Yanagi

See I was going to have my LFS guy drill the tank for me as well, and he won't do it. Says the glass is too fragile. I don't trust myself to do it, but my dad might be able to.. but my LFS guy has done stuff like this for 30 years and if he won't do it.. I don't know. If the tank cracks, I'm out the amount on the tank and any work that gets done to it before hand. I dunno.. I guess I'll hope he's in tomorrow and go over everything with him.

I put in my order today and my tanks will be done.. TOMORROW! The only problem is that after placing the order for all 3 tanks, I learned they're 6m glass, which cannot be drilled. Well $#@@#$!!!!!!!!!!! So now I am rushing around trying to come up with an alternative. The only real solution I can think of is a marine style overflow filtration system. This means less swimming room for the fish and shared water. No way can I do completely divided tanks with the capability of turning off the taps now. If the tanks can't be drilled, it just can't be done. I would have no way to heat it properly nor am I willing to do water changes on that many little tanks so often. SO... marine style overflow it is. I still need to figure out exactly HOW it will work and how much space the whole thing will have to take up in the back of the tank. I've drawn up a plan on paper and given the back compartment 4 inches, giving 6 fish 4 x 8 x 12 = 6l, and the end fish gets 9l. As I said, this means it's shared water. There is NO turning off one compartment if a fish gets sick, it needs to be removed from the system completely. Arrrrggghhh. This is what I had hoped to avoid.. Total change of plans, and a total waste of money buying the sump. Well not total as I'm sure I'll be able to use it on my future cichlid tank, but for now I am just gonna glare at it and mutter under my breath. It's my own fault though, I should of seen it coming and asked about drilling FIRST.. Anyway, I am hoping I can pay my LFS owner to construct the insides of the tanks for me, he did offer to show me how to divide them and said I could do it there and use his glass just for the cost of it, but that was before we came across the drilling issue. So.. I am in general displeased with myself. But excited at the same time. I'm getting closer and closer to getting this barracks done. I am seriously hoping I can get this done before batch testing so I can import what I want.

You can try uploading from tinypic, that might work. It works the same as photobucket. http://tinypic.com/

It will be for Betta. Also the number of fish it holds is listed in the OP, 21. Not including the empty space beside the sump. I'll probably use that as a separate tank for hospital or spawning.

Orange Black boy was bred by Lisa. The 'koi' and white boy (pictured twice) were bred by me. Last boy is the 'Train Your Dragon' male 1 in this video. His anal fin and ventrals got chewed halfway off. Sigh. Showing him off anyway because he's still kinda pretty. Best photo I have of him, ugh. Anyway, these are my favourite boys, three will get their chance at breeding for sure. The 'koi' I doubt I will breed as it's not a colour/pattern I wish to pursue, and he's got some traits I'd rather not pass on.

This thread is most likely just going to work as a place for me to jot down my thought process on the whole thing and, well, record keeping. Feel free to join in for what will undoubtedly be a very exciting ride. (dry sarcasm alert) I went to Bunnings last weekend. I picked up a 5 tier steel shelf with 9mm MDF shelves. It's designed to hold 750kg 'evenly distributed'. It's 1830mm H x 910mm W x 400mm D. Thanks to the weather I spent this weekend painting the shelves with lacquer. I will be getting no compliments on the paint job. I also bought a 2nd hand 2ft sump with some media, and had it delivered along with spare pipes which will come in very handy! The lacquer dried not long ago and my dad deemed it good enough to assemble the whole lot. The whole thing stands nearly a foot taller than I do (mind you, I am rather short) so unfortunately the top shelf will just have to be storage. The bottom shelf is where the sump will sit which leaves me with 3 usable shelves. Height of the shelves is also not very adjustable thanks to the top, bottom and middle shelf not being able to be adjusted. The middle shelf holds the top half in place. All in all, it seems pretty sturdy. Top shelf not in view because I couldn't stand far back enough. Now because of the measurements of the stand, you would think I could get a standard sized 30 inch tank in there. The only problem is standard sized 30 inch tanks are 14 inch high. I need to it be 12 or shorter to allow clearance for the plumbing and hands, of course. This means once again I am looking at custom built tanks. Now if I go with a custom tank it would most likely be a 30 x 12 x 12. Dividers 4 inch apart. That gives me room for 7 fish with the last fish getting 6 inches instead of 4 (room for a giant ). So 4 x 12 x 12 gives each fish about 9 litres, realistically probably about 7 litres. Also at this size if for some reason a fish needed to be taken out of the system I can just turn off the taps and easily fit in a 25 watt heater. So all up I would have room for 21 fish. Considering this is a barracks, that really doesn't feel like a lot. I've gotten up to 16 before with individual tanks. Sigh. At least it will dramatically decrease the electricity bill and I can always build another barracks later on. Here's a very, very crudely drawn plan for how the water will be pumped around. It's linked instead of pictured because your eyes should be prepared for the hideousness of it. Measurements and shape of tanks are not accurate. LOL Hopefully I'll be able to find someone willing to build the tanks within the week. Then I can hopefully find someone who will divide and drill them for me. Whether or not it's the same person who constructs the tank, I don't know. :P

