the-obstacle

Still haven't come out huh? Mine hide under the logs these days so I've moved the logs to the front of the tank so I can see them.

2 minutes will be fine. They'll be back to normal feeding routines on her return and they won't starve or be accidentally over fed (which is worse) once your duty is over edit: You did good

I'm surprised you haven't started on it already

it just looks like a silicone join in glass that's way too thick to even consider flexing. Maybe 20-30mm glass with 80% silicone join?

no worries. We're all here to help. It's just my guess / assumption on the swordtail front but it seems likely. Yeah, this is why I asked. I had the same problem with 5 males in a tank. They tried to assert their dominance over everything in the tank. I added 8 females and they all chilled out. But then they started breeding. :roll: Yeah, the black grit looks awesome. Some people recommend not using sharp substrate for cories as it can damage their barbells but the grit is so heavy mine never sifted it anyway so I doubt it'll be an issue. yep - it's on! They'll court each other around hte cave until the eggs are laid and fertilised then she'll chase the male away and anything that comes near the cave. In general most fish will learn to stay away. I had 20 panda cory in a 75L tank with a breeding pair of cockatoos and I lost a few because they got stuck in dense vegetation trying to get away and the female killed them but if there's room to run yours will be fine. I had totally overstocked the tank at the time so it's my own fault. The tetra I had in there at the time just stayed at the other end of the tank for a few weeks. Don't worry about the eggs - the female won't let anything near them. If there is a spawn she'll guard the cave until the eggs hatch (they usually don't the first few times round) then she'll lead the wrigglers around the tank finding food for many weeks until they are big enough to swim off on their own. Or she'll eat them - which often happens the first few times. Get used to this behaviour because you'll be seeing a lot more of it in the future. Congratulations and don't panic. There's nothing you can do to help the cycle from here so just watch and enjoy.

i think you'll find the options are - 1) harden up 2) fry get eaten Your choice (no offensiveness was meant in this post)

Firstly - awesome shots! Ok here goes: They're Apistogramma Cacatuoides - there's no macmasterii in there - and he is a tripple red. It seems she hasn't shown and red markings (the flames in the tail and fins) but I found mine didn't until after a few spawnings and even then it's only a bit on the tail and anal fin. The male is ready to spawn and the female is getting there too. The nipping is normal. Once she goes fully yellow and starts chasing him it's all on. My guess is that the territory fight killed the swordtails - the apistos can get a bit too boisterous for their tank mates around this time (nothing compared to once she's guarding a brood though). It's possible that something else got the swordtails but I wouldn't be surprised if this was it. The tilting is normal - especially towards each other. They're trying to show the other fish their awesome colours in all their glory so will flare and tilt to give the other as much of a show as possible. How many guppies do you have? Is it possible that the small ones are the males and they're trying to asser their dominance over the tank? There's always one or 2 that do this but usually it's the other guppies that get the beating. Not sure about the fat minnnow but wait and see if it settles down. Could be holding eggs or it could be a blockage which a salt dip could fix. it could also be anything or nothing at all. (sorry) As above the ottos are perfectly normal. The cories look amazing on that grit. I was concerned that the grit in my tank was too sharp for them so added some silica too and they loved it (but it was white vs. the black). All in all I think the tank is behaving normally and I assume the swordtails were either already sick or the apistos/stroppy guppies attacked them.

hahaha, I wasn't going to say anything but yeah, that explains it

Just spotted this thread. I'm looking forward to the ferts from P44. Thanks in advance! I hope you didn't drink them as 'the next bottle' that evening. Took the youngest to swimming this morning then had a little nap then off to see Rio at St Lukes. Afterwards came home and fed the fish and studied the big tank and checked on the sump that needed re-sealing. Stoked that it only took 1/2 a tube of silicone for a 3 foot tank compared to the 3.5 tubes for the bigger one. I did a lot cleaner job this time too. Just watched the Claxons on U channel. What a crap sound mix - clipped and gated like crazy and bad singers. Now watching something about cooking for a band - this week the band is Yacht which is cool.

Permanently? It's common for them to lose them when stressed but constantly is a bit odd. I've got one with a kink in one side from a beating he got at some point. It hasn't been damaged on that side at all?

Thanks for the explanation - from what I've seen a lot of people do mechanical straight into bio but after reading this and talking to a few others I've been wondering about a settling section of the sump where the water can rise and the sediment be left behind before the bio space - something a bit wider than most baffles/bubble traps to keep the water speed down. I could fill that space with bio balls to break up the sediment then roll into a noodles/ceramic space. I'm only using a 3 foot tank to sump the 700L main tank so I'm feeling a bit pushed for space so the more efficient the better. I'm a bit worried that with my pump I'm going to be turning over a bit more than 5 times the tank size but I won't know until I build it an test it I guess. I'm liking the idea of putting the sump in without any baffles and just running the pump and heaters out of it for a few weeks to see what I could do. Can you flick me a pic or 2 and a rough idea of how many you have?

