FraserNZ

Yeah well they seemed very tough up until the other day... Over summer I forgot I had unplugged the heater whilst I was rearranging the tank, they went without heat for 2 days without a worry!

Yeah it was really the other night so that was my first thought. However that tank was fitted with a 100w ehiem so I doubt that would of had any problem keeping the tank above 25c even if the temp in the tank dipped down to 20c I would be surprised it would of killed them. Having said that it did get down to around 6 from memory? :tears:

No, was just about due for a water change. Will check the PH in a second to see if has changed though. The CO2 was running on the tank next to it, not the tank with the shellies in it?

Today I went into my garage to find that two of my Shellies had both died over night that were otherwise heathy and happy the night before. I can't for the life of me think what could of killed them?? The tank was a 30L running a ehiem canister filter, and an ehiem 100w heater. My first thought was that maybe I pulled out the heater my mistake last night as I was playing around with the tank next to it last night. But no, the water was at the correct temp with the filter running. The only thing I can think of that may have killed them was that I left the presurized CO2 system on the other tank running without the timer cut off as I'm trying to propergate glosso in it. Would this have put enough co2 into the garage to kill the fish in the tank next to it? It’s a bit of a worry if so!!

140L should be fine for discus that size, however, 27c kinda on the low side for discus I always run my tanks at 29-30c

I've always wondered if you pulled the livestock out and just dumpped loads of CO2 into the aquarium, if that would help cut down the algae, and helps start off the tank with plants taking up more nutients that way?

I have never ran a PH controller before so I couldn't comment on how that all works, or what implications it will have on the CO2 and your plants. All I know is there not really used much by all the big name plant geeks so there must be a reason why? With regards to the counter, I had to add water to mine, and its one of the ones that mounts directly onto the regulator so it went in before the one way valve. As for bubble rate, I don't pay much attention to it as I have a drop checker. Basically (if you have fish in the tank) what I do is start off with slow bubble rate then turn it up as you go until you reach the correct colour on the drop checker. I find the bubbles per minute method to unreliable as it doesn't take into account the size of your tank. You will obviously want to up whatever ferts you are added to the water column as you do this. Hope this helps

I have been doing a little research on the Tom Barr website and it seems that Flourite isn't "that" kindly regarded on that website, it's seems that it could even be a cheap alternative to ADA substrates. Most people on that site talk about mixing the Flourite with other fertilizers to give it enough nutrients. I'm hoping this isn't the case as I'm plaining a glosso carpeted tank for my next project and will be using Flourite as its the only complete nutrient based substrate on the market here in NZ...

I guess it depends on what type of plants you are intending to be growing. There are cheaper options on the market, however most require a top layer of substrate to stop the nutrients leaking into the water column. I feel that for this reason the seachems product is worth buying because I'm funding my current tank turns into a complete mess every time I try to move a plant in the tank. It has now got to the stage where I need to re-lay the gravel as its too thin in some parts. You wouldn't have this problem with seachems

Buggar... and that it did. Just realised, looks like anything under 60cm is going to be too small. A tank 60cm high is out of the question as I'm into plants too much... Is 35cm going to be enough or is that just too crual on the fish?

I have used that http://aqadvisor.com/ aquarium stock calculator, it estimates that with the filters I'm planning to use that the aquarium would only be at 75% capacity...

50% water change every week? That quite a bit of mantaince isn't it? My issue is the volume I'm currently having to deal with each week. If I cut the volume in half, then my water changes will be a lot smaller. The tank that I will be using has a very big foot print for its volume, that's why I'm hoping it will be ok with heaps of filtration, and 50% weekly water changes. How big is phoenix's tank? That looked quite small, and seemed to work with discus in it...

I did daily water changes up until they were about 3 months... Now they are at a pretty good size as well as being in a 300L tank I don't really see the need as even with weekly water changes the water doesn't get very dirty. EG, nothing ever shows up on the test kits.

I never knew this... Why wouldn't it be compatable?

Hey Guys, I'm thinking about down sizing my planed tank as the weekly water changes are begining to be too much of a hassle, volume wise. I have a 100cm x 40cm x 35cm which works out at 140L that I'm keen to plant out with java and glosso, Just going to keep this one simple... My qustion is... Do you think that a tank this size will be way too small for 5 discus, they are around 5 months old currently and are still quite small, the biggest being around 5-7cm. I'm planning to run a 305 fluval and a second filter of around the same size as filtration so the water will be very well filtered, with weekly water changes. Cheers, Fraser

how does one get a quarantine facility? I would be keen to get a whole lot of java off Ebay as you can get massive bits off there...

LOL or they think you're growing something else in your bathroom with those lights on at odd hours of the day! :sml1:

Fish Street = :bounce:

I have a 300w Hydor, and it does a very very good job of keeping my 300l tank at 29.5c all the time. I would recommend you get one of these and save the hassle Cool project idea though, what are you going to make the box out of?

So have you added any fish to the tank yet? I'm looking to setup another tank and tear down my current one over the next couple of weeks. I'm really keen to try some of this stuff out. Could someone please PM the contact details of the supper :happy2:

I've had 6 in total, all dropped off at different times for no good reasons. Apart from one. They don't have very long life spains so that probably has something to do with it.

Nice... I really like what you do with your tanks mate.

Hey Phoenix, What type of sand are you using in this tank? look really nice!

my 3.5 kg bottle has been running since october and I expect to get another 3 months out of it yet. I would think you would get nothing less than 8 months out of a 6+ providing you have a solenoid regulator and no leaks in your lines.

lol the tank at mermaids... :rotf: