Dachende

Hi Trinox - Rip Mop , was a really nice guy. Was a very sad day for alot of people then. I believe I may have worked with you , and my brother still does if you're still working at the same place as around this time last year. Glad you found some peace in the hobby- Fish are incredibly therapeutic.

You'll probably find he'll "claim" a spot in the tank as his, and when other fish come close he'll chase them away . I'm not sure if this is a trait of the fish, or I just have a guard-dog rainbow shark. It's not a problem tho, he'll do a quick chase then return to his spot - No harm done. I don't think you would have any problems with the fish you mentioned + a rainbow shark. Especially with the size of your tank, plenty of room to hide / avoid Mine only bothers to chase fish around his size , the smaller ones aren't threatening enough for him to bother with. If you do get aggression problems with one, I've found re-arranging some things inside the tank will re-define boundaries and hugely lower aggression.

Hi ! Rainbow sharks are good community fish - they don't tolerate members of their own species tho, so limit yourself to one. I've found my rainbow shark doesn't get along with my Redtail shark either - so they had to be seperated. Best to get the rainbow shark - I've found he's much less aggressive than my redtail

Used to be in IT, now self employed grass demolisher - but have a love of both fish and IT

Unfortunately, putting 50 guppies into a non-cycled tank, you might wanna be prepared to lose more than a few, that many fish being introduced at the same time, whilst not cycled, can only end in tears

"These smaller species are known for an alleged tendency to invade and parasitise the human urethra; however, despite ethnological reports dating back to the late 19th century, the first documented case of the removal of a candiru from a human urethra did not occur until 1997, and even that incident has remained a matter of controversy." If you read the wiki on it, you'll find out the only documented case of this ever happening has holes all through the story. I'll stick with being afraid of pirahnas, thanks !

What sort of filter are you using ? If you can take media out, and just run the outlet through a pantyhose or micron sock type thing, it should pickup alot of the dirt you mentioned, Couldn't hurt ?

I really like it, can't wait to see it fill out ! Keep us posted

I'm a sand person myself, after using both, albeit neither for very long Silica Sand from trademe is pretty cheap, but depends on shipping I guess. I found it more of a pain to vacuum gravel than cleaning sand, I just use a siphon hose off a gravel vac, and skim just above the surface of the sand. You do lose some, but it looks so good.

Welcome :happy2:

Hi ! Thought I would share my tank with you all - it's 900x450x450 planted community tank I've been working on for the past few months. Sorry about the photo quality, old camera. It has a good active group of around 16 barbs , 2 BN Plecos, 1 golden algae eater , a male and female swordtail and a rainbow shark. The 2 larger tiger barbs "duel" every night , it's quite entertaining. The skull cave on the left side is where my rainbow shark lives. It sits there with its nose poking out and chases anyone who comes near.. Tank has got Java fern, Twisted Val, Amazon sword, cabomba, dwarf hairgrass, christmas moss & some cutty grass type thing I got from HFF I can't remember the name of. Most of the wood and rocks in there and from maraetai beach after a good soak in boiling water. I used daltons for substrate and silica sand as top coat + some gravel I had. I dose with very small amounts of flourish + excel, about 1/4 normal dose. It's a work in progress, I plan to do more to the right hand side, spread more cabomba across the back as it grows and replace the rock in the front with more smaller rocks from the beach, next time I'm there. Also would like to try attach moss and maybe some smaller java ferns to the skull cave to make it look a bit less plastic. Shark loves the cave, so I gotta keep it, just figure out a way to hide it. I use a 300w heater, 1400 l/ph external filter with bioballs, ceramic noodles and coarse sponge + a powerhead for more flow inside the tank. It's not very powerful but can't remember exact flow. This is my first tank larger than 60l and didn't really have much of a plan when I started it. It seems to have taken on a life of it's own as I progressed and as it fills out.

With any driftwood or rocks I pick up from the beach, I usually pour boiling water over them just to be sure to nastys come with it, then put them in the tank. If the wood isn't bouyant, then no need to soak it :thup:

Greetings, I'm Pete, 31 years old and recently moved to Takanini. Born a pisces and always had a strange affinity with water, I always knew one day I would jump in and start keeping my own aquarium. I started out about 12 months ago with a hailea 60lt, internal filter tank and lost my first group of fish (neons) because of over-eagerness and a huge lack of understanding / ignorance. I then spent a good month, reading up as much as I could every day and educating myself on where I went wrong. I now have a planted 900x450x450 which is my main focus, the 60lt I started out with and also a small cube quarantine / treatment tank about 30x30x30 . Needless to say I've got the bug. I've enjoyed reading here for a while now, and decided it was about time to join in. Ultimately, I'm here to learn, and try to soak up as much as I can. :thup:

From personal experience I've found the only thing to watch out for with fry, is anything fast enough to catch it. Snails shouldn't pose much of a threat