Phantom

Welcome. Where abouts are you from? You might want to update your profile to show it. I'm pretty new myself, but this is a good community.

There is a guy in Christchurch on trademe that sells a product called a super sink pump. I have one and it works great. You can syphon or fill a tank using it. It does cost $23.90 though and you still need to get a hose to run to your tank on top of that.

Only 2 running for me 250L and 80L planted community tanks. Have 1 hospital and a 3ft stand waiting for the tank to be built. I'll have to compare # of tanks with the posts in the Where do you all work/what do you do thread to see what job I need to get to have as many tanks as some of you!

IT Manager .. well IT department for an electronics manufacturing company in Christchurch.

I've got a 3ft T8 grow light in there at the moment as well as another double 3ft standard light. Some cuttings I purchased just on a week ago have almost tripled in size from the lighting alone.

Yeah I tend to mainly check the pH and nitrate. Only check ammonia and nitrites every now and then just to make sure they're good.

It's not that dense at the moment, but ideally I'd like to get a good carpet going over most of my 4ft tank with a few taller plant areas around some wood and leafy mid level plants down another end. I've seen tests for phosphates. What are the pro's / con's of phosphates?

Do people use plant fertilizers? I've got flourish and flourish excel, but I don't think they're doing a lot more than clean water and a decent light can give me. Makes me wonder if using these are worth it / if they affect the fish negatively in any way. Is there something better apart from going for a full blown CO2 kit? I've seen fertilizer balls, CO2 tabs and other such things.

Just interested to know what tests people think are worth doing. At the moment I do pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, carbonate hardness and general hardness. Although I don't think I really need to do the last 2 if the pH is staying relatively constant. I run a planted community tank. Is there something else I should test for for optimal plant growth etc?

Kudos to you, that is one awesome clown loach.

I have no idea to be honest, but I'd use it in combination with other things such as melafix.

I was thinking about getting one for a hospital / new fish introduction tank. Try to kill off as many nasties as possible when fish are sick / new.

I like the look of that glosso plant. Does anyone know where I could get some in Christchurch or would anyone be willing to sell and post me some?

Not sure how big ember tetras are, but my emerald eyes are probably smaller than the average neon. Where did you get your aspito panduro from?

There are gold nuggets around pet stores in chch quite a lot. There is one on trademe in chch at the moment. I just purchased a snowball from Organisms in chch. I believe there is a Royal pleco in store there at the moment. I've also seen blue phantoms and a sunshine in there too over the past few months.

I bought the one from Organism a while back but he died in their tanks before I picked it up. John got another one in and I got it. Seems to be fine with all of my fish. My experience with ghost knife fish is that provided you give them a nice home, they'll give you no problems at all. They don't like it when other fish come into their homes though. I've only had this choc knife 1 week, but it hasn't bothered any of my fish that I've seen. I have some emerald eye rasboras in the same tank and they're not exactly large fish. Will be interesting to see how it goes long term though once it is fully grown.

Thanks everyone. Can't say I've seen those around. Typically not what I'd consider for a community tank, but they look interesting.

Rarer plecos and ghost knife fish (black or brown) for me. I also love a school of panda corys in a tank with a bit of current.

Hi, Long time lurker, decided I should really register. From Christchurch. I have had multiple tanks over the years but have finally settled with a decent 250L set up and some smaller tanks. Currently have 2 running with a 3rd in the garage as a project. Hoping to set up a decent sump filter with that one and run the other tanks off it. I have had a tendancy towards catfish over the years and love the rarer plecos. Currently I only have the 1 - an L142 Snowball Pleco. My favourite pleco I've ever owned was a Vampire Pleco many years ago. I'd love to get another one. I believe it was an L240. I like having schooling community fish in the tanks with the rarer fish as you will see from my signature. 250L tank has recently finished cycling. I've just thrown some zebra and leopard danios and sterbai corys in there as well as the harlequins and bristlenose used to cycle. Looking to move my recent purchases of a chocolate knife and snowball pleco into there soon once I am absolutely sure it is 100% stable.