David R

You're wasting your time boiling it, just rinse it thoroughly until the fine stuff is removed, although with silica sand you might throw away more than you wash! Could also try the "white sand" from Urban Paving seems how you're in Christchurch.

Well things seem to be going a little better this weekend. I got the new substrate in ('charcoal' grit from S&W World) and transferred the uarus and heckeliis over from my 4' tank. I also had a big rearrange of the 4' and 3' tanks, so I can finally turn the temperature down on my 3' for the balzaniis, and there are now 22 clown loaches from about 2" to 7" in the 4' tank. Anyway, some pics. The water is still a bit cloudy [from the substrate] and I was in a hurry so they're not the best. Meh. Whole tank: Birchy and two of the heckeliis: And he's not in the new tank but I can't be bothered starting a new thread, so can anyone identify this guy, was bought as a 'clown pleco' in hamilton about 5 years ago, and is around 8cm long:

They're all Scleropages formosus, regardless of colour, so they're all CITES 1. And I'd say they'll be a little more expensive than the jardini's, but should certainly be cheaper than reds. If you look at the prices here you can see the greens are about 60% of the price of a banjar red, so I'd expect them to be at least $1k here.

Should be ok in a big enough tank, but as with all cichlids they're unpredictable. To further what caryl said, the best way to remove all the equipment from the tank is with a sump/trickle filter set up. Then you can over-filter it too.

ETA in the shops is 2-3 weeks. 8)

The tetras are happy as larry in the sump, but will be going to the planted tank at my GF's work this weekend. And on that topic, it seems goldfish are smarter than tetras. Well at least they learn to avoid going over the overflow quicker than the tetras did...

Where it can scare away all the native birds and make a nuisance of itself? I grew up in the country on a property bordered by native bush. The neighbor had his elderly parents living with him and the old man had a couple of tame magpies. They were very aggressive and chase and attack the native birds, so much so that as soon as his father died the neighbor trapped and killed them! You might as well have a pet catfish and keep it in a stream so it can eat all the native fish...

I think Canada gets everything the US gets plus asian aros!

Black market for bearded dragons?? :roll: I'm used to the media portraying my other hobby as criminal (car enthusiast/"boy racer") but not this one...

But its got big teeth, it must be a piranha, surely we must not let this monster into our precious ecosystem... :lol:

The only problem with that is that I don't want to have to stop the sump running for 24 hours+ while the silicone cures.

Shouldn’t it be called “13 highly impractical aquariums�

Armatus. Just another reason to head off over-seas...

Its a shame there's so many americans there, otherwise I would already be living there! I guess Canada is the next best option.

I've got some more red sand you can have, its been used so it won't need such a thorough wash, just a bit of a rinse. I don't want to put a comb on it as the water level is already quite high (about 10mm from the bracing) and I don't want anything obstructing the flow as I'm going to put a second pump in to increase the turn over once I add some more fish. Sound doesn't matter either as its in the garage.

The epic failure continues. Came home from work today to find birchy sitting in the overflow, looking very cramped and not too happy. I managed to get him out, after dropping him a couple of times, and he seems to be ok now. My only concern is that I could have done some sort of internal injuries while picking him up, I can only fit one hand into the overflow and had to pick him up around his soft mid-section. I guess only time will tell. Barrie I'm going to have to make up a pretty funky glass lid contraption thing to block off the gap above the overflow (I've got a ghetto temporary I made out of a plastic chopping board in there now) with out obstructing the flow of the water. I'll draw a plan and maybe even make up a cardboard template and get it to you.

Or you could make one copy and after the first person has watched it they post it on to the next. Or, I'm happy to give you $5 for a copy.

yeah, it was an awesome weekend tho, can't wait for Christchurch!!

Also very keen!!

^ they're about 5 minutes down the road from me, so I'll be heading there this weekend. Mark I'm not sure when I'll be down, but I'm longing to visit the park so hopefully this summer some time, maybe before xmas!

Does anyone have a hard-drive/DVD burner and sky!?!?!?!!

Dad always says "life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it".

I was nearly tempted to go back to using the good old brightwater last night. I think they might do a 2-4mm one as well as the 3'6, so that could look a bit better. Mark where did you get the river sand from?

Two words for tonight. Epic fail. I got the sand over the weekend, washed it and put it in the tank. I only used 1.5 bags (out of 3). Stoked. Looked awesome, but a little on the fine side. Tonight I transferred birchy (the big ornate) across from the 4' using a pillow case, he's close to 17" now!! As I suspected he stirred up the sand every time he swims with a bit of force. But worse than that, the fine sand appeared to stick to him and in about 5 minutes he looked like he had been rolled in icing sugar. So I very rapidly siphoned all the sand out, and I'm back to a bare-bottomed tank wondering what I should use for substrate. I didn't even take a pic with the sand in. I've dumped a heap of stress-coat in to help birchy with his slime coat, he gradually seems to be shedding the sand. Fingers crossed it doesn't stress him too much. So, suggestions for substrates??

I feed my little dels on sinking carnivore pellets, but they're too small to feed my big ornate. Cichlid gold is a staple part of my loaches and cichlids diet.