Ismart120

Had my suspicions it was. Good to know for sure. I've got three angelicus loaches, one yoyo and one suspected golden border loach (Looks like my angelicus but not as long) in a 200 litre, should I look at filling out the groups properly or is the five mixed ok?

Noticed the eyes on my hoplo have become more bulged as of late, haven't noticed any change in behaviour, seems to be on this one more than the other but both look similar Are about four years old so getting on in expected life span and have been slowing down for the past six months or so (not the first to eat all the food anymore etc but still more active than most cory's)

Bought as an Angelicus loach but bigger and different markings to my other loaches (all of which were bought as Angelicus) Yay? Nay? Not worried either way, just interested as to whether I have a full group or a mix of two species

During the worst power outage (11 or so days), just had a blanket over top while running an aerator for the last two (generator couldn't power the heater) Lost a few but as the temp went down slowly and I spaced feedings out a heap more it wasn't half as bad as it could have been. Would prob go with more blankets though and remove the plants faster (they died before the fish) if it did happen again

Cool, thats what I thought but just confirming Jack is the one I'm keeping an eye out on - information around say the electric ones don't get as big as the normal type but yeah, will adjust this if it becomes a space issue As for Steve (the pleco), He's already stunted and fully grown - found him on TM as an adult in a 40L (a little cube that meant he was always twisted around IIRC) tank over three years ago and hasn't grown any since except for putting on lotsa weight and regrowing his fins (but again, if he does decide to shoot up in size, I'm more than happy to adjust for this) I know it'll always be a losing battle, but what plants have the best chance?

Ok, Some more specific questions: will a ghost knife fish eat angelicus loaches and/or get too big too fast for a 3 footer? Have some varying information on the final size (ranging from ~20cm to 60cm) - what have others had experiences with?

Hello eveyone Back from a bit of hiatus, shut down all but one 200 odd litre tank which recently went through some 'changes' (read; pne fish grew big and ate everything overnight, the jerk) So bought a few completely new fish to me, never kept larger south america cichlids before: And This guy Full tank as it stands (Bob also ate most of my plants) Feel free to give your thoughts etc

What sort of plants are you looking for? Ie, tall thin ones or more fern looking ones? Can't really go wrong with some java ferns and maybe a sword if the latter was to your taste. Easy to keep alive too

Pm'd, just to keep the thread on track. In another tank I had, I found that cutting back on how much I was feeding them helped a lot in keeping the numbers in check; for more drastic measures, have an earthquake knock out the power for two weeks, even snails don't do well after that...

Throw some this way? I'm actually looking for some snails, of any sort really to feed my loaches, happy to pay for postage or I could send some plants up your way if you wanted?

Awesome, thanks. Hadn't looked in the beginners section I've gone with a tropical colour tube and a hybrid marine blue/white tube to get a bit more of the actinic lighting in the tank, which if all goes well, will produce more leafy growth which is what I'm going for.

Wouldn't have a link would you? I can't find anything in the forum about actinic lighting in freshwater

Haha, no just a glitchy computer... That brings mine to ~$45 a month, with the heater on 24/7, so thats not too bad I guess. Do you know what the difference in insulation properties between 6mm and 10mm glass would be?

How did you get to this? Interested to see what my tanks would be doing...

How did you get to this? Interested to see what my tanks would be doing...

How did you get to this? Interested to see what my tanks would be doing...

Hi, Got my replacement tank nearly finished but its been filled for about six months now so things have settled out mostly. I'm running a hagen glo unit with aqua one t5's that keep being unreliable so looking at some of the other brands, either hagen themselves or arcadia etc, so any thoughts on those would be great. Main question is, what colour? I'm looking at the actinic bulbs for a different colour/ make the tank a bit different/ brighter whites etc, any idea on what this will do with the plants? They're mostly slow growing javas', anubias but I'm looking into a few others too, glosso etc. Ideally, I'd want one powerglo type thing (all rounder plant bulb) and one marine blue actinic? Want the plants to grow/be heathly but also want the fish to show up really well Thoughts?

Ah gutted, if you need somewhere for them to go I've got a couple of floating isolation tanks they can go into at my place?

All good here, lots of water but the new finished stand held up well which is nice. Everyone out there have power? No refugees that need taken care of?

Bubble and Squeak have gone - I think Errol is still making tanks, theres a number on the front door of the old place if the one on the list doesn't work.

I did the converter off a car battery (not actually a car battery, but very similar) during the earthquake, it lasted for about 10 hoursish? So might be a bit hit and miss - I'd go with the filter media in a container - the fish will be fine for that period of time, just do a water change when the power comes back on.

A battery powered air pump will let you keep it aerated, may want to get back up batteries first though just in case. What sort of filter is it though?

Yeah, I'll try to get some photos of them once I've finished priming tonight. the aluminum ones I plan to use are still at the hardware store - I'll be putting them on after painting. Still umming about the wood for the floor, the sides will be out of laminated ply, its just reasonably expensive so I might look at going with mdf for a floor as I have quite a bit of sealer here. haven't got either yet, not sure if Bunnings will cut to size I mainly looked at what other people had done and looked over a few websites for ideas: two that I kinda used are http://www.austinglass.com.au/aquariums.html http://www.fishandtips.com/index.php

Oh, and the screws don't reach all the way into the 3x2 into the next one when its being put through the tall side so I drilled out a 3/8 hole halfway in that allowed the screw head to go into, thus extending the reach of the screw total. Hope you can understand that.

Yeah, bigger and stronger is generally better if you're happy to work with 3x2 - all of it was cut at bunnings, about 35 pieces in total? And its about $3 or $4 a metre - for my stand it came to about $60 for all the wood, cut more or less to size. I'm using 10g 75mm treated pine screws, cost a bit more than I thought they would but seem to be pretty good. Also putting aluminum brackets on some of the more important corners and nail plates on the inside of the legs.