Dark

i had trouble getting them to grow - tried everything but nothing worked

well, just to finish off the saga, the female bristlenose passed away... i'm not too sure if it was the whitespot or the black-ghost preying on a helpless target, but now her boyfriend is all alone kinda chokes me up

Then you can make it into a funky looking fishtank, hook the front panel controls of the TV (assuming it is old enough to have knobs or sliders like mine) up to your pumps lighting and thermo, take out tube and electrics and stick in a tank!! i've converted the old mac classic computers to tanks before but recently saw one where the, somewhat enthusiastic, individual had gone to the trouble of cutting the front off the monitor tube and ensuring that it sat in the same place when attached to the tank - to retain the curved look instead of the flat glass... what will people do when there are no more tube TVs and we only have LCD and Plasma screens? *sigh*

when the base of my tank cracked i pulled the whole thing apart and stuck it back together again, and got a stand that was definately going to support it, come hell or high water. One of the reasons i did; i have seen tanks where people have repaired them by gluing on another piece of glass - seems fairly acceptable except in one case when they had done it 3 times! with the additional 30mm of glass on the base the tank must have weighed nearly twice its original weight! my 4.5' tank takes two strong people to move it, if it weighed twice as much i'd never get it out the door, but i guess thats only really a problem for bigger tanks, or if you are actually planning on moving them... Other reasoning includes; you have that nice stand and now the base glass is showing above the beading around the edge of the stand - i have enough problems getting the right thickness of polystyrene so that about 30% of the substrate is below the lip of the stand. Basically - a fishtank is a piece of furniture as much as it is anything else, it is good if it looks nice. I was once told by the owner of a deceased petshop (Victoria St, Wgtn) that their tanks had to be resealed every 7 - 10 years. I don't know how true this is with more modern silicate sealers, my local glazier insists that it should never need replacing... If the former is true it can't be that bad to re-build a tank once in a while, although any comments on that are welcomed.

true true i think what i ment to say was: damn IIS; must use host headers

well, after getting home i checked on the poor fishies. the female port hoplo had no spots and was resting on the bottom of the tank - i hand fed her a bit of worms and meaty stuff which she scoffed down with abandon. this morning she was happily swimming around with her boyfriends and eating healthily! The female spot plec is still suffering but the sots are lessening, this morning she and her boyfriend were unseen - probably canoodling under a piece of driftwood or something... as for quarrantine tanks i think i'll slice one of my 2/1/1' tanks in half and make a couple of small de-contamination tanks on a separate filter. The threat of having to rip apart my display piece again to combat an outbreak of WS, let alone anything more deteimental, is enough to warrant the effort.

the tank averages 26.5C over a day. The recommended temperature for killing off the tomides was 36C from memory - something i dread to think about putting a fish through. I'm also slightly worried about the residual cyst thingees - that syphoning idea is great! I can see how introducing new [anythings] to an established tank can be detrimental in just imagining if i had the tank fully planted. Quarrentine procedures for all introduced items from now on...

Little white spots that get on fish making them itch, swim in circles and rub themselves against any available surface - or so i thought. I'm having a little trouble even diagnosing after reading a little too much about white spot, velvet disease and even fish tuberculosis. Symptoms: The fish have lots of little white spots covering them, are restless/scratching/flicking against things, and in one case has been swimming in circles for about a week. A slight reduction in appetite but still eating when fed. Probable cause: About a week ago all of the fish in the tank had a couple of spots here and there - I had just added some new plants without taking the necessary quarantine precautions first, and about a week earlier had upgraded from a useless pump to a Fluval 404 (keeping the same filter medium) Treatment: The addition of a melaleuca (tea tree oil) as a remedy, removal of most plants from the tank (plants eat melaleuca oil, and hell, I needed to redecorate anyway), reduction in lighting. Effect of treatment: Every fish showed signs of improvement over the next 24 hours with a reduction in white spots, reduction in agitated swimming/rubbing and an increase in appetite with two exceptions. 2 days on all the fish are clean and clear with normal behaviour. Today they are the same with no sign of change. Exceptions: Out of all the fish in the tank there are two that are still infected 7 days later, the female Port Hoplo and the female bristle-nose plec. The infection has proven to be much worse for these two - the extent in the other fish (male and female) was a light covering of spots - these two are covered nose to tail, much thicker but still singularly discernable spots. The Port Hoplo has been swimming in circles for the better part of a week and has only started to show signs of improvement in the past 24 hours however she is now resting on the bottom of the tank as if exhausted (no surprise there, only worry). The Bristle-nose is a bit more jittery than usual and is keeping her fins constantly active. The confusing bit really is that it has cleared up on all the fish except the only two female catfish – has this disease become suddenly gender and family specific? Their male counterparts are unscathed. Where to from here: The plants were isolated to a propagation tank that suddenly became almost overrun with copepods (not the gill-fluke kind thankfully). Due to reading too much I can only assume that these critters are responsible as they are carriers(?), but a healthy dosage of melaleuca seemed to render them sterile – they did not die when exposed to it but their population dropped off substantially over the next few days. At the moment all I can do is wait and hope that they will get better like the rest of the fish have. Any comments or things to look out for, diagnosis, behaviour or treatments? Please feel free to share it! Oh, and those plants… next time I buy any the flatmates are not having a bath for a week while they are de-contaminated!

