Mighty Prawn

I don't see what's so wrong with that. I have to house a fish, feed it etc. for however long it takes. Plus I get it out of a potentially bad home of someone who's just "taking it" because it's free, and I turn around and sell it to someone that can actually care for it. I don't see what's so wrong with that. -Hideo

I meant buying things on ebay and re-selling them to people for a profit on what you paid. -Hideo

I coulda sworn someone here does that... Guess not dunl! -Hideo

I've seen a lot of free things in my time, and if they are worth something, I take them and sell them right away. A lot of the time it's simply knowing who would pay money for it. I'd take any free fish I know I could sell to someone else in a timely fashion. In fact, there are people who make a living doing this kind of thing! (I think someone on these forums was even talking about doing that a lot, dunl maybe?) I used to do it on ebay, but was too time consuming. And on the topic of free animals, I always feel that charging money for what it is worth is a better way of finding the proper home. Offering it up free is just going to get people telling you what you want to hear. "I want this fish to have a good home, do you have fish keeping experience?" to which you'll get, "Oh, loads". Especially considering it's likely that if something like a fish is going for free on the buysell it's not someone who knows a lot of fish (or fish people) otherwise I doubt they'd have trouble finding a good home at all. So it's entirely likely the fish will end up in someone's tank that knew as little about it as the person giving it away. I've taken in animals before that have had 5 or more owners. Ridiculous! I put absolutely 0 stock in "to a good home", unless they person intends to come to your house and check it out. That's not likely. I've picked up many "to a good home" animals and they don't ask me any questions whatsoever. They're probably just happy to finally be rid of it. Sad but true. -Hideo

If you build a fishroom, you can use some kind of waterproof flooring and bring it up the walls for about 1 foot or so. So if your tanks decide to explode, no water damage anywhere. Put electrical outlets up higher, and you avoid even more problems. Can also make maintenance a looooot easier, and automatic plumbing systems much more viable for all tanks. Also keeping all that humidity restricted to a single room would be a benefit as well. I have 2 dehumidifiers going on each floor of my house, and thinking about getting a third one to control the ridiculous condensation on the windows. -Hideo

Well in fish, I know one of the big ones is the Flowerhorn, which is notorious for being unpredictable in temper. Some can be nice, but some can be killing machines. -Hideo

Mentioned a million times before and will be again, I'm sure, but.... Probably because all dogs are the same species. That doesn't change the fact that people breed dangerous and unhealthy crossbreeds. -Hideo

I've currently got a breeding pair of green severums, and a pair of leptobarbus hoevenii (mad barbs/maroon sharks, I can't find a "common" common name) and a royal panaque in there right now. The tank is 180 gallons with 2250gph of filtration, and decor is purely large, medium and small pieces of drift wood. I have a couple pieces of flat rock in there for egg laying, but will not likely add anything else. I might consider some large and hardy aquatic plants in the future, but not likely. So, I am trying to decide on some tank mates. I am thinking about a pair of gold severums, and maybe a pair of apollo sharks. I considered Bala sharks but I don't like how they look when they are fully grown. Fish that may grow too large for this tank are not out of the question, as long as they don't get too big for another year and a half. I want to be sure to time it right, but any tank inhabitants that get too big will be moving to my indoor pond. This pond won't be completed for about another year and a half from now, and I have no alternative space for them (that is humane) while I wait for the pond to be finished. The pond is going to be massive, so not a concern about potential size. (well... no RTC's or anything gargantuan, the pond is going to be at most 3000 gallons, but closer to 2800) I'm not interested in any cichlids other than severums for this tank, mainly I an interested in sharks or larger peaceful fish. I quite like Chalceus macrolepidotus (Pink-tailed Chalceus) but haven't seen any in stores before. I really like the look of apollo sharks/leptobarbus hoevenii, and most catfish. I am not adverse to other large compatible fish. I'd love more than anything to raise some kind of bicher in there with these guys, but I'm sure Christian will tell me any moment that my fish will be its food, or it will theirs ;-) Any compatible eels to be had? I'm possibly hoping for something a little less common than other 180's I have seen. I know so many people with nice 180's, I want something different. I get my fill of beautiful cichlid tanks and large species tanks elsewhere ;-) I plan on hitting up Riverfront and Golds weekly for the next few months in case something rare or interesting shows up I can snag, but would love to be on the lookout for something in particular. Any help appreciated! -Hideo

