Ishkabod

Good advice and sorry to hear about the deaths. As i was reading i was going to warn you to be sure to regulate the DIY CO2 by having a double bottle system, check valves and a screw type t regulator thingie to manualy control the amount of CO2 just to be sure that the yeast doesn't end up in the tank or a CO2 overdose. Did the Betta's Succumb??? If they did i doubt it's CO2 as they can surface breathers. the only other thing i can think of is that the yeast managed to overflow into the tank. Now I know this was a tragic happening but i must say what i thought of the pictures. 1 I'm jelous of the planted tank Period. 2 I have a bit of an artistic eye and i noticed you had a number of very tall plants. everywhere. You might want to try to place a bunch of one type of tall plant in one corner with slightly smaller/shorter beside it in the back and a different one in the opposite corner. Then you can place somme mid hight plants in front then smome very short foreground plants. Those lilly's will be very interesting to place in the tank. Get creative and better luck next time

I think that some would be interested BUT for me if i had a guppy tank i can completely understand buying 2 or maybe 3 guppies and have them breed to fill a tank and Colour is waaayyyy more important than anything else. I tried before but the guppies that were produced were odd coloured with shorter finns so pure bred guppies might actually get me interested in them again. Thanks and maybe that answers your question. L

Umm Coolest cat.... Siberian Tiger. JK anyway that really is quite the beautiful setup there and i ditto the statement about the fish makeing the tank look tiny. Beautiful fish. L

If you are an ACE member then you can Borrow their heavy duty suction cups so there is a possible solution for that issue. Good luck L :beer:

Something someone told me (i'm not nameing names but they are very very very well respected) is that if they see a fish "flash" more than once in a short period of time rubbing their GILL Plates on the substrate they automaticly assume Gill Flukes. Don't treat for ICH unless you have the spots visible. The other thing i can think of is Anchor worms if it's not just the gills they are trying to rub. good luck L

What i did on my tanks is temporarily turn off the air in the tank and if the fish weren't breatheing hard after a couple of hours then it was okay but I have 2 tanks that i do have to add extra air to. If your filter has a spray bar do what you can to get as much surface aggitation as possible. I've seen people put the spray bar out of the water and shooting downwards and it creates an interesting effect with the resulting bubbles. If it's a planted tank then remember the plants switch to useing oxygen at night so be aware that it might be okay durring the day but not at night. Good Luck L

From what i understand it's the piece between the front and back that is cracked??? If so When i took mine apart i used an OLD paring(sp?) knife and a razor blade that comes with the handel thing. I would take the Knife and pus it in at the top and force it down as far as i could and then I'd back off and start to dig out the silicone out with the razor. Most of the time i had no troubles just running the razor blade down. If you do it this way you'll find that the razor will get stuck and at that point you can just push the knife down some more and then continue on. the pariing knife and blade are skinny enough that stress on the glass should be mch much less than what the water would put on it so i doubt it'll be a big issue. Good Luck L

These fish really shouldn't be in a tank anyway :chair: . If one angel died and they didn't see it then why didn't any of the many many customers see one or even a sick fish before they all died. Pardon the pun but something smells fishy about that reason. I had heard that a few weeks or so ago Edmonton water had an added substance that killed off allot of fish. Could this have been what happened? :boom: L

well i'm finally back on the internet and ready to make my report. I got..... TOOO MUCH Plants Frontosa Psudotropheus ladomething or other(4bags maybe 50 fish or more) LF AB BN pleccos 4 for a steal of less than thirty bucks Pink Aquarium styrofoam homemade backgrounds $1 total Critter Crumbs MONEY at the END YAAAAYYY BROKEN FISHBOWL for $1 Ummm Silver and Black aquarium background thignies I'm going to use to line a light fixture. Met some nice people and put a few more names to faces Thank you Lady Blue for your gift of a small piece of Java Moss Thank you Val for helping with the auction as a runner Thank you to the person that helped me clean up my tank(still couldn't find a dust pan at the end of the day) My hands are sore from the angle i'm typeing at to get the internet connection so there are many more to thank so thank you everyone. And i'm thinking about being a runner at the next one but i'm still a little scared i'll miss something. Thanks and have a wonderful week everyone L

At the last few auctions i've been to there is room for every one to sit and for some to even have a chair or two for purchaces with even more seating available. the only ones that don't sit just don't want to for some reason. You will have no problems finding a chair but it's first come first served when it comes to where you sit. See you tomorrow L

