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Well, this is my zebra tank setup. If you like it, I am going to do my QA tank like this, as I don't think they like their setup. I also plan on adding 2 female QA's to the QA tank, but that is another topic. This tank has a power filter that puts out 175gph, and I plan on getting a Hagen powerhead Model 802, it puts out 400gph. The first picture the left side, then middle, then right, and the whole tank.

What i would do is add a black backing to the tank. It will make the fish feel a lot more secure.

Well, i'm sure the fish won't mind to much, but what about the wife?
the setup seems to lack what we in Norway call the Wife acceptancy factor...

A little more effort will give you a tank that the fish still love, and that you still kan keep good control in, but also allows you to look into it without hurting your eyes

I am 15, I don't have a wife. But you probably didn't know that.

I would suggest a heater guard... or run a canister filter with a heater inline. It would be sad if you lost a fish to a heater

cheers, Whitepine

I won't get a canister, but what is a heater guide, can someone show me.

It's a sheild to keep your fish from burning itself if it likes hiding behind the heater.

Heater gaurd

laurab5 wrote:I am 15, I don't have a wife. But you probably didn't know that.

Lucky!

A heaterguard you can easily make from mosquitonet or something like that. Make a shield so the fish can not get in direct contact with the heater and burn themselves.
Needs to let the water through of course

I think you should use a brown paper, curl it real good, flatten it almost flat again and then paint like "camouflage" on it. hang it on the outside of tank(behind it) and it will probably look a lot better. The fish will probably like it too. The tank does not gove much shelter from curious eyes... perhaps they are shy when they breed... mine were.

Thanks, I will put a screen on the heaters in this tank and in my QA tank. I am also going to put just a black background on both tanks. And I am going to do my QA tank like this. I think I will put some rocks under some large openings in the slate because they like tight spots. Any other opinions would be appreciated

No reason to get expensive on the backing. A black plastic "heavty" bag cut to cover the back and two sides makes a great, cheap background.
-Shane

Ive just lined the back of my discus show tank with brown felt (£8.00 for a 1.5m x 1.0m piece). It gives the tanks a nice depth of field.





I have only just put this on the tank but the fish have been in there for 4 months. The change in the fish' behaviour and general apperance was amazing, they put themselves on show more and their colours seemed to look much brighter. They were generally much more settled, as soon as the backing was in place. They now let me stroke them down their sides and dorsal fins and take food from my hand. Very Happy fish!

Just out of interest, there are 4 plecs in this tank (a Juwel Rio 400). A 6"(and growing)Gibby, a 4" Pecoltia L???(the boss) and my breeding pair of bristle noses sp.3 (in here to stop them breeding while I grow out their last brood)

Laurab, where did you get that piece of slate??
Dosen't that raise pH??
TIA,
Vedran

I knew someone would ask. This is very rare slate, it cost me a ton. I think 50 cents a pound. The place where I get all of it can't get it anymore. I have a ton left, and some will be used for my QA tank. BY the way, this tank is either going to house 2 males and 3-4 females or 8-11 babies, which I can get.

Go to Wales if you want slate. It grows on trees there!

Slate won't affect your water (not the welsh stuff anyway)

Racoll.....the guy lives in Kansas wich is a bit euh farther away from Wales than you......

t'was a joke.

I don't suppose you get much in Holland either.

Someone told me the other day that there's only 6 types of rock to found in the Netherlands. Is this true?

Owch,
I really like the brown felt. It gives nice depth and texture as you stated. I have noticed that all of Amano's new tanks use auto window tinting as a background with backlighting shining through. I need to try this on one of my tanks.
-Shane

stina wrote:Laurab, where did you get that piece of slate??
Dosen't that raise pH??
TIA,
Vedran

whats the trouble if you should get a few degress hardness in the water anyway? Its a zebra tank...
Not that slate has had any impact on my water..


PC

Could someone explain why or why not slate would/wouldn't affect water chemisty?
Maybe it has been discussed before but since we are on the subject.
I have a large piece from an old pool table. The entire table was actually 3
separate parts and 3 of us each got a chunk. Thanks.

Slate is a metamorphic rock produced by heating and compressing clay over millions of years.

Clays are not usually lime (calcium carbonate from oceanic crustacea and mollusca) rich, so are not likely to affect the water much if at all.

hey guys fyi-laura is a girl

Please read this thread:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... c&start=15
You have my empathy, laurab5.

Someone told me the other day that there's only 6 types of rock to found in the Netherlands. Is this true?

6?? about natural rocks I'd say 4, at the most*.

1 is flint; pebbles and nodules in the sandy deposits of the great rivers, the second is granite, the big boulders left by Ice Age glaciers.
for example our famous Hunebed (monolithic builders piling up menhirs) contraptions are made of granite.

the third would be sandstone, but that's only present in some places; and the last is "lime", but not exactly lime.

it's the Cretaceous rock found in the south-eastern parts of the Netherlands, the only parts that go above 100m over sealevel.
these hills are formed by the old Cretaceous yellowish seabed and yield a kind of sandy-like limestone wich is full of fossils.
in fact it almost IS pure fossil, mostly dead plancton, but we found the occasional Giant Turtle or Mosasaur in there as well.
In Dutch "Maas-hagedis" (Meuse/Mosa Lizard), the 'Maas/Meuse/Mose' being the river wich cuts through those hills.

I don't suppose you get much in Holland either.

In HOLLAND (wich is only the western part of the Netherlands**) we find NO natural rocks at all, since it's all formed on either dry-pumped seabed (sand) or dry-pumped riverdelta/swamp (clay).

*of course in our garden-, aquarium- and stone-stores we can buy about a thousand kinds of rock, imported from all over the globe; even Welsh Slate or Texas holey rock.

**you wouldn't say to any Scot or Welshman that he's from England right? I'm NOT from Holland either.
Dutch, yes; Netherlands too; but I ain't no Hollander

PC Hasselgreen wrote:

stina wrote:Laurab, where did you get that piece of slate??
Dosen't that raise pH??
TIA,
Vedran

whats the trouble if you should get a few degress hardness in the water anyway? Its a zebra tank...
Not that slate has had any impact on my water..


PC

Well, my tap water has GH 25°, KH 20°... a few meens a lot to me...

Yu think 50 cents a pound is bad if just filled a malawi tank with ocean rock at 67p a pound thats nearly a dol lar

In HOLLAND (wich is only the western part of the Netherlands**)

Well i never

Now i didn't know that.

hands up, who else didn't know that?

(sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread)

suezbele wrote:hey guys fyi-laura is a girl

FYI, Laura is NOT a girl. Ask him ;).

Barbie

Barbie, I think I am going to rejoin here as fishboy3, is that ok

laurab5 wrote:Barbie, I think I am going to rejoin here as fishboy3, is that ok

Sure, but you're still on thin ice with the mods! Try and keep off the trivial and repeat posts.

We're all glad to have you here if you keep to the rules.

Jools

stina wrote:slate?? Dosen't that raise pH??

Nope! Neither does it dissolve over time AFAIK it's inert. I had a blackwater set-up ph5.5 with the whole of the back of the tank covered in slate (48x18").

Jools