Cawdor

I don't recall stating it was fact anywhere in my reply mate.

 

You didn't write "in my opinion" or "from my experience" or anything like that before you mentioned "3 isn't enough". That implies that what you're saying you're stating as fact.

 

Anyway, this discussion is pointless without knowing how many fish will be in there. OP mentioned it currently has one fish. Can a single large sponge filter take care of the waste from a single fish? Probably yes. Doesn't matter what the tank size is.

The question to ask is what the tank will eventually hold and then advise on how many sponge filters would be necessary.

 

You also need to know how much is fed and how often and about the frequency of water changes before advising on filtration setups.

The water looks great in terms of clarity..I did a 30% water change earlier and they are looking happier after that.
Should I try and do one daily until it reads 0ppm?

 

Clarity or cloudiness is not an indicator of the water chemistry being out of whack.

The immediate treatment for an ammonia spike is the same as for all other water chemistry problems: 50% water change immediately. Look for dead fish or leftover food rotting somewhere. Test again to see if the value has gone down (it should). If it's still the same, you may have a dodgy test kit. Confirm by testing with another kit or taking a water sample to your LFS to test.

 

Next day, test again to see the value. Do a partial water change, anywhere from 30-50% depending on how high the ammonia reading is.

Keep in mind: water changes don't hurt your fish, ammonia and nitrite do.

 

Keep monitoring until ammonia and nitrite are both zero. Leave it for a couple of days, then add more fish if you really need to.

classified threads also get autolocked by the forum software after a certain amount of time.

It's been a bit hit and miss for me with timers. I tend to go for digital ones because they have battery backups and they don't make any noise. Standard brands like Arlec and Kambrook. Bunnings, Woolies, Big W etc will have them for between 20-30 bucks.

It seems lately people don't put prefixes on the headings of their threads. That makes it impossible to know whether you're selling or wanting something.

 

For Sale = FS

Want to Buy = WTB

Swap = Swap

 

Please put these in front of your subject line.

I always wonder why all of those websites look like they were made by a 12 year old who just discovered html in 1997 hosted and hosted their site at Geocities.

The main difference with Africans are the Haps and Mbuna. Haps are the group that include species like N.venustus, Dimi comps, Copadichromis sp etc. They are generally piscivores (eat other fish) and grow quite large, about 20-25cm on average and swim in open water.

 

The Mbuna are species like Labichromis sp, Melanochromis etc. Those are the rock dwellers and they are mainly vegetarians or they eat crustaceans etc. They are generally territorial and can get pretty aggressive if you're not careful or the tank is too small. Check out the article here: http://www.cichlid-f...ps_vs_mbuna.php

 

One strategy to stem aggression is to crowd the tank, but that generally works best with one species only and could be a bit much for a 6x2 tank in terms of filtration.

A lot depends on the photo too. But taking into account the camera and exposure/levels, they look pretty decent

I reckon with so many people having yellows, we should make a comparison photo thread...not as a competition or anything, just to see what's out there.

General info: adblock plus is also available for Firefox

now the power companies wont like this... already they are spewing as solar panels have reduced their income substancially making them want to increase prices again

 

Which "Power company" are you talking about and how do you come to this conclusion? Do you mean the retailer, Synergy? Who is listing solar as a way to reduce your bill on their website (http://www.synergy.n...ar_panels.xhtml)

 

Or Western Power, the network owner? Who also has links to solar info in their website and has streamlined the process of connecting your solar system to the network (http://westernpower....stem/index.html). Both these companies are part of the Switch The Future initiative to help people reduce their power usage (http://www.switchthefuture.com.au/).

 

Sounds to me like you made up your entire statement, unless you can refer us to some information that backs it up?

Some things to encourage breeding:

 

- leave the tank alone, don't re-arrange things, add things or take things out

- add more fish of the same species you want to breed. some males need a bit of competition to encourage them.

- add stress. stop feeding for a few days (healthy cichlids can go several weeks without food). When I've been away for a few days and nobody could feed my fish, I usually come back to plenty of mouthfuls.

 

But just be patient. Yellows are easy to breed, just forget about it and it will happen.

Also keep in mind that tanks bought from reputable stores come with a warranty. If you build your own, you may save $40 or so but if something happens you have to pay.

I just checked your account and there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to post in the classifieds. I would suggest you close all PCS sessions you have active in your browser, then clear the cache.

If you are unsure how to do that, google your browser name and "clear cache", you should find instructions easily.

 

After that, clear all browser cookies (again Google if you don't know how to do that).

 

Close your browser.

 

Then start again and it should work. There is nothing on our end we can do.

Really the only long term solution is to remove what causes algae to grow in the first place: light and nutrients.

Keep nitrates as low as you can by doing frequent water changes and cut down on feeding. As Kleinz said, changing the light tubes to a different spectrum will help, as well as reducing the amount of time the light is on.

 

Everything else is just a temporary solution.

A UV will only remove algae floating in the water. Algae growing on substrate/glass/rocks etc will be unaffected.

 

also dont forget you can get a UV filter fairly cheap which also helps towards removing algae

The main risk factor would be lack of oxygen due to no water movement. How long fish will survive depends on temperature (warmer water retains less oxygen), the tank setup, size and fish species.

Fish sensitive to stress would be the first to go, and larger fish will have more difficulty breathing than smaller fish. Tanks with an open top will be less affected than tanks with full lids or hoods. Small tanks will be more affected than large tanks.

Another thing to keep in mind is that after a prolonged power blackout (several hours), your bacteria in your filter are likely to have suffered big losses due to lack of oxygen. Hence an ammonia spike is likely, so you should always check your water twice a day after a long powercut, and do large water changes if necessary.