Flumpweesel

Desktop death box.

This thread sparked a debate over lunch at the in-laws about Rainbow line ups Dio is undoubtedly one of Rocks most iconic voices. Sorry they didn't have the same enthusiasm for fish (well except the former marrillion front man). To get back on topic you don't bump into rainbow fish all that often over here but next time I'm browsing lfs's I'll share the stock and prices.

I'd probably tidy them up a bit before putting in the tank, snip down with some scissors and a quick finish with the sand paper

I haven't replaced the ceramic media that came with my fluval 10 years ago, I just swish it when I clean the sponges. I only replaced some of the sponges last year.

And they stay very hot for quite awhile

Good grief I have just made the music connection , excellent !

I use a lot of beach pebbles (local and pretty) and I just wash them, if they have holes I might boil them just to deep clean.

I try to avoid netting so any change is done with them in. I've never had an issue with fish health following a rescape, I have also switched substrate with fish in the tank.

I find leaving the eggs alone means I get the occasional addition to the community. I don't want the stress of finding homes for whole clutches so that works for me. Corys will spawn quite often so if you fancy raising them separately you can get ready for next time

Mine mutes it's colour at times but especially if there is new stuff going on, I assume it's a defence thing once satisfied they have their territory to themselves it will come back.

That explains quite a bit about the amazing achievements of said Mrs Hamilton. (Listed at the end of said musical as what seemed like a really awkward well we have to say something post script). Have you ever managed to give your name without being asked to spell it?

I have a Protozin for white spot and fungus issues and Myxazin for bacteria. On hand to cover my bases of I spot an issue if I then need to hunt out something specific they will generally buy me time. Meds tend to have a short shelf life so I buy as I need. We are limited to what we can buy here in the UK. So no med trio here.

It's generally a good idea to do at least a small water change every so often even if the parameters are fine, we only test for a very small number of things that are in the water so largely we have no idea what it's like. So you can probably push back a few weeks and leave it longer I only change water every 6 to 8 weeks ish unless I feel like changing something. It's also generally good to have a vacuum in there fairly regularly.

Is this your first tank or do you have another already running with something? Sponge filters are pretty easy to deal with so can't see why you'd not like it. If I'm setting up a tank I typically run the new filter for a few weeks in an already cycled tank and if possible either take hardscape from another tank or again let it sit in one for a few weeks. Then I get it all set up and fill it with water from one of other tanks (that is ready for a water change) . I will then monitor it for a couple of weeks with ghost feeding to build up the cycle and then add my fish a small number at first then build up leaving a few weeks between each addition.

I like they way they look like they are blushing, like they are a little embarrassed about something

The best food is the one they eat. My Betta did great on bug bites your flake will probably be fine until it is big enough to handle more variety. Mine was on exclusively bug bites for a year with very occasional bloodworms. She isn't interested in brine shrimp largely just looks confused by them. Now she is in the community tank she gets what she get beat the tetras to.

The fluval brand ones look pretty good and hold up some cleaning, and don't stain with ick meds. And I was pretty happy with this to

Well last night we took advantage of the incredibly empty roads to drive through the lights. Nice touch though the tower was in England colours. Always hard when we are up against part of UK really feel we would be better as British team. But great result let's hope they keep this up.

Not a bad fish parent it's up to you on the lid, sorry about the aquaponic system in trying to remember where the DIY overflow vid is, post link when I remember. I have had both and I prefer to have a lid, it reduces the amount of evaporation and helps maintain tank temp. Not having to worry about jumpers or things getting in there added bonus. I have rimmed tanks to reduce the light bleed into the room as I'm not a fan of that my main tank is at seated eye level in my living room so it's more of issue there than on other tanks.

They do have a very global fan base. It's a running joke that they sell more t-shirts outside Manchester than in. (It's the town next door I get to be snippy).

Once or twice a year I might miss a day because of travel but aside from that I feed daily.

Sounds like you are making all the right decisions so far, in an ideal world it's good to cycle the tank first but we don't always have luxury of that so you just need to look into a "fish in cycle" it's a bit more work than without but done right perfectly safe. Is there anything in his bowl (decor, fake plants anything) you can move into the new tank with him it will hopefully already have some beneficial bacteria on it to help you start off even if you change it out later.

I would worry about toppling the rack when drawn out it would need serious fixing to a solid brick or stone wall and shelf strength when drawn out away from the supports, I'm not sure what kind of weight rating you can get for those runners If I wanted to do something like that I would make nesting stands on castors. Still there are some experienced joiners and engineers on here that I'm sure have thoughts on the subject.

Once established a large tank can be very stable and low maintenance, but obviously many factors come into play on how that will be for you. More water is less prone to crashes as there is more capacity for it to resolve situations itself. Yes moving bigger volumes of water to complete changes obviously takes longer but I can do 25 % on my 60 us gal in approx an hour so it's not a major issue (bucket carrying is a factor to be considered.) I use a hose to refill. I think it's more about what you'll enjoy watching my big tank is the focal point in my living room so gives a lot of pleasure.

So sorry, they do have great timing to throw down these challenges. I lost all my fish while on holiday established tank but something went wrong an it was brutal. I was away 2 weeks but my partner was only away 4 days so the window for disaster was quite small but they found it. Fish keeping has some cruel learning curves hopefully you'll come out of this a little wiser and little better prepped.