kinnadian

Not necessary imo, waste of money. All you need is a ventilated hood. You can make it out of wood for the outer bracing and also some wooden frames in the middle to support heater/light if desired (for a 240L you will probably need a ceramic heater & thermostat, undertank heaters for something that size will be expensive), and put wire or plastic mesh across the frame. A lid like this is fine: Reptile carpet is just astro turf available from any hardware store.

Camtang, if you have the time and knowledge it is really easy to make a wicked setup using Melamine. Mine was around $200 worth of wood for a 4ft x 3ft x 2ft, and another $40 for the glass front doors, some vents and you're set!

I got that double U window track for like $10 or $15 at Mitre10 MEGA, couldn't find it at bunnings though. For metal plates with holes in, Mitre10 MEGA also had something similar but it was bendable steel. You could get plate sizes up to around 30cm x 30cm. Another option is looking for sets of metal vents on Trademe, they sometimes go cheap.

I needed a chiller in ChCh, I'm pretty sure you will need one in Auckland if you don't have air con! Ice cubes in the sump will do practically nothing, take 1 deg off for 1hr if you use a lot of them. Evaporative cooling shaved 1 - 1.5 deg off in ChCh, but with the humidity in Auckland I'm not sure if it will work at all.

I would put some crushed coral and coral rock in there as well, it helps raise the pH slightly that africans prefer. Growing out fry will be cheaper, but don't go overkill in that tank. 10 labs & 10 demasoni will be a good starting point, you can add another 10 average-sized africans from there (typically 2x5 groups). As fry you can add both at the same time. Labs will always be placid, demasoni will get aggressive within their own species so if you have enough (ie 10) the aggression is shared around. I've always gotten juvenile fish because fry are more prone to dying and honestly not that much more than fry. In my opinion you will need an external filter, as Scarletmonuka said, built in filters aren't great.

I made a hood for an old 200L tank once using plywood. I had the back half of the top securely screwed down, and the front half on hinges to get into the tank. The plywood top was screwed into thick 1" timber, like decking timber or something. The whole lot was stained then painted so you didn't notice the different grains, and I think the paint helped keep moisture out. If you stained/varnished as per outdoor decks it should be OK. After 2 years the plywood at the back hadn't really warped at all (due to being securely screwed in place), but the plywood at the front (just secured by a hinge) had warped badly on both front corners and was peeling up. Short answer is that if you don't secure down a section securely (ie a front lid) it will warp. If I had of designed the lid differently, and had it so that the front section and sides cut-away (ie half way up the front/sides) and lifted up (ie, the front lid was secured to a base as well as the back) I don't think I would have had any issues. What I mean is something like this:

I'll vouch for the Sunsuns as well, had a couple in the past and just bought a 1000 lph one. They are quiet, cheap and surprisingly well made. I got mine for $100 shipped including free media, you can't beat that. I've had issues with Eheim before, and the one Aqua one aquis I had crapped the bed after a few months (and I don't like their heaters either, so I stay away from Aqua one now)

Am I reading right that you want to make a sand-only waterfall? And what, use the silicone as a bonding agent for the sand? It would be a lot easier if you used rocks over sand.

Once you get over the floating issue? Also algae absolutely LOVE pumice rock for a growing surface.

Bleh, really depends on your water supply. I've lived in quite a few cities in NZ (though never Auckland, so may be different there) and never had sufficient chlorine levels in the water to actually do any harm. Certainly not to the degree where they either damage the fish or damage the beneficial bacteria in the tank. I personally don't dose dechlorinator and haven't for years to no detrimental effect, and have kept some really sensitive fish in the past. You can plant straight away. Some people use fertilizer balls for putting in the soil, I've tried them before but prefer aqueous fertilizer. You shouldn't need anything added unless you have particularly fiddly plants or A LOT of them. You can put your fish in straight away once your tank reaches temperature. The bacteria needs ammonia to cycle, so you can also put in a piece of old meat to help boost ammonia levels initially. If you're new to fish keeping make sure you have a test kit available (for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates). The cycle procedure for a tank should be ammonia spike, ammonia reduces, nitrite spike, nitrite reduces, then nitrate spike. Once you have gotten to this stage you some of each set of bacteria and from here the bacteria will grow/die to meet the ammonia supply that you can demand. You can then start increasing your stock levels, and from here you only need to watch for ammonia (overstocking) or nitrates (not enough water changes). If you are impatient you can buy the Aqua One Cycle product, it is full of the bacteria and I find it enables you to cycle a tank in around a week (as opposed to 2-4 weeks, depending on tank size and bio load). For this you will need a healthy supply of ammonia, IE quite a few hardy fish like guppies, swordfish or mollies.

I got an unwanted Hailea air pump from fish auction and tried it to see how loud it was, and was surprised at how quiet they are.

Black hair algae can be removed with either Excel Flourish or spot-treating with peroxide (squirt a couple ml of peroxide directly onto the algae with the filter off and it kills it, then wait a few mins and turn filter back on)

We bought some most recently off of Angie Harvey ([email protected]). Try sending her an email and asking if she has any available.

It wasn't really a "great escape", we have a little yard set up which is fenced off (no more than about 8m x 12m) with only a few things in. The bucket was inside this yard but we never thought to check a bucket which seemed impractical to climb into. There is just grass and pavement here, no where to dig and lay. I had a laybox but had trouble keeping moisture right. I've heard that rumor but I don't know if it is substantiated. You can get them from turtle rescue as Alan said, alternatively they are around $50 on TradeMe or $80-$120 from pet shops.

