a1foxes

LOTS!. I don't really know where to start. My main thing is plecos, and my syno multis are high on my list. Bettas for sure too. Its hard to ignore them- they have such character. I have a special soft spot for zebra plecos.

Geez I think my whole family agrees on one- our first pleco, Cocoa. Yup he's a chocolate pleco, first fish we put in our community tank. But, I have to admit, our big Scarlett pleco that died a few months ago was our favorite til that point. I've got lots of 'pet' bettas, Ghost is a pure white half moon, and his sidekick is a 4" pleco I've had with him since day 1- I call him Shadow..hhhmm funny how that works. Called them dumb and dumber for a while, til I got guppies and gee how smart they seemed suddenly When I was a kid, we had a 125 gal tank with a 14" tiger oscar- Oscar of course, and a grouch he was! Ate EVERYTHING that moved unless it was faster and smarter(only 1 survived past a day- a big Koi that shared his tank for years- Jethro...)

Snails won't tolerate the copper or salt, or most meds either. Barring moving them out while treating- Crank the heat to 90 and leave it there for a week or two. If you move the snails, just add salt to the mix as well, lots of it.

I've been using the Eheim HOB's for 5 months or so now. Of my 60 or so tanks, about 15-20 are Eheims, theres a couple oddball Cascades and the rest are AC. I have to admit, I like the versatility of the AC, I can fill my own bags, with carbon, zeolite, or both, or opt to not use it. The Eheim cartridges are premade, which limits versatilty, HOWEVER, I have so far found them to be very efficient and do a great job cleaning up the floatie crud . I don't have marvellous water, so I like the idea of all the water passing through the carbon. The Eheim is a bit better for this than the AC, but how much that matters depends on your situation. The Eheims are VERY quiet, and I never have to reprime the damn things when the power cuts out. I also can rinse out the cartridges if they clog up sooner than expected. If money is an issue, well, Pisces is selling the 150 models for $20, rated the same as the AC30 for tank size, but its half the price. I can get cascade 150's for the same price if i want them, but, the Eheims are better all round. Time will tell as to how long they last etc, but after having to replace the impellers on a few of my AC's lately- ouch. I've used them long enough that I'm happy with them- I'm still buying them!

Ok, its not hooked up yet, but I'm hoping today was my last water hauling expedition...getting to be a pain in the butt doing that every dang day it seems. Just one more step in the completion of the fish room! Hey, this means I don't have to buy that bottled drinking water any more either! woohoo! I've also decided to stock them, so if you are looking for one, I can get you a good deal- better than any store in town!. Coralife Pure-flo, 50 gallons per day output, can get the 2 or 3 canister units. I just about had a heartattack when I saw similar units in home depot for $400, and they were only rated for 10 gallons per day :boxed: PM me if interested.

Black paint is marvellous for covering up booboos I use the cheapest lumber I can get for mine, "D" grade, and sometimes even used stuff. Works good, looks ugly. That $8 can of paint - worth it!

Still tinkering with that. Found an extra outlet I can use thats on a separate breaker, bonus! The power filters don't use alot, the air pump doesnt use alot considering how many tanks it does, but the heaters draw alot. Not sure how much wattage powerheads use, guess I'll have to check that out. I'm making a habit of turning the heat down if the tanks arent in use, ditto with powerheads. Filters always run no matter what. I have to get my lights plugged into a central timer, that will save some hassle. The room is fairly bright, so I only light the lower tanks. All in all, the bugs are getting ironed out. But, havent got all the tanks up and running yet either, so I'm still hoping to find someone who can tinker with the breakers and get me some extra juice...

oops the wagon is the kids', my toddler plays with it while i'm doing my chores down there- forgot to put it away before i took the pics. I counted roughly 60 tanks- bit more than I originally thought, but the sizes vary alot

well?

more to come

Well, here they are as promised. You'll note my curtains and "door" are even fishy, thank my daughter for that. Coincidence perhaps, but she picked those for her room, that was before we even got fish...deja vu! more than one post needed for the pics....

In the last 6 months I've seen a wide variety of fish rooms and setups, and I have to admit, I like what I see. I"m envious to a certain degree, on the other hand, I'm happy with mine considering.... I don't own my home, I rent, so fishkeeping isn't easy to accomodate. My house isn't particularly large, so finding a room for it all wasn't easy either. The house is older, the basement not very warm, so I have to heat the tanks-on the bright side, the fish room keeps the rest of the basement warm I've been tank and equipment collecting since June- almost every tank I have was bought used(or free), filters, heaters, gravel, etc, alot used. The Sunridge Petland was a big source of tanks i have to admit, but AA members have sold me alot of great stuff too. I spent alot of time in stores snooping around, buying what was on sale, so i have a mishmash of equipment. I"ve done alot of experimenting with different stuff, but at least I know what works well for what applications! All in all, I've spent roughly 1/3 of what all the stuff would have cost me at new/retail prices, and the setup works great. I built my own stands out of lumber, and I had to build them small enough to move without tearing them down. I also had to build them for a wide variety of tank sizes, so for sure not everything 'matches'. I have tanks as small as 2 1/2 galls, lots of 10, 15, 20, 25, 33 gall, and 5 55's, as well as some 'oddballs'. The stands were also built/placed to fit the room, making use of all the space. Unfortuneately, I also had to keep the tanks away from the walls so some wasted space there. I suppose my probs now electrical- finding enough power to run everything without blowing breakers. I also plan to put in an RO system downstairs so I don't have to haul water in from town. The one thing I have had to keep in mind, is the possibility of having to move, so I'm trying not to build things in such a way that it would be a pain to take apart or move. Thats where individual filtering comes in REALLY handy! Not all my tanks are up and running yet, but everything is pretty much all set up and ready to run. I might get to post some pics tonight if I pick my film up later.