anti-radiation suit? i ment... overalls! *looks around nervously*

a tip that i can offer: When cutting the silicon, try cutting as you would a thick piece of paper; making many shallow cuts instead of sticking the knife all the way through and pulling along. If you can do it this way without the knife getting stuck i would advise it as when you do put the knife all the way through to cut the remaining seal you have much less pressure to apply. Again, this depends on the amount of space between the pieces of glass - i used this technique mainly between the reinforcing around the base of the tank. Also, if you can help it i would refrain from attempting to remove the reinforcing strips - being long and thin they do not take much lateral pressure to break. Craft knife blades are great as they will break if too much pressure is applied in the wrong direction - better than than the glass. When i dissassembled my 910L tank to turn it into my 600L tank (when the base glass split) i used a stanley knife to cut the silicon: the blade jammed when i was taking the back panel off the side panel and the front panel aquired a nice rounded curve across the center as the top fell off. This was purely because my remedy for a stuck blade was more pressure - even 10mm glass has its limits. (Incidentally i think that Pies ended up with the old base from that tank as part of something... ) Number one rule: take it slow! Oh, and wear safety goggles at all times, gloves, and a radiation suit if available (if nothing else it will confuse your neighbours). The next time i have to take a tank apart i'm going to get someone else to do it. Cleaning the glass can be done effectively with acetone, 13 bucks a litre, and a few hospital towels, and one of those glass scrapers - the ones that take razor-type blades (as opposed to the ones that take stanley knife blades). Tip for the razors: don't use chipped ones (like the ones you'll use for cleaning the ends of the glass) on the sides of the glass cause they scratch, and don't use the side ones on the ends cause they'll get chipped and scratch the sides if you use them there again. I'm rambling... must return to the depths of evil work thing that 'apparently' pays the bills... good luck!

ot: i just need to get my domain sussed & point it to our servers here, i do not have a url i can use and the primary IP is devoted to a site already. thank you very much for the offer though, i know how difficult it can be to find good hosting that you don't have to pay for.

I was talking to my uncle about floors and tanks (he builds houses) - i felt a bit guilty that i contributed heavily to a tank being put in storage! His suggestion: if unsure get a builder over to take a look at the floor and under the house, they will be able to tell you about how much weight you can put on the floor and where, and if you don't know a friendly one you may be able to get a free evaluation or even get your landlords preferred maintenance guy to come over on the landlords tab. Hope that is a little more useful than my cop-out approach! :oops: If you are still looking for a stand: My father built my stand from angle iron, and he just happens to live in Hamilton - could be useful for you. The cost is usually directly relative to the amount of metal in it which depends on the size of your tank and the height you want it to be. I think they can get them powder coated, certainly painted and although I was sceptical that it would be a presentable item I was rather impressed when it arrived - I have pics in which you can see it if you are interested (and i'll stick them up for everyone else once i get around to paying for my domain registration...) Anyway, if you are interested I can put you in touch with each other.

about two years ago, it took me most of the time since then to get around to fixing the tank and getting a decent stand for it. i don't like the sound of anything that pops anymore, as i was working this morning i heard a 'pop' as a glass in the dishwasher gave up the ghost. we don't even have a fishtank here! (yet... ) i'm still going with the concrete floors though...

