Silverdollarboy2

Hi all,
New to the forum – all though I have been reading in the forum for the last few years.
My family and I are living up in Kerikeri and recently started our second fresh water tank. Our first tank was a Juwel 200L community tank.
When my work situation permits I always want to try a marine setup as well, so when we decided to upgrade our fresh water tank we invested in a Red Sea Reefer 250. That in itself was a bit of a challenge as only one importer in New Zealand (Living Reef in ChCH). The first tank arrived to the country in Nov 2016, but unfortunately was on the train that was hit by the Kaikoura earthquake.
I finally got my tank in March and an absolutely joy to setup such a piece of high quality tank. It’s rimless tank with max capacity of 204 L and with a build in 40L sump.
From my previous experience I found it a hassle working with canister filters etc. And always wanted a simpler setup and easier to do maintenance – hence why I wanted a tank with build in sump.
I don’t have that much fish keeping experience, mainly from my childhood where my whole family back in Denmark had tanks.
Our 4 year old daughter really wanted some colourful fish so we decided on an African cichlid tank.
Anyway below are our setup and some photos.
204L tank with 40L sump
Eheim Compact +3000 return pump
Koralia wave maker in main tank
De Bary UV (running around 750 L/hr flow rate)
2 Al Prime Led (these are great and can be controlled wireless from an App)
Approx 3L bio material (matrix + ceramic noodles) in a homemade filter basket in sump
Decoration is cichlid stones with fake silk plants
PH 8.3 and Alk 8-9 dKH
For testing I am using Salifert products and a Hanna ammonia checker
For feeding I am using Hikari cichlid pellets as well as a Nori blended with small amount of dry shrimps.
Water:
We are on rain water tank (plastic tanks). I have a 3 staged + UV filtration on this + a filter basket at inlet into rain water tank with limestone chips and Akdolit (burned limestones granulates). The lime helps to increase the PH from around 5.5 to around 7.3. I am quite obsessed with having clean water for my house hold and I don’t think it’s healthy for either human consumption or your water heater with acid rain water...
Anyway to help increase the PH further and buffer the water I am using Seachem products.
The tank has been doing a fishless cycle for around 2 months and so far it appears to have a decent amount of bacteria’s.
We recently got or fish (all bought at the same time) and all juvenile:
12 yellow labs
1 Demasoni
1 Dragon blood peacok
1 Butterfly peacock
So far we are enjoying the tank and my daughter has already named all the fish. The blue fish got the name “Danger”, which is probably appropriately!
Anyway just wanted to introduce our tank and I am sure I will have question as we go forward. This is our first time having African cichlids.
 
Brgds Lasse

The A-line juveniles are now 3 months old and at least 40mm TL. They're now in a 200L growout with 2 young festivums and some glowlight tetras. I only have five of them remaining.

 
The B-line juvies are 6 weeks old and at least 25mm TL. I counted about 100 or so spread out across 3 growout tanks.  
Both parents have not yet spawned again so I may hold on to the A-line juvies and some B-lines as well just in case.
B-lines can be ready to sell once they reach at least 40mm TL perhaps in a month or two.  Maybe I should start taking pre-orders...
 

I've signed it, although even if it does get passed I doubt it will have much affect. Whitebait will still be sold illegally and even most of the whitebaiters who dont will probably catch excess for friends and family. 
A better approach to protecting our our native fish would be compulsory fencing of waterways and protection of native bush, both mature and regenerating. Whitebaiting itself likely has a minimal effect on the native fish populations compared to pollution from farm runnofff, loss of habitat etc...
It's a big step in the right direction if it does get passed though

So,  I bought some cheap LED strip lights and put them into my 4ft, 400L tank.
 
