Linsay

Mine is cool not skiddish 7" or so good times to watch eat. hahaha

Really? I'm at 2.4 WPG. What do you suggest? Yes to the paintball canister. The reactor is a part of the Red Sea kit, looks kinda like a power head. I'm beginning to agree. I'm getting a bit of an algae problem. green and brown (hair algae maybe? - looks like 'old mans beard' lichen or spider webs). I put my son's BN in there just now in hopes he'll help a bit, I'll be taking him out tomorrow morning. I'm not at all concerned about poor water conditions (It's just that I had to undergo some pretty intense negotiations with my 4 year old to get him to let me borrow his BN :tongue: ), I've been testing it every couple of days and I'm still sitting at 0 NO2, 0 NH3, and about 5 NO3, pH 7.1 . I also tested the PO4 and Fe and both were 0. I added some NPK and trace ferts last night. If the pleco doesn't work out I'm going back to the store for some Rosy barbs. Any suggestions experts? With new plants

Thank you SO much for the great advice.

Super. I already have some of your wysteria actually - I'm Kraken's wife :ph43r: They're in the bottom photo. But if I need to have a bunch more plants to make this work then I would love some more if you're willing to part with it. Thank you

:bow: Thank you!...this is what I wanted to know. How much is "WAY MORE"? 2x, 3x, 10x as much as I have? Also, I think I have decided to keep the calvus and gold comps out of the planted tank. I think I'll do blue rams, zebra loach, and Apistogramma agassizii. cool? I have 3 rams (about 1") and 9 zebra loach (about 1 1/2"). I don't have the Apisto's yet. I'm thinking about getting 3-ish. :shifty: Anyone in Calgary have some free/cheap plants and or Apisto's?

Thank you. I'm really excited to see how it turns out. :rofl:

I HAVE done research on the calvus, lots of it actually...and admittedly the rams were more of an impulse buy. The pH is at 8.0 - just standard Calgary water. The calvus and the blue rams are doing perfectly fine together. I realize this grouping might not be long term, as the calvus will get much bigger than the rams, but the calvus grow VERY slowly and should continue to be fine with the rams for some time. Calvus are very peaceful - in fact, in my tank the rams are more boisterous than the calvus, not at all aggressive, just that when the food is out they're THERE. I did find out that the blue rams do better in softer water and are actually built for a completely different part of the world than calvus, but hey, it's working for me. They're eating and playing and doing just fine. Thank you for your input. I've always wanted to give fishless cylcing a try, so maybe I'll do that.

I've been preparing and looking forward to this for a long time. My first planted tank. It's a 45g with Eheim 2215 canister and Red Sea CO2 (don't know [CO2] yet, I'm at about 1 bubble per second right now though). Temp @ 80. Powder ferts under the sand and caps in the sand next to the root systems of the bigger plants. Lighting will be T5HO 2x54W. I have the lights, but my husband isn't finished the canopy yet, so I'm making do for today. I'll be putting calvus (black and white?) , gold comps, zebra loach, and blue rams in it eventually. Q#1 - Should I put the blue rams in now (there are 3 of them) to keep the ammonia going? I've read that the plants will suck up alot of the ammonia and nitrite if/when there's a spike. I'm using a filter that has been running in a heavily stocked tank for about a week and I've used the sand from the heavily stocked tank (cichlids). I think the tank will cycle fairly quickly, but my calvus are my babies and they're used to pristine water (0 NH3, 0 NO2, 5 NO3) (30-50% W/C weekly). Q#2 - With the fertilizers I have (Ocean Nutrition 'Giovanni's Starter' and 'Giovanni's Fertil Caps'), do I need to add fertilizers to the water too? also,I'm going to pick up some trace ferts soon too, what do you recomend? Q#3 - What's the best way to keep the pH up (for the calvus) when adding CO2? I think I read somewhere that baking soda works, is this true? BTW: when doing some research I found this article that was very helpful (It's on fish ponds in the southern US, but I found the basic info very helpful. It's on the relationships between pH, CO2, alkalinity, and hardness). http://www.govdocs.aquake.org/cgi/reprint/2003/725/7250100 (click on the link on the top right corner named 'abstract', then on 'full text' - again in the top right corner) Here's some pictures :thumbs:

In my (brief) experience saulosi's can be a real bugger. I have one that will beat the hell out of fish twice his size. If it's excitment you're looking for I wouldn't discourage you, but if you're looking for a blue somewhat peaceful fish maybe an electric blue (S. fryeri or ahli ...whatever...)? If it's the body shape you're after, maybe a rusty (I. sprengerae)?

