darkangel

I had a heater crap out on me about a month ago in my african tank. I did'nt notice it until I stuck my hand in the tank to check water temp for the W/C. When I checked the thermometer it was at 65 degrees F. All I did was put a new heater in set at 20 and it took allmost 2 days to get up to that temp, then I set the heater at 26. I never had any problems after that. Even if you use a 300 watt heater set at 20 it will take a long time to come up to that temp.

I'm running 2 large canister filters on my 75 gal planted tank. I have the intakes in the corners, well hidden by plants and I have one spraybar about 2 inches below the surface pushing to the front of the tank and slightly downward, and one spraybar about an inch above the substrate pointed up the back pane and about 20 degrees to the front. Gives a good circular motion of the water and still gives a low movement area at the front of the tank. As far as the rest of it, I just use a 4 inch thick bed of 80/100 sandblasting sand and dry ferts using the EI method and i'm trimming the jungle every 2 to 3 weeks.

Welcome, and the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

I use the double barrel net trick. 2 large nets, one in each hand, drop a little food in and when they go for the snack be fast.

I like to use 2 canister filters rated for 2 to 3 times the size of the tank for my larger tanks. You can under filter but I don't think you can over filter. With 2 filters they can be alternated when cleaning, and I find canisters to be more on the quiet side.

I can't answer just one of those. I think they are all important with the exception of the post construction maintenance/assistance. To me, If a home owner is puting in a pond they should have half an idea about maintenance. It would be a nice added bonus though.

Try puting a night light about 3 or 4 ft away from the tank so daddy can see what is happening in the middle of the night. Sometimes the nest starts to come apart at night and they can't see to rebuild. If it is a small nest to begin with and it falls apart throughout the nite by the time daddy rebuilds it's allready too late, and most of the eggs/fry will sink to the bootom of the tank and eventually die off. That's why I stopped breeding bettas & gouramis, Too much damn work.

I decided to move some fish around and they will have a tank of there own.

I just went to feed my fishy friends and noticed the male albino krib was being a real jerk. When I took a closer look between the plants I spotted about 50 or so little white wiggly guys/gals in the sand. Now I just hope they survive a couple more days and I'll syphon them out. Only one question, would it be safe to put them in a tank with one week old krib fry? This is only the second spawn in 2 years for this pair and the fry are only about 2/3 the size of the ones growing out.

When you brought the sample of water to my house last night, you forgot to give me one small piece of vital info (that you were adding algae reducer). The tests that were done using a hagen test kit were amonia 2.4, nitrite 0.3-0.8 on the charts. The tests done using an API test kit were amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5ppm, ph 6.4. I also did tests on my tanks with both test kits (kind of like a second opinion) and aside from my nitrates at 5ppm on all tanks except the south american tank at 20-30ppm all tests came up clear. I will be cleaning one canister from 3 tanks tomorrow, If you want I can save you the swamp water from them. CAUTION It will be thick, 4 months of crap in them.

Get a hold of a slate or granite tile, drill a couple holes in it and screw it to the wood with stainless steel screws. Set it in your tank and cover the tile with substrate. It will eventually stay down, then you can remove the tile or leave it on. Another option would be to silicone the wood to a rock, granite, or slate tile, a little harder to remove later on.

I like the flowerhorn and the african arowana the best.

A large cat will work wonders. If that don't work you have to wait until September when it will be legal to use ammunition on them.

I do 30 to 50% W/C every week, I add enough prime to treat the entire tank and add tap water. The only time I had a problem was when the hose was running into the filter intake. (That was my fault for being brain dead for 5 min.).

I have about a 100 free swimmers as of yesterday. Just have to grow them out now and see what they have for color. If they have the yellow and orange they will be keepers, no color they will be feeders. The proud parents are about to start round two.

I have yellow lab fry, krib fry, and julis all in a 60 gal grow out tank without issues. All fry range between 1/2" & 1.5" in length.

That is a really nice tank, Only one small problem with it. It would look better in my house.

Parents are a little nasty at this point. Every time I go near the tank they smash into the glass like they want to get me.

Eggs hatched today. I have about 100+ wigglers, We'll see what is left in 3 to 5 days.

I found the camera cord but my dad took the camera to the lake the glass should of been here on the 15th and they have no idea were it is. So I am going to go somewhere else. I don't want this to be slander, but if you want your glass before your 98th birthday order glass from somewhere else I orderd the glass in december... The biggest problem is not with Aquagiant. It is with the supplier. They bring in all of there products from China and so forth. When an order is put in from another country/province, They will hold that order until such time as they have at least a 20 ft. sea can full of product for that store in that city/province/country before shipping it.(boils down to cost, It would probably cost just as much to ship that one piece of glass as it would to ship a whole container). I have'nt seen anything new hit aquagiants shelves for a while, so it could be another month or another year before that piece of glass gets here. It kind of sucks because you're waiting for glass to finish your tank, and your fish are cursing the builder because they want there house.

The grandson had a couple friends over tonite, and as one of them was showing the other the eggs he was slapping his hand on the glass (could of choked him, but I like kids). With all the comotion going on the female decided to start having a caviar snack. She was doing a good job of eating the eggs until I chased her away and moved the rock into a 10 gal with lots of water movement. Some of the eggs are turning white, but there is about 200 or so that have little black dots in them, I'm hoping some of them hatch.

Welcome back, Your dwarf gouramis will do fine with your guppies and danios. Gouramis are'nt fussy about water conditions as they live in ditches and rice patties, but like all fish they will do much better in nice clean water.

I just sat down to have a game of cards with my grandson, When I looked over at the South American tank I noticed a pair of rainbow severums laying on thier sides by some rocks. Upon closer inspection I saw eggs on the rocks, there has to be a 1000+ eggs and they are still laying. I tried to get some pics but I could'nt get close enough without them freaking out, (where is Patrick when you need him). I will try and get some more shots in a bit, and hope they turn out.

Is that often enough to avoid the canister creating nitrates? One of the warnings I see over and over is that many aquarists will not clean canister filters often enough as they are still running well, but in reality are have a large build up of organic sludge turning them into "nitrate factories". My Rena manual prompts me to clean every 4 weeks, but that is also how often they say I should do a 1/4 water change so I only put so much stock in their guidance. I usually give them a good cleaning every 3 months, except the bio-balls and ceramic rings just get a couple quick dips in a bucket of water from the tank. I will clean 1 and then a month later clean the other. I do water changes once a week, and gravel sweeps monthly, I do have an abundance of MTS in the tanks but I don't put to much faith in them.

I was thinking the same thing, that the eggs are not getting fertilised. I was thinking of taking the sub dominant male and three females and put them in another tank to see what happens. Is it possible that my dominant male is sterile,or is he just poking fun and not taking his job serious.