David R

I'm trying Thomas! I'd have liked to have added these to the mix, but getting them from Nelson to Whangarei was going to be a mission, and funds are limited at the moment. My four are still steadily [slowly] growing, with one of each type now being noticeably larger than the other. I should probably start looking for a large hollow log to try entice them...

Very nice! What part of the country are you in? Let me know if you ever change your mind on them, I was pretty tempted when Cam offered them but couldn't make it happen at the time. Is the one on the red ruler the biggest? He's a beast, but.... mine's bigger! :ton: :slfg:

I know where you got that link from... Amazing collection of healthy looking fish. But, if you look at the size of the big L24 (65cm apparently) and how small the tank is relative to its size, then consider that there's a big number of plecs in there that should get close to that size(other Pseudas 15-24", Panaque Spp. 18"+, Adonis 24"+ etc), it starts looking a bit like an over-crowded temporary holding tank. After trying myself, I'm sceptical of how well you can feed a mix of plecs like that with such diverse dietary needs. And I'd bet with the small tank size, heavy stocking and compromised diet those young future-monsters aren't going to be growing as fast as they could/should be. Ethics aside, the tank looks beautifully kept, and there are some amazing fish in there!

I agree with Ira, there is more to it than nitrates. I change ~25% weekly despite only registering ~5ppm nitrate (I can skip a week and it still won't get to 10ppm). You can certainly change less water with a lower bioload, or the same sized change less often, but I don't think its a good idea to give it up all together.

People often worry about the cost of heating a tank, but the cost of filtering it is sometimes where you can save more money long-term by buying energy efficient gear as pumps/filters usually run 24/7/365. MagDrive 18 = 150W, 1800GPH max Laguna MaxFlo 7600 = 75W and 2000GPH I'm running a Laguna MaxFlo 11000 = 112W, 2900GPH max. MagDrive 18 = 25.2KWH per week, or 1310KWH per year. MaxFlo 7600 = 12.6KWH weekly, or 655 per year. My MaxFlo 11000 = 18.8KHW weekly, or 978 per year. I think our power is costing us about $0.22/KWH (I'll have to check with wife/accountant to be sure!) so the MagDrive would cost $288.20 a year to run and the Laguna 7600 $144.10, and my big Laguna is $215.16 while pumping over 1.5 times as much water as the MagDrive. Quite a difference! Likewise, the ever-popular FX5 canister burning 51W is going to cost nearly twice as much to run as the comparable Eheim 2080 at 27W. As for the quality, I've had several Laguna pumps and they've all performed flawlessly, and they are pretty quiet by my standards. The only thing is they're designed as pond pumps, so they don't have suction cup mounts for aquarium use. I have my 11000 sitting on a piece of high density foam in my sump, and about 2' of flexible plastic tube connecting it to the rigid plumbing. The sump is downstairs directly below out bedroom, and in the still of the night [in the middle of rural Northland] there is barely a detectable vibration/hum to be heard.

I'd say that has something to do with it, the roots are what allows the plant to absorb nutrients from the water, so I'd guess a bigger root mass will increase/speed up nitrate absorption. What would be ideal is a sump, or some other separate chamber (maybe screen off a corner with some Poret foam?) where the plant can grow without being pruned by the trophs. I think I need to increase the lighting for mine, they're growing slowly, but the nitrate is well under control...

The local "pondmaster" pumps are pretty cheap IIRC, you get what you pay for. And I believe (if my memory serves me correctly) the magdrive pumps from the US are pretty inefficient with the amount of power they burn. I've had a great run with Laguna pumps, and they're pretty efficient too, but some of the new Jebao ones are just as good if not better, and cheaper too. Check out www.fish-street.com

NLS would be great for oscars IMO, just in a larger size than you feed to the africans!

Looking good! I hack about half the root mass off mine every so often as it gets so long it starts going over the weir to the next chamber of the sump, doesn't seem to bother it too much.

After talking to Warren about the strength required for the steel stand for my tank, I'd say you're dicing with death putting any decent sized fish tank on that stand. Glass doesn't flex, at all, so the steel supporting the base of the tank needs to be completely level and rigid. The longer the span the heavier the steel needs to be. For my 700mm high tank I have 100x50x3mm over the front 540mm spans and 100x50x5mm over the 1100mm front to back spans. Plus the diagonal gussets in the corners and low height. 12mm glass gives a safety factor of ~2.8 for that size tank, which I would be happy with if it was on a well made stand.

:facepalm: no... Of you're going to take on something like this, check out uaru_joey on YouTube, he has really good step by step videos for all sorts of aquarium dig projects.

My thoughts too...

I believe it needs to be thicker than glass too as it flexes more, wouldn't waste my time with 5mm...

https://youtu.be/bmQ3hTKajOA 40 metres! Interesting to see what the upkeep on it is like...

The stuff that says "aquarium safe" on the tube...

Good start! A dark background would be a big improvement IMO, would hide those cords and make the big spraybar look a lot less obvious.

100% JD. Dark bars across the face are a dead give away. Their base colour can vary when young depending on whether they're at the top or bottom of the pecking order, I've seen them range from very pale to jet black in the same tank.

Run your tap for a couple of minutes then check the temp coming out of it. Am I right in thinking you've got a heap of clown loaches, and subsequently keep your tank fairly warm? If so, might pay not to change such a large amount straight from the tap if it is going to drop the temp too much, IMO. You could use the stove/kettle to heat some up, but really the best bet (better than using warm tap water IMO) is to invest in a decent sized barrel to store and pre-heat/pre-treat your tap water. Even if not the whole amount, I've found adding only 300L of cold water instead of 500L goes a long way towards minimising the temperature drop.

Sitting a sheet of either ply or MDF on top of an uneven desk will not solve the problem. You need to create a flat rigid base that evenly supports the base of the aquarium. How uneven is the desk? Any pictures?

It's called Sage Advice, apparently... :roll:

Survivor is about an actual island.

It means if you're planning an expedition into the jungle, there are better sources of information than watching re-runs of Survivor...

+1

Your rift lake fish won't die without rock-hard water parameters, and if you strike a balance between the requirements of the species you should be able to keep the algae eaters and some of the hardier species of pleco. Or you could jump on the bandwagon like so many African cichlid nuts and work hard to provide biotope-perfect parameters for your cichlids and completely ignore the requirements of the other fish... :-?

Yeah they're becoming more and more available throughout Europe and Asia, hopefully it's only a matter of time before we see them here. By all accounts they're hardier and less fussy about water than wild caught adults (as expected) so they ship and quarantine better. Thomas they're certainly nice little fish, I sometimes regret not making space when they were available, but probably would have had to sell them when we moved back up here anyway.