BooUrns!

I suppose the reason I suggested this was that I think the title of the current buy/sell forum indicates a bias towards cash transactions. Trading is less likely under these circumstances and may be why there is a perception of a lack of general support. I've found that from using this site that I've become interested in keeping fish that were previously unfamiliar to me just from seeing them offered in the forums. I thought if there were a sublisting for items/livestock that people are willing to part with, it might inspire AA members to diversify their interests or acquire items they were not actively seeking. Unlike the current buy/sell forum, this sub-forum would be a list of items specifically made available for trading and not listed by motivated sellers who need to make room in their tanks. These listings would only expire when the items are actually traded so the sub-forum could serve as a catalogue of available material (where complicated trades like those that you suggested could be potentially arranged). Perhaps a trading list could be pinned to the livestock/equipment forums like the plant swap/giveaway thread used to have. This would be a good way to actuallly evaluate interest in such a subcategory.

That would have been Nick (Sam Chicklets). The article is pinned to the top of the DIY forum.

How about a trade section added to the buy/sell forum? We can post if we're looking for something in particular or just advertise something we want to get rid of but don't want to go through the hassle of deciding a sell price. I've done two trades in the last week and found it was much more rewarding than buying items. This would also free the mods from having to chastize people who incorrectly post items in the buy/sell forum. They could simply move the posts to the trading category, then the seller can negotiate with interested parties to either trade for other items or for cash. This free market approach could allow sellers to get a good return for items they are selling as they would be free to take the highest bidder.

Don't forget to use aquarium safe silicone as the anti-fungal agents in typical silicone will be harmful to your tanks' biofilter.

Just remove the double valve assembly and connect the hose directly to the filter. You can manage the difficulty of shutting in the filter in after you fix/replace the valve. I suppose you could always pinch the tubing with a clamp later when you need to disconnect things again.

I just got around to setting up one of the 2213's I bought during the boxing week sales (also got another 2213 and a 2217). I was also impressed at how easy it was to prime considering I've been dealing with fluval canisters for the last couple of years. I'm trying to phase out the fluvals on my planted tanks as they seem to be prone tofailure due to air buildup more on planted tanks. I've had some fairly dissapointing crashes due to this issue with the fluvals. Hopefuly the eheims will live up to their hype.

I'm a big fan of the habrosus corydoras although I recently picked up a school of hastatus corys for the same tank. The hastatus seem to prefer swimming in the mid levels of the tank occasionally having a nap on the bottom while the habrosus keep to the bottom or sit atop any built up structures within the tank. They seem very suited to one another and will occasionally school together. I know Henry still has some hastatus corys available in his tanks. I also keep a betta with this group and he doesn't seem to have ay issues with the corys. They all share a 29G together though. You might want to limit your cory group to a max of 4-5 total with your betta. You will need to buy a group as they need to be in a school to feel secure and thrive. Corys are very social with each other. If this is the same tank I've seen you might want to alter the aquascaping so as to leave an open section for the corys to congregate. Good luck with your tank!

Henry sells the neccessary siphon valve (ie. waterbed kit). The other hose attachments are reaily available at HD/Rona, including shutoff valves and garden hose fittings to attach to the vinyl tubing. You'll find the tubing there too but you'll pay alot more than the stuff for sale at Princess auto (spring for the larger diameter tubing (3/4") as the thinner tubing tends to fold and slow the water flow). I've built two of these, one at 30' and another at 50'.

It's alright. Joe has just enough personality to make me forgive him.

I was just posting the other day about how my stock of cherry shrimp had been on the decline since I moved recently. I was also basting about the deep crimson of one of my females and how she didn't even have te stripe that was typical of most RCS (although I've read a post that suggests this was due to extreme age). I didn't mention that I had been housing my cherry shrimp along with a number of amano shrimp, a colony of endlers, a big bunch of kuhli loaches and Joe. Joe is a little betta that my girlfriend spotted at Henry's and just had to have! I felt bad keeping him in a bowl with a few plants so I moved him to the shimp emporium. I didn't realize it at the time but the decline of my cherry shrimp coincided with the addition of Joe. It hadn't occurred to me that the RED in red cherry shrimp might be an issue to Joe. It hadn't occurred to me until last night when I saw Joe triumphantly biting the eyeless corpse of my favourite little crimson cherry shrimp. Joe took extreme delight in striking his fresh kill, repeatedly grabbing the little body until he was sure it was dead, then going back again to check. I was perplexed as the only issues that tank had at first were that the endlers babies seemed to dissapear but I had already credited those kills to his lordship. The amanos moved around that tank with impunity, even going so far as to perch upon the kuhlis. And the kuhlis seemed to ignore all the shrimp, and unfortunately, the ramshorn snails aswell. I find it a little ironic that Joe saved my favourite shrimp for last. I guess it's a case of murphy's law kicking in. So now after seeing this blatant act of murder, the mystery is solved and I will remember to NOT keep bettas with red shrimp.

Sue, that reads a little bit like crayfish porn... And I'm a little shocked that you are condoning crayfish incest! :tongue: Congrats on getting them to breed without any casualties. The father of that batch still has one claw smaller than the other after his lady ripped it off when they were younger. The courting you witnessed may not immediately result in a brood of eggs as she was receiving a sperm package that she can store and use at her own discretion at any point in the future (not sure if there is a best before date on that package). Good luck on getting a spawn and even better luck on finding ways to get rid of them! I'm sure I still have close to fifty lurking around the bottom of one of my 120Gs.

I'm fairly certain (if I'm correct about the source) that Paul's cray is a procambarus alleni.

I glanced at those monsters too but decided they were too big for my community tanks. I could see them grabbing a smaller fish. Looks a bit like a ghost shrimp on roids. Does indeed look like a freshwater prawn. Perhaps the red claws are a colour variant or juvenile stage.

