David R

that has to be the nicest looking redhead I've seen!! Awesome shape. Festae looking hot too...

Are you paying gst on the stuff you import Smidey? That could account for a large chunk of the difference in price.

interesting new tankmates, going for that "JDM" look?!

You could try keep an eye out for a second hand FX5. As far as canisters go they're pretty easy to clean, I had mine configured with the wool in the top basket so all I'd do is once a week during a water change pull the top off, replace the wool and seal it up again. The coarse sponges around the outside I would clean every 3-5 weeks depending on how dirty they look. I'd never leave a canister filter 6+ weeks between cleans, by that stage there will be so much muck in there that if the power goes off for a couple of hours the water will rapidly deteriorate, then when the power comes back on it will spew all that toxic water back into your tank. I found this out the hard way, I forgot to turn it on after a water change and flicked it back on 3 hours later only to have the tank rapidly fill with brown stinking water. Back to square one with the water change. Thats just another reason I prefer sumps over canisters....

Could be breeding, could just be aggression. How big are they? How many do you have? IIRC S. leucosticta prefer having something mobile like dead leaves to spawn on, maybe try adding a few oak leaves to try encourage them.

How easy it is depends on how educated you are on the subject The "royals" usually get bigger, but the ones offered as "red whiptails" stay a bit smaller, around 10cm IIRC, and I think the panda ones P44 was talking about are smaller growing too. Planetcatfish.com cat-e-log is your best friend...

The recent imports that have been coming in are around the $350-400 mark. and worth every cent!! 8)

They've just got some nice looking angels in that I'm thinking about for my next tank, seem to have some pretty nice fish, those fire eels look awesome! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Redwood-A ... den-Centre (should be able to see the pics even if you're not on bookface) Shame more stores don't have their own quarantine facilities, could cut out the middle-man and have more control over what comes in...

Wasn't this thread about catfish or something? There are several different "whiptails" here, some get bigger than others so make sure you know what you're getting! 20cm+ not countin the tail extensions, which take it closer to 30cm...

A fork with a piece of nylon tied to it works wonders.... not that I'd ever feed my poor fish anything as repulsive as cucumber!!! Works well with zucchini

I think quality rams are one of those fish there will always be a market for.

That doesn't make the L-numbers obsolete, in fast it makes them more important as it is a simple and well understood way to describe the variations within the species. Far better than trying to rely on collection locality or common name.

If you're really worried about the sensor or thermostat failing and not switching on you could have an extra heater in the sump set low enough as not to come on unless the temp drops unusually low.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the reliability of the controller, its unlikely to overheat it because of the thermostats in the heaters (that said, I'd still suggest putting the sensor for the controller in the sump with the heaters, just in case your pump fails), and unless you're away for a long period of time you'd most likely notice if it wasn't switching on. I'd like to run something like this for my next big tank, the MFK guys seem to think the Jehmco ones are pretty good. *edit* Here's the link; http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html

If you really want it quiet go closed loop with something like an Ultima, or even better one of those 'glass filters' they're talking about on that MFK thread, they do the mechanical aspect far better than the bead filters apparently. Could DIY your own bead filter by replacing the sand in a pool filter with plastic media...

I've never seen pressure pipe used for drains, usually 32 or 40mm waste pipe, though for something over 2000L like Henward is planning 50mm might be a better option! Its good for the return side, but can be a bit pricey for 25mm+ diameter stuff, I usually use a mix of the pressure pipe and clear plastic tube.

Why would you use pressure pipe? I think with the size tank you're planning you'd want a 50mm drain for the full siphon and maybe a 40mm durso for the excess and a third spare 40mm as per the system Hovmoller is talking about just to make it completely fail-safe. The durso will be quiet, but a drain running as a full siphon will be quieter, it is the air that makes it loud.

you probably want something more like a 'bean animal overflow' so you can have one drain on full siphon to handle big flow and another with a durso to make it quiet.

Hahaha how long is a piece of string! If I get Richard or Greg to make it, 2-3 months, if I go DIY 2-24+ months.... :facepalm:

Its sunk...

How big is your tank.....

Agree. And as for the sump set up, I'd start suggest doing a lot of reading thru forums like the monsterfishkeepers.com 'set up and filtration' and 'DIY filters' forums. There is a wealth of information out there for sumps, and they can be incredibly cheap and simple, or complicated and expensive as you need it to be. Here is an example of a ridiculously simple sump thats doing a fine job of filtering a moderatly stocked tank; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... Filtration Yes it isn't as efficient as it could possibly be [as was pointed out, leading to a rather heated discussion...], but with the water parameters at 0, 0 and 10ppm it is certainly efficient enough. Something similar could easily be set up for a couple for hundred bucks with an old tank or plastic tub, some ceramic noodles and filter socks, and it would do the job well enough for most average set ups. The other end of the spectrum would have settling chambers, trickle towers, algae scrubbers, auto water changers/drip systems, moving media, multi-stage mechanical filtration etc etc, but IMO unless you're planning on a really heavily stocked tank then it probably isn't necessary.

As I already said, rules of thumb don't apply to big tanks. My 1400L tank ran with two 300w jagers at a constant 28C, and one was enough to hold the temp most of the time. And I certainly don't plan on running 1500w+ of heating in my next big tank either...

As ira and zayne have just proven, your questions are far too vague to be answered accurately. Big tanks don't follow set formula very well, your turn over could be 2x or 10+x per hour depending on your bio load, sump set up and what your drains will handle. And the heating requirements will also vary greatly depending on the ambient air temp, the required temp for your fish and how efficient the set up is at retaining heat. Is this Brian from westmere's old tank?