She's been inside for the past 3 years, but I put her outside in a little pen everytime its warm. The bucket was full but she wasn't able to get out for some reason, or just didn't want to get out. It's a confusing situation I know, but the question is essentially if it is in a turtles nature to fake being pregnant just to "practice".

I've got two RES who are 3 years old. They mated about 6 months ago, and about 2 months ago the female started scratching around and basking a lot more than usual (which I read were typical signs of being pregnant). I attempted to get her to lay, by making a laybox with deep soil and a basking lamp, but she would only try to escape. She continued to scratch for weeks, and I put her into the box for around 4-6 hours at a time, for most days, but to no avail (checked the soil by gently wiping back the topsoil layer to see if it had been disturbed). About a month ago she was outside and managed to climb two ledges and fall into a bucket I was using to grow pond weed. We searched the entire yard (it is fenced off) and house and couldn't find her, until I found her around 3 weeks later after tipping the bucket out. Since finding her, the past week she has been showing no signs of being pregnant. No scratching, normal behaviour, etc. I am wondering if she was faking being pregnant before? I'm not able to gently feel her guts because she tucks her legs in and I'm unable to gently pry them apart to see. Or, alternatively, did she somehow lay her eggs in the bucket and then eat them? There were no shell remains out of the bucket that I could tell. Obviously the expensive option is to take her to a vet and have her x-rayed, which may be my last resort (due to financial issues), but I thought I may ask here if it is possible she was simply faking/pretending to be pregnant before? Is this common behaviour for juvenile turtles just to "practice"?

I've had good luck before buying from http://www.hero-ledstore.com/ and making my own LED hood. You can get a pretty quality setup for cheap, just gut an old fluoro light hood and use a 12V adapter (like a phone charger) to power the LED strips.

I would really seal that before putting in your tank. Who knows what chemicals are in the concrete and I've noticed pH leaking for A LONG time with concrete in water.

Sell some of your yellows, reduce the group to maybe 8 or 10. Demasoni (need a bunch), red zebra (bit aggressive), electric blues, livingstoni, bumblebees, cobalt blue, pseudotropheus acei are all good.

100W MVBs are fine for normal 2ft wooden enclosures, I have used them in the past to good success. You do indeed need something bigger than your typical 55 gallon sized enclosure though (mine is 4ft x 2ft x 3ft). I only tried a 160W because I made a larger enclosure than I used to have and figured it would be OK, but it wasn't. When light is off, I just have a ceramic heat lamp set on a thermostat for 28 deg. I got a ZooMed Reptisun 10.0, which are considered the second best tubes you can get, after the Arcadia 12% bulbs. I did a lot of research into tubes for my previous beardie. The Repti Glo bulbs have a very poor reputation because they emit the wrong wavelengths of UVB and weak UVB, and can cause beardie health problems like conjunctivitis. Lots of people have done detailed writeups (on the overseas beardie forums) about UVB emissions and Repti Glo ones are quite poor, you can try googling about them if you'd like. Also completely stay away from the coiled UVB bulbs. They emit a directional UVB ray, so either your beardie gets very little UVB or too much UVB, causing the aforementioned health problems. I've never seen a forum post or article that EVER recommends using coiled bulbs over tube or MVB.

We've had fish eaten to the skeleton before and then the skeleton gets stuck under the sand or some driftwood. Also had some fish get sucked up into the external filter causing quite the ammonia spike. I'd have a better look, particularly with a bright light looking for a skeleton. Also depends on what fish you have, some will eat the corpse others won't, so it may very well just sit there decomposing for weeks.

The main issue I see there is temperature compatibility. Corydoras like cooler temps, around 24-26 degC, whereas Discus like hotter at 27-30 degC. Discus can get by at 26 but at this temperature they are more prone to health problems, and also your cories won't be too happy at this temperature. They also grow VERY slow at lower temperatures (although regular meat feedings of bloodworms and ox heart help growth rates). Also you should definitely get more rummynose. They do best (and look best) in big schools of 10+.

I like feeding top/mid every day, with 1 rest day on sunday. The rest day I find enables them to fully empty their digestive system, but it's pure speculation and some random opinions from the internet. Bottoms get the leftover tops and I also feed them sinking pellets every second day. Also if there is much left over food after 2-3 mins, imo you are overfeeding.

I attempted a native tank a couple years ago, with koura and bullies. Unfortunately due to the nature of these animals, they spend practically all their time hiding or being motionless lest they be eaten by something. Plus the cold water makes them quite docile, and it becomes quite hard to keep these tanks cold enough in the summer (need to be <15-18 degC from memory), so you will need a chiller or an air conditioned house. Good luck, but I didn't really find these creatures terribly rewarding to keep. Some may really enjoy the "native" aspect of them, but do not keep your hopes too high. Also for catching bullies, most streams actually have a lot of them. When I was hunting for them I found them predominantly off to the side of a river, in the part with slow moving water and lots of rocks. Lift up random rocks and after 5-20 rocks you'll find a couple of them; just stick a fish net downstream of them and lure them into the net.

They're $1 each at Animates, you'll spend 5x that driving around trying to find them unfortunately. Unless you are after bulk supply (eg for feeders).