Ferryman's 3ft construction

Nope... Besides, they only use the test strips to test the water. Which is why they charge you.

I recommend befriending one of your fellow forum members and asking them REALLY nicely to do a quick test for you.

The tank is looking good dude! For your first fish, I would recommend one of 3 things: Tetras, Livebearers or Danios.

You can use Neons, maybe 5 of them. If none die in the first couple of days then sorted...

two, maybe 3 guppies will work too.

A Couple of danios - zebra or spotted will also work.

Then GRADUALLY increase the number of fish you have in the tank. Don't overload the tank so soon. Slowly let your numbers increase and in time you will have a stable, balanced ecosystem running.

 

I agree with Slagter, and it's even better if you were actually planning to stock some of those fish

I started off with 5 Harlequin Rasboras and added a few more every week after that.

 

The most important element to this hobby/addiction is patience. All good things come to those who are willing to wait.

 

Maybe off topic

Found the T8 endcaps at BWH .They have loads of it.The one to the north of us.LOL

 

what kind of endcaps? waterproof, or the type you gave me, or that kind you can mount on its side?

 

Like the ones i gave you,are u going to use sliders?

 

yes, with the glass you gave me, i just need to get to the cutter, i want the edges sanded...

I found some of those endcaps at leeubrug as well, but i want ones that i can screw into the canopy, like hard plastic or ceramic maybe, instead of using steel clips to hold the light in place

 

Mmmmmmm. Maybe...........Will see what i can get tomorrow.

 

yay, i recieved some money today for work done two weeks ago... and they still owe me for last weekend...

I'll go nag tomorrow

Anyways, i bought a big Aquaclear 70 filtersponge today, and two aquaclear mini sponges as well

I took a sharp knife, compressed the big sponge and cut it down the middel (top to bottom) so i now have two slimmer pieces, of which one fits perfectly in the cascade 200 slot where the carbon insert should be. The flow now is MUCH better than it was, going through the filterwool i had stuffed in there, i also found a sheet of what looks like fine, compact scotchbrite pot scourer (its actually a filter pad, but that is what it looks like) which was double the size of the cascade pot scourer, and twice as fine, so i cut that in half too, and lay one half, together with the old pennplax one, in the same insert container, then i took some of the old filterfloss and stuffed it in where the water enters the cascade box, to seed the sponge and the new piece of scourer i added.

So my cascade now filters like this, water sucked up, goes through filterwool, goes to bio-sponge, through to the rough pennplax scourer insert, through to the fine green pot scourer insert i added, then out.

I took out that "revolutionary" bio-falls thing they added to the outlet lip, its supposed to add EXTRA oxygenation and help remove EVEN MORE ammonia...
All it efectively does is reduce the water velocity going out, makes less surface agitation and REDUCES the amount of oxygen that effectively churns around and drifts in micro-bubbles to the surface when the water hits the surface...

The flow into and out of the box has increased with this new filtration content, and the water no longer overflows down the intake pice back into the tank...
I took the small aquaclear sponges, cut a little slit in the middle of it, and pushed the intake ends for the aquaclear mini and the cascade into one each, so now i dont have to worry about a plant leaf or random strand of javamoss or whatnot getting sucked into the intake pipe and tangling up on the impellors, i've already seen a few elodea leaves sucked on the sponge, and s strand on vallis root, and a piece of random javamoss that i somehow got in there from the bottom tankie...

I din't buy any new plants, as i was aiming to, because Pet a Pond was cleaning their plant tank today (aparently it needs it badly, every week wednesday), it was covered in a brownish, granular moss, looks like fish poo or decomposed food laying around, if i look closely, some small remnants on the glass look suspiciously familiar to the damned fluffy stuff in my tank... just way more advanced and agro, guess whatever is in my tank, if its some algae, its not really getting what it needs to thrive, so its only bearely visible.

(i told the guy they gave me algae, at which point he started telling me where else i may have gotten it, counting his fingers 1. From direct sunlight - strike one, no direct sunlight, entrance faces south, overhang, almost no sunlight. 2. reflected sunlight - strike two, no reflection, outside my glass sliding door, is greenery, a garden basically, and brown prefab walls... and 3. Very strong light - Steeeeeeerike three you're out, i have a weak, crap lighting solution, makeshift from an old internally lit glass picture's wooden frame, the picture broke years ago... with two t12 tubes @ 60 cm, stuck in the corners of the frame, and and cfl camping light under a tamato crate)

Anyways, the guy was cleaning floaty bits of plants, and binned it, but there were varios gross things in the bin, so i decided not to ask for any...

They get new stock tomorrow, so i'll see what they have this weekend...

I'll probably have to leave the tank to reseed the new filter media i added?
I just vigourously shook the pre-existing scourer insert of the cascade in a container with tank-water, the water came out BROWN and lots of ?sediment? that eventually settled at the container bottom. the filter was dirty, yay, so it means it was at least working, catching crap...

