heather

Hey Mark, i'm newish to this site aswell. Its great! My advice read it all and not just once.

Yota, when you say 4 foot does that mean the end caps come with cable attached and then you just have to connect to the ballast?

I found this on a post in 'the krib'. Sounds like it could be an answer. Anyway i will get all three and try to get some colour into them.

In one tank labelled Bolivian Butterfly were three fish. All were a similar size, and all had the same washed out colour and were definately rams. But two had one definate black spot on the flank and the other had two! Was i looking at the same sort of fish? Is this just a male female thing?

i'm newish too and i havn't even bothered to look at the saltater forum!

Caper, if you havnt found some poly yet go to your local benchmark,carters, itm etc and see if they have some. They usually have big sheets of 20mm used for packing that they will happily give away. Ask them to cut it nearly to size for you if it wont fit in your car and trim with a sharpie or breadknife when its under your tank. I did just this on the weekend.

I have a standing order at my local bookshop. They still come every month but the issues are delayed, I got the Feb issue 2 weeks ago. I tried to do the same thing with TFH but they couldn't get it for me.

I agree with Dark. I just a had a look at AquaLog and any half decent spreadsheet will do just as good a job sans the reminders. What about the aqaurium computers that automate things like feeding and ph control etc?

Hi all. I'm not new to the hobby, but this will be the first tank I have set up in 15 years, and all my past setups have been community tanks! I have spent the last six months reading but could use some help to make sure I am on the right track. I have aquired a 1220x45x45, 250l tank; a 300w heater and a Rena XP3 external cannister filter. The lights are still to come and am deciding between a lighthood to retrofit to the canopy or buying electronic ballasts. My tap water is 7.2ph and 2dKH. I will acidify with peat to make suitable for 10 emperor, 10 cardinal tetras and 5 panda corydoras. I would like to also have Mikrogeophagus ramirezi or ram cichlid but am unsure of how many would live together peaceably. Also, I am keen on planting reasonably heavily. I thought about discus but all the books talk about needing RO water and that i think is out of my price range. AM I ON THE RIGHT TRACK???