David R

Nice wood. :gigl:

So you want a nice realistic 3d background that looks better than the expensive Juwel ones for the price of the "crap" aquaone job?

Central Americans.... Not really, the water conditions may be more conducive to plants but uaru, severums and some others will eat them, many others will uproot them with their digging or sand sifting, and others will simply destroy or play with them for the fun of it. Discus, angels and dwarfs generally do well with plants tho!

Are we talking litres, centimeters, gallons, cubic meters??? The size and shape of the tank will in part determin what you can keep, sadly we miss out on a lot of the really nice new world cichlids, but there are still plenty of options. One is not really better than the other, you really need to do some research and decide what you want. ps africans aren't more colourful than new world cichlids, you can cram more colour into a tank with africans, but the americans are every bit as colourful if not more so, just look at a nice texas cichlid, festae or salvini! not great compared to the rest of the world, only one true species of Geophagus, a couple of different severums (mostly pretty bleh locally bred stuff), uaru, chocolates, "jurupari", and a few others. Plenty of discus, dwarfs and angels, but so much nice stuff we miss out on...

She's a looker alright, even more intense colours when in breeding mode! Shame they're so angry...

Will have to call in next time I'm in Auckland.

Love it, really miss mine...

Nice set up, but keep a real close eye on them if you've got a male in there too. Even in my 800L there wasn't enough space for two fighting lovers, looks like you've got plenty of hiding spots tho, hope to see some young one day!

My tank is still the best option I feel. 8) TBH if [when!] you do get around to setting up this massive mega aro comm tank we've discussed so often I'd be happy to completely upset my tank to give you the wood back...

Great to see someone showing concern about unintended hybridisation, but as Geoff said it won't happen with a bristlenose and gold nugget. Some plecs of the same genus (like Hypancistrus) will interbreed fairly easily, but inter-generic hybrids are rare if not unheard of in the pleco world. Its kinda like worrying about your oscar breeding with a severum, or your cat and a small dog getting it on...

Good to see my old girl looking good!! Hope you find her an equally attractive guy. OT; Ally if you're having problems with ammonia then the sand isn't really the problem (altho removing it will help keep it clean manually), it sounds like you don't have enough biological filtration, either not enough media to house a sufficiently large bacteria colony, or not enough turn over to keep the water moving thru the filter. Or both. Don't want to hijack Wee's thread too much, but you may want to look at increasing the filtration.

Its HUGE! Bathtub/fishbin aint going to cut it! Its a great piece of wood, I'll have my new tank set up soon so will happily soak it in there for you...... ... permanently!!

It certainly is possible, interest always waxes and wanes, especially for those of use who are more, um, involved*... *involved = obsessed, adicted, insane etc...

They are notorious egg eaters I've found!! Really hope you do, have always wanted to breed them as they have really interesting parental behaviour (and was hoping that your six would be "the ones" after having a pair of lesbians and another true pair [the parents of yours] but no space). I've got a spare 3'x18x18" tank and stand and a spare aquaone canister if its any use to you for growing out fry etc? (and could probably even set it up at the new place if you don't have space at yours). Good luck and take some pictures!!!!

If you look thru the Set Up and Filtration, and DIY Filtration forums on monsterfishkeepers.com you will find loads of info and all sorts of different looking sumps, from the rudimentary simple ones made from plastic tubs to more complicated purpose built glass ones. Your design needs to incorperate mechanical filtration before the biological filtration, usually either filter socks or a tray with filter wool and/or foam. For the biological part you need to decide what media you want to use, how much you need, and if it is going to be submerged or above the water level with the water trickling over it. You need to figure out how much turn over you need and at what head height, and find a suitable pump. Lastly, and most importantly, you need to make sure the 'tank' part of the sump is big enough to catch the skim (how much water is above the sump with the pump running) so that when the pump switches off and the water drains down to the sump it won't overflow. The sump also needs to have enough water in it when running to keep the pump submerged. Probably the best thing to do is have a look at as many sump set ups as possible. Here's a pic of a basic sump set up I've used on a couple of tanks with good success. I prefer to run filter socks now for better mechanical filtration but that requires a bit more height to have media above the water level.

Its not "mamoth" unless you need a wetsuit to do maintanence...

Choice!! I've been reading a lot of the ply/fibreglass builds on MFK and seriously considered doing one this time around, but just don't quite have the space to go big enough to justify it (IMO). That said, I still haven't had a price for the all glass tank, so that may change my mind!

The "professional" ones also usually have a rating for the maximum weight they can lift, so you should be able to figure out how many you need to comfortably lift the tank. If I don't have it made on site I'll certainly be getting some to move my next big tank!! Slightly OT, but did you ever do an article/build thread/pics of your 3000L build Warren? Would be very interested to see how it was made etc.

Seems how this thread has slightly gone astray, here's a video of an amazing tank with a gorgeous little pike cichlid; http://youtu.be/8sN6u3DyJQM Would LOVE to get my hands on some of them, actually that is pretty much my dream tank, the most recent video of it is even better; http://youtu.be/-ky5ua7mgOg

Poly is much nicer to work with than Batts (although you can get that greenstuff polyester wool which is less irritating), but as Hovmoller said you really want a completely snug fit so there are no gaps, so wool is far better for using between framing.

+1 for convict X jd, Duncan7 had some a while back that looked just like this.

I'm not sure many people here would have any sort of relevant experience to relate to this, unfortunately. There was someone selling a set up that had been used as a salt water quarantine facility so may be able to offer advice on how it works. Perhaps it wold be best to contact an importer (say Aquarius or Redwoods) directly with a list of questions/ideas. I know I'd be keen to try push for some of the species on the list we don't see often enough (like the Crenicichla you mention), but I guess what it really comes down to is if they are available from a supplier the importer uses so it can be added to their order, or if you/we are willing to fork out enough cash to justify our own shipment from a supplier of our choice.

What you described is pretty much how the guy is/was bringing in high grade assian aros like Henwards red. I have had a similar thought, what really needs to happen is a group of keen people get together and put in a reasonable sized order from a certain supplier to make it worth while. Shame this forum doesn't allow the organisation of such things....

I always thought they were more predatory than aggressive, anything small enough to be eaten doesn't stand a chance but larger tankmates are ignored except for when breeding. But I haven't done that much reading on them so could be wrong..

I have seen two for sale as part of a large set up in the Hawkes Bay on trademe, about 4-5 years ago IIRC. Not sure what happened to them though, I couldn't find a way to get them up to Auckland (were about a foot each) unfortunately. So they have obviously been imported before, at least once, in a small quantity. I'd love a few of the smaller ones as part of my dream SA tank, like the video I posted the otehr day...