:shock: OMG I never even thought of that. LOL. THANK YOU! all this time I was like "stupid uneven floor...grumble grumble..." haha

:smokey: That's awsome. Great pics guys

That's great to know that sponges will do the trick, I was worried it wouldn't be enough. Thanks guys. :bow: I love this site :thumbs:

Hey, what do you guys use for filtration for your fish rooms? I was thinking maybe a big sump / pond filter / canister with octopus like tubes coming off and into the tanks. There's going to be about a dozen tanks in a U shaped corner in the basement. The tanks are around 20 gallons each. I'm not breeding for profit or setting up a store or anything, just need to keep the predators fed :smokey: Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you

My favorite LFS in Calgary are Elite, Pisces, Riverfront, and Franco's. Pisces and Riverfront have the best selection, Elite has THE best advice/service. Riverfront is close to the zoo (just go west on Memorial then there's some funky downtown stuff, check out the Riverfront website for a map), and it's HUGE. My mom always told me "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" ...so I wont say anything about golds. Just my opinion. :shifty:

That makes sense. Although I'll likely end up with a low survival rate anyway because once they're free swimming they'll be meals on whells - err..fins - Oh well, I didn't really need 199 Salvini anyway. :P Thank you

Cool, thanks. I thought about using a turkey baster to get 'em out :shifty: . Mom picked out a great hiding spot between a huge rock and the back wall of the tank - it's a pretty tight spot. The siphon is a great idea though - maybe i could fit a piece of airline tubing onto it- hmmmm.... I have a 15g nursery tank going on right now with some nyererei fry and a holding saulosi that I can put them in. I'll likely put them in one of those floating boxes in there for now, until they get fast enough to out swim the nyererei. So then, if/when I take them out what do I feel them? Crushed up NLS 'grow'? They've still got some egg sack for now I think. I know it's a crummy picture, but i have to use a mirror and a flashlight to see them - they're at the back of the tank. They're that dark patch on top of the sand in the corner.

My Salvini eggs just hatched a few days ago and there's a swarm of little fry. :rofl: I know Salvini can be very aggressive defending them, but I'm wondering how I can curb that at all, if I can. Disco (my female green terror) is getting nipped at pretty bad, well just about everyone is, but she seems to be baring the brunt of it. :bang1: Should I remove the fry? or will that make it worse?

I live in Calgary now, but I'm from BC. Clearwater actually, it's a little north of Kamloops.

Your babies seem to like this one :thumbs: Here's a better shot of the shell

I've done some homework on rays and everyone seems to agree they need pristine water conditions. What kind of filtration do you recomend? I have two AC70's on there right now but i have a gut feeling that's not going to be enough. It so happens I have a perfect place for a sump (or canister) under the tank but I know very little about how to set up a sump. I did some googling, but it got me more confused than anything. I suppose a few of my main questions are 1. what is the best filter material to use in a sump? 2. can you just stick 2 hoses into the tank - one to suck the water into the sump and the other to return? 3. What is a refugium and is it necessary for rays? Also- on the note of water conditions. That 70g tank is cycling very weirdly (is that a word?) any way... here's the story: I bought the tank used - it held a big peacock and two oscars (which i sold), it was really grimy so i washed it out with the hose and a tooth brush. The filters came with the tank, but were really grimy too so i also washed those out with tap water (both the filter material and the filter itself). The sand is brand new regular sand (not aquarium grade, but the dude at Pisces said that's what they use in thier ray tanks). I currently have 12 danios in there to help it along with the ammonia (i know, i know, i'm the devil for letting the poor little fish suffer) Here's the weird part - i tested the water the very next day after i filled it and it appeared cycled ???!!! 0 NH3, 0 NO2, 20 NO3! I expected to find 0 for everything. (pH - 8.1, temp - 80C) It's stayed the same for the last week or so. I'm thinking that a small amount of bacteria must've survived my cleaning frenzy and are able to keep up with the danio's. (??? Do you agree? Any other ideas???) If that's the case I'm worried that there isn't enough bacteria in the tank to take care of a spike in the ammonia when bigger fish are added (hopefully rays). Any suggestions?

Hi, My husband and I got a 30g and a Sciaenochromis fryeri for my son as a pet, but it turned out my husband caught the aquarium bug more than anyone. Almost two months later we have 5 more tanks :shock: 70g cycling (planning on rays) 45g 2 Sciaenochromis fryeri (m+f), Nimbochromis Livinstonii, Neolamprologus tretocephalus, Labidochromis caeruleus, and what i beleive is a Pseudotropheus saulosi (got him out of a 'mixed cichlid' tank) 30g (planning on baby cichlids - probably electric yellows and p. saulosi) 20g 3 common plecos we got for free with the tanks we bought. I know it's cramped in there, we're just waiting for the other tanks to finish cycling. 20g cycling -will be quarantine 15g cycling -will be hospital I know these fish get big and we do plan on getting much bigger tanks. :smokey: This is one of the best places to get info on the whole internet, and it's local to boot! woot woot!! Thanks for all the great info :thumbs:

I had a red zebra that picked away at my common pleco (who was at least twice the size of the cichlid), just the fins tho, didn't go after the eyes as far as i saw. That zebra was a mean mean fish though, he picked on everyone. :boxed: He bought a one way ticket back to Pisces :tongue: