disgustipated

glad someone picks up on my subtle innuendos...

very nice! that kok is huge!

pfffaahaha

i don't think you have to use both. or fill one of your trays with half balls and half noodles. up to you. i prefer balls but noodles are cheaper

current planted tank is 100l, flourite substrate, few plants, smallish light, co2, angels kuhlis and gobys. spare tank is 220l, i have several three foot light fittings, the one in this pic takes two bulbs. will buy bulbs as soon as i can find them (bunnings and mitre ten did not have 3ft tubes) had my blue tongue in there for a couple months while i set up his big enclosure, so it needs a good clean (when i get out of bed). i had trapped the cat in there to teach him not to climb into tanks. he won't learn.... i want to lay the flourite from the original tank down first then cover with sand from the local garden shop. i would love to use more flourite but i just can't afford another couple of bags. so sand it is, will get some fertilizer balls, going by what most of you say, they work fine. any alternate suggestions for substrate? will update with pics as this progresses. feel free to comment. or not, i don't care :fshi:

upgrading my planted set up to a bigger tank. i've been meaning to do this for a while, keep procrastinating, so i figured if i started a thread log thing then i'd be a bit more motivated.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=63473

i boiled a tank of fish when the titanium heater i bought faulted. never used them again.

that is absolutely the best thing you could do 8)

i agree that you can't disagree to disagree. although i agree with what you are saying. sure it would decrease the area bacteria have to live in. and i agree, bacteria is not restricted to anywhere, it sets up home wherever it wants. bio media has literally billions of nice cosy places for bacteria to settle down, so i'm not worried about blocking a bit of surface area in order to get better mechanical filtration.. the size of the bacteria colony that establishes is totally dependant on the amount of fish waste that is going into your tank. so if you have a lot of bio media, but a low bio load, most of the bio media won't be getting used. and because bacteria can live anywhere in the tank, there are tons more cosy little palaces in the substrate for bacteria to live. in a standard tank that is not overstocked, i think it is beneficial to concentrate more on mechanical filtration, than biological. for these reasons, i put bio media first, and fine mechanical filtration last. i also no longer use wool.

we're gonna have to agree to disagree here bro. reasons as above 8)

yeah i saw that henward. if you need any fish kept till your big tank is ready let me know. i'd be happy to hold fish for you.

inside, vector arena. good venue. at least 10,000 people there i'm sure. last time i saw tool was at big day out, it was outdoors, it was raining, which didn't bother me but they had lots of issues with sound, due to the rain apparently. concerts like that need to be indoors.

totally. as soon as they started playing, the purple haze began. i can't complain, i was contributing.

yeah i would suggest that. wool getting into the impeller is a small chance, if it happens, and not a big deal if it does happen. i don't clean out my filters anywhere near as often as i should. hence my system of media placement, and hence my worry about wool breaking off and wrapping around impeller.

i've kept all types of oscars and noticed that the tips of their fins go black when they are in shoddy conditions. many think that it is normal for oscars to have black fins. but i believe it it only due to bad conditions. because healthy oscars never have black fin tips.

all my filters have mechanical filtration both first and last. but i have 5 stages. but since you only have three stages, i think you should put bio first, then mechanical last. reason i say this, is because bio media holds bacteria that feed from fish poo. putting mechanical filtration before the bio will filter out the poo. gunk gathering up around the bio media is good, it's what the bacteria feed on. and i am more concerned with the filter being effective, than i am concerned about how easy it is to clean. basically my general rule is: course media first, fine media last. so that the water flows through the most open media first, then flows through finer and finer media as it progresses, media should start course and get finer towards the end. this is the same as all filters work whether aqua or not. this way, the big pieces of gunk get caught up in the first stage and don't clog up your fine filter material as quickly, instead it will get trapped in with the bio media which is easily washable. cotton is disposable so best to put it where it only has to filter out the tiny bits of gunk, not the big bits. HTH

it would be best to keep that oscar by itself while it recovers. if you can. fish behave while you are watching. at night the convict is probably giving that oscar a hard time. that's what convicts do...

i'll start, with my worst and most costly mistake. filled up my 650 litre tank without any poly under it. lasted for about 8 hours, then cracked right across the base, turning my room into a swimming pool. luckily it was a rental house and i've moved out now so water damage can be the new owners problem! see: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=63142

sweet. is the oscar by itself? or is the convict in there too?

this is a thread where you post the mistakes you have made in fish keeping. we have all made mistakes, and learned from them. the main point of this thread is so that others can learn from your mistakes. and of course, we can all have a laugh at your expense. anybody that wants to confess to a mistake anonymously, send it to me in a PM, then i will post it here, keeping your identity (and stupidity) a secret.

the more clown loaches you have, the less shy they are. safety in numbers, is the clown loach's mantra. they are also quite skittish, if you have bigger fish in there then they might be too frightened to come out.

what's the temp?

yeah, i saw her. i saw about 100 of her there. hahah. like when i went to coat check, the lady asked what i had checked. i said "a black hoodie with TOOL printed on it" she's like "yeah that doesn't exactly narrow it down"... the whole mosh pit was like a sea of black and pasty white, the only colour there was the goth/punk chicks hairdos.