Morcs

The aquaone 620T is a good tank. The filtration ideally should be replaced with a canister. Dont stock it too heavily, tall bodied fish work well. For some inspiration maybe, heres my old 620T, Centered around a breeding pair of angels. Vallisnera gives a great tall swaying backdrop. Some javaferns/anubias and some crypts look good too and dont even need good light.

Discus are fussy buggers eh. My fish could go 3 weeks without WC and FOOD too Theyll be fine. How high do your nitrates between WC? Half the amount of daily feedings I reckon.

Seachem substrates FTW!

Still having problems Bobo? I could pop round today If you need some help. I can see the peninsula from my house

I wouldve got depressed having it sat around... a reminder of my clumsiness Spray... and walk away!

Sand only needs to be enough to cover the bottom. Unless you are having plants, less is best. You will have to churn in all over by hand every now and then to release small pockets of gases that will build up. Leave it too long and the gas release will kill your fish. Once a month should be fine. Personally id add a small sev, you wouldnt have any problems except maybe not getting along with the O. Aquascaping with Oscars needs to be basic really - or be prepared to change it as the O grows. Id add some bits of low lying wood so the O will still have lots of swimming space when he grows, but in the meantime you can give them lots of hidy holes to play around in. Dont get real plants. The oscar will uproot them and the sev will eat them! I wouldve thought best places for wood would be like Pinepac or mitre 10 or somewhere? Pics would be cool. Small Os are sooo cute!

Well I had a fun eventful day today. Ended up breaking my 250L... I needed to shift it along on my stand a bit, and whilst i drained it I decided I needed a new piece of poly (mine was so thin and the tank was bowed)... So drained tank, shimmed onto couch and went about moving the sideboard, just a bit of lateral movement and one of the end skirts decided to break a wee bit. Chipboard. Not cool. Decided to put the tank in the garage on my uber cabinet (too big to get up the stairs) so called a mate around and we started sliding the tank down the stairs. Going down I dropped my end from about 1'' height. Was enough to send bottom to top cracks on both sides I had about $600 worth of fish sitting in a 30L plastic tub with a heater and a sponge filter luckily... frantically called a mate who had a ute and went up to hollywoods to get a new tank. So after an eventful day I have a 4x2x2ft (122x60x60) 120gallong (430L) uber tank sat in the garage all setup and running. Took the old tank out onto the backlawn. Armed with a pair of sunnies, motorcycle gloves and a hammer I got to work making the whole street think I was smashing lots of windows. I now have a 4ft tank in pieces sat in the recycling bin :lol: Awesome. Now I just need to find another job so I can get an FX5... Im not used to having to stand on a chair to get in the tank... im 6'2'' LOL :bounce:

Hi Bobo, With regards to your questions: 1) I believe is correct. If its just the oscar in that huge tank, he will act as your cycling fish. The ammonia and nitrate levels wont get high enough to harm it. Just do your water changes as usual, and add stress zyme. If you have a test kit, test regularly just so you can see the cycle. If you plan on adding any more fish, add them some time apart so the bacteria colony can gradually increase once its done its initial cycle. 2) That can work. Personally id just put it straight in. Ive never tested LFS water which for all I know could be any PH and never had a problem. 3) No oxygen required so long as you have a good turnover of water via your filter. If you are concerned however, just have your spray bar below the surface pointing at an upward angle so it creates ripples in the surface and that should be sufficient. Hope this helps, enjoy your O

Angels Guppies fighters Keyholes

Bettas do not like cold water at all - cold as in cold water out of the tap. Your average room temperature water they can deal with, so when you get the cold water out of the tap, let it sit for a while.

The outlet has two nozzles that can be turned in different directions. Apparently when turned all the way in one direction, it actually reduces the output diameter thus reducing the flow. The FX5 also has adjustable flow control. Im a walking FX5 Library now as Ive done hours and hours of research to buy one :lol:

Bio filtration wont do anything for the 40ppm nitrates out of the tap, theyll just add to it. The only ways to reduced nitrates in this case as through things like a defnitrifying coil or a sump absolutely packed with nitrate munching plants

The bit in bold says that your bio filtration is fine. There is enough bacteria to convert the ammonia and nitrite into nitrates. Do more frequent water changes to lower the nitrates - 40 is high, but as long as under 60ppm it wont be harmfull to the fish. The lower the better though. Id suggest maybe 30 or 40% weekly water changes. As for the algae, yes bulbs might need replacing, but im not an algae expert :lol:

Id personally get another canister, and set it up bio focused. Something like an Eheim 2213. Uses a mere 8w of power, and you basically cram it with bio media. Theres one on trademe for $100 buy now at the moment. Internal filters generally are crud in well stocked tanks, and they can hold bugger all media so wouldnt really help handle your bioload. I am intrigued though, in what way cant it handle the bio load? My mate runs a heavily stocked cichlid tank even with a big oscar in there too on a cf1200 with no problems. If you have high nitrates but low ammonia and nitrite it means you filter is handling it fine and you need to do more waterchanges. However, if you have ammonia and nitrite readings then you are correct. Also try testing your water before It goes into the tank and see what the readings are. I hope this helps

Personal preference I spose. I agree that 'bio media' is actually a load of tosh really - yes it works, but a lot of people have the conception that you cannot sustain a bacteria colony without it. 2 examples - 1) The FX5 - people complain it doesnt have enough room for 'bio media' 2) Aquaclear filters (before they sold them with biomax) - people complainted about lack of 'bio media' They are both absolutely stacked with sponges which are one of the easiest and effective methods of filtration - both for mechanic and bio. I run two aquaclear 110s on one tank, two sponges in each. Nothing else (except a polishing pad) The other advantages of sponges if you are so inclined, is to let one of two clog up and grow an anaerobic bacteria colony, thus removing nitrates. As for UGF, personally id run one off a powerhead rather than an airpump But then the beauty of airpumps are they can be battery powered, thus keeping oxygen exchange happening during a powercut

Hasnt answered my mail either. ill give it a few more days.

The entire front 3 inches of the tank, all the way across is two rows of staggered little hairgrass plantlets All i need now is patience... :lol:

Cool, thanks

Cheers, yes indian fern is nice, ive got a large clump of it.. I changed my layout again as I split the hairgrass even more and spread it out - from one hairgrass plant I now have approx 50

I love seeing creativity like this! awesome

Hollywood fish farm mt roskill Hollywood fish farm albany Massey pets and aquarium Bird barn henderson Various animates stores

Before I go get an FX5, There is one thing left that I need to know. The rim connectors. do they fit securely on a just glass rim with no bracing? from the look of it they dont, but who knows? Cheers

Might give it a go. Needs a lot of clearance behind the tank though, they are huuuuge.

Anyone think it would be okay to hang an aquaclear 110 off the back of this tank? Im just wondering as its small but wide and minimal bracing, wether having a honking great big 1800lph hang on filter would literally pull the back panel of glass off?

Replied Just an afterthought, a 450L doesnt necessary mean hugely long. One of my favourite tank sizes is a 1200x600x600. In a sense it doesnt take up much more room than a 1200x450x450 (like mine) but provides a much much larger capacity and more room - that extra half foot of depth and height make a big difference - then with a tank that size your possibilities expand exponentially. Ill be ordering my 450L in a few months once Ive aquired an Fx5 and tidied up my cabinet