Wednesday, April 27, 2011

My new Stingray

Yo yo yo, got myself a new stingray today. very interesting pet to have. i like the way it eat stealthily.


Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Japanese clay shelters for fish and shrimps

Picked up these clay shelter for $30 for the lot. quite cheap and good. nice feel and practical design. As you know i keep yamato and some pretty plecos. i guess this would be a nice place to let them chill and relax.

I am using the biggest one for my sump tank,  i plan to get the $280 zebra pleco from c328 once i set up its habitat in the sump. got to treat it nice cos it cost as much as a small arowana.

The life of pets and humans are sometime the same, attention, effort and money are often given to more expensive and fancy pets. Just like you would spend more effort and money on a beautiful girl to bed her. cheap pets and plain women just have to do make do with whatever leftover effort or loose change i have. Just the way life works, ever wonder why there are so many beautiful cunts going  in and out of 6 star hotels but go over to a cheapo hotel, all you see is smelly country bumpkins or prostitutes. so if you bring your wife on a holiday, make sure you go to someplace nice. if you need to budget, you should just stay at home. :-)) just if you are wondering, Yes. i am married!


Waterlife medications part 2

Hey hey hey ! the more i use this company products, the more impressed i am. They are really the tops compare to those $10-$15 bottle that hardly gives me the wow effect. I mean waterlife products,you see effects in a few hours and almost clear up in a day but of course you should follow to kill off what you can't see.

As you know i already have the Protozin (white spot), Sterazin(gill flukes, internal para). i am adding the Myaxzin (fin rot) $45 to my standby. Of course the most impressive of all is the Parazin ( fish lice, anchorworms). i had a case of fish lice and lost 2 fish bought at $700 each. however managed to save the other 4 when i went to get help at nippon koi farm. A $5 self made dimilin powder did the trick but the powerful medication burned one of the koi mouth which he recovered in 3 weeks.

As per reviewed, Parazin a new formula in tablets form.....takes only ONE DOSE to rid Fish lice and anchorworms. even those lice that is already attached on the fish. All the colour dye medication no matter how powerful, only kill the free swimming fish lice. those attached you need to use a tweezers to take it off or the dangerous dimilin or worse coppersafe. parasite and fish all perish.

Parazin cost $29/bottle of 20 tablets good for 450L. i am ordering the 100 tablets from the LFS. those of you who had deal with fish lice before will know why i want this medication for standby eh.

On side note, i got the Vitazin out of curiosity and administered my first dose today and will see how the fish react. Vitazin is not a medication but a vitamin supplement. $19 each

Air Pump and Air Stone Upgrade

I upgraded my air pump today to better aerate my tank for my nice pets. Went to C328 and ask him for the most expensive air stone i could buy. The boss was kind enough to go all the way to his store and bring me a nice box. when i open it, it was like opening a box of chocolate. inside was 16 really blue and nice looking air stone professionally packed. i was expecting to pay around $25 for each. Ha, it was only 4 dollars each! seems no manufacturer bother to make some good quality ones out there or am i in the wrong place. By the way, they are from Tetra. so i bought 4.

Recently i was snooping aorund the net and i can resist shopping online and bought myself this nice looking but reasonable priced Hailea Acco 2208 air pump. the spec says it si a massive 30L/min of air output. most air pump you buy off the shelf is 2-5L min. If Eheim make something as powerful, i will gladly buy one but sadly Eheim is somewhat selling to people with 4 ft tank max. with their design and capabilities maxing out at this level. So to cut the story short, i hooked this massive air pump and i am using valve regulator to run only 1/3 power. It is a powerful pump i must say and the low noise is rock solid. hardly a breather! sizewise, it is bulky!




Thursday, April 21, 2011

Waterlife medications

If you have been in Aquaria long enough, you are bound to encounter some infections that would kill off your fish, Ick/Ich or whitespot are the most common. More so for goldfish, koi, clown loach. While most people will recommend salt treatment and raising temperature. I will ask you to use Protozin. I been through so many medications and nothing come close. Used the salt method before and it works but so much stress on the fish. salt does not evaporate in water and a overdose will strss them. The fish will form a smelly slime coat to protect themselves.

So lets talk about my recent Ick attack, couple of kois started scratching 3 weeks ago and getting more intense as the days go by. One fine evening, after turning on the overhead lights, i saw hundreds of small white spot on the orange orgon (single colour Koi). 3 others have the same problem too. After strong recommendations from a fellow hobbyist, Protozin is the only choice he said and now i believe him. 2nd day into treatment, there is no more visible white spot on the Koi. the treatment last 4 days but that is just to make sure any free swimming parasites are dead.

