Snowman

The biggest thing i have found when getting new fish is slowly acclimatising them to your tank water, leave them in the bag and float it in the tank to adjust the temperature, i add about 150ml every 15 mins for around 1 hr but if you can do it over a longer period will make the change less stressfull for the fish, i leave the bag open the whole time but that depends on if the fish is a jumper or not. Using this method any new fish are settled in the tank within an hour and the last addition which was a black ghost knife was happily exploring straight away. HTH with future fish purchases : -)>

If it was mine i would give the filter a good clean out under warm water and the same with the sponge then givethem both a few days in the hot water cupboard or sun (if you can find any sun that is)

Just reading up on some Seachem products and came across one called Matrix, it claims "Matrix provides both internal and external macroporous surface areas that allow, unlike other forms of biomedia, the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas which is then expelled at the tank surface." Would this be correct or would any porous media enable this? My Aqua One AR850 has porous media and i still need to do water changes to keep the nitrate levels down, wondering if this would extend the water change intervals? (Realise there is no substitute for water changes but less would always be nice). Does anyone use this Matrix and if so how do they find it?

I think $4 for a deformed guppy is way expensive considering you can buy a non deformed guppy for way less than that on trade me.

Try taking him to Hollywood Fishfarm Mt Roskill, find some fish that he likes and make a note of the names, BEFORE buying any take the names home and do a google search on them which will give you an idea of the conditions they require and to a degree compatibility with other fish then finally check with the wealth of knowledge in here.

That would be my son, he's 1 next Saturday. Don't think he could carry a tank yet but laughs at the feeling of the swords nibbling at his fingers :lol: The glass is only 6mm and nothing underneath but with two people of course :lol: The glass is easily strong enough to support the weight of the stones as it is static loading, bit like placing a rock gently on a thin piece of glass as opposed to dropping it. Surprising how stong glass is as long as the load is applied gradually and evenly not suddenly or on one spot.

A lot depends on how much gravel you have in the tank, myself i would leave the gravel in and pick it up at each end like a box but you may want to see how heavy it is, also if you have stairs to go up or down may prove difficult. I have moved all of my 3 & 4 ft tanks with the gravel inside, i take out all rock works but leave in the lighter decorations.

As for emptying the tank all i take out is the water, leave the gravel ornaments etc in the tank but make sure the bits aren't going to slide around and hit the glass, plants wise depends on how long before you can get water back in the tank, if it wont be long leave them in but if its going to be a while bag them up.

Try here for working out tank literage Conversions I hanen't bred Bettas before but from what i know you would have to divide the tank in two to be able to seperate the male and female but if you get any fry there isn't room for them in that tank. A mate that has started breeding them uses a 60x30x30 for the actual breeding and a 90x40x40 divided into 3 for the various stages of fry. Im sure someone else will be able to give you more specific info on breeding the bettas.

LOL when i bought my AR850 i missed on the the outlet spout and some filter wool, of course didn't realise this until i had a closer look at the same tank for sale 6 mths later, luckily the shop i got it from gave me the missing bits although i am basically spending there every weekend now. The filter wool you buy in bulk is a lot thicker and will quieten it down more again as the water doesn't have as far to fall.

Hummingbird, how are your GBA's going, the lil ones must be growing up now, any more spawns?

If you can get some Zebra Plecos for around the $200 mark i know of a couple of people that would be interested, from what i read on Tropical Fish Forum someone is breeding them in Aussie and selling them for $6000 each Makes $600 look cheap LOL

Cool, you should have some more in a week or two LOL Mine spawned every 3 1/2 weeks fo ages, i started running out of tank space so hope you have a bit of tank space spare :lol: They are looking good

From what i have read about tthe builder of this setup he uses a cannister filter intake in one tank and the outlet in the other tank creating a flow through the bridge so depending on tank size you could get away with one heater.

Check this out, this is quite freaky, never seen anything like it before Water Bridge

The way i look at it is there is a difference between what temp they will be comfortable at and what temp they will survive at, bit the same as i won't die at 5 or 50 degrees but i would certainly be very uncomfortable and not enjoy it LOL

The black sand i am talking about isn't waste it is the sand going to the mill to be turned into iron/steel, it is from the mine site beside the waikato river which is exactly the same black sand as on the beach at Kariotahi. It used to be trucked to the mill from the mine site and a lot of orchards along the way suffered to the point of closing, which is why it is now piped to the mill. I know a lot of people that work at the mill and minesite who know quite a bit about the stuff but no worries, there not my fish.

You should be able to find some small pellets specifically for axolotyls at your local LFS. They will eat beef heart but the biggest thing i found was because they are basically blind it is easy for them to overlook food so if your son is confident hand feeding it and it will take food from his hand that would be the best way to feed it, if the food is just dropped in it ends up making a messy tank. Once you get a bigger tank a mate for it wouldn't be a bad idea. Being blind it's funny the way they will walk all over each other : -)>

Up to you if you want to try the black sand but it will most likely kill your fish, i know the black sand from the mill that got into the air was killing orchards locally and that there are a lot of impurities in it. Plants may like the iron content though LOL

See if you have an electrical wholesaler any where near you, should find someone there with some knowledge about what is available and probably save a lot of money.

Black sand is the same stuff they use out at the steel mill, i would be worried about what sort of metals it contains, definetly iron ore and should imagine quite a few others. Don't want ya fish to rust do ya :roll: :lol:

I was thinking if you found some of the pyramid shaped sinkers you could drill a hole so that it is a tight fit and basically bash it in (loves big hammers :lol: ) You could try having a ring around to find out where you could get some in bulk, thinking possibly engineering maybe coachbuilding type places.

LOL Yay party at misnomas :lol: Oops i mean meeting at misnomas So where abouts are you then misnoma? And can you make coffee? LOL

Does anyone know if and where the meeting is this coming Tuesday?

Hi, nice to see you made it here Do you have any test kits to be able to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? I found i was getting a lot of algae with the tank in front of a window so used a towel to shade it from natural light. Welcome and i hope you find this site as usefull and entertaining as i have :lol: Just a warning, watch out for MTS as it seems to be contagious LOL