Well there is good news and bad news bad news is there isn nothing that can be done about the ich on the fish itself and the treatment is at least 2-4 weeks long the good news is that in the free swimming stages they are extremely easy to kill with salt or meds. Here is a link you should check out Ich and Salt Also google Ich and read a little. There are a few things you can do now that won't hurt the fish but i Reccomend -Adding an air stone -Buy some Kordon's Ich attack and Seachem Stability -Do a MAJOR 50% water change before doseing the tank and be sure to clean the gravel and all surfaces as much as possible to remove most of the non free swimming Ich as possible -Dose the tank as recommended for both for the durration of treatment and an additional week after for the Stability. GRADUALLY raise the temperature to 85-87 degreesF (no more than 3 degrees an hour but i'd reccomend 2 degrees as the goal Note: Ich Has a 2 week lifecycle durring most of which the only way to kill it is to kill the fish so chemicals won't kill it in a week like they claim. Raise the temp and the cycle will speed up allowing the meds to get at it faster in it's free swimming stages. Be careful to watch for a reoccurance for 2 weeks after the last doseage. If nothing happens then you've succeeded From what i have found there is allot of differnet methods in treatment of ICH. Most of the ones on the back of packages boist of a 1 week or less cure which if you know the lifecycle of the disease you know that is a bogus claim. I've found that if you read a few different accounts on how it's been done then you can easy find a balanve between the extremes and find success. One rule of thumb to follow is you are never free and clear unless you treat for 2 weeks and then after an additional 2 weeks of no symptoms(aka spots) you can be sure it's gone. Good luck and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask

Umm i might be stateing the obvious here but we all end up overlooking it at one time or another and that is have you checked nitrItes after the initial ammonia spike? My sequence that i follow when i see fry or juvies in distress is as follows 1. Immediately add tonnes of air(not enough to create too much flow) 2. Check the levils (Ammonia, NitrIte, Nitrate, PH and Temp.) 3. If air doesn't help and levils are good then a water change is in order 4. For most fish i'll add some Epsolm and Aquarium salt (1tbs each/10 gallons) 5. Wait a day and if they are still sick and i can't find symptoms that point to something specific I consult the forum. 6. (Juvies only)If that garners no reuslts I add Jungle Paracite Clear and see how they respond. (fry) I do another water change and hope for the best and if that still doesn't help i'll Half dose Jungle Paracite Clear. I hope this might help. It's just my method i've worked out over the last couple of years and by no means am I an expert. The first 3 can't hurt to do, and really are essential first steps in diagnostics and treatement the fourth one you might want to be careful unless you know your fish as epsolm salts are a laxitive and Salt has been said to hurt a small handful of fish. And Number 6 well that's a judgement call since i don't like to use chemicals unless i can absolutely not help it and as the general cure all it is makes it worse than something that will specificly target whatever is ailing your fish. Good Luck L

Well it's good news for me on one front... I"M NOT OVERSTOCKED The bad news is that most of the fish i needed to put in i had to use substitutes for. I had about 3 pages of warnings. Mostly concerning Mr. Blue and the fact that i mixed Mbuna, Pecocks and My Laprologus Brevis Sp. Ikola Sunspot and my timid Red Jewel in one tank. All these things i knew but I think i need to move Mr. Blue and problems solved. If that doesn't work then this wonderfull thing has given me a good guideline to follow. thanks for the link i'll try it next time i set up a tank.

Nope sorry i don't know anyone BUT here is a maybe solution for you. If you don't have a truck rent a Uhaul If you don't have a heavy duty dolly with straps you can rent one of those too. Wrap it in something so it doesn't get scratched while moveing. Be sure that you can get it into the place you are putting it and that the floor will suppor the 3000+ pound load. Phone some friends to help. Well that is all that i can think of but otherwise i've never done it so i likened it to moveing my Fridge into my basement. Good luck L

Now from what i understand you have a happy family of fish that go well in a 30 gallon tank... Here are some options in order of what i think would be a good idea to do first. 1. Sell them or get them into the ACE auction as stated above. 2. Call some LFS and see if they have room and wouldn`t mind buying your fish at a decent price(they do need to make money to pay for houseing the fish while they wait for the sale) 3. Drop them off at a LFS that will take them for free. I think that is all the options. I doubt you`ll find a straight trade but who knows. As for wanting a planted tank and shell dewellers at the same time well you can try but from what i`ve heard and seen they LOVE to dig and redecorate so plants might not stay planted for long allthough i could be very wrong as i don`t have plants in with my one shell dweller. Now if you mean Shellies as in something other than shell dwellers then i have no clue so good luck. Happy St. Patricks` day L

The only thing i can think to add that i know for sure is that you could build a rock pile around the container and have a thin slab or two over the top so it`ll be accessable when needed. For a screen for the filter well the only thing i can think of is just that a screen(from a window) the newer ones are plastic so it should be safe. Happy St. Patricks` day L

It might be cheaper for you to find a second hand Old Scratched to pieces 50 gallon tank than a new plastic one. Good luck L

Well i now have my 80 gallon up and running and i added Mr Blue my cynotilapia 'White Top' afra and he's the boss of about a square foot area of open sand. I added a few more fish including an OB peacock and have moved the decorations around a few times and the aggression really hasn't even gone as far as tail nipping. I have too many male labs and only one mature Female which has caused one male to hide constantly but he's still healthy and eating(he hides at the side of the tank so i constantly keep my eye on him to watch for serious issues) they Chase eachother around allot but between the Eureka red Male, Mr. Blue and the OB peacock there is little aggression left for the other tank mates not to mention that with the decorations i have they quickly loose anyone they chase. For me i really love the interaction between the fish and the only real sore spot is that Mr. Blue likes to nip at my Common plecco but that rarely happens as the plecco hides allot and he gets his food at night. One other thing i heard is that you can get an all male tank IF you start with the fish really small and let them grow into the tank and everything. Don't know for sure but i'm going to give it a try at least. Have fun L

