henward

shortly after asking, i figured out. im not looking for longer life on the ;mechanical clean cycle. im looking for more mechanical in general so more debris gets sucked in quicker, that can only be helped by either adding faster turnover through my return pumps, OR another filter, either internal or another canister.

yeah i know what you mean.- i notice that when i clean my sponges on the side, it takes a good day to get the mech filtration going again. i only replace the filter wool when the flow is almost gone. i wanted to add a course foam before the wool to increase the livfe of the wool and also to catch mroe things. but thinking bout it now, it prob wont catch more things will it? because coarse foam will just trap it momentarily and eventually break down and move to the wool.

yeah i may have 2 males, true, i am picking though my small one is a female. my first one and this second one i got (second in the picture) is actually very similar size. i have a very small L191, that could be male not sure yet but we shall see:D

Threesome actually:D i have a third one, which looks like a female.

ok, for years now i have been doing the same configuration. top basket filter wool mid and bottom bio media i am thinking of putting in course foam on the top filter wool middle and bio media third bottom basket. i would put the surplus bio media in my sump whcih has a chamber left in it with jsut moving bio media. i dont want to comprimise too much bio filtration but i really want to enhance the length of time between cleans of my 4 filter socks on the sump, as well as help make the water clearer. any feedback? i currently change the woold in my fx5 every 1.5 to 2 weeks max. i am hoping that it will catch more debris making water clearer, i am not too fussed if i have to clean wool, foam in same time frame, thats not the issue, its more effectiveness

l190 right? not the other type that is similar

unless you are getting mainstream food that the 2 biggest importers bring in, also NLS from HFF, i would suggest you parallel import sera foods. if youbuy in bulk, it works out cheaper to buy from US. things like http://www.thatpetplace.com ships to nz if you order a minimum amount, i have used them 5 times before. trademe also has sera products

yeah thats the thing, they are awesome but get HUGE. most people cannot house them

lol how do i know when it is ready for breeding?!?! how does one tell, i hear breeding royal plecs is extremely difficult. that is what i was hoping for too in a few years. now i will have much more sawdust in my tank!

one is clearly a male, already getting quite large whiskers, other is a female i assume. they wre cuddling up together too in the cave at wonderworld! male fem

as far as i know there shouldnt be a need to cook it, its pretty good and natural to do it raw. my blue phantom loves to eat wafers and has a nice belly bump after eating but i have never seen them pig out like this before, EVER. the 2 blue phantoms bellys are definitely full. snowball is also full, more so than with pellets. in fact all of them are. cactus and sunshine though dont really like it and prefer wafers and get full on that

no raw kumara do i have to cook the veges?

I have tried courgette, kumara... they LOVE IT! they dont like carrots they attack courgette and kumara just wondering for variety anything else i can feed? looking for tried and true veges people have actually used. I am looking more to target the royal plecos L190 and L191 i am finding my 2 L128 is a HUGE fan of the kumara and courgette, snowball also loves it. Royal i have seen eat the courgette but not the kumara yet but im sure it will just looking for cheap veges to feed or should i just stick to courgette and kumara and not over complicate things?

there are many ways of doing it. 4 k is my magic number. dimensions importan too depending on the fish type you keeping.

awesome fish! frasers and mine are growing well, love the girth they are picking up! they eat heaps of massivores a day now! i rotate between massivore and sinking wafers to add some vegetation and spirulina in their diet.

haha, its actually quite amazing, that it rasps on the black beard and keeps it in control

make sure when you dig one up, you dig about 2 feet around the tree and about 2 foot down then from then, trim the root system as you need it is amazing, the structure of the roots, naturally look awesome!! you dont wanna prematurely snap them while digging, takes a while, but worth it!! took me a solid 45 minutes of digging one up.... isnt that bad, tiring though! also, they sink quickly, i soak them immediately, then i waterblase the clay off, bark then dry it, soak again

i put a wafer right in front of the royal this morning. it got excited when it smelt it, went on it and rasped for 10 seconds and left it. but its belly is fat and full, and violently rasping on the wood, rocks and ornaments consttantly it seems and i can visibly see its poo as well! so ita eating, forgotten/never realised that it loved wood that much! why is it not going for the food! i want t os ee it rasp on pellets lol but yeah, it is the only brown poo that is produced in the tank, everything else is a green wafer poo! i also found it eats young blackbeard algae! and my tank is almost wiped out of this stuff!

if you have a friend with a bush in their back yard, a manuka tree thats about 10 to 15 cm trunk diameter is good, dig up the root system on that, awesome! i also found recently that the royal pleco absolutely loves eating the manuka wood!

theyare not cheap, they charge for design and can contract it to be built, but expensive! the cost they told me was just design work haha

there is no such thing ias a good cheap discus:D you know, discus are funny, most discus babies dont look good i found and dont grow to a good size, weak too due to inbreeding in nz. personally, i would fork out the money for prime examples as opposed to trying to grow them out! they are expensive because they are imported, the rare strains, common ones are not expensive, but inexperienced breeders will produce really sub standard babies... babies that SHOULD be culled are sold at times.

yeah, i have 4, fraser 2, so total i have 6 in my tank, they are the best vacuum cleaners i have ever encountered. they dont leave a morsel of food at all, cleans up ! if they get to 20cm im happy!

if you do tiling and block work, then that is ideal! you wont need anyone to do it for you:d that saves pretty much 50 to 70% of the construction cost if i was to contract someone to do it. its the heating that costs. but its doa ble, 20k litres is HUGE thoughf ro just midas, i guess each to their own when it comes to fish preference :dunno:

stunning! both of them!

cool didnt th ink it was a problem but wantd feedback:D awesome, cos 3kg is alot of novo plec:D