nighthawk

My wife and I both have tanks using vals, and use Excel as the sole carbon source added. I have been happy with the growth over the last year or so; I have read here also that using Excel at recommended doses (not the high doses some use to kill off algae!!) will not cause problems. OTOH, there are also reports of vals and other plants quickly melting away under the influence. Just my experience and reading....

I am unsure about Calgary, but Garden stores here in the North carry it.

You can also purchase pipe-cleaner type doodads; Big Al's has some nice, long ones attached to wire, and serious music stores would have similar items for cleaning brass instruments (trumpets or trombones). That being written, I like Sam's idea for its thriftiness!

Hi, Argentis; love the fossil, by the way. Our tanks have been running without C02 for about a year now, and I still keep pulling out and throwing aways mounds of plant material monthly. We have about 1.5-2 wpg, and use Excel as a carbon source. The tanks, as you can see below, are up to 90 g; a lot of people would say it's easier to use C02 at this volume, but for the ease of use and low start-up cost, you really can't beat this type of setup.

I have that model for when I am away for more than a week at a time, and I really like it. You must use it beforehand, though, to find out how much food it is giving to your fish; you really don't want to feed as much as usual, if you are not going to be doing water changes. Most of the experts on this forum and others would agree that periods of less than 1-2 weeks without food are fine for adult fishies; fry certainly need more often, and you probably don't want to be away for long periods while trying to raise the little guys! Best of luck!

Thanks for the advice, and quickly! Where would I get eggcrate, in Edmonton?

Hi, gurus of fish! I have a question for you. I am preparing to start a fairly large Tang tank, and I am worried about the weight of rock that will go in there. I have read on some on-line forums about using styrofoam/polystyrene underneath the rocks, to help distribute the weight. Do any of you have experience with this? Is it necessary? Thanks for the wisdom...

Thanks for the advice. I will post again when I have a tank up and cycled. AF, what plants are you using in your tank? From what I've read, Vals and hardy plants like them are the ones that work best, and while I have a bunch in my SA tank, I'd love to put something more interesting in this one.

Hello, Group! I have been given the okay by my wife (as soon as we get the basement complete) to get "as big a tank as I want." Yahoo! -ham- I'd really like to do a Tanganyikan tank, because I like the look of the Altolamprologus that I have seen. The questions I have for you are: 1. If I were to get a tank of, say, 90-130 gallons, how many fish can be put in there? I understand the general rule with these Rift Lake guys is to overstock, but what does that mean in practical terms? 2. Given a tank this size, what companions can be put with a group of A. compressiceps? Can I do things like shelldwellers and julies with them, given proper aquascaping, or is this size still too small to mix these groups? 3. Do these guys like the presence of plants? Both of our tanks are planted now, but if the cichlids are just going to pull up plants, I am okay with not using any. Thanks for the collective wisdom!

Has anyone had an opportunity to try the SmartHeater with a Rena XP class canister filter? I have been reading about these inline devices, and it sounds like a fantastic idea, if it works. It's something I'd try on my next project, if there is some good feedback.

Just getting into this, but I love the apistos! I have a cacatuoides female + 3 babies (likely 1 male, 2 female, although not totally sure yet) and 1 borelli. The male died just after spawning.

Having now seen some pictures, I agree with my better-informed brethren.

Looks a lot like a variety of echinodorus / swordplant. The leaves look wider than the crypts I've seen, but that's not many. As to which variety, how much red is there on the back of the leaves? The Tropica website (www.tropica.com) is a good place for researching plants. I'd take a look there if I were you, and get some ideas.

Our tank sort of breeds on its own; whatever is in there seems to reproduce! -05- Moenkhausia pitteri Apistogramma cacatuoides Nematobrycon palmeri And for plants: Echinodorus "ocelot", Cabomba, Vallisneria

Congratulations! One of the most fun things about our current large tank is watching the babies come out. We have a well planted tank, and are just growing out some cockatoo apistos. They are in a tank with no real predators, and we have just let them grow. The water here in Edmonchuk is fairly hard, too, and that seems to have had no effect. If rams are anything like apistos, they may need a couple of tries to get the parenting vs. eating debate quite right, although ours did okay the first time. Good luck watching your kids grow up!

To the mods: My computer is no longer recognizing my exit from the board. If I link to the New Messages, unless I have actually logged out, I get the messages I have already read, as well as the new ones. Is there a way I can easily fix this? Is it a cookie problem? I do have cookies enabled for this site. Thanks for your help!