So, a bit of a build log:
 
 

Day 1, 0 hours.
Here's the tank hood,  was 6 24 watt CFLs(3 burned out) and two 4 foot fluoros(Dead)
 
 

Day 1, 1.5 hours
All the old lights pulled out, cleaned up, a bit of bleach and meths to clean up the wood.  And I've started cutting wires ready to solder to the LED strips
 

Day 1, 2.5 hours
Pre-tinning the wires and then pressing down onto the little copper pads seems to work...HORRIBLY, These things are horrible to solder,  little tiny pad and melty plastic all around it?!?  Ok, well, I managed to do it, kinda ugly...But ok.
 

Day 1, 3.5 hours
Slowly working through all the strips, one by one and throwing them in a pile....
 

Day 1, 4 hours
Laying them out in the hood, piling anything convenient on top of them to keep them from rolling up...
 

Day 1, 4 hours
I swear, I didn't do that....
 

Day 1, 5 hours
All laid out,  wires all joined together...
 

Day 1, 5 hours
Ugh...That looks horrible.  I'll figure out how to tidy it up tomorrow.
 
Day 2
I can't be bothered with it...
 
Day 3 
Oh, I know, I'll get some brass rods and solder the wires to it like bus bars.  It will look cool!  Should make expanding it easy too.
 
Day 4
Can't get to a place to buy the rods.
 
Day 5
Got them!
 

Day 6
AHHH, this looks even worse!  I didn't consider how much heat it would take to solder to giant rods, big, ugly cold solder joints EVERYWHERE.
 
And I ended up pulling off half the solder pads and wires from the LED strips.  I'm going to have to start this all over.
 

Day 7 Hour 1
Got some chocolate blocks/ screw terminals, should work a little better....
 

Day 7 Hour 2
Looking much more tidy now.
 

Day 7 Hour 4
I cut ends of the strips off, left the entire solder pad this time,  should only lose a little bit of light.
New wires soldered on, went MUCH better this time.  Same process, pre-tin the wires then press down on the solder pads.
 

Day 7 Hour 5
First set plugged in and powered up!  Oops, one strip isn't working... Just didn't get the wire into the terminal before screwing it down so it came loose.
 

Day 7 Hour 6
The rest of the strips are wired in and powered up,  I've adjusted the voltage on the power supply to 13v and it's drawing 90 watts.
 

Ok, 12.85 volts, the voltage dropped a little...
 
 

Day 7 Hour 7
All ready to go, I've put some liquid electrical tape where the wires are soldered to the strips, and on each of the solder pads the rest of the strips.  I've put on the sides too there, so hopefully it will hold the strips down, the adhesive backing isn't the greatest.
 
Oh, and there are a couple LEDs in the lower right that are dead.  I...Uhh....May have not noticed that strip fall on the floor at some point and then I may have stepped on it...
 

Day 8
Fish are happy to have some light, I think.

I turned the voltage back down to 12v, the lights are drawing 60 watts at this voltage.   They look brighter than the 3, year or so old 24w CFLs, but that's not hard.  It's a moderate brightness, I'd say, not really bright but good.  I'm pretty happy with them.  I think I'll buy more strips and add a bit more power.
 
 
The parts:
The LEDs
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D83BGVS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Total about $25
 
The power supply, 150w 12v
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DECSE8G/ref=pe_2602560_239856390_em_1p_0_ti
 
Bought locally, $80
 
All the wires, screw terminals, solder etc you can find anywhere, I'm not going to link to those.  A wire stripper, liquid electrical tape, odds and ends another $50 NZ
 
Total cost: About $155
 
Maybe I should have spent a little more and bought a nice LED fixture....Oh well.
 

WOW! It looks amazing, those are some very happy minnows.
 