Had the buddy who donated the tank to me, visit yesterday, says he wants it back it looks nothing like what he gave me to start with hehe.

 

Here are some piccies of the tank. i havent cut the glass for the sliders yet, but this is just a makeshift slider i made, its just glass laying on top, the smaller piece, slides on a bit of polysturene "rail" i made. mostly i just lift it all off when i'm working in the tank

 

Well done Ferryman tank is looking realy good.

 

Thanks, i'm just anxious to get some fishies in there.:excited:

 

Another option is to get zebra danio's from the shop in PKstreet
R3.50 each seems ok.I bought sommer 10.

 

i'm thinking of getting leopard danios there
I dont like the stripey ones, the spotty ones are nice though

Where will i find well priced Otoclinus? i read you need a few together
i was also thinking of maybe going for the stingry/butterfly loach but moolis only has one, and PaP i think have two - priced at around 20-30 rand and they're freeeeekin tiny atm.

So far i'm gonna spend 50rand, and buy tetras, and i'll introduce them to the tank first, then its the danios next.

Listen, what were you saying on the fone, that AK had imbuia wood or something? or was i hearing you wrong, (my "new fone" is still at vodaworld and the old one's speaker is doing gargley sounds now, i heard my own replies more than i heard you talking)

I asked them to keep me a small piece of javamoss covered wood, to collect tomorrow, SO LEAVE IT ALONE ALL YOU VULTURES ...just kidding.... no, no actually i'm serious, leave that piece alone, its mine!

Hehehe, i went there today to buy salt and a small 600l/h powerhead, and asked about the wood after i bought so i figured i'd bring cash tomorrow rather than two transactions on the card and you'd need authorization etc, and i got there about 7 min to closing time.

Also asked about the javamoss, seems they sold out, lol, you guys actually bought it all up

...

anyway, i put the powerhead in tonight, the leaves are moving a bit now, i guess its better to have a bit of flow, and that ols chosen 300l/h wasn't making a dent

Also got some coase salt, heard a little is good for the tank etc... who can tell me what the benefits are and how to apply?

 

some pics, i decided to add this piece of wood in top left, it floats, refuses to sink, been trying for three days

I tied it to a roch, so its a tall feature, should i keep it or remove it?

 

Looking good!

 

Butterfly loach? That's most likely a type of Hillstream Loach, they prefer high flow rates and smooth round rocks and very high oxygen levels because they come from high flow rate rivers in Asia.

Check www.Loaches.com for anything to do with well, Loaches.
The three species you might be talking about are:
- Beaufortia kweichowensis
- Sewellia lineolata
- Sinogastromyzon wui

If it's the Sewellia Lineolata, it's very rare and very beautiful. I'd love to have some myself, but I don't know if I can provide the sort of environment they need, even if I could find them.

 

Whip -
I dunno, every shop has a different name for them, ranging from hongkong pleco, butterfly pleco, butterfly loach. i found even more names for them when i did a google, but they're probably the Beaufortia.

I could always get another powerhead like the one yesterday, that'd be around 1200l/h thrusting in one direction, or i could set them up diagonally and make the water circle the tank...?
and with oxygen requirements, a have alot of surface agitation, i could add an aircurtain at the back for more agitation..

But anyway, for now i'm sticking to getting neons and such.

i added i bit of salt to the aquarium yesterday, i read last night it can be in the range of 1 tsp : 5 gal. so on a +/- 48 gal tank, thats 10 tsp. found a great way to dissolve it as well, put it in the corner filter, and then i placed that infront of the new powerhead, venturi-principle, it dissolved and sucked out the salt and spread it throughout.

I found this while trawling the web
"Salt in low doses in a freshwater aquarium is beneficial to the fish as it eases osmotic pressures and assists in the formation of a proper slime coat. Adding salt to an aquarium helps to mimick the natural environment of almost all of our fish. Sometimes this is more important than others, but for most all fish it is of benifit. Is adding it to your freshwater tank required? No, certainly not, but most fish will benefit and in small doses 0.1 - 0.3% it will not harm even salt sensitive fishes like loaches. At those levels it will however kill many fungii that are in tanks and at slightly higher levels (0.6 - 1.0%) has been proven to kill freshwater ich."

(source=http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070326123654AAaBr1G)

i was hoping it'd have an effect on the fluffy growths that are now receding, and only hiding in hard to scrub areas

another link on "benefits of salt
http://www.aquariumfishwonders.com/...s-of-adding-salt-to-your-freshwater-aquarium/

 

They're really beautiful fish, and you might be able to get away with just putting a nice big smooth rock in front of your powerhead, you're not going to get much flow in a 3ft tank anyway

As for the salt, I used to add it, but my fish seem to be doing fine without. I also read about it promoting the production of the slime coat, and my reasoning is that it could help keep away things like ich if you add it a few days before you add new fish by building up the protection your fish get from the slime coat...
I just used to dissolve it in hot water in a 1 liter jug before adding.