i have one of the Power-Glo 18000K lights sitting above my 2ft propagating tank. the amount of growth that they stimulate is excellent but i have never had any luck putting them above tanks that are more that 1ft deep. I made the mistake of buying 2 of them to put above my 65cm deep planted tank; the light never reached the bottom. I spent an hour or so talking to 'The Lightbulb Man' (Chews Lane, Wellington) yesterday. It is amasing to talk to someone who specalises in lightbulbs, i never thought there could be that much information to learn about the things. An interesting point that he brought up: There are big factory places that make light bulbs. Someone like the people who make the Aqua-Glo will go in there and say 'we want x-thousand bulbs, print this logo on them and stick them in these packages'. Then another company will come in, and do exactly the same thing with exactly the same bullbs. As a result, as Pies mentioned, go down to a lighting/electrical wholesaler and order your bulbs by the Kelvin rating you want. TheLightbulb Man sells 4' 6500K tubes for about $15, the 10,000K tubes are about $25. Thats nearly half the price that Animates will sell identical tubes for. I have been looking into getting light fittings from a supplier, Phillips 4' dual fitting is about $69 and reflectors are about $20. The same fittings are Coreys are about $80-90 without reflector. Because places like Coreys base their prices on how much they sell of a particular item the 4' fittings have lower markup, the 2' fittings are the same price as the 4'. Guess i'll just have to start up another propagating tank Another interesting point for those that know anyone who works for a city council: Those orange street lights are 75w Sodium bulbs, great for making plants grow and still small enough to think about putting in an indoor tank (i havn't gotten around to thinking that one through properly but i get the feeling a lot of cooling would still be needed). They have 25000 hour lifetimes. Apparently the amount of light put off by a 6500K tube is about 3x its wattage, that reduces as the K rises. The nMH bulbs put off about 8x their wattage in light, and the Sodium bulbs put off about 12x. And in other news; The fittings that I am looking at have solid state electrics and the only condenser utilising ones i can find are second hand. This seems to have something to do with the legislation preventing tubes with a certain amount of mercury being brought into the country, i think those bulbs require condensers whilst the new ones do not? I'm still drowning in the vast sea of knowledge that is lightbulbs. The main problem my tank is having at the moment is the lack of light at the bottom of the tank. We just raised the water level by about a foot after removing the terresterial plants and now there is a sufficient lack of light on the bottom of the tank to cause the high-light plants to be turning a sickly shade of yellow at the bottom whilst still green and healthy on top. Certainly not helped by the port-hoplos trying to hide in them when the plants are fragile. Oh, and i found this: How does a fluorescent tube work? A hot wire inside the tube sends out particles called electrons, which crash into atoms of mercury gas. The mercury atoms give out invisible ultraviolet radiation. The white phosphor coating inside the tube changes this into bright visible light. - GrindClub c/- Google Rather like a TV/Computer Monitor, the gasses require low pressure and a lack of breathable atmosphere to operate in. I have no idea how the reduction in mercury effects this unless they have made the reaction more effective somehow. I really have to stop talking...

Hi all... I convinced my partner that i needed to move into an apartment with concrete floors so i could set up my tank (600L). Perhaps i was being a bit paranoid but the last flat i was in took the cake: I awoke in the morning to the sound of the dreaded 'crack'. 3 garden hoses, redirected sumps and flatmates with buckets soon took care of the remaining water but about 300L must have escaped. The landlord just happened to be around that day and stuck his head in, said something unrepeatable, and returned a half hour later with some carpet shampoo and a broom to 'make the most of it'! It would appear that the load bearing wall and beams were not strong enough, and a further inspection (to which we did not invite the landlord) showed that the floor had buckeled under the weight of the tank causing the wooden stand to bend, and the tank to wake me up. in defense of the house it was about 60 years old and not very well maintained on the underside... I now have cut the tank down to the aforementioned 600L, taking nearly 25cm off its height in the process, and my 'old man' can whip up a very presentable powdercoated 75mm angle-iron frame upon request. Combined paranoia and concrete floors seems to be working a treat, but don't go moving on my account!

Sure looks a lot nicer than my new one! I'd take wood over angle iron anyday, even if i am able to balance a 40ton truck on it.

I am looking for information on the breeding habits of 'Moonlights'. I have two moonlights in a small community tank. A few months after they were introduced I noticed that one was bullying the other around, (darting towards it and chasing it around at high speeds with little physical contact) i also assume it killed one of my siamese algae eaters and mutilated a silver-tip tetra. I observed this for a while until it was obvious that the moonlight being bullied was losing weight and hiding a lot, so I removed the bully to my holding tank for a week. Upon introducing it back into the tank, the formerly _bullied_ fish has gained a lot of colour in the spines at the front of its anal fin, it is also showing the spines off (they are larger than that of the other fish, i am fairly certain that the formerly bullied fish is therefore a male, and the former bully is female), and the following behaviour ensues... The male is now chasing the female around, sucking on her fins (not damaging... yet?), and when not doing this or stopping for a short rest, is wiggling back and forth, (as if trying to touch it nose to its tail) and i am confused that the female is not trying to get away... I'm fairly convinced that this is mating behaviour, as it is different to the chasing around i described before, and there is no physical damage being done. There is very little information i can find about the breeding habits of Gourami, specifically moonlights, which i read are the more timid of the family. For example, i would expect from what i have read that there would be a bubble nest before this happens, that the female would try to hide, and that the male would have more striking colors, extending to his ventral fins also. its not very educational out there *points to internet* Therefore, if there are any moonlight experts out there... HELP! perhaps this will help educate someone else as well... _________________ This was hand typed on recycled electrons [ This Message was edited by: Dark on 2002-02-01 02:59 ]