North

the test kits are less than 3 months old, 2 different brands. and not a plant to be had, anywhere. well one plastic one, and I think they will eat that some time. if nitrates were a problem, maybe think about a refugium. but. non sho who cares. maybe tomorow I will take water to the lfs. but they piss me off, won;t test in fromt, want a reason to test, ask about dead fish, and want to to be returning something. it does not help when I refuse to buy from the lfs I travel cross town, for all my suplies. petland is useless at tits on a bull.

As thing sit right now, I have 6 unsexed Taiwan reef, 5 Tinfoil barbs, and 5 clown loaches ( all between 1-2 inch) 1 larger pleco, and some stupid little fish, that is unimportant. I was looking for tank mates. I am looking to fish similar to the tiawan reef, something that is fairly non agresive, stays fairly small, and well.... colorful. I was thinking that I coudl get away with just about any member of aulonocara specifialy the aulonocara Benga. I was wondering what other options or recomendations are out there. either way, I will have to make a trip to golds sometime this week. I figure, 1-2 more sets (1 male 2-3 female) should finish the tank off good. but I like the behavior that the fish demonstrate now, and would rather not have something change that behavior.

I have a tank set up 90 gallon, NH3's = 0 the best of my testing supplies NO2's - 0 again testing supplies NO3's = virtually nil, this one is weird and I will ask later. One of my very small Taiwan reef's stopped eating, hid in the back, and almost looks like it is "deforming” either bloat? Or just skinny in the wrong places. I don’t know. I have since netted him, and removed him from the tank, but I do not know what to do. I do not have the recourses for a quarantine tank, and quite worried about keeping him with the rest. I don’t know how... correct, it is to try and return him to gold’s, (I think he would take the fish back, but it isn't nice) and I just don’t want to just kill it. He is in a beta bowl right now to keep him out of the tank; I don’t think he has much chance in the bowl, lest I decide to put him back in the tank. On a side note, the weirdest thing has been happening. For nearly 2 weeks, I can not get a trace of No3 in the aquarium. All 3 testing kits are reading nilch (as if I were testing tap water) is it possible, that with nearly 30 small fish in an aquarium this can happen? Up till 2 weeks ago, I was doing water changes once a week 10% keeping it at < 10 ppm. And now nothing for over 2 weeks. (Obsessive compulsive testing I assure you.

I guess time for a first post in this forum. I have had community tanks for a very long time and upon moving into a new house decided it was time to move up a little. I bought a used tank and stand and it has proven to be a nightmare. Since then I have bought a replacement tank, and built a custom stand. Adding to the nightmare, the stand is not quite as flat as I would have liked, but I am hoping that paper shims, and the pink Styrofoam will be enough to prevent a catastrophic disaster (namely 100 gallons on my floor) pictures of the old and new tank http://mee2.tripod.com/fish/ The new tank still needs doors and a central brace (to be fixed in place once the sump is in.)