Luke*

Yea it was great to meet you all and have a chat and stare at all your tanks Rob Thanks

So I guess you'll be wanting windows on it?

I would suggest a barebottom tank, twice weekly water changes, and feeding 3-4 times daily. This keeps the tank clean, and the fish well fed.

Good on ya Billaney, you got room for them all?

Thanks heaps for that info DJ, top man.

I'm in Look forward to meeting some/all of you, will PM for address.

Ahhh...that's like complicated or something... Be mint if it was setup as mentioned to solenoid for automatic water changes, wouldn't know how to make the alterations req'd myself tho.

I found an old thread saying that the Eheim ones are good, anyone have the Nutrafin Profeed Auto Fish Feeder? I also saw another asian-looking brand HK1 on trademe which holds 3X more but has 4X less battery life. I guess the major advantage of Eheim (aside from being a good brand) is it can feed up to 4X per day, the other two above mentioned can only do up to 2X per day. Just trying to find a quality one really...

Brian's right, get some fluke tabs. Might pay to treat the whole tank. Pick up some fluke tabs from LFS.

I agree with Ira, or you could use Potassium Permanganate. Bleach is a bit harder to get rid of. Use a dilution of 1:19 bleach/water will be sweet. Shae, she's asked for instructions because she doesn't know how to install it, and as she said prefers instructions. I'm the same. If it's like normal cannister filters you have the intake and outflow positioned where you want them in the tank. Then you'll likely need to prime it by sucking on the intake then attaching it to the filter, this is a bit tricky and you might get some water squirting out. Then you switch it on and it should go. Hope this helps.

Wicked pics Ben! Hope mine turn out just like the Dad he's awesome.

Add the plants whenever you like, i'd add them sooner rather than later and get your lights setup so they can grow in. Healthy plants rid ammonia from the water almost instantly, but you can't rely on that you need to have it fully cycled. What Caryl is saying is that you need to cycle for 4 weeks (usually at least) Option 1 - Fishless cycle (you add (harmful) ammonia artificially, the filter turns this in to (harmful) nitrite, which then turns into (safe) nitrate (in levels up to 20ppm). Option 2 - Fish cycle (you use real fish to cycle the tank, they produce the ammonia) As ammonia is harmful this way you risk losing fish so best to use some cheap ones. Plus you'll want to use as many fish as you're going to add... for example if you use 3 small fish to cycle, then add 5 discus, the extra ammonia from the discus may shock the filter into recycling causing you grief..this is perhaps why people say you should have a well established tank before getting discus, but all you need to make sure is that the filter can convert their ammonia into nitrate. Discus prefer fresh clean water to old established water. Hope this helps

Oh no clown loaches I mean....sorry... just freshwater Hard enough getting freshwater conditions right. I'm totally satisfied with freshwater, not that interested in saltwater to be honest.

Hi SAFFABOY, Blue turquoise discus will be good to start with. They breed quite readily and seem to be less prone to disease (at least say opposed to pigeon bloods). If you do a fishless cycle it will take 4-6 weeks before you can add the discus, when ammonia and nitirite = 0. Your nitrate will then shoot up so you'll need to do a big water change, then it's ready. You want ideally a filter that pumps 5X the water volume per hour, so sounds like your filter will be sweet. Do you mean it's an undergravel bio filter?? Is it going to be planted? Adding CO2? If so don't use the protein skimmers as Ira says it will aerate the tank but this means it will off gas the CO2.

Best thing to do is just all move to Hamilton... That must've been scary. Suphew how was your unsecured tank? Seems like the pacific ring of fire is getting restless.

That's the problem, most fish need to be in schools but we get this idea of selling just "one" for $450 but is perhaps dooming the fish if sold alone. And reality is most people will not buy 3-5 fish at $450 each!

4w/gallon | 1W/litre is what I wish I had but I only have 160W/300 litres (75 gallons) which = basically 2W/gallon or 0.5W/litre. I have easy to grow plants: ambulia, java fern, some palmey plant I'm not sure which it is, wisteria, rotala, and a few grassy ones in the foreground. I tried some red plant but it didn't survive even with ferts, not enough light I'd say, or perhaps it was outcompeted by the other fast growing plants. My tubes are grow-lux, 4 X 40 W bulbs, 2 aqua one units that house 2 bulbs each.

Going to a fish shop's never a waste of time

It's never a bad idea to quarantine (4-6 weeks). But then I'd say most of us don't do it and largely get by fine. I guess the bad part is when something hits you bad and you lose all of your existing expensive fish. I just quarantined 3 new clowns before adding them to my existing 3 clowns, it was quite useful as I could adjust the water conditions gradually to be that of the big tank where they were heading. Cheers

They will often lose their barbels if stressed or ill, don't want to worry you though, I'd say they would grow back if they get better or their water conditions are good. Certain substrates wear them down too as Alan said.

Hey Polgara, I have homemade fertiliser for sale with all the necessary elements (iron, potassium, nitrate, trace element etc) for sale. Do you still have tanks for sale???? Cheers Luke.

I mix my own liquid fertiliser Brian and can sell you some cheap if you'd like (120ml in those water ager dripper bottles), for a fast growing successful heavy planted tank you will need good lighting (4W/gallon | 1W litre), CO2, and fertiliser, and underheating coils I hear help heaps as Matt has confirmed (although not essential) Cheers

Hey Brian, you don't need to collect tap water, Hamilton water is 0-1 dH (degrees hard)... plenty soft. In fact you may need to add baking soda as a buffer to keep the pH consistent. If no added CO2 kH (carbonate hardness) 4 is fine. Cheers

Awesome Billaney! Nice pics they look great. Good clutch.

If it's Hex aka hole in the head disease you'll need metronidazole. www.simplydiscus.com has a lot of info on this. You'll need to get it from a vet. Hope this helps Cheers