I went with the silica sand from Sil industries. I can't quite remember the name of it but they have samples in a cute little spice rack thingie right there at the front desk so you can pick and choose. I really like it because there was NO RINSEING or other debris and i added it straight to my tanks. The Cichlids are even sifting it through their gills with no ill effects. They are located just off Yellowhead trail just after you pass over the river towards sherwood park. take the first turn off and then head along the side road in the same direction as you were going on the yellowhead and the building has orange on it. They will even load it for you! It cost me 20 bucks for a big big bag that is more than 50 pounds. Maybe this is what you were looking for? Good luck and if you have questins don't hesitate to pm me. Have a great day L

Not to contradict but my rule is 1 inch per 5 gallons because goldfish like to grow so that gives you some wiggle room to find a bigger or better home for them as they grow. For that many fish you will eventually need a pond if you plan to keep them or a really really big tank unless you have those fancy tail weird big belley and head/eyes types. One way to stretch the length of time you can keep those fish in that tank is to feed them a higher quality food like NLS. They need less food and produce less waste that way and thus the water gets poluted less and that means fewer water changes. If they are regular golfish that will grow those 10 inches then the rule of 1 inch per 2 gallons for their final size COMBINED with NLS is a good amount just be sure to do weekly water changes as goldfish are more sensitive to Nitrates than most other fish. Now I'm in your situation but with only one fish and that is my Koi. He/she's 11 inches in a 40gallon tank. If it weren't for the fact that i expect another 3 or more inches growth in the next 2 months and the tank is only 12 inches wide thus making it hard for it to turn around i would push it a little longer but that won't wash this time. Good luck and don't throw in the towel yet If you want i'm sure there are lots of tips that might help and info on how fast they reach that size and how to make keeping a bigger tank easier and you never know when you might come across a deal in that time for a bigger tank and stuff(the bigger the easier in my experience) L

I hear that by wheel chair is an interesting choice that has been accomplished before otherwise maybe bus, Carpool, TRAIN, Plane and of course the ever popular Automoble. Our family(5) drove our old poniac montiana(i aint from the states and could care less how to spell it okay yall;) to and from winnipeg on about 3 tanks of gas(we were all adults so lots of extra weight) The amazing thing was that my dad and brother managed (without breaking the speed limit mind) to drive all the way home overnight in total if i remember correctly it took the two of them about 13 or 14 or so hours of constant driving to get home overnight. Hope this might help. L

Wow sounds like fun and excitement. One thing that might really catch the attention of the class is some fish that breed and show breeding behaviours. I know i picked up shellies because i heard about their antics they can get up to in a tank. My wild caught just did some suprise renovations overnight. Have fun L

I've tested Seachem's Stability's claim as has another on this site that says it'll cycle a tank in a week and by golly it works so get some and it might just get the tank ready in a very short time. Here is a link for you if you want some really good info especially since you are new. I wish i knew of this site and this forum when i first started so you are ahead of the game allready. Good luck and i hope you enjoy your new betta. L Beginner FAQ's; The Nitrogen Cycle

I'd suspect faulty strips if a large 1/4 of the tank water change didn't affect the reading at all. Bring a sample into the petsmart nearest you and they'll do a free test with their strips for a comparison. If it did then keep it up. Vaccume up that excess food it really could be the source of your problem. If large amounts of it made it into the filter then you might want to very gently rinse the media in the tank just before you do a Water change to get rid of the undecomposed excess matter it most likely sucked up(Only if you have a Hang on back filter. If you have a cannister then it's not worth the hassle). Ammo Lock and the like won't help with Nitrites as all they do is take the ammonia in the water and turn it into its less toxic form and the bacteria then takes it and converts it into Nitrites and then NitrItes. UNLESS it says it detoxify's BOTH ammonia and Nitrites it's worthless in this situation.Other than that a double dose of prime and Stability with the Water Changes should ensure things don't get worse and would help to improve the situation as Prime detoxify's Nitrite and Ammonia and Stability will add the extra bacteria that will give the tank an extra boost to speed up it's conversion of Nitrite into NitrAte. Oh and before the next Water Change you might want to test for NitrAte and if it doesn't exist in the tank then you really need to double check those strips with something else as that is the end product of the nitrogen cycle and only Heavily planted tanks with few fish don't have large buildups of NitrAtes. Good luck L

If he hasn't used it yet or bought it at petsmart then i'd return it and exchange it for prime. Stability is a Bacteria supplement and as such doesn't directly affect ammonia at all BUT the bacteria within the product do so I have to say YES it DOES remove ammonia BUT most likely not in a timely manner and i doubt the bacteria added would be as prolific as nessasary to remove most of the ammonia in the new water so the fish would still be affected by the free ammonia. Good luck on the new tank. Sounds like fun and yes i can understand the whole New fish hobby excitement shopping spree that resulted in this purchace. Hey maybe you could give it to Harold when he comes up from Calgary as he doesn't have ammoina added to his water. Have Fun L No. Cycle won't remove or neutralize free ammonia either.