MadFishMan

Hybrids will not ruin pure strains! LOL How on earth could they? Do Large Commercial Breeders use hobby aquarist's fish to breed with? So really Hybrids will only affect people buying from small breeders that don't care and breed anything in sight to produce some fry to sell to you. Not that all small breeders do that mind you. The point I am making is that the hybrid fish that ends up in yours or my tank is not a threat to the pure strains found in the Wild unless somehow that hybrid was able to return to the Wild and in a very prolific manner breed in the Wild. Most very high quality fish that people seek out to spend big $ on are so line bred that they essentially are hybrids too, in that they do not occur in the wild. Would you release one of those fish back into the wild? I would not. Really unless people are living around these lakes and flushing their hybrids back into the lake i can see no serious issue with home hobbyist's keeping or even making making hybrids. It would take a fair bit of knowledge and tank space to properly produce an attractive and unique hybrid fish that breeds true when bred. So I'm not really worried unless I'm trying to find pure strain Show males for $2 each out of some guys basement. That's the price I or you pay for cheap fish! That's our fault for buying them lol. Honestly if people simply educated themselves before purchasing fish it would remove a lot of space for the shady guys to operate in the first place. After all that who doesn't enjoy a nice glowing Dragon Blood peacock or a Turkis peacock or an amazing OB peacock with up to 5 colors in one fish! amazing! Or all the albino types out there? Most albino fish that end up in your LFS are the product of hybridization. Most Hybrids are better looking than the wild caught anyways. Line breeding seems to be the way things are going and for good reason because its good for both pleasing my eyes and preserving pure strains in the wild! Just think all those line bred fish were produced and then used to breed again with out any need for wild fish. Buddy in his living room staring at his tank is happy too because his fish are glowing and look amazing! In Fact i prefer to see hybridization in the aquarium community for the simple fact that it lessens the need and demand for wild caught fish! Taking wild fish out of the lakes is more of a potential and real problem than any mutt fish in yours or my tank at home swimming back to Africa via the sewer system and then becoming the lake boss... lol Also anyone who has purposely purchased wild caught fish to breed with is not going to mix with unknown genes when he could produce F1 instead. Again tho... How much does this actually affect the wild stocks in the lakes? Probably Zero I personally have a few pure strains as well as OB peacocks and Dragon bloods and my most favorite of all is the OB with its wild variety of patterns and colors! In fact i would love to have a large show male tank full of only OB peacocks Just my thoughts on the subject.

Lava Rock performs as well if not better than most other bio media. It performs best tho...inside canister filters and HOB filters at a size of 0.5" - 0.75" and Sump filters with a large volume to hold bio media may benefit from a larger size of 0.5" - 1.0" Just like any other media it performs best when cleaned periodically. Coincidentally a person can purchase half inch lava rock by the bucket at most garden landscaping centers that sell bulk, for a very very reasonable price. $10 got me a life times supply! Just be sure to clean and rinse well before using. Save your money and use Lava rock so that you can spend your money on a quality filter. Seeing as you will be putting the lava rock into a filter do not use any pieces of lava rock smaller than what will slip through your filters media tray mesh.

I have ten tanks full of African Cichlids

I know a guy too who delivers to Edmonton for a very good price and his fish are really good. has some amazing OB's as well as other types too.

Can u guess who's the newb? LOL Dunno if its just my browser but the dates seem like it was posted recent. Couldn't believe myself when I saw this haha oh well maybe it will help dissuade someone from trying this lol

Make sure to seal the top so water can not enter between the mat and the glass causing water stains. Which can be almost impossible to remove!

Why wouldn't u just buy a used Eheim canister filter? U can install a larger pump if GPH is what this is all about. Or u could just use a quality bio media lol. The way the bottom of the Fluval FX5/6 bucket is designed makes this mod very ineffective. Not to mention that those baskets are not cheap to replace when u realize that this mod is not so great! U could probably get better flow and saturation of media by building a DIY 5 gallon bucket filter not to mention it would be a lot cheaper than cutting and hacking a $400 filter! Another very simple mod would be to ensure that the area between the body housing and the baskets is completely filled with foam. Doesn't require any physical modifications and is cheap. This will result in the same increased area for the production of nitrifying bacteria with out wrecking your filter. Just go buy the Eheim filter if this mod seems attractive to u! Don't mean to seem confrontational its just how i roll lol

What u building it for? Seems to be a pretty dead site for user activity. Surprising no one has chimed in yet. Or maybe not lol. Anyways maybe i can help?

Too bad i didnt know u then!

The water flows from the bottom of the outside portion up and then down through the center portion (media trays). So place fine sponge at the top of the baskets near the top lid. FYI always place a fine pad at the very bottom tray in the bottom of the tray to prevent any crumbs from your bio media from entering the impeller and damaging the pump.