GreenDrake

They very well could be grass carp. Like Jorg already said there are lots of places in Alberta that have sterile grass carp stocked in them.

For anyone who is interested in any of the Rift lakes (or cool fish footage in general!) there was an episode of the show "Life Force" on Oasis HD, that was all about the cichlids of the Rift lakes. I have it on PVR and have only watched a couple minutes of it, but what I have seen of it looks amazing, there is some especially good footage of some of the shelldweller species. http://www.oasishd.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=356:lifeforce&catid=15:catl&Itemid=3 Anyone with Oasis HD should save this series on their PVR and keep an out for the Rift Lakes episode. It's great stuff.

For anyone who has the Oasis HD channel, there is a program coming up on Sunday on the fishes of Lake Malawi that looks like it may be pretty cool. It's called Lake Malawi: The Lake of Stars. I'm looking forward to checking it out this weekend. Oasis HD show page

I finally got a chance to use mine and I do like it although its not perfect for a smaller tank. I have a 20gal shelldweller tank with a sand bottom that gets a few small patches of algae growing on top of the sand. I thought this gravel vac would be a good way to skim over top of those patches as soon as I notice them forming, but like jet_ran said, the rate of suction is very high. This gravel vac is quite powerful and I could'nt get just the algae alone to lift without bringing up some sand as well, and I found out very quickly that even the smallest amount of sand will clog it and stop the impeller. So if you have a sand or fine gravel substrate you can probably not use this vac in the same way as a conventional gravel vac. Having said that, I did find out that if I kept it a couple inches off the bottom and gently waved it around to create some wave action, I could get alot of the detritus to lift up off the sand and into the water column where I could quickly suck it up before it had a chance to resettle. I also really liked the fact that after I used my standard gravel vac for the water change and refilled the tank I was able to suck out any detritus floating in the water before it could settle on the bottom or get sucked into the filter intake. All in all its not perfect for a smaller tank (unless your gravel is quite large), but you can make it work, and I really liked how quickly it can polish off anything suspended in the water. I would highly recommend it for bigger tanks with larger substrate though, which is its original intended use.

I just bought one the other other day but have not used it yet. I'll let you know over the next couple days as soon as I have the time to unpack it.

Welcome to Calgary. It's probably not worth it to set up a tank for your short stay here, but you can always admire all the display tanks at the aquarium stores. The zoo has some pretty cool setups as well.

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing the link.

I'm in the process of setting up a 20 gallon shellie tank with an Aquaterra background and I would just like to know if I'm on the right track. I guess I should mention that I'll only be using an external canister filter on this tank. I've already cut out a spot for the main intake in the bottom right corner. I've inserted a grill into it and will back it with a piece of foam to keep anything but water from getting through. I'm going to drill the filter outtake opening at an angle near the top left corner where the background sticks out to try and keep it as unobtrusive as possible. Now for my questions. I've noticed on Patrick's tutorials that he also has an overflow/skimmer cutout in the top corners. I'm just wondering what the purpose of this is? Is it absolutely necessary to add one in a tank this small? or do you think I will get enough water circulation with just the large outake I have already added. Thanks for any help.

This is a pretty interesting video. I was trying to find a dvd copy without much luck, but I eventually found it on Youtube. The guy has it chopped into four segments so I think there is a bit missing but he still has about 35 minutes of footage. This is a must watch for Tanganyika fans: Just click on his name and view his other videos for the other three parts.

That's a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

Thank, will give it a try.

Thats a really cool idea. Looks great.

Thats gorgeous! My wife really wants to get a small SW tank, I'll have to show her you pics. Amazing job.

I have an "All-Glass" 46 gallon bowfront aquarium that needs a new glass top. Does anyone know where I can get one in Calgary? TIA

The best place I have found is Abraham Lake west of Nordegg. Still about 3hrs from Edmonton though.