I use the 500ml professional grade protozin which is for bigger tanks and ponds. $45 a bottle. everyone should have one bottle for standby at home.


PolyFilter- Used in dialysis machine

The best mechanical filter money can buy. A usual this is a product not for the small timer. yes i am talking student hobbyist, stingy old man and irresponsible people who keep fish thinking all they need is a bucket and air stone. As for the rest of you serious hobbyist with deep pocket, this is the filter to go. stop being a cheapo and buy that $6 green filter pad and cutting it into whatever shape you want to fit your filter. if you need to cut, cut poly filter. same technology is used in dialysis machine so you know this is serious stuff. it is not just simple cotton wool. in fact it is not cotton at all.

This filter have the amazing ability to filter out chemicals, metals, organ phosphate, chlorine, heavy wastes and so on. the best part is, it will change colour according to the stuff it had filtered out. so you know what you have in your water that is making your ecosystem not functioning. heavy metals in tap water, fish medication such as coppersafe remain despite water change, residual chlorine. i use this filter once a month to ensure all the problematic stuff are filtered out.

Not for the budget hobbyist, a small piece cost $12, a Five feet tank will need $140 worth. you can special order bigger size from good aquaria shop. cost $100 and up.

The best bacteria system in the world

Many bullshit companies like to make this claim but just look at who uses their products and you will know who is the real deal. There are a few who come close like bacterlife from waterlife but most are just ripped off. You know those black bacteria that smell like a sewer, those while claimed to be top notch are nothing more than crap. Bacteria is a science and small companies that sell to end user hobbyists like you simply dont have the budget for R&D.

To digress a little, certain big aquarium shop in serangoon central hype up their own brand of bacteria displaying a full fancy shelf of them and retail for $90 a liter is a total rip off. Nothing can be found about that brand on the Internet and after checking the contents i realise it is nothing more than common bacteria sold by majority of brands so sucker beware.

After some advice from a millionaire hobbyists who keep $100,000 Arowana and All Japan championship Kois, the answer is bacta-pur. This Canadian company mainly sells biological filtration for large scale projects such as rivers, lakes, city wide sewer system. even smaller projects are golf ponds and commercial breeding vats. They have a patented system of bacteria that clear your water and break down your waste. the results is amazing. but application is delicate. you must only put into water at night and 36 hrs after water change. A 3 step system. The results is most amazing on ponds where 5000 gallons and up can clear up in a few days.

$45 a bottle to treat 40 tons of water. 3 different bottle needed to complete the treatment. very few aquarium shop sell this product.. Those of you buying your supplies in half bake fish shop selling half bake products should wake up your idea. As an analogy, if you are going to buy and drive a crap car, might as well go take the bus. You will be less miserable.

Dymax PH pen and Vermex

Bought myself a cheapo Dymax Ph Pen for use in my smaller and less exclusive tanks. The main tanks are equipped with $2k+ Multi Computer controlled test nodes. Bought for $70 at discount, retail for suckers at $85.

And introducing Vermex, Not much hobbyist knows about this product. This powerful $12 a bottle, size of eyedrops bottle, eliminate Planaria! So WTF is that? Planaria is actually small worms that stick onto your glass walls and there are millions of them. very very small white worms.  A by product of excess nutrient in the water. over feeding is the main cause.

Normally, experienced hobbyist would advise you to reduce your feeding, do some water change, blah blah blah. Just get vermex and a few drops will kill them all. Why spend the effort when money can make it easy.. But over reliant is not recommended. afterall it is chemicals. if your fishes are worth a few K, use it sparingly.


UV Update

Yes! My massive UV sterilizer is complete without leaks. I bought an Eheim 25/34 elbow and solve the slanting problem. ready to sterilize when the current white spot treatment complete. so far so good, i dont see any more white spot on my kois now. A great loss if they died, some of them cost 2k each when i bought them. complete with Japanese birth cert.


Red Tiger Barb

Bought 3 of these fin nipper and immediately they are at odds with the african cichlids.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New UV setup

Got myself a holland made UV steriliser after my friend recommendation. couldnt get any reviews for it but decided to try it anyway. My first choice was the Aqua Ultraviolet from US. Too bad it is not available here. Apparently this is designed for pond use and up to 35,000 liter of water but my tank is only around 1000liter so the overkill should work real well right.

Guess what! the damn housing leak like a running tap and it is only after i mask the connection up with a white film tape that the situation improve. Damn! even now it still feel moist but no significant leaking. I keep my fingers crossed for the moment. I should have just Vpost my first choice from the US and wait for it to come. Too late for that now. Anyway here are the costs.

Total cost

1. $328 UV + $218 Eheim pump + $36 Eheim Hose + $45 Eheim Shutoff Tap

= $627