thegrandpoohbah

Probably time to re-calibrate it.

Trust me, they are still in there. You're going to wake up one morning and think that your gravel is moving when in reality it will be hundreds of snails!

It's 3.

Think about it this way: all that fish water is going to evaporate from your gecko enclosure. In that water is all the fish waste. Water evaporates but the other waste products won't. Over time, your gecko tank is gonna start to smell pretty bad. I'd stick to RO/DI water for any misting. It's clean and doesn't leave anything behind when it evaporates (including hard water spots, which is a bonus).

These were my favourites, though none are technically in Vancouver. Burnaby: J&L Aquatics - SW only but good prices on equipment King Ed Pet Center - some of the cheapest dry goods prices around Surrey: Pacific Aquatics Rogers Aquatic and Pet Supplies

Depends on the size of the tank. My favourites (in no particular order): SAE, cory cats, otos, BN plecos, cherry shrimp, Pomacea bridgesii applesnails, Asolene spixi snails and ramshorn snails.

A sponge pre-filter over the intake would prevent shrimp from getting sucked into the filter.

Thanks. The second address was from their website.

I'm heading to Edmonton on business tomorrow so I want to check out Aquagiant. Which is their correct address: 12775 50th St NW or 11709 170 St? Thanks!

There's a bunch of articles here: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=22075.

Frag them and sell or trade with other reefers. I had a friend in Vancouver with a large reef tank. He was able to make his car payments every month by selling coral frags.

Nice! What's the background made of?

Like DaveDude said, they use 3' bulbs placed end to end. 4' T5HO bulbs are 54W.

5 x 39 watts = 195 watts / $390 = $2 a watt Coralife 48" FRESHWATER AquaLight Fixture - 4 x 65W 4 x 65watts = 260 watts / $260 = $1 a watt The coralife light comes with plant bulbs as well (6700K). T5HO > PC. Also, he meant 8 x 39W so that's $1.25/Watt. Plus he has a 6' tank and the Coralife is only 4' long.

Manufacturers measure the outside dimensions. So usually, you get a little less water volume than what you bargained for.

There's always Aquagiant in Edmonton: http://www.aquagiant.com/index.php/cPath/3.../sort/2a/page/2.

There's also these fixtures if you're on a budget: http://fishneedit.com/t5ho-ligh.html. I'm planning on ordering one of the 3' 4x39W units soon. They are cheaply made but all the reviews on them seem pretty positive.

6700K, but anything between 6000-10000K is fine.

For fluorescent tubes the number refers to the diameter of the bulb in eigths of an inch. So a T8 bulb is 8/8ths of an inch and T5 is 5/8ths of an inch. These bulbs are not interchangeable because the pins on the ends of the bulbs are configured dfferently. PC is Power Compact which is basically a T5 tube bent into a U shape. The reason a T5 is more efficient than a PC is because it has a slimmer profile which results in less re-strike. Re-strike is the light that gets reflected by the reflector in the light fixture but then hits the bulb again. A slimmer bulb has less re-strike which means more of the light is reflected into the tank. A T5HO means T5 High Output = more wattage than a standard T5 bulb. You can't just stick a T5HO bulb into a regular T5 fixture as the ballast was not designed for the higher wattage. For a deeper tank such as yours, PCs would be the minimum required for good plant growth but T5HO and MH penetrate much better through the water and would allow you to keep some of the more light-demanding plants (ground cover, etc.).

Forget the PCs and go with T5HO. You get more light and better penetration. MH is good too if you can deal with the heat.

Looks like you've got some good coraline growth happening there. Do you dose anything?

I find breeding traps to be too stressful for the mom. What I would do is put her by herself in a 5 or 10G with lots of java moss. That will give the babies some places to hide. Once she drops then you can return her to the main tank. Or just leave her in the community tank and let nature do it's thing. Some of the babies will likely survive if you go that route provided you have places for them to hide and avoid getting eaten.

4 weeks, no less. If any fish show signs of disease then the tank gets treated and, as degrassi stated, the 4 week period starts over once the fish look healthy again.

10,000K has worked well for me. This was my 12G Nanocube with a 24W 10,000K bulb: I'm planning to do a 50G planted tank using a 4 x 39W 10,000K T5HO fixture. I prefer the colour as compared to using 6700K (which i find to be too yellow) and the plants don't seem to mind one bit.

Beautiful! Where did you get the tank from?