john1

That's how I look on a good day. All jokes aside. The only way to learn and accumulate knowlege is, listen, read and listen again. Ask as many question as possible. You might get on someones nerves. But who cares. It's your knwowledge you have to think about. I'm convinced there are quite a few people around who love to explain. There is a latin saying. "Your knowledge means nothing, if the other one doesn't know that you know. John

Bill you are absolutely right. Home grown/bred/kept fish are a different kettle of fish. Pardon the pun. A fish staying at the surface at a certain temperature suddenly going to a different location with a higher/lower temperature will only do so for a very short while. Wheras a fish in an aquarium, accustomed to lets say 78F then suddely forced to stay for 1 to 2 hours at a very differt temperature is detrimental to that fish(s). If one wishes to immitate nature regarding temperature, one might turn off the heater at night, if the ambient temperature is not too different. Therefore the change is very gradual and not harming the fish. Naturally, that goes for a reasonable sized tank. not for a goldfish-bowl sized tank. Isn't it amazing what you can learn from me? HE HE John

Warren The prime reason is to move the vortex from tank to tank for about an hour or two maximum. About 20 years ago a chap in the states ran his for 14 days continually and subsequently killed most of his fish. The reason, the water got too pure. John

Hi Warren There are always exceptions. In your case I would add another heater to the location which requires more heat. The amount of wattage consumed should be the same, as the heaters switch off earlier John

Any well setup aquarium should have a reasonable water movement to begin with. I've got my heater on the righthand side near the u/g filter pipe. Blends with it. And futhermore my heater has a temperature setting, visible from the front. which is surprisingly quite accurate. The black powercord is also not as visible as it would be running all the way from the bottom up. I'm convinced that not one cubic inch in my aquarium differs more than .5 of a degree. Measured with my Dick Smith electronic Aquarium temperature gauge. John

Hi Midas Thanks for the info. You mention 10. I presume you mean 10 deg. dKH. According to my infosheet by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals it should be 3 to 6 for most tropical fish. I think I figured it out. I filled 5 vials with the auarium water and added each in 1 drop increments. Then I stared at 5 vials. 4 were almost the same. The fifth was much darker (brighter?). So therefore the water has a hardness of 5 deg. or 89.5 ppm. I really don't know what value it should be in a community tank. Any suggestions? John

Hi everyone Here in Australia Mc Donald had to stop using styro in their packaging because of a cancer scare!!! Also no building site is allowed to use 'Lily' cups (same material). There is probably a reason why. John

Hi Caryl According to instructions one should expose the outlet nozzle to air when one shuts off the fluval to remove the top. (lid). I personally don't do it. So, once it is ready to be restarted, swit the Fluval on and continually move the primer plunger slowly und and down, watching the bubbles escape then it should be ok. It is not a good idea to let it run noisily for an hour!. The impeller doesn't like it. I had the same problem which, is not a problem anymore. Try it John

Hi Caryl Warrens idea sounds good. But the filter he mentions apparently filters down to 1 micron. Meaning nothing greater than 1 micron will ever get to your Fluval!!!!. You might as well not have a 404 at all. A better solution would be to get a small piece of pantyhose, take it off your body first, and make a little sock over the inlet orifice. (cone cage type). That means all the goodies or badies will get to your filter but nothing greater than the holes of the pantyhose. John

Hi BigFish Why don't you try a Hagen Powerhead. It can be used with an Aquaclear filter attached to the bottom. Or, better still, it can be attached to the outlet of your u/gravel filter. Makes a very efficient u/filter. Mine is the 204, which is reversable. It supposed to 'blow' water into the u/gravel filter. It apparently puts biological goodies underneath by doing so. The flow is adjustable and you can attach the airhose, which comes with the powerhead, to the small orifice of the outlet and you've got a tremendous supply of fresh air without an airpump. The flow of mine is that great that I have, or will attach a spraybar to reduce the water movement. For some reason a few of my fish, especially my guppies, sailfin mollies and my silver sharks love to enter the output streamand frolick in it. John

Hi Big Fish The Aquaclear filters work beautifully. I'm not sure if Caryl means the same, but my filter cannot be cleaned. It is a throwaway. At least the filter proper, not the holder. Hagen #A-575. John

Hi freshwater Yesterday I was on another site and someone mentioned a sodastram bottle. Cheap A$25, refills about $6. And they can be bought at K Mart and Big W. And a SERA regulator supposed to fit it. Got to the SERA site It is worth a try. John

Hi Bill Whenever you see gallons, its most likely US. Then multiply it by 3.8 and you've got your NZ liters. HE HE By the way if it is Imp. gallons multiply it by 4.54. John

Hi Caryl I would be very cautious using poly in a fishtank. Some contain a toxic substance which might be released if another substance is added. You never know what goes into a tank unless you are an industrial chemist. It is worth thinking about it John

