Midas

I've just been reading through this months Aquarium World, well done to all those involved. However, the article on nitrate build up is some what misleading in that it states that without the help of plants and/or de-nitrifying bacteria it is impossible to stop nitrate levels accumulating in the aquarium with partial water changes. This isn't true. For instance taking the example that is used in the article which assumes that the rate of build-up of nitrate is 1 ppm/day and that 20% of the water is changed weekly. After 7 days the level of nitrate would be 7 ppm and after a 20% water change on this day it would be 5.6 ppm. After another week the nitrate concentration would be 12.6 ppm and after the water change 10.1 ppm. The article infers that the nitrate concentration will increase indefintely unless 100% water changes are used, however this is not the case. Once the nitrate concentration reaches the point where a 20% drop is equivalent to the amount of nitrate build-up that occurs in a week the nitrate concentration will stabilise. For this particular example this happens at 35 ppm. For example a 20% reduction in this value would give a nitrate concentration of 28 ppm, which after one week of build up would be back up to 35 ppm again. A 20% water change would bring this back to 28 ppm ... and so on. Plants and de-nitrifying bacteria would just help to reduce the rate of nitrate build-up as some of the nitrate would be removed by other means than just water changes. Therefore the equilibrium nitrate concentration would be kept lower. For example it may reduce the build-up to 0.5 ppm/day, in which case the equilibruim nitrate concentration (using the same water change regime as above) would be 18 ppm.

What type of filtration are you using? If you are using anything with an impellor that the sand could get into (e.g. canister, hang on the back... etc.) I wouldn't trust CA cichlids not to spit sand up the intake tube. As soon as you get sand in your impellor, the filters never going to be the same again. CA cichlids do a lot of digging (much more than Africans - which you normally see inhabiting tanks with sand) and it would only be a matter of time before this happened. Unless you could put some kind of prefilter over the intake, then it might be ok, however these tend to block quite quickly.

Personally I'd go jag or midas/red devil. Cool fish, my Midas would be more likely to eat your hand rather than eat out of it.

It sounds like they look like normal juvinile jaguar cichlids. They should colour up fine. I wouldn't worry, it just might take them a few months.

Hollywood's in Auckland told me via email that they had some flowerhorns for $60 back in January this year. I didn't actually see them, although someone on this forum may have?

I got stuff like that from placemakers, mastertrade and the local second hand building recycler.

That pH (6.4-6.6) isn't too bad for fish like the ones you mentioned are dieing (angels etc). As long as it is stable they shouldn't be dieing from that. Something else is probably wrong. Have you tested for anything else e.g. ammonia, nitrite etc? Has the tank been set up long? Do they look like they have any diseases? Do the fish show any unusual behaviour/symptoms before dieing? Is there any chance something toxic could have ended up in the water (e.g. fly spray etc)? Water changes are still probably the best bet to stop the deaths until you know for sure what the source of the problem is (unless of course it is the water or something in the water you are using that is causing the deaths - what are you using by the way?). Sorry for all the questions, but this kind of info & observations may help find out why your fish are dieing, or at least help stop them from dieing.

Hagen heaters are ok. I have had some trouble with the temperature calibration drifting upwards a few degrees over time (ie over a couple of years) with the standard Hagen heaters (however I have also had this problem with Visatherms & Bluetherms and it can be fixed if need be). I consider Hagen's to be good value for money though, as they are normally quite a bit cheaper than some of the other brands that people seem to like to talk up and are probably not really any more likely to fail than other bi-metallic strip controlled heaters (as an aside - Tronic heaters are electronically controlled).

The Festae is a Red Terror not a not a red devil. A red devil would be either Amphilophus citrinellus or Amphilophus labiatus. Like Ira says Red Devils are commonly available, however which of these two species are commonly sold is hard to know, probably a hybrid citrinellus/labiatus mixture these days as the two species look very similar and have bound to have been accidently interbred at some stage. I am pretty certain that both Trimacs and Festaes are not available in NZ. However I am sure there that there must be a way to get them in as Flowerhorn cichlids are now available here and they seem to be mostly hybrids based on Trimacs. If you ever manage to find one of either (Trimac or Festae) I'd be interested.