The beautiful garden pond was designed by Kiwi
 
 

Moscow Magenta:

Black Lutino Endler:

Japan Blue DS:

 
Cheers,
JaSa

I've been pretty bred with my tank lately, to the point of contemplating shutting it down even, and it wasn't until Facebook reminded me that it's been four years since we built it that I realised why. In the twenty years I've been keeping fish this is the longest period I've ever had one tank continuously running for. And further more, it's nearly been three years since I sold my aro and went down the 'monster community' route with angels and tetras etc, which is the longest I've ever kept a single "theme" (for want of a better word) going in one tank. Part of the problem is that the tank is downstairs in it's own room, but I think a big part of the problem is that time has flown by far faster than I've realised and it has become stagnant.
I pulled down the big pile of wood to give it a thorough clean and to do stock-take on my plecs (still got 6 of the 7 tiny gold nuggets that I put in there nearly three years ago) and contemplated where to from here. I think a change up of the livestock is in order, hopefully that might reignite a bit of interest in it. Anyway, here's some pics as it is this morning, is three years a long time to keep an aquarium basically unchanged, or do I just have a short attention span....
 

Parachaetodon ocellatus - Ocellate Butterflyfish
 

Aulonocara sp. - Peacock cichlid
 
 

Updates, the camera doesn't do them justice 

I have 3 breeding units of 5 tanks each which I breed different fish in and one unit is solely set up for breeding bullies. I have found upland bullies to be very easy to rear. I remove the eggs from the tank ,this is done after you can see a silvery appearance in the eyes of the fry developing in the eggs for a few days, and place rock etc containing eggs next to an air stone. After they hatch and their eggs sacs are absorbed I start dumping in water from my goldfish ponds about a litre a day, ( I used to have an elaborate system of siphons and taps feeding from header tanks but found this a waste of time). After about a week I start to introduce micro worms into diet whilst still feeding pond water. Instead of microworms I initially tried Artemia and daphnia but these I think are a pain to culture( though I still use them sometimes for other projects) compared to ease of microworms . To ensure the worms don't just sink to the bottom I let them drip slowly from a teat of a baby bottle over an air stone then they float around in the water column. The bullies actually munch quite a few from the floor also. After another week I stop using the pond water but rely solely on micro worms. After a few weeks I start to add white worms to diet. As the fry are still small at this stage I mince the white worms through a sieve , they eat them from the floor of the aquarium also. Then I slowly start to remove micro worms from the diet slowly increasing the amount of and size of white worms in over the ensuing weeks. I also feed mosquito larvae at this stage as a diet of pure white worms isn't completely nutritional( though that's debatable depending upon sources referred to). When feeding on white worms they bulk up really quick. After about 3 months after hatching they are around an inch long and baby bullies and can be fed as usual for bullies. This will depend however on temps and frequency and type of food

Whilst raising the fry I made sure to carry out the following practises:
- raise the fry in shallow water so they are close to food supply
- its OK to just use an air stone ( but i would use sponge fry filter if this is your first time )so long as you do frequent water changes ( I do 33% per day).
- Make sure air flow to stone isn't to great as fry don't like getting buffeted about.
- don't use substrate have only glass so food doesn't decompose and you can see what needs to be siphoned off
- when siphoning if you accidently suck up any fry just put it back in and it should survive
- as they get larger deepen water level, split up fry into other containers( if one Lot dies you have backups) and add filter, ( I used corner filter with me missus tights I stole( she went ape when she found out!) put over it to stop fry getting sucked in), also its good to increase diameter of siphon tube for ease of cleaning. Flow rate of air stone can also be increased.

Other stuff,
- if you don't have much money here are some money saving tips
If you you dont have aquariums spare go to bunnings and get fish bin, Tupperware containers they work just as well.
- you can make most of your own filters from buckets, jars etc. Just buy the motor pump.
- hoses for filters, air pumps etc can be modified from irrigation equipment as can taps, connectors, the list goes on

Note: if it gets warm were you keep them get a chiller or make your own( mine live in an area that stays very cool all year so it doesn't stress them), as native fish don't like higher temps.
Also:
if you want to rear some but don't have breeding pair, go to a stream etc in the breeding season and you will find swarms of fry in shallows, net these and try with them( that's what I initially did), but this will only work with upland, crans, common( some pops) and tarndale( but this one shouldn't be tried )
I used trial and error over many years to figure out method which best suits me. I have dozens and dozens of fish books and thf, practical fish keeper magazines' which I researched to find the breeding and rearing methods of cousins of our native bullies (PhD thesis are a good source of info too). But today's internet is far more accessible and has far more info from people who have far more knowledge than me, including many people here on fnzas.There are many other systems which others including fnzas members use that work just fine so do what's best for you I just put this on to help in future if anyone has difficulties raising bully fry.

