epiphany

Wah! Never thought of looking at Lee Valley (104 Ave & 184 Street) http://www.leevalley...298&cat=2,44716 The desription says it c/w a reflector (an option for the SunBlaster). Is the reflector squint worthy Sierra? This is the reflector mine came with: http://sunblasterlighting.com/nanotech-t5ho-reflector.php . It seems quite good to me, although I don't have a lot of experience with reflectors. It seems to give superior results to the reflectors in my aquaticlife fixture though.

Unless you're doing CO2 I'd say 2 of them would be way too much for a 10g

Very nice, the one sunblaster seems to light up my substrate better than the 2 aquatic life bulbs do, it's pretty crazy.

Thank you for your suggestion. I was wondering which retail location in Edmonton sells SunBlasters? Or better yet, do you know of any locations in Calgary that hold their product? I actually just picked one up today. Quick grow garden center on edmonton trail a couple blocks south of 16th, address is 1204 edmonton trail. $30 for the 24"T5HO fixture as well as the reflector. Puts out a ton of light, I wish I had done this rather than spend the money on an actual aquatic fixture when I got this tank set up. Way cheaper and seems to put out more light to me. This is on a 22" deep 35G tank. Main fixture is an aquatic life 2x24w T5HO fixture which was ~$160. Here's some pics, excuse the messy tank. First picture is just the aquatic life fixture, second is both fixtures, third is just the sunblaster.http://imgur.com/MwMNM,f2vDq,mPOo6

Should work now.

I was thinking something like this: http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/img/801_Mike_1.jpg

What about a slate tower/mountain idea to replace the current rocks?

Looks a lot better now, more natural looking.

It's needed for ei dosing

I would stick with 4 puffers. 1 male and 3 females to try to avoid aggression. Despite their size you need a fair bit of tank space per fish (5 gallons per fish is recommended). Cherries will almost for sure not survive. Filtration may be way overkill, the xp3 is rated at 350gp/h, that plus the AC30 will make your tank a whirlpool unless you can dial back the filtration on the xp3 by quite a bit. A crayfish will be a huge risk as DP's would likely become a snack for the crayfish while they sleep. Horsefish loaches can grow to 8"-11", so it will end up being too big for your 20g tank so I would say not to go with one of those either. Imo I would say go with 4 puffers, 4 otos, the aquaclear30 and if you want some more filtration toss a sponge filter in there, or use just the xp3 and dial the flow way down. Putting shrimp in the tank will give the puffers expensive snacks, and putting in crayfish or the like will give them some nice puffer snacks. You can find a ton of info about DP's here: http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/

Long term it would likely be cheaper and better to go with a pressurized CO2 system, you would get much more consistent growth and don't have to worry about dosing every day. You would likely want to go with a T5HO fixture to get high light. Being 24" long you could either go with a 24" or a 20" fixture which would give you either 2x24 watts or 2x18 watts. To be high light you would probably want to get a 24" fixture such as this one. Having 48 watts of lighting on a 20g will be a lot though,so you will need to be on top of fertilization and CO2, you also want to make sure you have enough plant mass to out compete the algae. Another option is one like this which would likely put you into more of a medium-high light which would be a bit more forgiving in terms of CO2 and fertilization.

If you go high light you'll almost certainly want to do CO2 and up your fertilization routine to avoid algae. You'll need to be dosing pretty much daily to properly do high light. Unfortunately it's not as simple as just adding mroe light.

Will you be doing co2 and fertilization as well?

How about a dwarf puffer?

Online it's usually $15ish, in store is more like $30-$35

I use it, but not for nitrate removal. The stuff is great at removing tannins and clearing up your water. I put some in my 35g which had 3 fresh pieces of driftwood (definitely should have boiled/soaked them beforehand) and it went from a nice tea colour to just a yellow tinge overnight. I also use some in my 10g and the water is awesomely clear.

An unfortunate update. Both of the angels I got passed away recently, so the tank currently just has 7 golden barbs, 5 otos, one amano and 15ish ghost shrimp. I will be looking to replace the angels, but not for a while to make sure that there's not some parasite working through the fish currently in there. I don't think I will want to go with angels this time around, so am looking to go with something different. I would like something that would work with the barbs, but I'm not set on that as I could likely find a new home for them. So here we are, ideas on some nice social fish to eventually replace my angels? I want a fair sized fish, maybe a bit smaller than an angel would be, would like something that is a bit social and interesting looking. Thanks.

They don't have everything listed, but most prices can be seen here: http://piscespets.com/products/freshwater-fish/ada-systems/

You can get ada stuff up at Pisces, they're the only place in Calgary (maybe Alberta?) authorized to distribute it

Everyone needs to stop getting bettas...makes me want one.

Love the colouring on him.

Don't forget to show us a picture or six.

How about some pics and info?

Why do you run the second one on intervals and only during that time frame?

Welcome!