spooky

I can't offer it a home, but I just wanted to say that I got mine the same way - it came with the plants. First fish into the tank and it's still there 2.5 years later. Its been a wonderful fish, I just had to make sure it had a hole it could call its own to hide in. It certainly hasn't grown to 30 cm. I also suspect it was involved in the sudden snail depopulation - another redeeming feature.

Down in Dunedin there are two stores which deal in fish stuff. One sells the AR-850 tanks - but never stocks the bulbs. The other doesn't stock the AR-850s, but always has the 25W bulbs. Go figure.

Before going for the drugs I'd definitely recommend turning the lights off for a couple of days. It doesn't get rid of all the algae, but the algae takes a serious hit and the plants barely notice. Also keep the plants well supplied with CO2 and a phosphate-free fertiliser - let them out-compete the algae for the shared resources. If that sounds too much like hard work, just reduce the amount you feed the fish to try and limit the phosphate levels. That last advice is sort-of generic anti-algae advice assuming the problem is high phosphate levels. As Caryl points out this isn't necessarily true - blue-green algae seems to thrive in non-standard water conditions (I get it betwen the java moss and the glass and only there, I assume its a sort of micro-climate). You could also try doing some water changes in quick succession to try and swing the water parameters away from what they currently are and hopefully the algae will like it less. (Hopefully the water chemistry will swing towards what the fish like, but be careful.)

No, only six.

Name: Callum Age: 31 Sex: M Books: I;ve just finished Neil Stevenson's The DIamond Age, but my reading seems to have slowed up in recent years . Family: My wife, a sister, and the usual quota of parents. Location: Dunedin Job: "Research Fellow" is the job title. Fiddling with electronics seems to be the current reality. Car: Mitsubishi Magna station wagon

Yeah, the airstone will fix the noise since the bubbles are smaller and there will be less air flow overall. You could try blocking off the end of the hose and putting pin-holes along it. I;ve never tried that, but it should work.

Another trick you can play with a coke-bottle of yeast is to leave it on the lights. When the lights are on it is warmer and pumps out more CO2 when the plants can photsynthesise it. Thats the theory anyway, I'm not actually sure how much of a difference it really makes since the Dunedin water is hard enough to buffer away any pH swing and I haven't tried to do any night/day hardness comparisons. Wouldn't work for the nutrafin stuff anyway.

What you are looking for at the LFS is a KH/GH test kit.

I'd stick with the skunk loach until it causes a problem. They can be tempermental, but they can also be good. Give it plenty of places to hide and it will probably be fine. Mine never nipped fins, but it can definitely be a boisterous fish. It was actively hassling a kribensis for a while but that was mostly competition for hiding places and no one got damaged. It certainly didn't bite or kill any other fish (unlike that kribensis). Mine arrived accidentally with a bunch of plants and like you I panicked when I first read about it - but everything has turned well.

From the aquaone website (www.aquaone.com.au). All lengths in mm. I am using their figures for the capacity - these are less than the rectangular volume. In the case of the AR850 the quoted capacity is very close to the amount of water I put in so they are probably accurate. I assume the discrepancy is due to the outer dimensions being quoted (plus slack for curved fronts and the like). CR320 = 300x330x380 = 28L AR126 = 380x250x360 = 22L AR380 = 380x250x460 = 34L AR510 = 510x350x540 = 75L AR620 = 620x390x520 = 90L AR620T = 620x390x520 = 90L <- I think this is a mistake, it is meant to be a tall version of the AR620. AR850 = 820x440x580 = 155L AR980 = 990x470x600 = 215L I haven't seen these for sale down here, but for completeness: R2-120 = 1230x460x680 = 285L R2-150 = 1530x460x680 = 370L R2-180 = 1860x500x760 = 540L You will have to work out what these are in imperial units yourself (which gives you the freedom to choose which version of the gallon you use).

Ira's point is that the canister only has to pump against the *difference* in pressure between its input and its output. If you have two hoses going up to an equal height then the water in the input hose pushes down (and helps the pump) by the same amount that the water in the outlet hose is pushing back. So it all cancels out. In fact, as long as the inlet and outlet are below the water line, they don't have to be the same height since you have to account for the tank water above them as well and the real water-column height is then taken from the top of the tank, which is conveniently level. Looping the hose over the side of the tank is also self-cancelling, the only time you get any pressure difference is if you put the outlet above the tank, but since the worst I have ever seen This discussion doesn't allow for friction in the hoses or anything like that, but these effects are usually negligible. You also have to worry about the pressure at the seals, but the pumps are designed for this sort of use and once again you can generally ignore the problem. As for you original question about drilling holes: it has been done, usually by people installing a "stand-pipe". The salt-water people seem to do it a lot, but I don't know any of the details.

