RD.

LOL, way to go! :thumbs:

Yes, it's fine to use in your tank, but it won't have any affect on your GH or KH.

Yes, it would work just fine. Just make sure to soak & rinse it well before adding any to your filters.

No problem, glad to help.

The powder Victor had was only good for chlorine, not chloramine. As previously mentioned, sodium thiosulfate is dirt cheap if you buy it in bulk. Sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate is more expensive, but will still save you a ton of $$$ compared to Prime. (if you have chloramine treated water) That's why you won't find these products at the LFS. :hey:

I don't think you have much choice but to add extra support from below. Even if there's only 12" between the joists, and you're up against a load bearing wall, that's still going to be a lot of long term stress on those joists. Add in the factor that some of those joists may have some structural flaws, such as knots, holes for wiring, etc, and I think it's a disaster waiting to happen. Here's an excellent read on this subject: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

BTW - I did want to mention that IMO Seachem Prime is every bit as good as ClorAm-X, the dry powder product is just much less expensive than Prime. I've performed large water changes via my Python in tanks containing fry as young as 2 days old, and never had any problems when using Prime, or ClorAm-X.

It does no such thing. It simply breaks the chlorine/ammonia bond, and converts the chlorine to chloride. The ammonia is left behind at full strength, until your bio filters slowly utilize it. IOW each water change will be followed by an ammonia spike, which even at small doses, over a repeated period of time, will be harmful to your fish, especially if you keep them at a PH above 7.0. The higher the PH, the more deadly ammonia becomes. Hagen states to use twice as much for chloramine treated water, due to the fact that it takes a higher amount of their conditioner to assure that the chlorine/ammonia is split, and the chlorine is neutralized. If you're going to use Aquaplus, you might as well just buy sodium thiosulfate in bulk, which will be a tiny fraction of the price. For chloramine treated water, I recommend this product: http://www.islandscallops.com/cloram-x.htm It's the dry powder form of Amquel, and contains 100% sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate. Here's a good review on some of the more popular water conditioners currently on the market. http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

Aquaplus is pretty much useless in Edmonton (they have chloramine), but yes, I fill all of my tanks via a python, and trickle the water conditioner in as I fill. Val - the tiny bubbles won't hurt your fish, and the chance of getting 'gas bubble disease' via a water fill is pretty much zero. You won't see any problems until you exceed 100% saturation levels in a tank. The tiny bubbles you are seeing are due to the supersaturation of gases in tap water, from being pumped under pressure and/or cold water heating up to room temperature. It seems to be a lot worse in the winter months. I perform 50% water changes every 5-6 days, and have performed water changes as large as 80% & never had any issues. The fish always get a bit worked up after a water change, usually the males go on a breeding frenzy, which can invlove some dominance flashing, but no signs of stress from any of the fish. As long as the water parameters remain constant, and you use enough water conditioner to treat the entire tank volume (which you do), you will encounter no problems when using a python to refill your tank.

Sounds like a wolf in sheeps clothing. :hey: He might color up more once he settles into the tanks hierarchy.

Both sub dom males, as well as dom female P. saulosi can look like that.

Oxquo - If admin feels the need for an edit, I think they should go ahead & delete the portions they find offensive. It might be a good idea to make note of the edit on the post, if in fact it's only a portion of the comment that's edited. I understand that a moderators job can be a thankless one at times, buy hey, that's what you get the big bucks for.

No pain, no gain. :hey: I'm from Red Deer as well.....

It's been my experience that when extremely foul language is used, those comments are deleted, not the thread itself, and the person using that language receives a warning, or suspension, via a PM.

IMHO - If a thread/topic gets heated, and a mod and/or admin feel the need to step in, it should only be in the respect that the person being overly argumentative is sanctioned, not the entire thread or topic. If the mods or admin feel someone is getting carried away, send them a PM explaining why they feel this way, and that if it continues their posts will be removed, and/or they will be banned from the site. IMO it's kind of ridiculous if everytime someone who starts a thread doesn't like the way it's going, they can simply ask for the thread to be removed, and it is. Unless of course you want a site where everyone holds hands & sings la-la-la 24/7. :baby: IMO there was only 'one' issue in the WC thread that could have been seen as being overly argumentative, and IMO it could have been dealt with via a PM. To remove the entire thread, because it didn't suit a certain someone's needs, is insulting to anyone who posted in that thread with a legitimite comment or concern on that subject. It also opens the door to hard feelings as 'some' people may not have had the opportunity to read an explanation given later in the thread, as the entire thread went POOF. It would be nice if a thread could at least be "locked' until reviewed by someone in admin so that any comments posted could still be viewed. Oxquo called me on a comment I made in that thread, which in fact it should not have been taken in an offensive manner in any way shape or form, and I hope Victor was able to read my response to him before that thread was deleted. I was simply comparing some prices listed for WC fish on 'this' site, with WC fish listed on the CRLCA, which I had already stated I did NOT think were out of line. That comment was posted in response to someone who DID feel the prices on the CRLCA were too high. ($30-50 per WC fish) If nothing else, I hope I at least cleared that issue up.

As previously mentioned in another thread, once the Neolamprologus brichardi pair off they will become more & more aggressive towards the other fish in your tank. At some point they will breed (you won't be able to stop them) and from there on in things will get very ugly towards the rest of the fish in your tank. Your tank is only big enough for one pair of brichardi, period. If you don't like that option, then do the rest of your fish a favour & get rid of the brichardi.

Scary stuff, glad to hear everyone is ok. An excellent reason why one should always keep fresh batteries in your smoke alarms.

Yep, my guess is the brichardi will be the first to pair off, and from then on things will get ugly. Once brichardi start breeding, they can become very territorial, and very aggressive. My breeding pair attack & bite my water change hose, and hard! I've yet to have any Malawi fish show that kind of aggression. :shock:

I'm not sure about on a regular basis, but in the original comment they posted about "5-7", and I did think that was somewhat misleading. The males of both those species can get big, a lot bigger than 5-7".

Mature fish sizes comes down to the strain, the conditions they're kept in, and the amount of protein one feeds them. I've seen 7" yellow labs (and yes, they were ugly!), so a 9 or 10" full grown 'male' moori or venustus certainly isn't too hard to imagine. If you look around online, I don't think you'll have any problems finding moori males that exceed 7". Here's a male that's 9 1/2" (24 cm) at 4 years of age. (kept in a very large tank) http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/haps/...ra_moorii13.htm N. venustus are usually rated at a max of 10", some people even list the max as 12" (for adult males) http://www.bigskycichlids.com/Nvenustusx.htm If you flip through the photos on this profile page, you can see Marc Elieson's 11" male. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1160

The moori, or the venustus? I've seen 9" moori, and 10" venustus, but I don't think they're for sale. :hey:

Hmmm, okay then, good luck.

I seriously hope this isn't a long term situation. Raven - is this what you currently have in your 30g tank?

Val covered things nicely, but I wanted to mention that Acei are actually considered "omnivores", so the entire group of fish could eat the same food with no issues. Having said that, some spirulina flakes a few times a week wouldn't hurt either. What size of tank is this, and how many species/fish?

I'm not a plant person, but if I was, I'd want my tank to look just like yours. Well done .....