a1foxes

My 100+ tanks runs about 3500 gallons, quite the swimming pool eh

I've got a few of the maxijets, and I love them. 1200 might be a bit big for a 55 g, i use a 400 in mine and it works fine. depends a bit on your fishs' preferences. I use them both with and without UG, my stingrays love swimming in the current, and the extra oxygen helps keep fish happy and active. It actually helps filtration, by keeping the water moving and circulating through your regular filtration system. If you have lots of 'furniture' in your tank, then having that extra oomph with the larger model can be nice.

I seldom believe everything I read. I've used the Prime for quite some time, haven't had any problems, but, I tend to use it along with other ammonia reducing measures. With fish that cost from $100-$2000 apiece, I'm not willing to take chances. I use am-guard, from Seachem as well, and things like zeolite in the filters, purigen, etc. I over filter as well, use stability regularly, stability is more of a preventative measure, adding ammonia eating bacteria on a weekly basis. I use mostly seachem, even though I have access to Kent, Coralife, API, etc, all at wholesale, I go with what works. I use betta basics, and stressguard, among others. I add my prime with water changes, and a dab with new fish, but I use amguard from removing ammonia and stability for keeping it low(really important for rays I find)

Nope, but I've been working my @$$ off the last 6 months or so, extra hours etc, saving where I could, just for this move. Around Christmas time I was so broke and not working, that I had to get a hamper so my kids could get something for presents. I was trying to sell fish like mad but no one would buy anything. THings changed when I went back to work.

funny, you were posting while i was so i didnt read this before. you are right by using gfi at the breaker, the whole circuit blows, by doing it this way 1, plus the few more in the run will, but everything before would be ok. The plugs are so high up the wall, like just over 4 feet, theres less likely to be trippage. Yep, my boyfriend is a contractor. He got a deal from an electrician buddy, I bought most of the other goods but we managed to save 400-500.

WEll I got a great deal on about7 boxes with 3 GFI receptacles in each- I paid for only one the rest were freebees. I some some normal receptables along the ceiling in the middle aisle, protected by only 1 GFI in the circuit, but the total number of plugs stand at about 29, on 5- 15 am breakers. Only 7 plugs per breaker cause we use power bars as well. We have the option to add 3 more 15 amp breakers to the sub panel, so if I decide I need more, its not a problem. We ran extra strands for potential future use, even the dehumidifier/ac will be on its own circuit. the individual price for the gfi receptables was $15 each, glad I didnt pay for them, but the electrician that put in the sub panel thought it was a great idea given the use of the room

the past few weekends, I've been at the new house building my fishroom from scratch. literally. It was a carport, so the concrete pad was there, the roof etc, so all I had to put up were 3 non- loadbearing walls, sheathing on the outside, and of course finish the inside with insulation, drywall and ......its wired specifically for me and the needs of my tanks, so no more blown breakers! yaaaayyyy! We're doing the work ourselves, which is slowing down the move cause the room has to be ready for the fish, but we're talking 14x32 100% built for fishies, water available, sealed from the rest of the house to prevent humidity damage, and even a commercial grade airconditioner/dehumidifier is going in. very sweet set up . I'll try to take some pics and post the progress....costs are working out to be several thousand so far not including labour, but, its an investment, we plan on going bigger now so......we're just preparing for it. should be really cool when its done. Theres a total of 30 or so plugins, all of the GFI because of the usage around water, and NO cords on the floor this time, neat and tidy and well organized this time around, I can hardly wait to get the fishies into their new home. I dont have to work right away so I'll get some time to set them all up and spend some time making sureits done right. I hate moving, I actually like Calgary, but I cant afford the rents here, to make it means working extra hard and in that case both my fish and family suffer. Expect to hear ALOT more from me as things get set up- I will be getting multiple shipments in from various places like Thailand, and south america so I"ll have lots going on to sell. I hope to set up my own website as well, and supplies for aquaria will be included in that. I will be making regular trips to Calgary, so doing biz here isnt a problem. I"ll post pics soon...

