beachy

cool thanks fishbait, not wanting to sound lazy, but could i just rinse the scoria and boil it for a while? i know that warrens way is prob the best, and i would prob run more of a risk with my fish.

Thanks Warren, thats great, bit of a mission though.It would still be worth doing as i have heaps of room in my sump so why not use it for something good

Can any one tell me the does and donts of using scoria as biological filter media? will it affect my water chemistry? Just thinking that i might put some in my sump

go the grater, it works really well. good for smaller fish.

Here is an albino Senegal Bichir http://hometown.aol.com/polypterus14/kye.html thought i better add this as well

No worries, prob not everyones cuppa, but i really like them and the rest of the aquarium odd balls, just a shame we cant get a lot of them over here.

Her is a pic of an ornate bichir http://www.primitivefish.com/Xornate.JPG

I paid $100 for my albino on special, reduced from $160

Well, thats good to know may have to go and pre order if they will let me.

I met the guy, who bought them at hollywood, he was there on the day i bought my albino senegal bichir, he highly recommended them to me and told me a bit about feeding them and how fast they grow(boy was he rite). He told me that he is in the process of setting up a tank for them, that was a while ago though. If the ornates were available that day i would have bought one, but im stoked with my albino he is very cool,and very active. Hopefully i will get an ornate at some stage.

Is it a red eye puffer?,i have seen them before they are cool.

Hey brianemone, i reackon clown loaches are good indicators of water quality, if they are happy and your water is ok, their colour will be really good, if its not so good they usually go a pail colour their black stripes go a bit grey. Then again some clown loaches are more colourfull than others Not to sure about the algae fix though

Yea i think it is too, theres quite a big one at my lfs, looks really good.

I agree, i'm after an ornate bichir as well and would love to get a f/w ray. Might do a bit of hunting around try and find someone to bring some ornates in. Might go talk to hollywood f/farm, they have ornates but someone snapped them up and they are all pre sold.

Hey just wondering if anyone is keeping bichirs? I have only seen two varieties here Ornate Bichir and Albino senegal bichir. I have an Albino, does any one know if there are other varieties available here?

Hi brianemone, i had coral sand and heaps of coral rock in my 2' x 2' malawi setup it looked really good. My ph was a constant 8, all depends on how you want it to look though, poor mans marine i reackon :lol:

Hey snowman, i was looking at getting a bio wheel a while ago so i contacted my lfs, they seemed to think that they were an unnecassary item, if you already have good filtration i.e external cannister. I think that they would prob be quite good, not sure though, i would be interested to know if anyone uses one?

Thanks chimera,i have a very short return to the sump, so ithink thats where the 90deg bends were no good,too restrictive, as soon as the water goes through the tank fitting it hit a 90deg went along 5" then another 90deg into the sump, now after the tank fitting i have a 45deg then a straight 25mm pipe into the sump, it works much better. cheers

Yay i finally have every thing running like clockwork, durso stand pipe works well. I have modified the sump to accomidate the 45dg bends. I have 2500 ltrs hr running through the tank and it handles well, i could prob run heaps more,ive worked it out that my tank will be turning over about 6 times an hr. Once again thanks to all for your input, thanks pies for your info on the durso standpipe, i am very pleased how its all turned out. Will edit my tank pics as soon as i can, cheers

Jammos i was gonna suggest burying them as ballistic said, it does shut them up, but you dont get the fine bubbles like you do when they arent buried. Personaly i think it looks better whith them under the gravel but its up to the individual

Yea i have kept kribs in community, its ok but like alan said watch out if they start breeding, they can be teritorial but then again you mite have no worries.

Hey pies, thanks, will go with the 25mm returnpipe, the reason i thought about binning the 90dg bend is because my pipes underneath will be completely horizontal, and on the durso web site they warn you away from horizontal pipes due to getting a fluctuation affect on the water level wich is what was happening, the whole system has now been opened rite up though. I might contact chimera cause if i dont have to mod my trickle and sump that will save a lot of hastles. cheers

o.k so the way i had my stand pipe was not good enough to handle :oops: , so ive ripped it out and have re-done it with 32mm pipe, went to mitre 10 mega and found the perfect hansen fitting to go through the tank. The stand pipe now goes from 32mm down to a 25mm hole not to sure if i should make the pipes underneath 35mm or 25mm, i do know that i am gonna try to get my trickle tower lowered into my sump a bit more so that i can use a 45dg bend instead of a 90dg, i think thats where my problems were. Chears to all that have repllied, appreciated

true good call alan, i best just keep it submerged then :lol:

can submersable pumps be used out of the tank? e.g i think its called dry reached, when a hose is connected to the intake of the pump, or is this not to good for them? ive heard that it makes them not so noisy. Any ideas?