David R

I have two 300w Jagers in my 1400L and it will hold it at 27C no problem. How big and how well insulated is the garage the tank is in (if at all)?

Duncan wins, but he did have an unfair advantage! Not quite sure what else will be in there with them at this stage, perhaps some other mid-sized predators, maybe ctenopoma or nandus, and something too large and fast like Madagascan Rainbows. Unsure if I'll be going just for plants growing on wood or have some planted in the substrate as well.

Yes that is my concern, I guess the necessity of that is determined by how planted the tank is. Won't dosing with flourish in a tank that size get expensive quickly? (doesn't it need to be dosed daily?)

I'm very tempted to censor that post to spare others the agony of what I'm now going thru.... we like, we like to party! dada da da da da daaa daa :facepalm: This should fix it, one of my favourite Beatles songs... http://youtu.be/xTd-8VAFTqw

The problem I was thinking of with the sump is the amount of disturbance/aeration the water will get, reducing the amount od CO2 in the water. The flow won't be a problem, there will be a spray bar directing it and if I'm trying to grow plants I'll try make sure its submerged. I would have thought that having a sump putting all that oxygen into the water would have made adding CO2 more important. Haven't figured out the lighting yet, but I do have a friend with a couple of spate double 4' T5 hoods so I might grab one of them for starters. With that kind of set up, how much of a difference would it make having the tank open topped instead of having the light going through the glass lids? The tank will be euro braced but some of the fish are jumpers so it will need a cover of some sorts, perhaps coarse mesh?

I'm in the planning stages of a new project, and feeling like it should have a bit of greenery in it! The tank is going to be 120x75x55 (LxWxH) and will be filtered by a sump/trickle filter. I know this is less than ideal for a planted set up, but if I try to minimise the disturbance to the water how much of a hindrance is it likely to be to successfully growing plants? Anything I could do to counter it? I'm not really too keen to go down the track of CO2 injection, just planning on a low-tech set up at this stage with plants that don't require too much light. Suggestions?

Yeah they can chew on the wood when larger, you can see little scrape marks on it where they have been nibbling on it. Plants are certainly a no-go and black beard algae will never be a problem! I've had a couple get pretty close to 30cm and quite tall, not a slow growing fish either. Here are pics of mine when I first got them back in November, they were tiny!! Biggest is now more like 15cm, would expect them to be well over 20cm by November this year. http://fishkeepers.co.nz/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3688&start=0

No there seems to be two varieties/populations/forms, one with an orange eye and one with a red eye. The breeding pair I gave to Phil Collis have red eyes and so do the young, of which I have six in my big tank. They're about 8-12cm now, so still plenty of growing to do. Eat like pigs though, just was watching them try to get at some of the geo fry that one of the parents is starting to struggle to hold.

no question... don't even know what a fauxhawk is, don't care either... One 1000L tank or 4 250L tanks?

Certainly not as delicate as discus! Can hold their own with many large fish, although I'd be a bit reluctant to mix them with larger CA cichlids like jag or festae, I think they should do alright with small to medium species (water parameters etc aside). They're one of my favourite species, I've kept them with everything from tetras to big dats and arowanas.

As Henward said, if you're just setting up a tank let the filter establish and sort it out naturally. You'll have a far more stable tank than if constantly dosing with chemicals. If you're wanting it for transporting fish then I'm not sure which is better. ps. Please put your location in your profile so we can see where you are from. (I think I'm getting the hang of this moderating thing :lol: )

ones like this? -> :sage:

Just need to crank up the lighting on the tank, I'll bring a couple of extras! I'm on standby all week next week, so if I don't get called in we could do it one night.

I'm keen to come over and have a play with the new camera, see if I can get some good shots of him. With the jar if the water is that close I'd be tempted to chuck it straight over. Otherwise I'd say drain about as much water out of the 100L tank as you can with out him going mad (75% at least, and the siphon water from the big tank back into the little tank to acclimatise him. Put in another 50L, take 50L out, put another 50L in and then move him across. Then just top the big tank off like you would when doing a water change.

Again, seems like a strange mix, but could probably work. There's other things to consider too, like water parameters, the geos and uaru will prefer it softer while the cuban and festae etc like it hard (and the bichirs don't seem to care!). You could probably find a happy median and compromise though.

Tell her it will look much tidier and will be quieter, will reduce the heating bill, and make the tank a real feature of the house.... :sml1: Something like this would be ideal, but without the fake coral... But stocked like this...

Almost certainly. The geo may well fly under the radar and stay out of harms way.

Would be best top have the tank walled off so all the humidity etc is kept in the tank room, and the viewing room stays dry and quiet.

Poured concrete tank with big glass window = winning. One day........

Thomas- yeah the jurapari/jurupari we have are S. leucosticta. I'm not an expert on them but I think we only have the one species here. They're more colourful than the real jurupari, so its probably a good thing! Fraser the jurupari and cuban are still small. Once bigger the cuban will have a much stronger mouth structure designed for lip locking and battling for territory, where as the geo is made for sifting sand and living in a loose social group. They may get on alright, but if not the geo is going to come off second best and will struggle to defend itself. I'd pick either central or south american cichlids for tankmates with the polys and go with either one or the other, but thats not to say a mix can't work. As highlighted by my recent loss, cichlids are always hit and miss. All you can do is try and hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Will have to check out aqua village tomorrow on the way to work, haven't been there before. Birdbarn can be good, would also look at Animates just down the road if you're out there as they're one of the better ones in Auckland IME. Both HFF's are probably the best all round IMO though.

A while back there was some conflict over the direction in which this forum was heading, and some of the members felt strongly enough about it to start a new forum that was more inline with the way we felt it should be run. Since then there have been many compromises and consessions made, and FNZAS is a much better place because of it. Its all history now, and FNZAS will no doubt continue to evolve to suit the needs of its members.

I think the festae could be hit and miss with your other stock (polys and ebjd), worth a shot but be prepared for the worst. The cuban could be thought of as a mini-jag, again I think you'd be taking a risk adding one with your stock, but a female *might* work (let me know if you want your old one back!). To me, the EBJD's are smack in the middle between aggressive and placid, could work with more mellow fish like geos or uaru, but could probably hold their own with other slightly more aggressive CA's like the festae or jag. I'd decide on which side of the fence you want to sit on and go from there. I wouldn't recommend keeping the jurupari with a festae or jag long term. Not sure about the cuban either, mine seems to have a real tough-guy attitude, but they might mellow out as they get bigger? The brasiliensis isn't really a Geophagus (waiting to be reclassified) and would probably be on the more aggressive side of the spectrum.

If you're going to breed severums at least try pick up a pair of rotkeils/redheads (and not the hybrids on trademe!). There are a few floating around, think I even saw some young at HFF Albany the other day. Could also try Acarichthys heckelii, again HFF have young so you would need to get a group and grow them out.

Click! I'm old enough, just got it. Now I'm singing the song damn it!!!! :facepalm: