phoenixb

thanks guys

well i have 2 little brothers (3 and 8) so they one of them is nemo and the other is whale (the bigger one) i got them from my lps - goldfishbowl aquiariums - they had these 2 and a dull one with a more yellowy orange

thanks. when you say "herbie style" does that mean the two holes have pvc that joins them half way down the back of the tank or - like 2 hole with 2 seperate pipes going down into the sump

im designing a sump for a 150ltr reef tank and im needing a bit of 'help' with a few things - the sump is a 51x25.5x26 ex. tropical tank im thinking - remove the top bracings and resilicone. im probably going to use either a 1500ltr/h return pump or a 1800ltr/h im going to have just a hole at the back of the tank as the overflow (bulkhead i think its called) im thinking il have 3 chambers - skimmer, small refugium and a return pump chamber. these are my MAIN questions: how big does the overflow hole have to be? what are the 'variables' when deciding what water level to have in the sump? could i use a rubber tubing back to the tank instead of rigid pvc? do i need bracings, if so could i use perspect ones and put them above the chamber dividers instead of on the sides? thanks.

ive got a 75ltr tank thats got a few soft corals - mushrooms, polyps ect and i have got a large skimmer, with about 15kg's of liverock. i have also got a inch thik coral sand bed (that i cycled with the live rock that i cycled - so i think it is 'live') ive got 2 powerheads on either side of the aquiarium to circulate water i also have a aqua one cf1200 running atm (that i had running as mechanical filtration befor i got the skimmer) is it worth using the canister - or is it just going to harbour nitrates

ive got 4x HO 24 watt 60cm t5's so as soon as my tanks a bit mature and live rock is converting nitates to nitrogen gas i will get some small soft corals mushrooms ect.

After 4 weeks of waiting impatiently for ammonia and nitrite levels to drop to 0ppm i have finally got my first marine fish - 2 ocellaris clowns lol after 1 hour they are already eating - so thats a good sign

yea im not sure - i havent used it for about a year or so - and i have only used it in my small treatment/qt tanks so only the smaller pieces of coral would have been in the tank with it. if say, i had a marine fish that was sick in some way what would you do????

but i got the coral sand 2nd hand so who knows - but i will be keeping a fish only setup, im only 14 and cant really afford to get suitable lighting for corals and anemones.

oh :sml2: um, ive used things like melafix and tonic and whitespot remover and biological additives but cichlids eat snails so i have never had to bother with snail killing products.

i have not used any chemicals exept 'api algaefix marine' because about 2 weeks into the cycle i had a large bloom of algae that spread like wild fire over all the rocks and sand, my lps thinks it would have been triggered by the nutrience being released by the rocks. i wouldnt risk using freshwater chemicals/products on my tank.

my ammonia level has finally gone up to 1-2ppm and has been sitting there for about 24hours, is this as high aas the ammonia will go? is there anything i should do do aid the nitrogen cycle process eg, airation, water flow, aquarium starter chemicals eg, JBL denitrol ect.?

i went away for the weekend thursday - monday and mussel is gone???????? it was in a mesh bag so i cant of just drifted away? ammonia is still low (between 0ppm and 0.25ppm) and nitrIte is at 0ppm. and half the coral in the tank is like a brown/orange colour??????

thanks, il leave it for a bit the mussel looks pretty discusting should i put a new one in or just leave it? also, should i add biological additives once the ammonia and nitrIte are at there peaks?

i have just set up a 25gal. saltwater tank and i have filled it with about a cm of coral sand and around 15kg's of coral rock (all of which i have used in an african cichlid tank for about 2years+) i have set the whole tank up (lights filters ect) and i have waited a week, testing for ammonia every day but the ammonia level is still a 0ppm and nitrIte level is also at 0ppm i was told to put a small peice of mussel in the tank, which i did about 3days ago is there anything i should be doing to 'trigger' the ammonia spike or is there anything i can do to speed it up? this is my first marine tank and how long does it take for the spike to occur?

this is what my trewavasae male looked like when i first purchased him:

ive had heaps of lithobates fry about 5 batches - ive currently got about 30 fry at about 1cm(new born) and a holding female -if you want some i will probably be selling them in a month or two?

i had mine seperate in a 3foot tank for about 2 months and they didnt breed - but when i moved them into my malawi comunity tank they breed within the first 12 hours :dunno: :dunno: good luck with them - i have found that my fry sell very easy as well. hope it all goes well - it would be good to see lithobates become a more common cichlid that people can readily purchase.

haha yea its very hard to get pics of my lithobates and aurora they go mental swimming round the tank and jumping ect. when i go right up to the tank

yea me too - my male seems to chase the females around wenever he sees them and when they were in my smaller malawi tank they were looking pretty crapy (nipped fins ect) but i guess its harder for him to pick on them now they are in a bigger tank he only ever stops chasing them around to breed with them :dunno: ive also found that my lithobates have HUGE holds compared to my other cichlids like my last holds were 70+ and my females are only about 10cm were as most of my other cichlids have 30-40 id be really keen to see some pics of your litho's

yea - i got the trewavasae a while back he was in a 60litreish tank and was quite dark with vertical bars but after a few days in my 200ltr malawi tank he was looking heaps better - even better now that hes in an even bigger tank. ive found that my lithobates dont breed well with my more aggresive fish (kenyi ect) but breeds really well once in a tank were he is one of the more dominant fish. good luck with yours ryan

i watched the lithobate male courting both females around the tank before she was holding and i saw the auroras breeding i have not had any problems with hybridization exept for one time when i started breeding cichlids - with electric yellows (about 3 of the fry came out like white with black trim to fins???) what speices were you meaning when you say "readily crossbreed"

the front is about 90cm and at the longest point it is 120 the sides are 68 and its about 66 tall - i set the whole thing up about a week and 1/2 ago and since then i have had a holding aurora, 2 lithobates and a dolphin - the dolphin spat after about 12hours and i have seperated the other 3

my ratios are: red zebra - 1m 6f dolphin - 2m 5f aurora - 2m 2f (second male is only about 4cm tho) lithobates - 1m 2f trewavasae - 1m 2f i am thinking of either growing up some females (lithobates, aurora and trewavasae) or adding my aulonocara baenschi colony to the tank - 2m 6f i have had hardly any aggression so far but early days

i have just got a new custom tank about 300l stocked with: 3 lithobates 3 Trewavasae 7 red zebras 7 Dolphins 4 aurora filtered by a aqua one cf1200 and a internal whisper 40i heated by a 300w aqua one heater a pump with 2 outputs a aqua one 30w marine blue tube and a aqua one 18w sunlight tube using about 1,1/2inch of coral sand about 6kgs of coral about 10kgs of limestone and some other rocks/ornaments ect any suggestions on other stuff i should add/remove and is it overcrowded?