the-obstacle

sleep

Oh yeah, the big ones

Welcome aboard. I see you already have the addicts qualification of 3 tanks in 6 months. Well done!

Lounge tank in and full. Black sand looks awesome! It has a dusting of brown once it's got lights on it but that just seems to imply it's got gold specs in it. It seems to have raised the pH a bit so I've got the co2 on the tank to bring it down (it's only 7.6 at the moment but I like it below 7) and then hopefully the fish will be transferred back tomorrow. Will take pics tomorrow once all the micro bubbles have gone. They're making it look a bit cloudy at the moment. If this works out I'll be getting much more sand this week and then the big tank will finally be finished. For now.

Nothing much has changed since the last full tank pics. I think 100 threadfins would be overkill and way overstocked once they reach adult sizes. At the moment there's only 3 in there as I swapped some cockatoos for the 3 Josh got from DavidR but I'm thinking a school of 8 or so will look just right. Ultimately it'll be just them, the pandas and the lemons I got via. ethan which were originally David's too. I found a dead one the other day due to teritorial breeding apistos so might have to replace him with 20 or so more. In other news - the lounge tank is full and is being filtered as I type. It seems the black sand has raised the pH very slightly so I've got the co2 going on the tank to bring it down a bit. The sand itself has a lot of brown in it under lights but as I'm going to have the lights on during the evening so we can see the tank it looks black as a black thing for all intents. I really really like it. I also should have painted the back of the tank when I got it - world of difference.

Just put some threadfins in the big tank. They're looking awesome. Finished the paint on the lounge tank. Just need to find some black electrical tape to fix a piece that the paint wouldn't stick to. Might give it one more try but I doubt it's going to work out. Should have the tank full by tonight with the black sand in it.

As far as customs is concerned if the ticket price is more than $400 they will charge you GST on the item coming in. So add 15% to anything you're ordering at the prices you're talking and it's probably cheaper to buy locally. It's definitely not a matter of changing the plugs, the motor housing is where the power pack is on the eheims and if they're not universal then you'll have to change the whole filter head which is the majority of the cost anyway. Why don't you ask someone who owns one in the states if they can check the box / filter motor to see if it mentions it anywhere? First stop - monsterfishkeepers.com - someone there will have one.

Won't take long and the tank will be fully overgrown with those stems It'll look great!

So they are. Looks like they max out at 10cm after about 4 years. Back on the list! Sweet! Although, I don't need to spend more money... damn it!

How would I find out? HFF just had 'upside down catfish' on the tank... I'll go image hunting and see what matches...

Traded fish with Josh this afternoon. Send him home with a pleco cave and a bunch of plants for critter-crazy as well. I have threadfins! Stoked. 3 at the moment but I get the feeling that once the angels and apistos are out ofhte big tank there'll be a school of 6-8 at least. I paid a visit to HFF earlier and fell in love with the upside down catfish they currently have. I nearly bought all 5 but thought I'd better check them out online before I bought them. Glad I did as at the moment they're about the size of an adult cory but they get to 20cm fully grown. 5 of them in a 75L tank would not be fair so I'll just have to find something else to take my fancy.

haha, the obstacle in this case is cleaning out and getting the lounge tank ready to be the test bed. I painted it this evening and I'm hoping to have the final coats on tomorrow so it'll be Monday before it's back inside. I've tested the water it's sitting in which it's been in for a week in a large bucket and the pH hasn't changed and the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are all 0 so I'm guessing it's fairly stable. The only problem will be whether or not it lifts and gets into the filters but if I swirl the water around in the bucket it doesn't lift anything. I'll get there... :yaw2:

I'll be going out west tomorrow and/or Monday and can do the run for you. PM me the contact details for the person and I'll sort it out. Cheers Dan

I would have said that without co2, ferts and good lighting you'd never get that condition but most of those plants look like they could be quite happy in low light so it's hard to tell. I'd say you'd still need ferts and a little co2 for even a small amount of light.

I've had both a pair of blue rams and a pair of apistos in the same tank and they hate each other. At the moment I'd rather have rams anyday. Doesn't mean I'll be getting rid of ALL my apistos

I figured it might have been some big pyro pots for a stage show at eden park perhaps? Either way it was damn bright. The tank sits in a corner so it's really the back and end that are both on walls anyway. It's a weird tank to look into the end of as it's long and thin at 1200x250x250.

cleaned out the lounge tank. Had to chip some aqua kneed it off the bottom glass and ended up going through the silicone with a chisel (I know, I know) so got to play with more silicone sealing it up. I'm getting quite skilled with it these days. I'm going to paint the back and one end black (and maybe the bottom) and put black sand on the bottom with black rock formations. For plants I'm thinking some twisted val and dwarf hairgrass only. It'll be stocked with a breeding pair of cockatoos (until they start killing everything in the tank again), some cardinals and maybe a little school (6-10) of sterbai cory. I hope the fish colours really pop against the black as I've found they really wash out with a white substrate. Either way - this tank is going to be lightly stocked and (hopefully) only require the smallest amount of maintenance over and above small daily water changes. on another note - what the hell were those flashes in the sky over auckland about 3 minutes ago? It was far too organised to be lightening. Might have been something at eden park but there were 7 definite flashes that lit up the whole sky.

She's a she from what I can tell. Could be a sleeper male but I don't think so at this point. She's got beautiful colouring - did you have a red light on her? it kind of looks like there's a red light shining up onto her.

You'll have to ask EHEIM or the supplier you're thinking of buying from.

woah! that's a total transformation. Very very well done.

+100 - an awesome group of sterbai or adolfi.

I use glass wipes that have the glass cleaner impregnated in them. Either that or a bit of meths on a rag as it evaporates instantly and is great for dissolving sticky finger marks.

I think I'm 32. I'm the forgetful type.

isthmus

Great news! Fingers crossed it continues.