I tend to keep my crays on a diet so they are unlikely to store food. The cray can handle the warmer temps if you want to house it with tropical fish but it will hunt those fish at night. Sooner or later it will catch one, or two, or all of them. I keep some of my crays with guppies as they tend to control the guppy numbers and require less attention. The rest are kept individually in cold water tanks with large goldfish.

But it was fun to watch.... Nothing like a bit of verbal fishing... oh how he took the bait! :shifty:

I'm sure someone else could benefit (as well as some fish) if you were to sell the next piece of equipment that pisses you off instead of being so wasteful. I think this arguement all comes down to preference and past experience. I have had frequent problems with the fluval xx4 series canisters. I purchased them all used and they accomplish what I need them for most of the time. They provide containment for biological bacteria and they circulate the water around the tank. The rest is a compromise between price, ease of use and longevity.

I know this is a bit of post resurrection but I was wondering how your breeding program was coming along? Any new pix of the lil darlings?

Is there some reason you focus on the 700's? What about the 1500's? I'm looking at moving away from fluval canisters and I've noticed the penn-plax are priced lower than a comparably sized Fluval.

I've been having success with a technique I read about. Developed by a master breeder whose name I can't recall (she was using it for BN plecos but it's worked for my angels and guppies as well as my temnickis). She called it the 'leave things alone method' or something like that. Instead of doing your diligent water changes regularly, you leave the tank alone for a few weeks and then do a large water change with water a few degrees cooler than the tank. I suppose she was trying to simulate seasonal rain cycles that tend to set off breeding in certain fish species. I would only try this if you have a very mature (+6 months established or better) planted tank.

The filter is not the only part of the tank that is supporting the biological film of benificial bacteria. The substrate and tank wall are also coated with the BB. I would either dump the media (including sponges, bio rings/balls but not charcoal ~if any is present) into the new filter or run them side by side for a few weeks. The biological bacteria needs time to colonize the new filter. This is all dependent on the bioload you have placed on the tank.

I keep my 11 kuhlis in a 60G community tank. I keep so many so that I will see some of them from time to time. They will eat whatever lands on the substrate (usually small NLS pellets). They like to hide under driftwood, rocs or caves but will all appear hen it's feeding time. I've heard of some people using a very fine sediment substrate because the kuhlis like to bury themselves but mine seem happy enough with river pebbles. I'm sure you could keep 5 in a 15-20G footprint tank easily.

She is using a canister type filtration system that supports a 100 gal. tank. It was being cleaned and maintained in 1 - 2 week interverals. now she will be doing this once a month to keep a ideal bacteria level. 25% Water changes were done once a week while cleaning the gravel. To get the tank back into cycle she will do 15% water changes for the next couple of days with the use a water stabalization formula that was recommended by a very knowledgeable employee at a LFS. He gave me instruction on how to get the tank back to an ideal level of health. We tested the water last night and found out the following: very high nitrate, a caution zone nitrite (yikes), hardness level was at very hard (good ol' edmonton city water), zero chlorine, PH level was at the low end of nuetral (which i would like to see a little higher), and the alkalinity was low. I will test the ammonia levels once a get an ammonia tester. Now that we know the results of these tests we can now utilize this info to implement fixes to the tank. Hopefully we can get it back to normal. Is there something else we should be doing? I admire your diligence in trying to maintain a healthy tank. Out of curiousity, what type of canister is it? That's not so important as long as it loaded with bio media (either the ceramic rings or plastic bioballs). Cleaning the canister every few weeks might be part of the problem. The beneficial bacteria are trying to establish their colonies in the canister filter and the full cycle can take up to four weeks. If you are washing the filter every one-two weeks in tap water, you are regularly killing off the bacteria. I might clean out my canister filters only once every 6-9 months. I don't use charcoal in them, just bio media. If I find the water flow is being impeded I will rinse out the sponge prefilters in a bucket with some of the aquarium water. Keep up the water changes and you should complete the cycle in the next few weeks. For water conditioner, I would recommend Seachem Prime. It's highly concentrated so you use less in comparison to other products. Any other products such as stress-coat or the bacteria support are in my opinion, unneccessary costs. Salt added to the water (aquarium salt sold in petstores is just coarse salt with a higher price) and allowing the bacteria to fully cycle will have the same effect.

How large is 'very large'? If your koi are over 12" you need to move them out of that tank or find them new homes. The goldfish should be ok in the 72G if you keep up a water change routine. As Jason mentioned, the water has high levels of ammonia in it due to overstocking of fish/ lack of adequate filtration. The cloudiness is a bacterial bloom that has arisen in response to the ammonia overload. I would recommend a large canister filter loaded with small bioballs (no charcoal) to allow the tank to complete cycling. You can go with a large HOB (hang on back) filter but I think you find the canister to require less maintenance. If the fish are being kept at room temperature in your house, you will need to continue feeding them. Reducing their food intake will help with the cycling of the tank by reducing ammonia levels from fish excrement. If your goldfish were being kept in a cold water tank (below 5c) then you shouldnt feed them. Below these temps, the enzymes in the fishes intestinal tract become inactive and the food they consume is not digested. This can lead to sickness as the food will rot inside the fish. I'm curious to know if you are doing these things: Water changes Treating the water added to the tank with an aquarium water conditioning product (to breakdown chlorine and chloramines found in city tapwater). Adding salt to the water - 1tblspn per 5 gallons (coarse salt)

Those light diffusers are commonly referred to as eggcrate.

That must have been one huge, powerful fridge, as fridge chillers are very inefficient. Wouldn't a deep freeze be more practical for this sort of DIY? That or go all out and put in a geothermal ground loop... :thumbs: