the-obstacle

Thanks all - I'll see how the woodhill sand goes and then maybe go the daltons builders sand way as I've used it before too. Is it the one that comes called something like #1 sand or something? anyway, i'll report back in the next few days...

hmmmm, might take you up on that in a day or 2. I drive past a place out by woodhill forest that sells black west coast sand so I'm going to go out and see what they can do for me but if that's not suitable I'll drop you a line. Thanks

ugh... this thing is taking forever! After seeing DavidR's fish room yesterday I've got the bug back though and today I painted the back pane and should get the plywood to finish the stand/bracing tomorrow then it can be put in place and filled. I've sorted the rock wall divider and now just need daltons aqua mix, 3/4 bags of sand (have to find one that's not sharp so the pandas and geos are happy) and to finish rigging up the MH lamps for the plants.

oh man, I didn't even get a glance in the door! :dunno: Sorry there weren't many guppies in that batch. The plants in their tank are taking over and it was a pain to catch them.

brown algae is a natural part of cycling a new tank. Just scrape it off the walls and do frequent water changes (20% every 2-3 days or so) and it'll go away in a week or 2.

I learnt the hard way not to listen to alanmin's advice with my pandas - I bought a generic breeding trap with holes in the bottom and as soon as the wrigglers (10+) started popping free of the eggs they fell through the tiny tiny tiny holes and were instantly eaten by the tetra that happened to be swimming past. I ended up with 4 or 5 in a tupperware container in the tank (plastic floats) with an air stone until they were big enough to put in a grow out tank. I was very greatful to have been able to spot the wrigglers being eaten and being able to at least save a few.

Yeah, that's what happened to my male. Fingers crossed for your new female though. It'd be good to see how they grow out with some different bloodlines.

Thanks for the offer - it turns out I've got at least 2 juvies from the last batch so I'll wait and see what they colour into (I'm assuming males as the tank is a constant 26 degrees). I thought we might be able to swap bloodlines a bit but then both our pairs came from the same sources...

update - my male died this morning. It seems he did his job though and the female is hurding around about 30 fry at the moment. I'm hoping the male was the cause of the last batch being thinned to 1 and this time we'll get a few more survivors. Still sucks to lose a fish though. Anybody got any male cockatoos for sale?

That'd be awesome!

I have a cockatiel and would love a cockatoo but my wife would kill me if I came home with one right about now.

:facepalm: I knew that was coming... :roll: I'll see what I can do. As the female is hiding in her cave at the moment it'll be pretty hard to get her but If I can I will.

As long as you don't take the whole beach it's fine.

Sharks!

So earlier in the year my female apisto had about 30 fry following her around for a few weeks then all of a sudden they were all gone and she lost her yellow colouring and just moped around the tank. Then this afternoon while I'm pruning I see a little cockatoo hiding in the sword I was moving. Woo hoo! He's about 1cm long so tiny as but has all the markings (no longer a fry). It's been about 4 weeks since I thought she lost her last batch so it's heartening to know they can hide even if there's only a 1 in 30 chance of survival. She's now back in her pot guarding a new batch of eggs. Fingers crossed for a better survival rate this time.

That's a disgrace! My big one doesn't even come close to these ones though.

I'll be able to sort the twisted val and maybe the uraguyensis in a few days. They're overcrowding my guppy tank at the moment so getting a good clear shot of them on their own is proving to be difficult.

Why comment on something without reading what he was actually commenting on. :an!gry

I'm not a marine keeper but I've heard a lot of great things (and not many bad things) about using a well setup algae scrubber in place of a skimmer. check out http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/ for designs and testimonials etc. If I was going marine I'd be giving a scrubber a go in place of a skimmer. A lot of people are now using the algae scrubber as their only filter on a marine setup. It's daring but I guess if you're starting from scratch what have you got to lose?

No sorry, I've checked through everything I have but I must have deleted her details.

If you need to rehome your panda's let me know Looking awesome!

Sweet! I've got a foam roller to get a smooth finish. If that fails I'll use a brush. Thanks for confirming - my confidence is back up

So I've got some black paint to paint the back of my big tank which is an acrylic paint. The guy in the shop didn't think it'd stick to the glass. Should it work or should I go back for some water based enamel paint?

I want more info Can you pm me?

http://www.goldfishfarm.co.nz/ ?