Caryl

I would like to point out I do not dislike the tank, just he asked for feedback. If he likes it how it is he should leave it like that! 8)

But the higher temperature is for a short time only until the tide floods the pool again with really cold water. They do not cope with prolonged higher temperatures.

You shouldn't be dumping tank water down the sink. Give it to your plants (both indoor and out)! They love it.

OK, ummm... Next time remove the algae scraper before you take the pic :lol: Although there is nothing basically wrong with the tank, it lacks focus. There should be one thing that draws attention to the tank and I can't see anything that does this. Possibly the little Easter Island guy does it in real life but doesn't so much in the pic? Photographs can be deceiving. It doesn't look like you have a backing sheet on the tank. This would help plus would hide some cords. You have a tall plant in the middle but nothing totally hiding the equipment on the right. Any chance of rearranging them a bit to cover them, or getting more plant in that back corner? Is the gravel sloping from the back to the front? It should be higher at the back to give more of a sense of depth. Again, it may be just the way the pic was taken but it looks a bit flat. Whatever you do the plecs will rearrange it anyway :lol: Howzat?? :bounce:

Hi Michelle, and welcome Poppy has a 20cm plec advertised in the Private Trade and Exchange section of this forum. She is in the Manawatu area.

I misread the whole thing. I was referring to a HOB, not sponge filter. Oops :oops:

My tank is built into a wall unit so is covered on all sides, except the front. This means the water temperature changes very slowly in relation to the room temperature. Because of the in-builtness (good word eh?) it is difficult to aim a fan over the water surface so, on the rare occasion our tank temp has risen too far (we manage to keep the room from getting over 30C even if we can only turn on the ceiling fan when the budgie is in his cage) we have added frozen 3L bottles and found this worked well enough for what we wanted. If any of you feel you are getting overheated as a result of this thread, I suggest, on the count of 3, you all turn your fans on full :lol: 1 2 3!!!! Ahhhh 8)

We are off February 18th and return March 14th - away 25 days. Longer than first planned but we had to fit in the rainforest tour, with overhead canopy walk, in somehow. :bounce: Luckily the people house sitting know how to look after fish. Bud is going to his grandparents though as they love to have him. Hot in our part of Top of the South too. It was 30C earlier but a nice cool wind has come up so dropped it back to a comfortable 25C. We had 32C yesterday :roll:

Nah, just keep Daff as a bit on the side

It had numbers in it Robert. Anything with numbers is technical :lol:

Cyano doesn't hurt the fish but can smother the plants and looks unsightly. You should be able to pull the majority off the plants with your fingers as it will come off in sheets or strings. It will not wash off well. Remove as much as possible then black out the tank for 3 days and see if that fixes it. As a last resort, erythromycin will get rid of it but it is a prescription only medicine. Devon, I assume you mean E-mycin? How did you get that from the lfs? It is a prescription medicine!

Just think how much more fun it will be if you catch giardia then :lol:

Just don't drink out of your tank and you should be fine

Yes it is cyano. If you only got it while you were away, what was different? Fix that and the cyano will disappear again. Pull as much of it off the riccia as possible and it will recover.

A lot of use photobucket. It works well.

It is hard to tell from the pic but I too wondered about uneaten food going fungussed but it does appear to be growing on the wood and uneaten food would tend to drop to the bottom, not sit on top of a piece of driftwood. You aren't using pH Up or Down are you?

They are known to refuse to eat when things are new. Someone who actually has them could tell you more but I believe a couple of weeks is not unheard of. :roll:

The electric yellows and blues will interbreed and give you really revolting coloured fry - sick puce.

It is a male. Sometimes they do not develop their sword, especially if the are not the dominant male. Sometimes they are platies.

Try a few gentle whacks on it. Sounds like there may be trapped air. They can gurgle a bit for a while when first set up until the trapped air escapes.

If the heaterstat in the tank is unable to keep up with the chill of the room (which is what I am assuming the problem is) I suggest you pack polystyrene around the tank.

Looking forward to the pics and, if we have to criticise, we do it in a constructive way The rest of the fish ought to be fine. A lot depends on the size of the tank (dimensions, not total litres), amount of filtration and degree of maintenance.

1. Yes 2. Depends on how long they have been in the tank. Here is an excellent site: http://www.clownloach.info/ As you can see, if you check out the link, you are going to need a bigger tank. It is good you have put a lot of thought into individual hiding areas. A bit hard to recommend improvements without a pic of the set-up but as your plec grows (and outgrows the tank) it will destroy the plants (so will the clowns). The rummy noses should be looking good. I love a big school of those fish 8)

fishboi said you can buy barley straw extract.

I've got them except mine are round at the top