hm well my signiature says alot of it, so I'll only list whats NOT down there, cant remember them all anyway.... clown loach, yoyo, polkadot botia, red fin blue botia, green tiger botia, berrramodi botia, big spot pleco, L273, L002, L177, Bruno pleco, albino BN, common spotted BN(group), common plecs, adolphi cory cats, syno multipunctatus(group), upside down cats, and still a few pictus hanging around. Most of my cats have been with me for quite a while now, most listed below in my sig. are breeding groups. I cant get enough catfish. Botia are great - my berramodi(clickers I call them cause they make clicky noises when they get mad) love to hide UNDER the gravel, specially when I clean. I Empty the ornaments out of the tank, plants too, so I can do a head count, and they all go missing, then the syphon finds them. If you look real close you might find a little whisker above gravel its a real blast to watch them. my blue botia like to get up into the hollow legs of ornaments but the little buggers are getting to big to fit now HAH. fixed them:) Our nicest plec is my L240 Galaxy type- tremendously beautiful and hardy. the L273 is just a little fart compared to the rest of the tank but he kicked the bumblebee cat out of his house and guards it as his now....He'll be needing a tank of his own when he grows up . I'm still collecting when I can, but I have to move this summer so my priority is finding a house big enough for us all. Dont suppose anyone knows of a large house to rent in Creston or Cranbrook area ? Willing to pay well!

Wow I thought I had problems.... my bill averages $500 a month, sometimes a bit more. Its and older house, 2 levels, 5 bdrms and the fish are in the 'rec room' in the basement. We dont have electric heat, or anything, its all gas even the dryer. My fish room is about 20x26, and crammed FULL - about 70 tanks in all. Theres everything from 2 1/2 gal to 70 gall, lots of 20 and 33's. They all have heaters in them, and most have their own HOB. About a dozen powerheads, and 2 large airpumps supply the small tanks with their mini filters, and the larger tanks use undergravel as well. My water temps I keep around 80-86, house temp averages more like80. I have about 4 other larger (55 gal) tanks scattered about the house as well, with HOB, UG, PH, Heaters, lights etc. I do pretty well considering theres 4 kids and 2 adults in this house. All I can suggest is making a list of your equipment, each should say on it how many watts it takes to run, for example the average AC70 only uses about 5 watts, vs say a light bulb at 100 w. I did things like swap out all light bulbs for the florescents, fish lights are all on timers, when I do water changes I use warm rather than cold(keeps the heaters from coming on) and keeping the room temps up helps. Heaters use alot more energy than anything else. Good luck

I have a pair of bookworm kids here, who some of you may already know to also be very much into fish. They have asked me to find them some good fish books, particular interests are Cichlids, catfish, plecos, guppies, bettas, and RAYS are at the top of the list. They like to see pictures of different colors, ie different types of rays. They don't get much computer time to go looking things up and alot of the books I've found are either super expensive or just beginner grade info. My kids can read and understand college level, so alot of whats out there just bores them. If anyone has any suggestions, send them this way!

I've used most types of powerheads in the last year, I like MaxiJet but they are not cheap. I've gone to the Tom's brand DivePower, I think Riverfront sells them. Even an 85 is enough to move the water around pretty good. I find them VERY reliable and every bit as good as the more expensive ones.

There is a huge difference between the true L046 zebra plecos and any other pleco, especially L104clowns. PlanetCatfish.com is best reference for pics. Real zebras are rare and you likely wont find one for sale for less than $400 apiece these days. It seems alot of people refer to a fish with stripes as 'zebra', but the real ones are absolutely unmistakable. There are no regional color variations with them, they only come from one place- the Rio Xingu Brazil, and and export ban on them has been in place for a number of years, making them very hard to come by. The L046 is a hypancistrus, the L104 is a panaque, very different species

I like ug for the most part, a good portion of my 70+ tanks have it. Very useful for guppies, bettas and fry tanks. For more heavily populated tanks I use HOB as well, and powerheads like maxi jet. I still give the gravel a good syphoning every now and then. for the most part I use it in conjunction with/as a supplement to HOB's etc, and its most of what I use with guppies or bettas(won't suck up babies).

Ok, for someone with the nickname "crazy pleco chick" you might get an idea this could be a long list for me lol... PLECOs: L260, L129, L240, L191, L002, LDA31, L204, L134, L66, LDA33, L271, L163, L177, L013, L168, L264, commons in chocolate and albino, sailfin, bristlenose(spotted and albino), a ranger, and my well kept secret (lol) is L046. Most of my plecs, with a few exceptions, are in groups of 2-6 for obvious intentions(nature allowing). For other cats, syno's in multipunctatus, euperuptus, nigreventis, olliciefer, longistrus (sorry if the spelling is wrong), loaches I keep clowns, polkadots, red fin blue botia, yoyo, green tiger and berramodi. I think we got 1 cory cat left somewhere, but botia and plecos are my fav's. Needless to say, tank cleaning around my place isnt an issue. My collection changes periodically when I add or lose of course. I can't seem to get enough of them! I guess its a no brainer where the 'crazy' part comes in

I agree shes awesome but when you dont have the cash you don't have it. I'd take her in a heartbeat if I could right now, I have the tank space. But I'll talk to Dennis again tomorrow and see if he can hold her a while