Tropical Fish Forums

[unissuh]

Oh? Might have to see how that one goes then, worse case I can accomodate the chocs elsewhere. Have been thinking of moving them to a smaller tank anyway, they are shy to the point where I am having trouble feeding them in this one.

Funny you say that though, there are at least a couple of tank photos/journals online which show them living together. Have spoken to a couple of people IRL who say it should be fine.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[diademhill]

May work in a 3 foot tank but they need space to coexist.

[jsuereth]

Wow, I still love that kubotai tank. The gourami tank is also really nice. I wish they weren't so camera shy so we'd get better pictures of them .

Question on sponge filters:

Do you find them adequate mechanical filters as well as biological? I'm experimenting with mine now in a sump to see if a huge one is able to clear debris from the water column, but I was just curious what your thoughts were.


Keep making awesome tanks and taking pictures for us!

[unissuh]

Honestly, these are not so great at either biological or mechanical, but it depends on which sponge filter you use. I use these because they are dead silent and unobtrusive not because of any particular functional attribute. Most of my tank filters are "uncycled" because of the plant load. Anything that is brilliant at mechanical will suck out all the peat lying around in the blackwater tank and jam. Mostly I just vac out anything accumulating every so often.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[jsuereth]

Hmm good to know I guess. I'm running this sponge in my sump: A Hyrdo V Pond filter - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002602SM

(P.S. the main tank still needs to be resealed [waiting for weather to go above freezing], so I set up the sump just to check all the equipment ).

What kinds of leaves are acceptible for the blackwater/gourami tank? There was a part of my that wanted to set up a blackwater tank with some copepods to eat the leaves as well and provide some hunting for the fish. Just curious if that's feasible.

Finally question (hope I'm not being a pest): How are the gouramis and kubotai acclimating? Are you still using rainwater or is it de-chlorinated tap water? Chocolate gouramis seem like they could be a fun use of my 10 gallon once I have a chance to move everything to the 125G.

[unissuh]

Ahh thats a little different to what I'm running. Mine are motor powered, your one will work via an air pump. It will work lots better at biological filtration than mine, you will probably find that whenever you turn it off it will dump crap back into the water before you can pull it out.

As for leaves, oak and IALs are the common ones used. I get the feeling lots more leaves should be OK like maple, beech etc, but I can't say I've tried it. Theres an ad from block2 in the trade section who you can get IALs from at very reasonable prices.

I switched back to tapwater for the kubotai tank after a month after it seemed clear again. I was using Seachem's Equilibrium to remineralise rainwater when I used it. The chocs get half and half mostly. Keep in mind my tapwater is probably very different from yours, it's typically <2 dGH and <1 dKH without any treatment.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[jsuereth]

I'm jealous! I bet your tap water tastes great too!

Keep up the good work!