ally07

How do you plan on bringing the temperature up to 45deg?! I'm no plant expert, but I'm pretty sure that your theory is a bit "scorched earth" lol.. Sure, you MIGHT kill the snails, but chances are the plants and bacteria won't make it either lol. Don't use cannon to kill mosquito, young grasshopper.. :sage:

Cat

I'm not entirely sure I buy the whole "looking down" theory. I mean, how much does an aro need to look down before it develops DE? Even if there are bottom dwellers in the tank, it wouldn't mean that the aro would be looking down 24/7. Something I've observed recently about aro eyesight. When I throw mealworms in and they float, my aro will see them and eat them. If they start to sink, he will still see them if they are in the 90 deg angle between the level of his eye and the top of the water where his head is. Once it drops a further 5 deg lower than his eye level, he doesn't see it anymore and doesn't chase it. Even if he is far away enough to see the mealworm dropping, he will pursue it, but once it drops below the level of vision, he turns around as though nothing happened. This is reasonable, since aros are top/ middle feeders, that's why their eyes are designed like that. Lots of fish keepers in Asia keep aros with stingrays with no DE. I suspect that at the end of the day, it's a low-fat diet with good genes that will guarantee no DE.

Wasn't my idea lol, read about it in a thread in the Technical section.. Look it up!

Geez.. That is truly blood red lol. The guys in the breeding farm video are so rough with the fish lol! You'd think they would be a bit gentler with fish worth a few grand.. :roll: I'm pretty sure that the super expensive platinum silver arowana doesn't have DE either. But with that fish, any flaw would be unforgivable!

Sit

I would take spray and walk away over wok-a-noodle ANYDAY! :nilly: :facepalm:

Really?? I have higher expectations for yours to be honest! Actually, I don't even know what grade yours is lol, but I just assumed that with a VIP-tag on it, it should turn out to be somewhere in the blood-red ballpark. Do you know what the parents look like?

Nope, I insulated every surface of the tank, but I run an underwater surveillance camera to watch my fish.. :lol: But seriously, I just put it on the sides and the back, but taped down tight so that there's no air gap between the poly and the glass (apparently this is very important). With the leftovers, I cut a couple of pieces to size and placed them on top as well to prevent further heat loss. Easy peasy! The only hassle was cleaning up after lol, all that poly foam gets everywhere, but nothing a vacuum cleaner can't fix in 5 minutes.

Ahh.. :facepalm:

I'm pretty sure that water in the North Shore is safe from the tap. Any little chlorine would have dissipated by the water agitation anyway.

Altitude

Not sure I'm familiar with the 30 second guy.. Post a link?

For ease of viewing: Looks like a green-base? Solid body and even colouration throughout - very nice. Like the deep orange-red! :nfs:

INSULATE! I put 30mm poly around my tank last week and the results are fantastic! My tank temperature used to be at least 4 degs lower than the heater setting. Now it is only about 2 degs lower and the temperature is more consistent. Before insulation, the temperature would drop if it was a cold day or whenever the sun set, now it's always running at 28deg day and night. My two heaters used to run all the time, but now my 150W runs most of the time while my 300W is only on occasionally - but the temperature remains constant, so I'm happy lol. A 2.4mx1.2m piece of 30mm poly cost me $25 at Mitre10 and they cut it to my dimensions for another $2. Best $27 I've ever spent on my tank. He is already using two established canister filters but somehow the BB isn't catching up..

He reminds me of the Wok-a-noodle ads on the radio! But it's cool that he's got such a positive outlook haha. Maybe looking at all those fish everyday has made him a really calm guy lol.

Yeah, I found that strange as well.. Unless somehow during the transition they died off? Maybe the temperature change was too great or they were anaerobic for too long?? :dunno: Oh, and Fishie, why don't you just buy 2x 300W heaters rather than running FIVE heaters? You're using the same amount of power, but it'll free up more sockets for other things or just make your socket a bit safer lol.

Lemon

Fingers

Really?? Wow.. I always thought that Eheim would be more expensive than Fluval! Live and learn.. :sage:

Melanochromis?

Do a water change and vacuum as much of the existing waste as you can. There will still be ammonia in the water, but it should be less than 4.0 after adding fresh water. After that, stop feeding until the ammonia drops down to 0.0. I suspect that there is so much waste inside the system at the moment that the bacteria is taking a really long time to catch up to the bioload. If memory serves, goldfish are waste machines, so 10 overfed goldies must be a really big bioload for a newly cycling tank.

OK, that's a game changer then! :-? I guess in the long run the money saved on heating cost will outweigh the initial extra cost of the Jager.. :dunno:

+1 Beneficial bacteria occurs naturally in the water when there is ammonia. Adding unnecessary chemicals will just throw everything out of wack. As long as there is ammonia and enough surface area, there will be beneficial bacteria. Would probably help to STOP feeding the goldfish too lol. Think about it this way: if you stop feeding, the bacteria colony will grow large enough to nitrify 4.0ppm worth of ammonia and it will be able to handle initial light feeding when you have your fish in there. If you have 4.0ppm AND you're adding MORE waste constantly, the bacteria won't be able to catch up in time because by the time it nitrifies the 4.0, there will be more produced from the new rotting food/ waste. Stop the feeding for a few days and wait for the ammonia to drop naturally.

Henwad, considering how heavily your fish room is insulated, I highly doubt if the rated power difference between the Jager and the Fluval will be noticed. With good water turnover and ambient temperature that as close to the tank temperature as possible, I think that paying more (I'm assuming) for the Jager is not worth it.