jonnytens

I have a spec and I quite like it, the filter is good as well for the size of the tank. Great desk top tank.

high quality red zebras are great in a mbuna tank, and for me a must, bright reddish orange coloration is a great stand out in the tank and compliments blue mbuna as acei , mainganos and msobos. Electric yellows are nice for the splash of yellow , although several species have yellow females such as the saulosi and msobo. Kenyis are another great colored one, they are a little more aggressive but if you crowd the tank things are fine, the females are light blue with dark blue stripes and the males are yellow....so a group of 12 females and a couples males is quite nice.

Wow, I am not really into bettas, but those are awesome!

I think aquarium central may be cheaper than all of them

i just went there today after the auction and was pleasantly surprised as well. lots of tanks ( more than big al's he says) good selection so far with more coming and very good pricing as well. I will be going back for sure

i have bought many glass tops from aquagiant with no issues...just make sure you get your measurements right. And for black brush algae get one or two siamese algae eaters, they will eat it up very quickly.

you must get evaporation like crazy

yes very nice.....i think you underestimate your skills

i bought a couple true siamese algae eaters and they ate the stuff like crazy

c02 systems usually have a Solenoid that is controled on a timer plus they have bubble counters to control amounts of co2 expelled / Not to mention the convience of not having to lift a finger till the co2 is finnished in the bottle that lasts a year or so depending on the size of bottle and amount being used.

I use to use flourish till I realized after reading how effective pressurized systems are... now I only use excel on small tanks

You should be able to find a pressureized system quite cheap used or new online for around 200dollars if you decide to go that way.

are there dosing pumps out there that can drip as low as 5ml a day???

I use it on 60 gal in my room (too far to run a CO2 line from my main tank). Swords and hornwort are growing like crazy. Val is spreading, but if I overdose, it melts back a bit. I've had it completely wipe out a Riccia mat in a 10 gal dosed just below recommended dosing.

I agree with Jerry, tho. Pressurized CO2 will be cheaper in the long run.

i can get 2 litres of excel for 33.55 from j&l http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc-floe2000/SeaChem+Flourish+Excel+Additive+-+2+Litre.html

my tank is a 55 gallon planted, so on the high end of the dosing recomendations of approx 1 cap a day (5ml) i would use 1.825 litres a year....and on the low end of the dosing, every other day i would use 912ml a year. So at the most i would use 35 bucks of excel a year dosing everyday or 17.50 dosing every other day. Whearas a new co2 system from J@L is around 300 bucks, i could dose with excel for 8 years at the high end dose and 16 years if i dose every other day. I can't see how it is more expensive at all.

Does dosing with flourish excel work as good as co2 injection?

have you used both of these and can fairly say which is better?

here is a link to a side by side comparison

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68458

very nice setup......i think i may have to get one of these edges.

What in the hell is that about???????? :eh:

"the island" as in pei or vancouver island???????

my sword plant send out runners a few weeks ago too.....i have about fifteen 3-4 inch new plants as well

i ended up buying a fluval fx5 for 150 bucks off of kijiji instead.

I can't find quickrete on the home depot website? Is it called anything else? I can find the King brand which has a bunch of different types. And Stone Mason sand.

another alternative is to use sand from sil industries in edmonton/sherwood park.....their sand come in different sizes sil 1 being the finest and sil 9 being the coursest......it is around 10 bucks for a 40 kilogram bag. i use sil 2 or 3 (can't remember exactly)in many of my tanks, i just picked up a bag of sil 1 (very fine) that i was going to use for some shell dwellers, but it is very fine so i am not sure how it will work out.

Well i think i will pick one up at that price......more positive feedback on them than negative.

Where can I get a glass canopy?

Aquagiant sells them for fairly cheap, just make sure you double check your measurements with them.

Thanks guys. Anyone have ideas how i might be able to get some more light without going to big lengths?

Also, what are retrofit kits? do they allow you to replace the lighting in your hood?

you just get a glass top or tops for your aquarium and then put a t5ho or power compact on top and whammo....way more light....or just get the glass tops for your tank and then get some more regular fluorescent fixtures (which are cheap and many ppl have extras from upgrading themselves) and put them on top ,

I have 4 of the XP 3 filters 3 fluvals, a magnum hot and a chinese knock off of an eheim. I'll take the renas any time over the rest. The only issue I've ever had with the renas is the o-rings on the valve bodies getting compressed and leaking, but at 10c each at Canadian Tire I find it rather minor.

how long does it take for the o rings to get compressed.....should a guy replace them yearly to be safe?

they are on sale at big al's right now.....are the rena's a good filter? Any comments or experience's with them would be helpful. thanks

i would put a nice pair of angelfish in there with a school of corydoras and 1or 2 bristlenose plecos. add some plants from the region and you have an amazon biotope tank