Kwirky

it would have to take a hell of a long time to corrode "stainless steel" metal in a filter in a freshwater tank. years... I'm not very satisfied with my XP-3, and I've never been satisfied with fluval canisters. I think it's because I got used to using medium-high end marine equipment which has a much higher build quality than most freshwater equipment. Go figure

see if your LFS will exchange it under warranty if the bulbs are still good.

If you have money, you can use 1 tablespoon of "kosher" salt (sold at the grocery store), or sea salt (sold at the aquarium store) for every 2 gallons of water. If you don't have any $$, you could increase your tank's temperature 1 degree every 6 hours until it's at 82-83F. That'll cause the ich's lifecycle to speed up and they'll be cured of it quicker if their immune system is good. That will cause the fish's metabolism to increase and they'll go through the ich faster. I'd also recommend taking a sample of your water to the local fish store (big al's maybe). If your water parameters are out of whack, they'd be able to tell you, so the same thing doesn't happen again due to fish stress. Good luck

ok thanks for the advice everyone... 4 of us moved it using my girlfriend's truck. There wasn't anything major. It was a pain to move because it had to be tipped on end to get around corners at the stairs at both places, and the plumbing had to be left in place. It made it to the new place without much trouble though. As for the plants, they're all a rat's nest in a 20g aquarium with a pump and heater. I'm NOT looking forward to detangling them lol. I moved the flourite in a half full rubbermaid bin (probably 15 gallons worth), and three 5 gallon pails. It was funny making so many trips for stuff that technically was all within the one tank. It's all consumed about half the basement in space until everything's set up, then it'll be back to the 8 square feet like it was previously

I'm moving my 120g planted aquarium next week (finally moved out of my parent's), and I don't really know exactly how to plan it. I was planning to remove most of the plants, and storing them in a rubbermaid bin for the move. Then I'd remove the fish, and take them to the new place and keep them in a 33g and a 20g tank I have. I'd have to move the flourite, probably in buckets. The tank has to go up about 10 stairs, around a 90 degree corner, up another three, through the living room, and onto the truck. The tank's plumbed, but I believe I can remove the return plumbing by just unscrewing the gasket. The intake plumbing will have to be cut then reglued. does this sound sane? I know it's going to be a BIG job, and I suspect there will only be 3 of us (including my girlfriend) to do it. We'll have a dolly, thankfully, and a truck with a rubber lined back. It has me quite worried though how long can the plants last in a rubbermaid bin filled with water without light? it can have a heater if needed. I'll need aprox 12-24 hours for the redone plumbing to cure before I can fill the tank with water again, and that's hoping the tank doesn't spring any leaks from the move.

Excellent idea! I like the thought of a whole bunch of tiny fish in a big tank. My cardinals certainly seem happiest in my planted tank.......which, by the way, looks no where near as good as yours. Nice job! Some think big is better. For fish, I think more is better . I added 8 dwarf ram cichlids. They've hidden themselves quite well amongst the jungle, like I had hoped they would. I'm thinking if they end up breeding, they'd do it in the jungle growth. Anyone know if SAE's are bad for eating fry or eggs in general?

yeah lol. luckily I like the "wild" look, so I won't be doing much nit-picky pruning. Just going in with the scissors and chopping away once in a while. dunno. I've been contemplating some catfish, because they'd swim amongst the plants. Anyone know of any shoaling fish that'd go in and out of the plants? the danios stay in the open water. I've considered cory's.

Here's my new freshwater aquarium. It was a 120g reef tank converted to a planted aquarium. It's not heavily stocked in fish yet, because I'm taking it slow. It's 120g, 48x24x24 inches. Pressurized CO2, T5 tek lights, and XP3 filter hard plumbed into the tank. Flourite substrate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q39Y1Z9VscY tell me what you think

I've had both, and the all glass single bulb T8 is MUCH brighter than the two bulb coralife two bulb T5. much brighter. T5's are only better if they're HO driven (which the coralife's are not) and if they have individual reflectors (which the coralifes don't). They're pretty dim. Gold's has both, you don't have to go to the US. Sean

When you need potassium nitrate, I have LOTS of the stuff. 50 lbs worth . got it so cheap I can pretty much give it away to anyone who needs some. I have a little 20g nano I just started with bright light and pressurized co2. I was getting black leaves on the new growth (high phosphates), so I clipped the leaves, dosed some nitrate (15ppm worth over the week), and the black leaves haven't come back. so i guess the requirement to do all 3 (dosing, co2, bright light) at once is true.

Hey vic, Do you know of those assortment packs are a good value? On plantedtank.net some people said be careful because you don't know what you're getting, but even if half of it's filler it's still cheaper than buying locally. The only gripe I have about aquariumplants.com is their once a month shipping. I gotta try to get all this done before school starts up, and I have a 2 week vacation planned before september too. I'll call pisces and see if they'll give a quantity discount, too. I'm waiting for somone at Sunridge Petland to get back to me on a quantity discount too. I know when starting a planted aquarium, I should try to plant it heavily from the start. I was thinking of planting the tank with an assortment of plants I like, then temporarily fill the rest of the tank with a super cheap "whatever's on sale" fast growing plant from pisces. That way the algae can't compete, and I have time then to decide on the rest of the plants I'd like to buy (and save up for...). Trying to set up a nice tank on a student's budget is quite the paradox

Where's a good place to get aquatic plants in calgary, or a good place to order them from through internet/mail-order? There doesn't seem to be much. I've been considering aquariumplants.com but I sent them two e-mails and never replied, so I'm questioning their customer service for "at the time of sale." I'm setting up a 120g 48x24x24 tank, and the 8 square feet of planting area will take a fair bit of greens to initially plant it

Hey everyone, First post on the boards here. I'm from calgary, changing from a reef hobbyist to a planted tank hobbyist. Decided to sign up on these forums here because there seems to be good discussion on freshwater aquaria with a local nature. I have a 120g tank (48x24x24) that i'm converting to a planted tank. 4' 8 bulb tek light. So hello, and look forward to talking to everyone, Sean Calgary AB