Final note : what to do with all the bullies you now have?
Let them go?! No, its illegal!
Sell them? No, it illegal!
Eat them? No, too small! ( I haven't actually tried this if you were wondering, but once did it with a whole heap of huge goldfish and they tasted pretty good)!
Feeder fish? I've done it but prefer not to!
Give em away? Yip that's the best way. Or if ya like me convince ya missus or mister that you have too many fish and not enough tanks and if they comply get another tank ( or spouse if they won't)!
Cheers

Mine didn't get that big before I moved it on, wish I had some better pics!

Its fine with the others.  As above the GK is the boss of the tank and even tries to take food out of the eels mouth - the eel just ignores him.  Bullies move out of the eels way but only when they are about to be pushed not because they are scared of it.
My fingers are another matter as it can bite when hand feeding because my fingers smell of food and its eye sights not the best  (doesn't hurt).  Interesting to watch him feed because when hunting for left over food it will start to swim straight past a piece then back up and grab it.  Think he approaches a piece of food as the smell increases then when it starts to diminish he can pinpoint which side it is on (via nostrils sticking out either side above his mouth). 
P.S. the white line on its back is just something stuck to its slime coating.  Thought it had ich the other day only to realise it had grains of sand stuck to it.
Butch also wanting to be fed despite a stomach stuffed full (better count my Inanga's again).

Where's my food!  Its been 2 hours since you've fed me!!!! 
 

Tanks going well.  Butch the GK is living up to his name in both shape and attitude as he rules all of his domain.  The 2 female Redfins are their cheeky self & I still haven't got my a into g and got some males for them.  The Inanga's have dropped in numbers from 15 in November down to 9.  No dead fish found and since it was only the smaller ones that disappeared and the GK looks fat each time I know the cause.......  As the GK grows I expect the Inanga population to proportionately fall.
One major change was adding a small shortfin eel in December.  I hadn't seen the cray for a few months so decided it must have died in its hole so got the shortfin.  It is not something I recommend for a tank even one of 500ltr as it will outgrow it (the originally 15cm eel has doubled its size in only 5 months). But it is very intelligent & entertaining.  Within 2 days of getting it, it was coming to the surface to feed from my hand.  Feeding time is 4.30pm and will make itself known during that time and insists on being hand feed even if my fingers are a couple inches above the water. It also puts up with being petted and will come out of hiding & weave itself through my fingers during the day (good party trick for camp guests).  A couple of weeks ago I spotted the eel and the cray having a territory dispute over a hole so the cray is still alive and kicking butt.
The tank is in the reception area of a camping ground and very few NZ'ers seem to realise that they are natives.  After I advise them that they are natives they automatically assume that its a saltwater tank because "only trout live in streams".  Depressing how many can recognise a native bird but have no idea of freshwater fish.  

1.  Yes.  The standard half dozen or so.
2.  They're basically non aggressive, so any other moderately sized active fish. 
3.  I'd say something in the 4 foot, 400L range minimum.  More mature you're looking at 6-8 foot.
 

Looking good after a water change.

Poecilia reticulata - Scissortail
 

Trichopodus microlepis - Moonlight Gourami


 

Hemigrammus rhodostomus - Albino Rummynose tetra

Monarch butterfly in my garden
 
 

Transporting Those Fish.