Hi michael Imperials are quite ok. Actually I prefer them. It is easier to say 3' than 91.76mm. You did not tell us how much gap there is between the top and the glasscover. Surface area is very important. More than a lousy airstone. But if you are really concerned about a power failure invest in a pseudo uninterruptable power supply. By that I mean a cheap 80W converter, a battery, motorbike or sealed lead acid battery. A few electric components, cheap, and someone who can hook it up for you. You connect the filter(s), airpump etc. but not the heater, and bobs your uncle. The minute the power fails the battery takes over and runs everything, except the heater. The heater is not that important in a reasonable sized tank. In the tropics the water temperature can go down quite a bit. Think about it. For a few bucks outlay you can safely go away for a few days even with no power in the house. John

Many years ago I just had a couple of small u/g filters in my 4' tank. A wall to wall was unheard of. I added an Eheim cannister (the word cannister didn't exist either). It did a marvelous job. Cleaning was messy but at least you saw how much dirt was in it. It also had a spraybar. The hoses were only 8mm. This time I decided on a Fluval 204. Hoses are ribbed. Makes it easy to bend. Also the size increased to about 12mm. The troughput is quite good. But how efficient is it really. When you look at the cross section, water comes from the inlet pipe, passes through a coarse filter then it supposed to go through all the baskets. But does it really. Can't some water, unfiltered that is, go straight up to the outlet pipe? I dont know how the new Eheims work, but on the old ones either no water, blocked by dirty medium or only clean, that is filtered water could go to the outlet pipe. If my theory is correct then the Fluval is not as efficient as it could be if it were somehow re-designed. By me that is . HE HE I also use the best filter for the short term. A Vortex. It used diatomaceous earth. It didn't matter how dirty tha water was, my 4' tank was cleaned in approximately 1 hr!!!. The water was absolutely crystal clear. One would call that now, polished. They are still available in the states. But here, nobody has even heard of it. What a shame. Maybe one day I can get hold of one. BFN John

G'day I started about 30 years ago. Kept it up for quite a number of years. I had 5 tanks. A community tank, Oscars, Breeding tank for various livebearers , cichlid tank and a cichlid breeding tank (very successful). Now I started about 2 months ago totally afresh. Don't laugh, but I have a very nice overpopulated community tank. I'll give you a list and maybe you can tell me if there is something horrible wrong with it. 30 gal.(US) tank 1 Fluval 204 1 Fluval 402 powerhead with its own filter 1 u/gravel filter (fluval) pH 6.9, GH 8, KH 4?, ammonia 0 , temp 78.6 F - 79 F constant. My fish 2 angel med 2 angle small 2 silver sharks 2.5" 2 red tail sharks 2", 1.5" 2 blue gouramies 2.5" male 1 gouramie 2" female 6 mixed cories small - med 1 golden shark 2" 3 sailfin mollies 2"- 2.5" 6 guppies 2 platies 1.5" 1 clownloach 2" 1 suckerfish? 2.5" (thin long) 6 tetras neon small 3 serpae tetras 1.5" 4 mollies small 2 kissing gouramies 1" The water smells good, fish seem to be happy, and I feed them 3 times a day. (just love feeding them). Frozen brineshrimp, the block disappears in about 30 seconds. Then I give them a bit of flakes. They also get freeze-dried tubifex. The authors of magazines, books seem to differ with their opinions to nowadays advice. Axelrod says you should give them whatever they eat in 5 minutes. A shop and some reputable site says 2 minutes. Some say 3 times others 1 time only. I'm not sure if I'm right but I read what I can ask what I can then make my own decision based on logic. By the way, I lost 5 neons. Probably one of my bigger ones thought a 'Neon snack' is better than tubifex I hope I have not bored you too much. John (John1)

G'day About 30 years ago I went to a petrol station to fill up. An aquarium shop caught my eye. I was immediately fascinated. The owner a german bred and imported fish. So he was a great help to me. I ended up with 5 tanks. I even bred cichlids for HIM. The sight of a mouthbreeder is breathtaking. I saw the female lay eggs, then the male picked them up and kept them in his mouth for about two weeks. Then the fry emerged and started to swim. What a sight. I also bred a few other fish. But nothing comes close to cichlids.... A few years later I had to give up. Moved too many times. Sick of moving all my tanks. Just before I gave up I ended up with a 4 foot tank and 6 monster Oskars. Hand-fed them all the time. Very tame. About 2 months ago I had a fire. Son burned the bedoom down. When I moved my belongings to a safe place, had to spend 3 week in a motel, I came across all my fish books. I got hooked again. I got now a horrible overpopulated but happy and healthy 3 foot tank. Now that I've got my own house I should have my fish until I croak. John with an

Hi there I've got in my collection a few testers (chemical). They all seem straight forward except the "Aquarium Parmaceutical GH & KH tester" The instruction tells you after 1 drop it goes to blue. When it is bright yellow the test is finished. WHAT is the definition of 'bright'? I filled 4 test tubes with 1 drop increment and they are ALL yellow. Please explain Thanks John1