They are the coolest looking Angels I have seen in a while. :)

Anubias is what you see growing on driftwood in LFS (and my planted tank). No need to plant it though you can, it won't harm it, just saying it's not required.

By chunky, do you mean large gravel? Not a good idea in general. Waste/uneaten food falls between it and rots. Finer gravel is also recommended for plants. What thickness is it? The bag should say if you aren't sure. Moss doesn't need to be planted and nor does the anubias so you don't really need to worry about nutrient rich substrate for them. Agree with Bettarazzi on root tabs/fertilizer for the swords though. Just keep an eye on your plants (looking once a day is fine ) and if you see anything unusual (such as yellow spots, holes, etc) compare it to the nutrient deficiency chart I linked you to and then you can run out and know exactly what you need to buy.

I don't know how they can not know. I've seen the same poster about it in two different LFS already, so obviously it's being sent around somehow. Who would miss such a well known aquarium like that? Bizarre.

The first one you linked to is just a circulation pump, not a filter. The ones you linked to will also be way, way, wayyyy too much current in such a small tank. A sponge filter or small hang-on filter with adjustable flow rate will be your best bet. You want your water capacity being filtered about 4x per hour. So one that does 100l/ph is what you should be looking at. Large or medium sponge filter http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Breeder-Sponge-Filter-Large-Aqua-One-/130381557482?pt=AU_Pet_Supplies&hash=item1e5b58aeea http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Breeder-Sponge-Filter-Medium-Aqua-One-/140410862806?pt=AU_Pet_Supplies&hash=item20b123bcd6 This hang-on filter http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Aqua-One-Clear-View-Hang-Filter-100-/130378097368?pt=AU_Pet_Supplies&hash=item1e5b23e2d8 If you're using anything other than a sponge filter with shrimp, you will need to buy some kind of mesh/fine netting/ old panty hose over the intake of the filter. I've even found shrimp inside my spray bar on my internal filter. They climbed in through the holes. Tetra with Betta is a hit and miss. Short finned Betta have a far better chance of escaped un-nipped but it is still not a guarantee, long finned Betta have a very low chance. If you're going to get tetra anyway, make sure you can take them back if they chew your fishes fins before getting them. Cherry Shrimp are also likely to get eaten, moss field or no. My shrimp tank is very heavily planted (with plenty of moss too) and my Betta always has a fat gut. He's since given up trying to hunt the adult sized ones but he will still hunt the little ones.

Happy birthday Lisa! :)

Happy Birthday. Good luck deciding what you're going to put in the tank lol

I can think of Bay Fish, Petras and Aquarium Industries off the top of my head. I'm starting to look into getting the media involved in this, already contacted ACA with no reply. Perhaps the newspapers would be more interested.

Hehe, Thanks. Though that's no longer a 2', I had to move over to a 30 inch tank when my 2ft cracked completely. Soo a few tank updates. Lost my Orange Dragon in an accident. Got very upset about it and went and paid for one I saw in one of someone's vids, along with a girl to hopefully suit. He hasn't come yet. Just realized I hadn't updated the live stock for a while.. So here's a new list. Ember tetra x 12 (I think.. lol I know I lost one but I don't know if I bought enough to make up for that one I lost or if that happened after I bought the new lot.. eegads) Blue Ram x 1 (female) Honey Gourami x 2 Sparkling Gourami x 4 Otocinclus 'German' x 4 Pygmy Cory x 4 Croaking Gourami x 1 Pakistani Loaches x 4 Serpae Tetra x 8 Ghost Shrimp x ... I don't know. I sure ruined the look of 'small' fish by getting the Croaking Gourami and the Serpae but hey, I wanted them. I got them. Although I now feel I should of gone for 6 Serpae. Oh well. I've been battling 'just barely there' algae problems as well as nutrient deficiencies in my plants so the tank doesn't look as good as it did, I still can't get that look back. Having issues finding plants to suit as well as just not having enough time to really bring myself to care a whole lot any more. The fish look pretty, they are healthy (except for the mysterious death of the male Ram) so I am (kinda) happy. Hmm, comments on the live stock? Loaches - I love my loaches, they are just awesome fish. They demolish food in lightning speed. They are taking care of the few snails that turn up. They are just non-stop busy 'little' critters. Ghost Shrimp - Pretty cool. I like watching them swim, haha. Blue Ram - Female has come back to full colour and looking healthier than ever before. I suppose it's because she hasn't got the male in there harassing her to spawn. Cories - Mostly inactive and.. kinda boring now. Maybe I need to up the numbers in there, but if I do and they continue to be boring, well that's just going to annoy me, lol Gouramis - Honeys are pretty little things, very cute. Mostly hang out in the plants, especially the floating ones. Riccia, frog bit, plants that have just been pulled out by the busy nature of the loaches.. Sparkling Gouramis are super cute, colouring up really nicely. There is a bit of chasing but heaps of hiding spots. Croaking Gourami is plainly coloured still but is certainly a lot happier now in my tank than 'she' was in the LFS where she did nothing but hide in the corner. I'm hoping she will colour up as she gets more settled. Tetra - Awesome in general. Otos - Big lazy pigs, haha. They're as piggish as the loaches, just not as active. Cookies (and pics) to anyone who bothered to read through my babbling. Sorry for the poor quality. Haven't gotten around to camera shopping ( )

