shadoh

Let me know and I'll pick you up mate. From what I had heard you were supposed to be in there much longer. Glad you are making good progress. As for the fishroom, been too busy to progress any further since the last photos. Perhaps next week...

Brenton, I have a few of those linkable ones with switches, but would have needed at least 3 per shelf, as they are approximately 40cms long. I'm happy with my batten lighting. I have them all connected to the one powerboard that I can switch on and off at the wall. Thanks Peter. When you are back home and feeling up to it, I'll be happy to bring you over to check it out (hopefully it will be complete - I tend to procrastinate...)

They are all wired and ready to go (no on/off switches, but didn't bother me). The brand is Compton Lighting and they are $36 each. Brenton, they come with stock standard fluro bulbs. They are fine for what I want - illuminating my tanks. Any plants I have in there will have low light requirements, so not need any special lighting. I guess you could buy new tubes that were more in the plant light spectrum if you were inclined to. The shelf I plan on setting my wilds up on has a 20y/o green tube in it. Came with a second hand aquarium light I bought way back then. Doesn't throw a lot of light, but penetrates the tannins and allows the fish to be seen without freaking them out Oh, and they are bare bulbed, so if you are looking for something all enclosed, move along, nothing to see here (actually, they do have enclosed ones - you pay an extra $15-$20 for it from memory...)

It has been some time since I have done any "hard work" in the fishroom. Slowly but surely, tanks have crept into the main house and have taken over the spare bedroom. It has come to the point where nobody can sleep in there with the bubbling of 4 spawn tanks, 1 growout tank and 2 brine shrimp hatcheries. The kitchen has a 4 bay barracks taking up the space where the kettle used to sit and my evil empire gudgeons are plotting my demise from a 3 ft tank in the loungeroom. A few weeks ago, while in a LFS, I noticed that they were selling a second hand 12 bay barracks that was about 4ft long. Before I knew what I was doing, I had bought it, a new heater, pump and media for the sump. I managed to get it out to the car before realizing I had nowhere to put it... A quick detour to Bunnings on the way home and I was set. Two shelving units and some cheap fluro lighting and I was set to organize the fishroom and get those extra tanks out of the house for good. That was a far as I got. I unloaded the car, walked into the fishroom and couldn't decide where anything would go. I sat it down and left it in the too hard basket.... Until yesterday. While working, I hatched a plan. By maneuvering various pieces of furniture around tetris style, I would be able to make everything fit! I could put the new shelves, barracks, the 4 bay barracks from the kitchen, 4 wild betta tanks, my spawn tanks and tubs of aged water along the wall I had my 4 foot sorority tank on. The sorority would be stripped back and moved to the wall that my wilds currently sit. The shelving the wild tanks currently sit on will be moved into the office to replace the crappy melamine shelves. My guppy tanks and growout tank would sit on the top shelf in the office and books would be stored in plastic tubs (to keep water tight in case of leaks from tanks above) in the lower shelves. My 2 Aqua One growout barracks will be moved out of the office and into the fishroom where they previously sat. One on the end of the bar and one on top of the bar fridge. More photos as work progresses. I will do a video tour once complete :D/>

Damn fancy finger! That one doesn't bend - tendon damage from old horse riding injury. You should see me drinking a cup of tea...

Lol... Have a closer look when you get home. They are coloured glass "stones"...

Not sure where you are seeing snails. Tank has brand new gravel and plants. Don't discount the possibility of eggs coming in with either or both, so as I said, I half expect to see some magically appear.

Ok. To answer your questions... No snails in the tank. I'm sure some will just magically "appear" ...lol My dividers are made out of black corflute. I prefer something more rigid than aquarium BG. Especially when taking them in and out of the tank when giving the fish "flare time"

Oh... Don't forget to put your dividers back in... Lol

The divider and tube in place I decided today to go back to using gravel. It is purely for aesthetic reasons... Water will enter via the airline tube and get sucked down through the gravel into the sump to the filter. Then add plants and fish...

Divider in place. Note hole for airline tubing... The filter with tubing attached to outlet to connect to spray bar Spray bar attached to filter in sump More to come...

Ok... Here is my setup (will have to split into several posts to meet the maximum image requirements of the forum. Keep in mind, my barracks has a gap at the rear of each compartment only. This is the spray bar. It is a piece of plastic tubing, sprinkler connections screwed into holes drilled into tube. I used a rubber furniture stopper to plug up the end. Airline tubing is added to the sprinkler connectors. Each tube will be threaded into each compartment to supply fresh water. This small divider is made out of plastic embroidery mesh and a poster holder. It stops the Bettas swimming under the gap if using tank bare bottomed, or stops gravel spilling through the gap into the sump. More to come....

I'm stripping my barracks back tomorrow for it's big annual scrub down. I'll make sure I take plenty of photos for you mate ;)

Very nice Les :)

Happy birthday!

Les spends a fair bit of time on Facebook. He is doing well. I'll get him to pop in here and say "hi"

I tried sand in my barracks when I first got it, but had to change to gravel once I raised the back partition to allow water to be pulled through and filtered in the sump. Gravel did the trick for me, but I have since moved onto having NO substrate in my betta setups, as it is easier to keep clean. A few plants like Java fern, Java moss, Hornwart that don't need substrate will look good and help with bio filtration. You could also put a plant in a small terracotta pot and sit that in a bare bottomed tank.

Welcome Bryan! Great to see the Betta/Anabantid scene growing on the West coast! You have come to the right place, there is plenty of info and betta keepers/breeders on here.

Yes - blitz us with questions We need some new blood in here to wake up some of the sleeping giants. Ask away I say!!!!!! :dance:

Others might have other experience, but I find that the majority of my adult males like to attack larger snails like mystery snails when they have their eyestalks out - a bit of a temptation with them looking like live worms wiggling around. Mystery snails are, however good for cleaning up spawn tanks and most fry will leave them alone. May I ask what you are getting the snails for? Try and stay away from some of the common smaller pest snails like the common pond snail, they breed far too quickly and are hard to remove from a tank once infested. If you have plants in the tank, make sure you don't get a snail that eats plants I've had Ramshorn snails in with bettas before without problem. They can breed quite rapidly too, so you need to be on the lookout for eggs before they hatch and take over in plague proportions.

Yes, they are mine. I picked them up at the Caboolture show on the weekend. I fell head over heels for the long finned female while we were benching in. 20 mins later, I discovered the male and that was it. I had to have them Destined for the spawn tank! It is amazing the colour varieties you can get that you don't usually see in pet store quality VTs. someone recently had some amazing black dragon VTs in store that I came close to buying.

Case in point... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcPwALJizPc

Woot! I'm looking at re-scaping at the end of the month. If the comp is still open, you can count me in!