It is now just on a year since I started filling my tank and getting back into the tropical fish game. An even better anniversary is that it has been six months since any of my fish died. Hopefully the second tank - long delayed by planned construction work where it will be situated - will go ahead soon.

Hey! That's my CO2 setup! I could swear it was still in on my tank last night. About the diffuser: I used to have the airstone underneath the bottom section of one of those soft-drink bottles (hidden under some java moss). More recently it has just been under some rocks. The CO2 uptake into the water isn't great but the plants are still growing like anything and that hard Dunedin water prevents pH fluctuations so it is pretty much optimal.

Yeah, the instructions aren't too good. Mine came pre-assembled by the LFS, but I had to push a few of the tubes more firmly into place. I've tried the filter with both the wool on top and on the bottom - it makes no real difference (in theory the wool is better on top). So in the end the lack of instructions wasn't an issue. If I recall correctly the instructions mention a height to fill it to - in practise this is a minimum.

Referring back to the mention of leaks. If I remember a previous discussion about the Aqua One tanks it is a problem with the filter overflowing when it starts getting clogged. It appears that this only affects some models. The AR-850 I purchased a year ago does not have this problem - the individual filter boxes have backed up and overflowed, but the housing they are in makes sure that the water goes back into the tank. All the same, have a good look at the filter and satisfy yourself about what will happen when it goes wrong.

I have shallow, light-coloured gravel. It doesn't stop me growing plants and the fish don't seem to care. It does stop you growing deeply rooted plants, but there are plenty of plants that will grow happily in it. You can put fertiliser under the gravel, but really that is only for the serious plant person (you can always add fertiliser pellets later). Be careful pouring extra gravel in - I have had a fish who make a lunge for a bit of gravel I was pouring back in on the assumption that falling things are food and then he got brained by the next lump of gravel. Not that this affected the fish in any way whatsoever - stupid kribensis.

Caper, Otos are a catfish and are in fact in the same family as bristlenoses and plecos (but plecos don't tend to be good as algae eaters). The various Chinese/Siames algae eaters aren't catfish. They are more closely related to loaches (and barbs and goldfish and danios - i.e. cyprinids) than catfish. Yes, it is confusing.

Can't comment too much on the effect on the plants, but the normal problem with halogens is that they run too hot and are straight-out energy inefficient.

Transformers last a long time - there is very little that can go wrong with them. A lot of equipment that plugs into the mains already have one inside - it isn't the transformer that usually dies. Transformers can become noisy with age as the core "loosens up" and starts rattling. Running them over their rating can cause them to overheat. Not a lot else happens to them in my experience. A step-down transformer is just an ordinary transformer with the right number of windings to convert from 240V to 110V. They are incredibly simple devices - unfortunately all transformers are expensive (anyone who has ever had to wind one can tell you why).

Remember that the photo has been taken with a flash, not the best for bringing out the true colours in a fish. I think that it could be a black neon, but most of the stripe is obscured by the reflection off the upper body. I can't find any better match in my books - although my most comprehensive one somehow manages to make the tail of a red-tailed black shark look yellow, so I'm not sure how good this info is. Speaking of flashes - anyone with glass catfish should try photgraphing them with a flash, it brings the skeleton into sharp contrast and the red-eye makes them look positively demonic!

What a neat fish. That broad white sweep of fins - it reminds me of Andy Warhol.

I won't offer specific species, but if I were stocking a big new tank right now I would go for smaller, colourful species and in abundance. When I say abundance, I don't mean lots of different species, I mean lots of a few species. For example, your idea of a school of glowlights is a great idea.

I doubt it Control. With a constant current all you will get is 50Hz noise (plus harmonics) - which is already pervasive anyway from lighting, other heaters, pumps. Thats not even taking into account the rest of the house.

If your local pet store has a vet attached to it (like our one) then you can also get syringes from them. We have a small collection now given to us to dose our cat.

All of those are OK. Just remember to take it slowly (have you had the concept of "cycling" the tank explained to you?). Angels do get large, and can eat smaller fish, but most of them should be OK. Also, be careful with the sword-tails, you need to 2-3 females for every male to avoid fights between the males. Plattys and female swordtails are pretty much the same, so you could replace the plattys with female swords if you wanted more male swords. In general you will find it is more aesthetically pleasing to have a larger group of one sort of fish than two smaller groups (assuming they are shoaling fish). Unfortunately this conflicts with the desire to get *all* the interesting and pretty fish you find down at the store.