TM

When i did them a couple of years ago i did it like this. First select a couple of males and females. Feed well with a good mix of food. Keep them in seperate tanks, say 18x9x9, no gravel and just a filter. When nice and ripe, net one male and one female and put into your breeding tank* Turn lights off at normal time and check in the morning for eggs, if none wait till following morning and check again, if none remove and put back to the holding tanks. Try again in 3 - 4 days, mix pairs up if need be. Breeding tank. Small 14x7x7 or 12x6x6 Stainless mesh (1mm) wedged into bottom to allow eggs to drop thru. Fill tank with about 2inch of black water. Add a very small amount of java moss. DO NOT FEED when in these tanks. Made black water by pumping water thru peat for a week or so before hand, the darker the better. This will work for a lot of tetras etc. Could get a spawn out of most fish every three days.

They do all look healthy, sure not the mix i would have. I don't think other people should give him crap just because someone else has a different opinion, on the auction prior there was one guy that was way out of line. Just rude. You also shouldn't mix daino's, tetras and any other fish that could cross breed. Does not mean people shouldn't keep them together, does it? Just like the Yellow Tang thing a while back, nothing major wrong with it.

And keep a straight face

Best one i have, and it is true.. A child with his mum took a dead fish into a sjop here in Chch. The owner, who now has moved on, told the child his fish had drowned He did replace the fish at no charge.

All good answers but will still don't know what the pump is for??

What are you wanting it for? Sump, movement, filter????

Osram have a bulb out called Skywhite looks quite nice around the 10k mark. So in that range they have the 840 (4000k) cool white, 860 Bright white (6500k) and 880 Sky Bright (10000k) All should be around the same price.

Have you checked Organism's, was in there today and they had some. Did not check if they were M/F though

Not Pet Planet, there is no shop called this in CHCH. Close though. Im pretty sure most (but not all) fish stores in Christchurch have at some stage sold such fish. To put a different spin on things, I have worked for a importer. During the ordering proccess i have ordered dyed fish. If we had known this we would not have ordered them. For example, Red Tetra, is this dyed or not. You don't always know till the fish arrive and even then it can be hard to tell. Sure if they a bright blue or green or pink you could tell.

Keep the holes, use them for overflows for water changes. You could trial a system with just three tanks and see how it goes. As for air pumps you could look at the haliepa (sp) pumps, they were blue. One or two of these should work, otherwise petware has a range of large air pumps, can't remember the brand though, cosmo, cosmos, not sure

Looks good, however if i was doing it i would change a couple of things. First, get a bigger pump. A 2500ltr will not cut it if you are wanting your filter in the sump to filter all the tanks. Run the drains all into the sump, not just the next tank down. Be aware the garden type fittings do leak a bit so will require a bit of glue. They also block up a bit. May be better with larger dia pipe with taps. The other option that works really well is by running all the tanks off sponge or air type filters. Then have a setup a bit like the one you have drawing off but just have it for waterchanges. This option would also be cheaper and in my opinion better. Heating could be by way of under tank heating. Food for thought

Change the temp by a few degrees. You may find she starts having females.

Thanks, i've spent a fair bit of time on the coast and have thought a few times of using the sand. Which are did you get yours from??? You could then pick what grain size you want to.

What substrate do you all run, what do you like about it and would you use it again. Is there a large range of colors out there?

Just planning out my next project and trying to decide on which substrate i am going to use. Plan at this stage is to build a 1000 x 500 x 550h aquarium made from 8mm low iron glass with polished edges, total water height will be 500mm. Size was based on where the tank could fit. Lighting will be either 4 or 6 39w T5's staggered to give a good spread of light. Selection of plants, driftwood, rocks etc with a few tetras. So the question really is what substrate do you all run, what do you like about it and would you use it again. Not wanting gravel more sand like. Is there a large range of colors out there? Any other comments welcome... Thanks

There were a couple of other species that came in a while back but not sure who ended up getting them, Reef will be able to fill us in.

Tank is closer to 185ltr not 250ltr then take a bit off for rock etc. The tank would be perfect for a pair but 5 pairs would be way to much.

Ask Cawthron how offen they replace there probes???? I think you will find it more offen than you think. We change ours ever 6 - 9 months, but this does depend on the probe and what it is being used for. I never said every couple of months. Some of the probes are used to test upwards of 50 samples a day. The probe i was talking about is used to test low ionic strengh samples which are not easy to test. You should really calibrated probes every day depending on number of samples and how many you are testing. or at least check with some known buffers. No need to send them away, just buy three buffers. I am also talikng of lab ph meters/probes. The aquarium ones are cheap, this is not to say they don't work. In regards to the question asked i was just trying to point out that you could spend $50 - $60- $80 and find it to not last as long as one may think. A standard ph kit may be just as good, because at the end of the day you are only wanting to know if it is within a desired range say 6 - 6.5 etc

Potable water

How about this one, not that you could put any fish in it.

Put an overflow box in. Having the pipes coming thru the base or bottom rear panel really depends on your stand. At the end of the day the result will be the same.

I agree, I think the point suphew is trying to make is that regardless of if you like sand or not let the tank run for a bit first. By doing this you will find it easier to clean crap off the bottom. This would be a good idea if you don't no the rocks history. The other option is cooking the rock. Once this is done you can then debate the sand vrs bb issue and by the way bb is best :lol:

I have had a product like that, i got it from a inland paua farm in southland. Sorry don't have the contact details though. Places like Niwa in Wellington have all sorts of stuff like this, rotifers, macro algaes, foods. You just have to find the right person.

Looks like you can't change the probe, for that price i would not expect it either. Just be aware you may only get about a year out of it. If you are really wanting good results you would need to calibrate it every time you use it. A lage part of the cost will be the buffers. We just brought a probe worth about $900.00 these get replaced every 6 - 9 months and they calibrated daily.