Hello, gurus of aqua! I have a question for you. I have an eheim canister filter, which contains porous filter media as well as a white, flossy mechanical filter medium. My understanding is that the porous media should contain the beneficial, nitrogen-converting bacteria. Is there any reason I should ever have to change the porous media? I have changed the flossy stuff a few times, and have rinsed the mech stuff (in tank water, of course) once in a while (every 3 mo or so). I notice that the LFS carry replacement media, and I am not sure why. Maybe there is a step I am missing in the nitrogen cycle, or a problem that develops with "old bacteria". TIA!

I am totally taken with the variety and colours of the SA cichlids I have seen! I currently have only a pair of A. cacatuoides, which just put out their first brood of fry in my community tank. I am waiting to see what they will do with them, and how many survive. Are there any other SA dwarf cichlids that can be in the same tank? It's a 92 g with schools of cardinals, diamonds and emperors, as well as a bristlenose plec and a couple of SAE's, well planted. If the A. borrelli, rams or a similar, contrasting species would fit in as a pair, I'd love to keep some more little cichlids in here. TIA for your advice!

My Diamonds (Moenkhausia pitteri) are pretty big; I am not sure they are at 3" yet, but they'd get close, and are friendly with the other tetras in the tank. They also breed like rabbits. :boxed:

My wife's tank is a betta tank, and she has included a few white cloud minnows and espei rasboras. I really like the espeis, as their colour is brighter than most of the harlequins I've seen. The white clouds are pretty, especially if you get the long-finned variety, but fairly simple as far as behaviour goes: play in the current, eat, play in the current some more. They are not as happy in a low-flow tank like a betta one. As far as fin nipping goes, I have seen none, and they get along really well. There is also a cory, covering the bottom as well as a lot of the water column. He is pretty cool to watch. I'd encourage you to include some plants in the tank if you have space, also. Hikaru loves to hide and swim through the hygrophilas that are in with him.

Hi, Forum! I was at Big Al's today, and noticed a gorgeous fish (see title). I am nowhere near ready for a SW tank yet, just having had fresh going for about 6 mo now, but this looks like the kind of creature I'd want to have in 2-3 years when I have a better idea of what I am doing. Has anyone kept one of these little monsters? The specific questions I have are: How big a tank do they need? How long do they keep the juvenile pattern (spines, etc.) before changing to the (slightly more boring) adult configuration? Would the get along well with lionfish? Any other tankmates that would keep them happy? Thanks for your experience!

I have not started CO2, just using Flourish so far. I am not used to the idea of changing water chemistry, so I am happy paying a little more for stable atmosphere for the fishies. The lighting is just standard Coralife compact fluorescents, about 2 watts/gallon. I would encourage you to go planted. The fish seem really happy, and the tank looks beautiful, even with only a few fish in it! I used a book called "Freshwater Aquarium Models" to get ideas; it's pretty much a cookbook to get a happy tank started. I thought about loaches, but they are mostly SE Asian fish, and not appropriate for the tank, as well as hard to catch and tend to eat my little shrimpies. The snails are not a big problem; I am not over feeding, and they look like ramshorns, which should not (crossing fingers and eyes) do a number on the plants.

Thanks! We think so, too! "Our" tank (so called so that I can get one for me!!) has the SA tetras: 5 White Cloud minnows (there to start the cycle) 1 bristlenose plec (Bob) 5 diamond tetras (which just spawned, so we now have 10!) 11 cardinal tetras 5 emperor tetras 2 SAEs, 2 ghost shrimp to deal with algae 1 male, 1 female cockatoo apisto (Eddie and Bambi) Plants include green and red cabomba, alternatha, eelgrass, lileopsis and ocelot sword (blooming!) My wife's tank is the SE Asian tank: 7 White clouds (for starting the cycle) 10 espei rasboras 1 trilined cory (bottom guy) 1 halfmoon betta (Hikaru) Plants include eelgrass, crypts, 2 kinds of hygrophila, red tiger lotus and ceratopteris. Both tanks have a bunchy of ramshorn snails that came along for the ride. Thanks for asking! I'm thinking of a rainbowfish tank for mine; we'll see how that goes. It will wait a while.

Here is my attempt at photographing the bloom. Unfortunately, it decided to bloom towards the corner of the walls this corner tank is set in, so you get my finger, too. I will see if I can get the little guys to grow when they show up. Thanks for the tip, Jvision! Also, a couple pictures of the SE Asian tank.

It is a 92 gal bowfront. I intended it as a general SA biotope, but needed to add some SAE's to deal with algae, and it had White Clouds to start, and some are still there. I will try to get pics of the blooms when they arrive. Does the plant emerge before blooming?