A Few Pointers
Shipping fish can be a daunting and worrying thing at the best of times, but if done correctly, then your fish should arrive at their destination safe and sound.
Many fish are lost in transit due to ..
Incorrect packing... Stress, due to bad packing.. Ammonia poisoning due to too many fish... Bags that are not sealed correctly.. No heat packs.. so fish are cold on arrival... Late pickups... Too many to a bag... Punctured bags through spiney fish.. and sometimes poor courier service.

Know what you are doing.
Various fish will need transporting in various ways, so consider the situation that the fish is going to be in for perhaps the next forty eight hours.
You can NEVER have too much insulation.. so use the correct containers and packing.
Large fish may need to be bagged up singly.. whereas some of the smaller fish can go six to ten in a bag.

Be Prepared:
Do a water change the day before you intend sending the fish.
This will ensure decent water for the trip.. as ammonia levels can build up quickly in the bag during the trip.
It is a good idea not to feed the fish for 24 hours before you send them to prevent waste and further ammonia building up in the bag.
Ensure that no fish waste is added to the bag if possible.

Fish need air and space.
If they are say.... Adult Guppies... then you could "possibly" get eight or ten to a bag (300x450 size) for an overnight trip.
Use good quality fish bags if possible with the rounded corners.

The shipping box.
You would need a suitable styrene box.. plus a heat pack if the trip is a long one.
Most of these "Heat Packs" generate heat when rubbed vigorously.. so avoid doing this until the very last moment before you finally seal the box.

Very Important.
Fill the bag with approx one third water.. then insert an air line from your air pump into the neck of the bag and twist to create a seal.
Allow the bag to inflate... then twist the neck of the bag some more and pull out the airline while keeping the bag fully inflated.
Fold the neck of the bag over firmly and hold in position with two good strong rubber bands...
MINIMUM 100mm (4") allowance for twisting and folding over.
There should be no air leaks.

Crumple up some newspaper and place in the styrene box, then add the bag or bags, packing each so that they can't roll around.
Add the heat pad if needed, but don't lay it directly on the plastic bags.. just pack it so that the heat can circulate.

Coldwater Goldfish etc:
As above, but ommit the heat pack.. plus one or two fish per bag only... depending on size.

Plecos... Spiney Catfish etc:
Use Tupperware containers.. one third water.. two thirds air.. plus heat pack in most cases.

Adult Swords.. Cichlids etc:
One or two per bag.. as above.. depending on size.

Adult Angels:
ONE per bag always... plus heat pack.

Plants Only:
Just pack loosly in wet newspaper and place flat in a poly bag.
Seal to avoid leakage. Post in a bubble pack type envelope.
Another method when packing some of the more fragile type plants... (thanks Cyberfin).. is to place them in a partially inflated plastic bag.
The air will cushion them from being crushed. No water except what is on the plant when removed from tank, as sloshing water can damage. If the bag is sealed properly it will remain relatively humid within.

Mark the box CLEARLY with the name
... plus
LIVE FISH... PLEASE CONTACT ON ARRIVAL..
and phone number if they are being sent to a collection point... like a service station or somewhere.

Contact The Person:
Contact the person as soon as you send the goods.
Inform them which service you have used, and when to expect deliverery.. AND WHERE.. in most cases, as many courier services will not deliver to home addresses.. but will drop parcels at a selected pick up point.

If in doubt... DOUBLE BAG ALWAYS
Some add a couple of drops of "Stess Coat" for the trip.
Some also recommend "Amolock", as it locks up any ammonina into a non toxic form.
Take care here and follow the instructions if you use these products.

Snails and such can be packed in a simple small strong cardboad box with bit of wet plant.. but they won't need a lot of water.. just a cupful perhaps, and the bag can be much smaller... plus the heat pack will not be needed.

Shop Around:
Not a lot of carriers will transport fish these days.. and the cost can vary tremendously.
Look at paying around $18:00 for a local overnight trip.. and triple that for some areas... but this depends on the carrier.
Try NZ Post... they are pretty good.. but not ALL branches will handle live stock.

Hope this helps

Bill (Pegasus)