Grumble grumble.. Sick and exhausted but have had to do a big water change on the tank. No idea what's wrong with it as everything tests fine.. Two days ago found my male Blue Ram with pop eye and gasping, and one dead Ember tetra.. Found my Ram dead this morning so I did a 30% change. Rest of the fish seem fine but meh. I've been adding small numbers of Ghost/Glass shrimp over a few days so perhaps they had something to do with it. I dunno. They seem fine. Also got my Shrimp tank up and running. The guy gave me extra Red cherries, approx 30. I lost two (that I know of..) and I've got my red gold HM in there, he certainly looks like he's eaten one or two as well. There's about half a dozen Glass shrimp in there too. I've got bucketloads of green hygro in there to deal with the increased bioload.. I'm debating what I want to do with this tank. I'm very tempted to completely take the top off (it's an all-in-one tank that was a POC, the filter died on me and so did the heater) and keep it an open top tank with T5s over it. There's Riccia tied onto driftwood (haphazardly) and some floating, java moss thrown around, Java fern just wedged into an empty spot, peacock moss tied onto another bit of driftwood, a couple of Crypts, some Temple, Frogbit and Green Hygro. Light isn't strong enough (I'm trying to find a replacement bulb, ugh!) so I've got the tank light on and 2 lamps aimed in it. I did have some pearling going on the other day but haven't had any since. Grumble. Didn't think the Shrimp tank (nor it's photos) was deserving of it's own thread, lol.

Haha, that's great! Wish I'd thought of that before buying a veggie clip (surprisingly expensive!).

Okaaay so I didn't come home with a bucketload of plants.. Not once I saw there were Ember tetra back in stock and bought 6 of them, 4 Pakistani loaches and 4 Sparkling Gouramis. I could easily go for 20 Ember Tetra in there and I'm thinking I will actually go ahead and get another 8 anyway.. Have you noticed I really, really like them? I really wanted Serpae tetra too but they only had 2 short fins.. They had the long fins but they looked all chewed up. I'll see if the site has them, if not I'll have to wait. My shrimp tank is full of plants now though.. Will be ordering plants ASAP for the community tank. I did get a few.. Mayaca and Red tiger lotus (super pretty, let's hope I can grow it!). For the shrimp tank I just got a couple of crypts, java moss, java fern, green rotala.. There's already riccia, temple and peacock moss and a small amount of cardamine in there as well.

Ok I have to admit Bettarazzi's comment gave me an idea and I've been working on the set up and will be changing it a fair bit. I'll be coming home with a bucketload of plants tomorrow and will be getting a large amount of ghost shrimp on the weekend to help with the algae... Yeah, I'm aware what will happen to a fair few of them but I'm hoping with the plant coverage and sheer numbers I'll be able to keep population up. I also plan on ordering quite a few plants/fish from livefish.com.au too more Ember tetra, sparkling gouramis and anything else that happens to catch my eye next week, haha. They seem to only have male coral blue Gouramis as well which is disappointing. Possibly Pakistani loaches (cause they're cool and I have been seeing a couple of snails around.. no where near what I would call a snail explosion like I have had in the past but any snails is too many snails IMO! I'm also looking around for Corydora Habrosus but haven't had much luck. (If you are selling some or know of a LFS in Sydney/Parramatta area with them, please post or PM me!)