I don't think Kribs would really be what he's after, since they are not a L.Malawi cichlid and probably wouldn't be all that compatible.

From my experience thats a good sign. I'd leave them as is and eggs shouldn't be far away.

Check this out for a list of common names for Os. goramy: http://www.fishbase.org.ph/xml/comnamesxml.cfm?genus=Osphronemus&species=goramy&type=

It gets fed nothing out of the ordinary. Just brooklands crumble mixture.

What do you think? is it a female, or is it just fat?

It's in three pieces so they can be removed if necessary for cleaning. Normally though I have just been moving the stones holding it in place at the front one at a time when gravel vac'ing and cleaning that way. I have also tried to direct the water flow from the canister filters so that as little crap as possible ends up in behind the background. If I did another background like this I think I would either put some kind of concrete dye in it or incorporate some black sand into the cement mix to try and darken it up a bit. I guess once the algae gets established the lightish concrete colour won't be so noticable.

Not much concrete involved really, maybe about 10-15kg. Its just a 2-5 mm layer of concrete over a polystyrene base. What I did was cut out individual rock size pieces of polystyrene, shape them with a bread knife (and fingers) into something resembling a rock, heat them gently over a portable gas stove to melt the polystyrene enough to create a smooth surface, then I siliconed these rock shaped pieces together. After that was dry I coated it in concrete (I used easycrete with all the pebbles larger than small sand grains sifted out with a collander). The end result actually floats (just) so it is very light weight compared to a conventional rock wall. I was going to use a coloured sealer to cover the polystyrene but this was much more expensive and a layer of concrete is much more robust. I have had trouble keeping the pH down and couldn't put any fish in for a couple of months while the concrete cured (releases calcium hydroxide). However this seems to have stabilised out pretty much now, and the pH only rises (if left alone) only by about 0.1-0.2 units per day. I have been controlling it at 8-8.2 by pH testing and addition of hydrochloric acid (about 5ml of 2M HCL every 1-2days). Cleaning it?? I have put a pleco in there and he seems to like munching the algae off it enough not to worry about any additional cleaning at this stage. A bit of algae on there will make it look better anyway probably.

Here is my effort at making a concrete background for my 4ft Malawi tank I have recently setup. What do you all think?

As mentioned above a trickle filter would be the way to go for filtration of a tank this big. I recently built a trickle filter that does approx 3000-4000L/hr for about $250. Pretty resonable I thought, and works well both mechanically and biologically.

3-4 keyholes or kribs in a tank this small?? you are joking aren't you Ira? I would have thought a pair of either keyholes or kribs (not both) would have been ok, but not ideal. Keyholes and Kribs can be relatively aggro when they want to be. I wouldn't really advise putting more than a pair of any dwarf cichlid in a tank this big (2ft), even if you're thinking of apistos or rams.

I'm using 40-50L plastic containers for growing up fry of various tropicals at the moment. They seem to work well and they were cheap. I've been using the plastic stackable ones with rollers on the bottom, only cost about $10 on special. They aren't in the sun though, just in my fish room.

The natural course of the part of the nitrogen cycle which converts ammonia to nitrite then nitrate (nitrification) releases hydrogen ions which will lower the pH in a fish tank. If you have a tank with a lot of bio-load (e.g. something like oscars) the nitrification process alone is capable of droping the pH quite quickly. Especially if you have soft water that does not have much pH buffering capacity. As Matt said, adding something like crushed shells in a filter (I use bird grit contained in a nylon stocking) is a good solution to the problem as this keeps the pH up. I wouldn't worry too much about the pH going too high, in my CA cichlid tank (which has quite a high bioload) it keeps the pH at around 7.

Mostly CA with some Aficans and one SA (key hole).

...but is the price difference between a VA and an Ehiem really worth it? Not in my books. I'd swap my VA for an Ehiem only if I didn't have to pay the price difference.

As far as I know there are very few reports of Clown Loaches breeding in aquariums. Good luck if they are.

once your culture is thriving the worms should form clumps on the surface where the food is and you can just scrape them off.