I always wondered why fish keepers are so uppity about hybrid fish, while dog people seem to try their best to come up with the next most deadly or unhealthy hybrid breed possible. -Hideo

I got some at Home Depot this weekend. 4.99 a foot. Quite pricey, I thought. It doesn't kink when it is bent, but it does compress and get thinner. -Hideo

So, I've been addressing an issue of my pump filling the tank faster than it can drain. First, I added my cannister filter to the tank, and had it empty into the sump. This helped somewhat, but not nearly enough. The sump ended up having juuuust enough water in it to keep filling, but was sucking air at the same time. I figure this would probably damage the pump after a while, and it's noisy as hell. So, I thought, well, before I take apart my drain and install flex pipe, or install a valve on my return pipe, I'm going to drill some holes in the return flex pipe. So that's what I did. I drilled about 20 small holes in the return pipe, and about 5 medium ones. This does reduce the flow of the return a little, but not enough. I drilled right at the base so it is low in the sump. When the tank empties out, it sprays all over the sidewalls of the tank like crazy. I thought, once I get it at a nice equalibrium, could I have some holes in the pipe anyways to spray up against the walls purposely, and install eggcrate on all the tank walls so the water trickles down akin to a moss/rock wall in a pond. I am hoping that algae will grow along with nice bacteria colonies due to all of the oxygen it will be getting. Anyone ever heard of something like that, or done it? If it doesn't work I'm going to have to cut the flex pipe anyways to install a valve, so I wasn't worried about ruining the pipe. My only thought, if it DOES work like I hope, and does have algae growing/bacteria benefits, that the holes in the pipe might clog, and resume a more powerful flow, emptying the sump out. Thoughts? Ideas? -Hideo

I usually add it over a 24 hour period, dividing the total amount into an amount to be dosed every 4 hours. That's the instructions I read many moons ago when I got ich in my tank the second time. The first time I got it, I just dumped it all in, and some of my fish died from it. With their weakened condition it almost "descaled" them, is the best way I can describe it. -Hideo

Well, I've got the tank filled up 12 inches. One of the corners has sunk into the styrofoam, but the other corner has not done so as of yet. I'm so afraid of filling it full I don't know what to do. It's definately not the stand, it's definately the tank itself. I don't know if too much silicone was used in the plastic frame or something, but it's just a half a mm or a full mm higher on one corner. Thinking if I can't fill it like I want, maybe turning it into a large paludarium. Filled to 14 inches or so, it'd be about 100 gallons, minus say 10 or so to make some kind of island for newts or a frog or combo or something like that floating in a corner. And if even a half filled tank is too much water, I suppose I could always use it for something without water. Though I certainly did not want to spend so much money for something that isn't full of water, I may have no choice. -Hideo

The tank has been sitting dry and empty for a long time, now. I finally got some people together to lift the tank and put it on top of the plywood and styrofoam. Today I'm going to start filling it again. Cautiously and slowly, because the tank has about 1-2mm that it hangs over the styrofoam. I doubt that matters because the frame is supported all along, but can't be too careful! I used the coarse white styrofoam, but wish I had got the denser pink kind. -Hideo

Tank has been empty for so long now. I got the stand from Gold's, quite a long time ago. 250$ is a lot of money to just throw away. I'd be more than pleased to be able to build a wooden stand, unfortunately being a student doesn't lend itself well to spending more than 5$ on anything at all. So I suppose it'll remain empty. Though it seems no fishkeepers in the world can agree whether or not styrofoam and plywood will fix such a tiny problem. -Hideo