blueether

now that you are doing weekly water changes... It all depends on the stocking rate, and maybe how heavy planted it. To give you an idea, in my 430 L native tank I have to do a 30% or more water change every week to 10 days but in the 160 L and 60 L planted tropical I can get by with 30% changes about every 2 or 3 weeks.

I was thinking that on the down-stream side the weight of water would press the poret against the silicon.

run a heavy (tall) bead of silicon across the tank between the upright glass holders?

and after the first mont each week as well...

mine were B. kweichowensis as well :dunno:

I would take it out as they smell real bad real fast

Nice and long, looks good. If the fish are going into the new tank then I would either dump all the media from the old filter into the new filter and run it in the small tank untill yo move the fish or when the new tank is setup just run both filters on the new tank for a few weeks if the media wont fit the new filter. will save on having to do a cycle on the new tank.

Don't discount the hillstream loaches (Borneo Suckers), especially some of the more northern Chinese species, they will do OK if the room doesn't get too cold.

if you have ysed cycle (or another good product), and have lots of plants, I doubt that you would see much ammonia

I had three die after the tank they were in got down to about 12 last winter, heater got unplugged, was set at 20 deg

With the hood that I have on the tank it is almost imposable to reach the sides or much of the back so I got lazy As for plants it only has moss (and algae and cyano), but I have a few natives in the two tropical tanks - do a search on here and look at the fnzas home page for some hints on native plants

Henward, that's how I meant to build your sump stand in your thread. Looks tidy

(to the tune of that "doves cry" song) The other one has about the same sized abrasion on its side:

The Chinese Algae Eater that I have just moved into my native tank didn't seem to worry the shrimp in his old tank, just everything else. Today the temp in the native tank is down to 15.4 (when I got home at about 3.30pm) and the CAE is just sitting under a driftwood cave not moving at all, but at 17.5 he was still active and eating - so I would say the min for them would be about the 17-18 deg mark. I wouldn't bother with one as they can be stroppy and may end up hassling other tank mates when they arrive. In my native tank I have let the algae/diatoms grow on the side and back walls (not much grows on the back wall) and only clean the front glass with each waterchange.

any coastal stream should have them, and I have cough them over 150 km inland in ok numbers. You might get better results in a stream that doesn't flood much, especially this time of the year. I would go with minnows or 'coldwater' guppies if the tank wont get below about 18 deg.

head further south, even blacker. although not silica sand and ruins powerheads etc if it get in them

can I just say that chinese algae eaters are evil. I had to rehome one from mum's 60 L tank (she was sold two :an!gry ). I moved it into my 160 L and the first thing it does is pick on the bristlenoses and then the glass cats. The damn thing has been rehomed again into the native 430 L native tank where nearly every thing is bigger and tougher than him. So far it is doing ok at 17 - 18 deg but time will tell. Excel worked well on my BBA, then the chinese algae eater ate it once it turned red/purple

I could always ask to have a look to make sure that they are turtles, they are just down the road

not him, but it is my local pet [fish] store (LFS) here in Te Awamutu

I had BBA in two of my tanks and I used a double first dose and then two days later another first dose on one tank, on the bigger tank I just used two or three first doses two days apart - fixed the problem in both tanks.

Do a search on here on Aquaponics as well, there is a good thread, just not in a sump

The newer the card the better the edge is and the better it will clean

Thats all really good advice Stella, ever thought about writing a book about keeping natives?

double whopper with cheese and bacon :digH:

looks good, jut get the leads/bored tested and tagged for insurance