I know most people keeping cichlids don't put anything else in with them. I also have been told by alot of stores that I should never put anything but catfish into a cichlid tank. That kind of talk bums alot of people out and actually discourages experimentation. My first tank was a community- plecos, catfish, loaches, botia, barbs,gouramis, mollies etc. Since then, I got a bit braver added festivums, electric yellows, rusties, and blue rams. In pairs, they don't bother anyone and no one bothers them. Even if you are a beginner, as long as you are careful and do a little research, its amazing the variety of fish that can share a tank. Since none of my tanks are over 55 gal, the cichs I get are generally no more than 6" max size. Alot of people want to just get a starter kit and buy a variety of fish, but stores always tell them not to mix fish, especially cichs. I'm glad I didn't listen. I always thought 'display' tanks should show different ways of doing things, mixing fish-types-colors etc. I like cichs just fine, but I also like labyrinth fish and others, and having mulitple tanks just for different types isn't practical for most of us. Its a nice display, just not my taste I guess

I may be a bit slow on some days, but I'm sure I would have noticed and earthquake lol. They say the same thing about some animals freaking out in certain ways, but if that were the case with fish you'd think there would be a rash of losses for alot of people around the same time? good question though, hhhmmm I smell a research project hehe

Should have pics of the fishroom up in a couple days! Took them today, just have to get the suckers developed. I got some nice fish, anyone wanna trade for a decent digital camera?

Sorry for your loss, in an odd way I feel kinda good cause now I know it's not just me that it happens to... :boxed: I lost a 12" L25 Scarlett a couple months ago, same thing, jumped out of his tank. Just last week I lost a 6" common pleco exactly the same way, and the dang tank even had a lid. He managed to jump his way through a small hole in the back of the lid. I'm rather paranoid now. Thought angels, cichlids etc would be the jumpers, well, honestly, I have lost more plecs to jumping than anything else. Pricey problem too- the L25 was worth about $400. Guess the trick is to make sure the holes are smaller than the fish, and you lash the top down just in case they decide to try anyway

Got some pics developed- no I don't have a digital camera so I still have to do it the old fashioned way(ain't 1 hr photo great?). Got one of my community tank, complete with plants, and even the Galaxy pleco came out to say cheese Got some pics of one of my zebra tanks, before and after caves went in. They are pretty shy, but for some reason they came out to play too!

I am running probably 40 tanks now in my basement, and i use air in most of if not all of them. I'm having a hard time finding 1 or 2 pumps that can take care of everything, and there ain't no way i want to run 20 small ones, or even 10... I use undergravel in most everything, from 10 gal to 55 gals, and of course 2 or more stacks to a tank. Thats a lot of air. I know my way around the everyday small stuff that all hobbyists are familiar with, but commercial type applications, I'm a little new to that grade of equipment so if anyone has any info I'd be happy to hear it! Better yet, if I can find 1 pump to do most of it, I'd be even happier!

I missed the last auction a couple weeks ago in Calgary(in hospital), just want to know when and where the next ones are?

Might have something to do with free/cheap tanks from Petland?lol got my share of those too, but also got some 55 gals. I use the big ones for my cichs and the smaller ones suit guppies, bettas and most plecos just fine! I didn't use a sump system, I'm sticking with individual filtration. Costs a bit more to set up, but at least I don't have to worry about 'sick tanks' spreading nasties about. I guess I have to get some pictures now too? Most of my room is set up, got to do a couple things still. Not all the tanks are full, mostly cause I don't have fish to fill them all so I don't see the point of running empty tanks for months. Free beer to anyone who can come help me finish! (involves moving an old fridge)

I ran a large section in an agricultural fair for alot of years, we had the same problem as glass tapping sorta- people sticking fingers into rabbit cages and chicken cages mostly. No matter how many signs I put up, no matter how much time I spent asking people not to, they still did it all the time. However, I could do nothing but laugh my guts out when they got bit -roll- When I first got my kids into fish, I told them "how would you like it if some big ugly alien came up to your 'safe zone/home' , and started making your "ears" ring so hard you cant swim straight? Would you think maybe it was coming to eat you, so you swim frantically to get away?" I basically have them put themselves into the position of the fish, and if putting them into a big drum and beating on it while they are inside gets the point across, I will, but so far, they have been very respectful. They still put their hands on the glass and point, I allow that, but tapping, if I catch anyone doing it they get a big bootprint on their butt. Funny, havent had to give anyone more than one boot over it...

Theres 5 outlets, maybe a 6th somewhere. 2 busiest are on one breaker, along with the room lights and not sure what else. 2 more that I also use, are on separate breakers from the first, and separate from each other , but each tied into some lighting in different parts of the house it seems. The other1-2 plug ins I'm not sure what they are tied to... So, it seems 4 outlets to 3 different breakers. The heaviest loaded one only blew when everything, including a plug in room heater, was turned on. I got rid of it, hasnt tripped since. i'm making a point of using other plugs when possible. I have about 30 tanks going, each with heaters, about 20 powerfilters, a few powerheads, a few small air pumps and one large airpump running undergravels on about a dozen tanks. Sorry, cant give much more right now, my little boy is in hospital and i need to get back

I had just heard they were planning an export ban soon, had no idea that soon!

I need someone who knows something about home electical- breakers specifically. My fishroom is drawing some heavy power and I need some adjustments - the cheaper the better. PM me if you, or anyone you know is interested. carol

I have 5 jugs from 5-7 gallons each, i just fill them up every time i go into town, and empty them as soon as I get home. Usually 1 trip a day on average, takes time to get everything filled because I have water changes to do as well. I use some of my well water, but keep that at a minimum because of iron content.