That's one serious join in the middle of the tank. I've often wondered if that was possible.

It's interesting that the Auckland bashing comes only from people out of Auckland. If you do like Auckland and consider yourself an Aucklander be prepared to back it up. Christchurch isn't as bad as Wellington for it though. I think in the current climate CHCH is about to have a building boom and you'll get a lot of experience fast. Whether it'll do much for your portfolio for registration I'm not so sure but if you're getting your foot in the door at a big firm then it's probably worth giving it a go. I know a few people in the industry in Auckland as well and a lot of them are considering moving down for a few years to take advantage of it as the work up here has been dry for a few years and only seems to be getting worse. I left Auckland when I was 22 to do the same thing, but in IT, and couldn't believe how much I missed it. I was in the same boat as you with family, girlfriend and friends left up here. I ended up spending every 2nd weekend flying back and forth so I could have a social life and then came back as soon as I could find a job. For me the biggest problem was missing the people. It took moving away to realise I really like Auckland though...

Thanks, I was thinking the sintered glass noodles were going to be the best in the bulk noodle range. I'd be interested in finding a source/bulk price for efi substrat in NZ but I can only find it in small amounts at retail stores. I'm really keen on getting as much bio filtration as possible as I have a tendency to overstock from time to time and want to make sure I'm doing the best possible. I know the bacteria levels will change depending on what they're fed but it can't hurt to go overboard

Yeah, there's a bit of a difference between sumps and canisters I'm trying to get as much bio filtration as possible while still staying below overflow disaster levels in the sump.

Play sand / builders sand from local hardware or landscape supplier?

Are you recommending using bio balls without any mechanical filtration at all? I've got filter socks ready to go so it doesn't really matter but I'm interested in this idea... I've got 2 cf1200s doing mechanical too but I want the socks to polish the water. Ahh, I hadn't considered pumice. Is it easy to get in AKL? I'll do some research. Thanks all.

Does anybody know where to get bulk bio noodles from? I need somewhere in the vacinity of 40-60 Litres (no idea what that is in weight) worth of space to fill with noodles in my sump. Thanks in advance Dan

This is true! I must remember that. I'm glad I shouldn't be expecting pearling with a 4 hour photo period. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what else I could do. I'll increase an hour a week until I'm at 8 hours with 12 as the final goal. Should I add epsom salts every 2nd day or just at water change time? This week I did only at water change but I was previously doing every fert day. I stopped because I feared my GH going too high.

Awesome! Thanks heaps! I think RyanJury is coming down - he's an experienced courier for me Otherwise I'm happy to pay shipping.

The only return pipe feeds the waterfall feature hence the noise. He disconnected the actual filter too so it's just a pump running water up to the waterfall which he turns on for special occasions because it looks nice (but turns it off as soon as he can).

I've got a friend who doesn't run the pond filter on the pond he inherited when he bought his house because the running water noise drives him nuts. Because of this he has zero mechanical and very little bio filtration (the only bio being the 3 or 4 water lily plants he has in little pots) and I was wondering if a DSB would work in such an environment? I would set up the DSB in a tupperware style container with as much surface area as possible as there are upwards of 50 goldfish in this 1.2m wide pond and I'd really like to not see them floating in summer when the heat makes the ammonia peak again. I have plenty of ramshorn and trumpet snails that I could seed the bed with but not sure they'd survive the pond temperatures. Could also put some shrimp in there but I suspect most would become food. So, good idea? no? why? why not? alternatives? thanks in advance

Good news! The reactor is working really well and every bit of algae is dying off. I had to give up on the drop checker as it's not at all accurate. Must be something to do with the hardness of the tank water to start with. I'm running about 3-4 drops per second at the moment to get rid of the algae and the fish are all fine with it - none of them are gulping which I assume is the sign it's too high? Although this is the case and I'm getting new leaves every 2-3 days on most plants I still can't get the plants to pearl and the stems that should have red in them just aren't getting enough light (I assume) in 4 hours to stay red. I've increased the photo period to 5 hours as of tomorrow and it's weekly 50% water change time so I'll see if it makes a difference after that. I have 2 questions 1) if I'm getting the occasional hole and brown spot on some of my leaves on various swords do I add more than the recommended amount of comprehensive to increase the trace elements? 2) Should I be expecting to see pearling with a 4 hour photo period? Thanks in advance

It must be an algae because the filter with the co2 reactor on it has cleared up and the one without is still brown. I'm guessing the concentrated co2 killed it off but isn't strong enough yet in my tank to last another round through the other filter.

My ramshorns don't eat the plants either. They don't help turn the substrate over like some others do but you rarely need that.