good work, only one minor leak in the plumbing is great!

I agree some of the features are gimmicky, my arowana certainly doesn't appreciate the 'lightening' mode! However the full spectrum adjustability makes them hands down better than any fixed white or blue/white combo. I very rarely adjust mine now I've found the balance I'm happy with. I have one custom preset with them on about 3/4 of their max brightness, and I turn them up if taking pics or have people viewing the tank, but that is about it. IMO the unit in the first post would most likely be too blue for most FW tanks.

I've also used screws to attach wood to things, works well with a large piece of acrylic under the substrate if you're starting from scratch, and it allows you to position the wood upright rather than having it resting on the ground. I'd recommend stainless screws though.

Almost all fish are easy to care for if you take the time to learn and understand their requirements.

Bingo. Give it a few months, rather than a few days. If you try to weight it down in the tank, make sure you do it very securely otherwise it will rocket back to the surface, potentially breaking lids, lights etc.

I think KrazyGeoff posted a pic a while back of about half a dozen cheap digital digital ones showing a massive variance. Here's the difference I found between a cheap one [top] and a more expensive one [bottom]; Before I took the good one off my existing tank I was wondering why 7 300W heaters couldn't get my tank up to 26C! The Reptiland one is within a few tenths of my digital TDS meter/thermometer and also the thermometer on my heater controller. That said, if you have something accurate to compare it to you can "calibrate" the cheaper ones by writing the adjustment to the actual temp on the thermometer. :lol: RE the heater, I would certainly invest in a reasonable thermometer. The one I posted above is $32 from HFF (about double the price of the AquaOne in the top of the pic) so not really "expensive" as far as electronic monitoring equipment goes, but worth every penny IMO especially if you're using it to calibrate heaters. http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/deta ... ter/m/937/

They look ideal, just the colour/shape I've been looking for! Now to find a discreet culvert, err, I mean abandoned quarry... :lol:

Looks good, where'd you get the rocks?

You can't cycle water, you only cycle the filter... I've used those big plastic bins for moving large fish many times, and as a temporary sump on occasions. The only reason I've kept water when moving fish is to save on the acclimatisation process. If you can take enough old water to fill the new tank ~1/3 full (and have the other 2/3 close enough in temp and parameters) then it makes moving them a whole lot easier.