Ekim81

I couldn't find anything T5Ho specific at home depot. Does it has to be or will anything work as long at the wattage is ok?

One of my 24x2 T5HO lighting fixtures dies today and I was wondering if anyone knew where to get a replacement ballast. Local would be preferred but if I have to order one from somewhere its not the end of the world.

Looks like I've got some type of disease outbreak in my 55g. A couple weeks ago I picked up a pair of blue rams from Big Al's and everything seemed fine. Last week I noticed the female blue ram was having problems breathing and she died a short time later. Two days ago I noticed my female gold ram, which I've had for a while, seemed to have the same symptoms, very inactive, having problems breathing ect., but everyone else in the tank seems fine (6 dwarf neon rainbows, 10 glowlite tetras, 6 khulis, a BN pleco, a male gold ram, a female blue ram and 3 apistos, oh and some algae shrimp). I did a 30% water change (as I do every week), checked water params (everything is where it always is) and figured I'd keep an eye on things. I come home from work today and DISASTER! My female gold ram that was looking sickly yesterday is dead, and all three of my apistos are dead!! Now my male gold ram looks not too good. The strange thing is though, that everyone else in the tank is completely normal. No sign of any illness in anyone other than the ram. So what is going on? Did my blue rams from Big Al's have some kind of disease thats only affecting the other cichlids in the tank? I changed some more water out, and I've bumped my temp up a bit (82), as well as turned on my UV sterilizer in the hopes of killing off whatever is ravaging my tank. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks! Those guys are juvi American flag fish (Jordanella floridae). They are great little algae eaters and colour up very nicely when mature.

As always, comments are welcome!

Now that my 55g is all settled in, I thought I'd take some pics to show it off. All the fish I moved over from my 20g love the extra space, and the new additons are all doing great! Anyhow, on to the pics...

Thanks! The flash is a Canon 580exII purchased from futureshop. I think it was around $500 if I remember right. For now I'm just using some cheap Catus wireless flash triggers from eBay, but they do the job.

Fantastic pics! I see you are using 2 overhead flashes for these, but how do you get the rest of the pic so dark? Are you shooting with the tank lights off? I really like the contrast you are getting with whatever method you are using.

I was messing around with my camera again, most of them didn't turn out that great, but I really liked this one so I thought I'd share...

Thanks everyone! All pics were shot with my Canon 40D using a 28-135mm IS lens. Flash is a Canon 580exII remotely triggered above the tank.

I was practicing my fish photography, so I figured I'd throw up a few updated pics of the inhabitants of my 46g corner tank.... Any comments are welcome!

I was there today and did not see any hairgrass, although they did have a few other nice bottom cover plants to choose from. Big Al's had some dwarf hairgrass back in December, but it wasn't very good. I bought 2 pots of it, one has completely died off, the other is very, very slow growing, but seems to be mostly just dying off. This is in a well established planted tank with CO2 and just over 3wpg.

Amazing pictures!! What kind of camera/lens are you using for those, the detail and clarity are incredible!

Thanks, but chain swords aren't quite the look I'm going for with this tank. I appreciate the offer though!

I'm looking for a nice bottom covering plant for my 20g planted tank, and I'd like to get either some dwarf hairgrass or Micro-swords. Does anyone know were I can get some locally? No one local seems to carry it and I"m not really interested in buying off the internet and having to pay a fortune to ship it. Any leads on where I can find some?