breakaway

Thamms for the replies guys. I Have no air pumps. I've read some older threads on the topic, and they reckon that it's a good idea to have a air pump sitting outiside the home to pump clean fresh air into the aquarium. Is this really necessary? I already have everything I'd need to make this happen but it's a real hassle hanging the air pump outside the window, what if it rains etc etc.

Hello, I have two tanks running (1 x 200L Planted, 1 x 38L Quarantine) and both of them have fish in them. The 200L tank has 5 dwarf puffers, 3 otocinclus and 4 khuli loaches (so - a low bio load). The quarantine tank has 1 dwarf puffer in it (again a very low bio load). He's in the QT tank because I thought he might have internal parasites but after spot feeding him for 3 weeks and making sure he doesn't get harassed by other fish, he's putting on weight so I think he's fine. So - we are going to have the house fumigated sometime this week - pest controlled, bug bombed, whatever you want to call it - i.e. we're going to get a guy in to spray the house and then we have to vacate for a few hours, and then open all the doors and windows and air it out for a few hours. The bigger tank runs a fluval canister filter and the smaller tank runs a wet/dry trickle that's built into the hood of the tank. What to do with the tanks? Do I tape/glad wrap them up air tight? If so, will the fish have enough oxygen?

What do you cut with? Whenever I try to cut it shatters into a million pieces!

While we're on the topic, is thawing bloodworms, feeding the fish, and then re-freezing the leftovers and then feeding again bad? I had to do this for a few days after HFF ran out of AHT.

Just an update - I ordered a reg from eBay. The guy even threw in a free glass bubble counter as I offered to deal with him outside of eBay. I've also ordered a Rhinox 5000 CO² diffuser, and am waiting on that to arrive. Since I don't yet have my diffuser or CO² bottle yet, I am unable to test it how well it works. I just went down to Hollywood Fish Farm and fit the regulator to one of the bottles they had lying around, and on opening the valve, both the gauges register pressure, and the needle valve works well too (I can hear it hissing). I can hear the solenoid clicking when I plug/unplug it too. Keep in mind - it needs a US - NZ adapter. It works with 110 / 220V so there's no problems there.

That's gonna be sweet when it grows out a bit! Any future ideas of upgrading lights and/or adding pressurised CO²

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44547& Here's a 3 page thread from when I asked about drilling my AR380 to convert it into a nano-reef. It turned out to be cost ineffective so I decided to not bother with it in the end. Has advice from resident glass expert "barrie" within.

Doesn't Juwel do T5HO setups in their hood? I don't think the 180 has it, but one model up might. The display tank at HFF has 4 x 54W T5HO, should be plenty to grow any plant you want. I'd get one, if it weren't for the ridiculous price!

I used to have four blue dwarf gourami in a 54L (600x300x300) tank and there were no problems at all. There was no aggression, however all but 3 of them died between 1-2months after I got them. Put this down to bad water parameters.

$120 including freight. Pearling is when plants release oxygen into the water (in the form of little bubbles) right from the leaves because they're thriving. "Extras" needed would be some tubing (cheap), check valves (cheap) and bubble counter (~$9USD tops) and diffuser (another $20USD tops).

My CO² runs really well for the first day after I make it. Plants pearling all over the place and all. But on the 2nd day, only one or two plants are pearling. Third day, nothing. Bubbles are still coming out of the bottle, but the CO² concentration has gone down by tons. I'm about to get a pressurised system myself. Going to import a regulator + solenoid for ~$120NZ. Then buy a bottle in NZ for about $200-$250. Total cost about $3-400 worst case. Locally, just the reg+solenoid will set you back $500. Bottle extra.

Metro is a type of fish med. Heaters have built in thermostats so technically it'd be okay to run a 300W heater on a 30L tank.

This is exactly how I have mine set up, but if you're serious about growing plants you'll soon grow tired of swapping the mixture out, and the unreliable amount of CO² that these produce and spring for a pressurised system

Agree with Ira - I looked into this extensively a while back. If you only want a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) setup, then just buy the "marine" tube to fit your AR380 (should be available from the LFS) and it'll be enough to sustain some low light mushrooms and be plenty of light for clown fish. I'm not sure about fitting 2 clown fish into 40L of water though.

Agree with everyone. Don't worry about pH going just one point below 7. Just because a fish website quotes that a certain fish needs to be kept at pH 6.8-7.2 doesn't mean you have to have it EXACTLY within those parameters. Having the pH drop for a bit will not be detrimental to your fish.

What made your pH go low? What fish are in the tank? What is the actual pH reading?

Ah yup, I was dreading a reply like that. Again tonight he's eaten 400% his standard intake, so maybe I'll just wait it out for a few weeks and re-assess the situation.

One of my 6 dwarf puffers (Carinotetraodon travancoricus) was looking very 'tired', sitting on the gravel during the day and not moving. This is not normal behaviour for him. He isn't as extroverted as the other 5 puffers - he likes to hide in the substrate amongst the plants and graze on snails etc. And during feeding time, he'll eat significantly less than the other puffers - he'll eat 1-2 bloodworms tops, while the other puffers will eat 4-6 depending on size. Then there's also the fact that he hasn't gained much weight (if any at all) since I got him. All the other puffers have fattened up considerably. For the time being I've isolated him into a 40L tank by himself (With filter media + water from cycled tank) and he seems to be doing great - he ate 4 worms (that's almost 3 more than normal) last night, and seems considerably more active (i.e. spends less time sulking on the substrate) I can get fenbendazole, but don't want to start dosing medicines until I'm absolutely sure. Is there any way I can be sure before I start medicating? TIA!

I've already gone from dosing 4mL flourish every 3rd day to 2mL every 3rd day. Will go to 1.5mL every 3rd day, reduce lighting by an hour, and 10L water change every day and see if it makes a difference.

Another update - the plants I bleached now have algae growing on them again Added an extra 78W of T5HO lighting. Also renewed my CO² mixture recently, and plants are pearling like there's no tomorrow. Stargrass is even starting to flower: As you can see the algae is still pretty bad :-?

I saw something similar in my A.H.T daphnia. My puffers ate it though.

Lights in that aquarium are severely lacking. You'll end up either ripping the hood off, or modifying with LED / T5HO lighting. Both expensive options You could keep fish w/ some low end mushrooms or similar I think. A lot of corals you won't be able to get due to the depth and lacking lighting in the tank.

I have 1 dwarf puffer in my tank (of 6) that exhibits identical behaviour to what gatito described. He seems very skinny and has been since we got him. The others have fattened up considerably but this one is skinny. His poop etc looks normal, no odd behaviour asides from the fact that he likes to hang out on the substrate a lot more than the other puffers. Could it be parasites? My hypothesis so far is that he's been pigging out on a lot of snails so come dinner time he isn't really that hungry (I find a lot of empty snail shells every week or so), but that doesn't explain why he's smaller / skinnier than the rest of the puffers.

How many hours are your lights on every day? How many mL of flourish do you dose, and with what frequency?

How do you keep the algae at bay with so much light and only DIY CO²? Looking great though 8)