David R

I agree with everything Henward said, From my own personal experience you'll have much faster growth with fish that eat pellets over those who only eat shrimp. A large tank helps too. Nice username too.

They don't call them "Crack'n'fail" for nothing.....

In the past I've cut 'shapes' off teatree (better if its dead, but should work ok with live?) soaked it for a while to sink it and soften the bark, peeled it (probably not necessary?) and hey presto, "designer driftwood". As for the lack of tannins, have you boiled the leaves or just added them to the tank? I think you'll find you need to add a ridiculous amount of leaves to get a decent amount of colour in the water. Probably best to make your own blackwater extract by boiling the leaves and/or alder cones and/or peat then adding it gradually to get the desired colour. Obviously you'll need to top it up after a water change, I usually make a big pot full and store it in a plastic container.

I know this is in the cichlid forum, but how about endli X ornate??

red texas cichlid:

Lack of TDS/trace elements in very pure water like RO or rain water could lead to long-term problems with some fish, would seem unlikely with tap water though.

I still think they'd be likely to go over the overflow, I've never had much luck keeping smaller fish in tanks with weir-type overflows. And because of the height of the overflow and the grunty pump I can't put overflow comb on as it would raise the water level to the point where it would probably overflow. As it is now it only sits about 1mm below the bracing. Also larger tetras are more likely to be eaten by the arowana [when it finally gets added], once the aro gets over ~16" I might chuck 20 or so neons in just to see how they go, hopefully the size difference is great enough for the aro to ignore them.

I've got 40 lemons tin my 4' blackwater tank I was thinking about rtying, but between the aro and the overflow with no comb I think it'll be an expensive experiment. Would love to see a group of tetras schooling in a tank this size though!

They're not really "new" species in the sense that they've been known of and available for some time, but its nice to see them finally described in an official sense.

I hope its a solid table, I'd be somewhat hesitant about putting a 55cm tall tank on something that wasn't designed for it...

In the greater scheme of things 10mm is not that thick, it can't really get much thinner (6mm for aquariums is about as thin as it gets, have got 3mm in my glasshouse). If you were talking about 15mm+ then it might make a difference.

I'm a bit lost, what are you trying to cycle here, the tank or the filter? If the filter is already established and is capable of dealing with the waste of the fish in the new tank then there is nothing to cycle.

Perhaps if you look at it end-on. My 6' tank has 10mm normal front and 12mm low ion ends, it really doesn't make a difference with such thin glass...

By "exactly the same" do you mean they're silver angels with three black stripes? People often have different definitions of "exactly the same", some would say true Altums look exactly the same as common striped angels, some would say platinum looks exactly the same as tinfoil...

If I had a dollar for every time I'd posted this article..... http://www.loaches.com/disease-treatmen ... in-the-sky Ira freezing was once considered "slow and painless" but its now known to be slow and painful as the animals body fluids start to crystallise whilst it is still conscious. Not a particularly nice way to go IMO. Clove oil in a bucket works fine, just make sure you use an old bucket and not the good one you use for water changes!

I doubt you'll notice a difference with only 10mm thick glass...

Yeah I missed that question down the bottom! :oops:

You mean they ARE P. scalare, and not true altum? "Peru Altum" is a common name for this form of scalare because of how it resembles the true altum. But they're about as close as we get to altums here and are really nice fish. I had a group of 7 of them intended for my big tank but decided to leave them out when I got the 6 uaru. http://finarama.com/tba/chronicles/peruvianscalare.htm Yeah, and pH 7.0 is good for pretty much everything too. I'm not sure if people have noticed, but the "tropical" fish we keep come from a wide range of environments, looking at american cichlids they range from Uruguay to the Equator to the southern parts of the USA. Anyone who thinks they will all be fine in some middle-of-the-road temperature is kidding themselves. Even though C. panda and the P. scalare come from a similar area South America (both Peru) their habitats are obviously different and 25C is about the upper limits for C. panda and 26C at the low end of what P. scalare will thrive in. There are also differences in the water conditions best suited to the who fish. Yes you could possibly get away with keeping them at 25-26C, but it won't be ideal for either species and will likely suffer in the long term because of it. C. panda would probably benefit from the temperature being dropped to ~20C for a month or so every year, and P. scalare may be more prone to disease at lower temperatures. I kept my Peru altums at 28-29C and they thrived. Smidey I have no what relevance your fish from a large stable lake environment (which by all accounts should be ideally kept at ~26C anyway) have to the temperature differences between different riverine fish on a continent on the other side of the world. I know people, particularly the african cichlid keepers, like to bag Phil because of his dubious history with naming/identifying fish, but in this case I'd say he's right on the money with the advice about water conditions and the fish are really nice.

If someone wants to try prosecute me for "harvesting pohutukawa" for chopping a few roots of a dead tree lieing on its side on the mudflats of the Manukau harbour they're welcome to try...

Thanks all. The timber wasn't evenly gauged and it proved to be very difficult to level, there was a gap of 3-4mm almost all the way along the front edge, and I couldn't get to the back or the centre bits to check them. It would have worked if I had put all the timber through a thicknesser to get it exactly the same thickness. Its become a term to describe highly overstocked tanks, there's a lot of people in Japan and not much space so having room for an 8' tank is a luxury very few can afford. JDM Style is when the tank is overstocked, but in a good way (lots of fish but lots of filtration and water changes too). Pass, I got it through Hollywood. Its the second steel stand I've bought from them and both have been perfect and only needed a few shims to make up for the slightly uneven floor. Worth every cent IMO, so much easier than DIY! There are different lengths available, I should actually take a couple of pics with the fulter full of media. I've actually lowered the height of the socks so only the top 3-4cm is out of the water. I was running just a 100 micron to start with but now I'm running a 200 micron inside a 50 micron and it doesn't seem to clog as quickly. They're easy to clean out too, I just put them upside down on a wire frame (originally made for climbing plants) and squirt them with the hose. Way better than filter wool IMO. If ever you want to come check it out just let me know. Read the post. Any time, just give me a call/text/pm. There's still a 5' in the way, and will probably be until the black aro gets big enough to move into the big tank. After that I'll be on the look out for a big long 4+ seater couch!! (and a bar fridge!) Thanks. The one on the far left is a big manuka stump I dug out (hard work!) and most of the rest are roots off a big old pohutukawa that fell over on Clarks Beach. I spotted it when we were out walking the dogs and came back with the saw later on and took as many cool shapes as I could fit in the car!

Looks cool, flagtail isn't bothering the plants??

Thanks, its dirt cheap from bunnings and is about as natural looking as any substrate I've seen.

I know where you live, when was the last time you checked the fishroom...... :lol: Yeah Hollywood are trying to get me another one, but its going to be well behind yours in size, I'd like to add it to the big tank before I go on holiday but don't think it'll be big enough. Tanks looking really good, might try to come over some time soon to check it out in person.

HA! My old one used to try attack our cat through the glass!!! I've had several decent sized pink males and found them to be every bit as feisty as the striped ones. The pic is a "sample" (ie stolen off the net) and not of the actual fish, so my money is on pink convict.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cull