David R

You'll probably want to use 40mm waste pipe for the drain, and either 20mm or 25mm pressure pipe for the return with that sized pump. I'd recommend using PVC and gluing it with the Marley PVC cement. I've made repairs to plumbing and had it running within a couple of hours, but for a new set up I'd give it 24 hours. Its pretty basic, I actually quite enjoy it! Depending on the kind of fitting you'll put thru the back of the tank you'll need some sort of adapter. Plumbing World usually has a better selection of fittings than the general hardware stores.

My answers below (copy/paste them to make them bigger, didn't want to spoil it!) 1 = Radiohead? 2 = Andrews Sisters (needed a little help from google to confirm) 3 = The Datsuns 4 = Billie Holiday 6 = Poison 7 = Marily Manson? (Charles Manson?) 8 = Three Dog Night 9 = Frank Zappa (very clever...) 10 = White Snake Stuck on 5....

I'm not a fan of the spoonheads either. IMO that red is the perfectly proportioned asian...

Cubans or festivum would probably be my pick, probably cubans. But you'll have to see how many HFF have left. They're too young to sex too so you'd need to buy a group and grow them out.

What are the dimensions of your 100g tank? When you say you would like a challenge, does that mean you want a species that isn't easy to breed? My two suggestions (without further knowing what you want) would be cuban cichlids or festivums. Hollywood has both and neither has been imported for a long time so there would be a good market for their young. Cubans would be more interactive and [probably] better parents. Almost any medium sized central american cichlid could fit your description though, jack dempseys, firemouths, sajica, green terror, possibly texas depending on the tank dimensions. What ever you choose though, I'd recommend buying a large group of young and letting the dominant couple pair off naturally rather than just picking two individuals from the shop and hoping for the best. Ryan I wouldn't recommend jags long term for a 100g tank, males can get to over 40cm! ps. please put your location in your profile so we know what part of the country you're in.

8500lph pump = ................ at ..... metres head? Make sure when placing the baffles that there is enough space in the sump for the water above the skim of the overflow when the pump switches off (and make sure any returns or spraybars don't siphon excessive amounts back into the sump). What are you going to use for mechanical filtration? Any reason why you're not going for a trickle filter?

I'm still not sure which fish you're talking about, I have heard many varying stories about collected fish escaping from facilities and establishing themselves in non-native rivers, but I'm still not sure what this means for the Peru Altum variant of P. scalare. Are you suggesting that a single stripe is the only real difference between the Peru Altums and the true species Pterophyllum altum?

I think that species is sometimes grown for food, but there are other species more commonly farmed. That one is Tilapia buttikoferi.

Lovely fish and great shot! Makes the tilapia look tiny.

Could possibly help out. Few things to think about though... I presume by "sump" you're talking about a wet/dry trickle filter type set up? Is the sump going to be the sole method of filtration for the tank? How much room is there under the tank stand? (or elsewhere close by it could be located) How high will the head for the pump be, and what size pump giving how much turn over? How and where do you want the overflows in the tank? The best thing you can do is have a look at a few different set ups (in person and on line, MFK Setup and Filtration forum is a good start) to get some ideas. It seems pretty overwhelming at first, but once you start to get your head around it then its easy. If you're out east flick me a PM and come have a look at mine if you like. Here's a basic plan, I have two pretty much like this and they work well, although I use ceramic noodles for the submerged media and bioballs for the above water stuff. And here's the sump on my 1400L tank, using filter socks instead of wool. There is no media in that pic, the chamber under the white drip tray is now full of bioballs and noodles.

I wouldn't trust any website with that background colour. Full marks for the MSPaint drawings though!

I think you'd have to have two. The thermostats I have experience with (for greenhouses) are either on or off at the temp you set, would be considerably more complicated having it switching one thing on at above X temp and then another at below Y temp. Having one for each set a couple of degrees apart so there's no overlap would be the simplest solution IMO.

Damn. The two I've got thru Hollywood have been great, but I'd say shipping to Christchurch would make them pretty pricey. Hope you can find someone, welding steel and keeping it dead straight isn't the easiest thing to do.

If you're not afraid of a bit of DIY you could go for two of these and mount the tubes evenly across the top of the tank inside a hood; http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/detail/view/hagen-t5-ho-54w-ballast/m/931/ Would need to buy some reflectors for them as well, but they're not terribly expensive.

:facepalm: missed that....

I'm guessing the skinks you caught were the aussie ones, not natives, in which case they are now an unwanted organism (same as gambusia) and you can't keep them even with a permit. You can get a permit for keeping native skinks and geckos though, but you have to get them thru other keepers rather than pinching them from the wild.

saag, Thai or Indian curry?

Yeah the big solid asians are awesome too, but they don't have the same swimming motion that hypnotised me the first time I saw a small black in the Whangarei LFS about 12 years ago. Thats what hooked me on aros and I guess thats why they're my favourite.

Blacks are similar to silvers, just like platinum is similar to tinfoil..... Their colours fade a bit, but an adult black still has more colour than an adult silver. They also [almost] never get drop eye, and IMO they are a much niser more streamlined shape where as the silvers tend to get thicker and taller in proportion to their length and lose that serpentine charm that (again, IMO) makes them the nicest looking aro there is. Check out JohnPTC's big blacks here: All well over 2', closer to 3' IIRC...

As P44 said, buying a quality brand from a reputable store when purchasing something expensive and potentially prone to failure as a light hood is worth considering rather than just going for the cheapest possible option. You'll get better after sales support if something does go wrong with it, and you'll also have somewhere to buy your fish and plants from in the future. ps. please put your location in your profile so we can see where you're from.

Keeping cool water fish in warmer water will speed up their metabolism and [may] shorten their lifespan. Wouldn't recommend it, even mixing tropical and temperate species can cause problems. As for the cm-per-litre rule, its not worth the pixels its written with. The quality of your water determines how many fish you can keep.

Thanks, I'll start by taking heed of her signature...

I'm the one who is confused now. Are you saying the "Peru Altum" form of P. scalare is in Brasil as well as Peru? AFAIK the true species P. altum comes from Venezuela, Colombia and only the extreme north of Brasil, not Peru. But they're two totally different fish, the "Peru Altum" is a different species to the real altum, P. altum.

Just needs Uaru f's and it would be perfect. (I haven't watched the vid yet, so apologies if they're in there!)

Fry are good, got over a hundred in the 3' tank now, growing steadily. If someone wants the male then flick me a PM, he's pretty anti-social, wasn't interested in sharing the 6' tank with a few jags, currently housed alone. I wouldn't recommend trying with a female without a divider ready...