It's a bit of a mix here.
The useful bit is about the fish I deem to be one of the best for a tank. As we all know, the sand seems to collect "brown stuff" that can be damn difficult to clear. It's unsightly and seems to accumulate no matter what we do.
I have set up a new tank this week using live rock and sand from another tank, and started stocking it. I was drawn to cleaner shrimp and suchlike but I know they won't survive in a mixed tank. I lost others eaten by a dottyback a few weeks ago. So I took a Chalk Goby home.
I am amazed at the amount of sand he shovels through. He seems to be at it all day, except when I drop in some brine shrimp. I think that the brown stuff's days are gone now. He simply sifts it all out. I'd recommend this fish to anyone with dirty sand. What's your favourite for this problem.
Now for the Useless bit.
Having had several jumpers over the years in my freshwater tanks and a couple in my existing marine tanks, I bought a jump guard net to prevent further losses.
I got the AquaOne version. BIG MISTAKE.
It's absolutely the worst designed bit of kit I've had the misfortune to waste money on. Opening the roll shows a net that would be more useful to a commercial trawler. It's bulky, thick cord which is hard to handle is about as pleasing on the eye as a rotting tomato. It just cannot be stretched into the required shape and makes fitting it onto the frame so bloody exasperating. You try to pull one side and it displaces the corners on the frame, opening them up out of square.
The frame itself? What a shambles. The corners have to be cut at an angle and held together by plastic inserts. Sounds simple eh? Believe me, even using the special angle cutting block makes getting a true cut something of a nightmare. Any slight variation from the true required angle leaves a corner slightly open at the very least, and when there are more like it, they give a loose fit all round. The plug in corner inserts simply can't hold things together properly. Then with the frame all ready for the net to fixed, as mentioned already, pulling it into place on one side opens the corners. I tried using superglue to fix the corners but this had limited success. I spent 4 hours trying to make this jump guard before I eventually threw it all in the bin.
I then bought the D-D jump guard. What a hell of a difference. It was as easy as Lego and looks a whole lot better than the trawler net on the AquaOne.
What's more I was left with loads of spare mesh that I am going to try and use with the discarded AquaOne frame and a litre of superglue.
The useful bit is about the fish I deem to be one of the best for a tank. As we all know, the sand seems to collect "brown stuff" that can be damn difficult to clear. It's unsightly and seems to accumulate no matter what we do.
I have set up a new tank this week using live rock and sand from another tank, and started stocking it. I was drawn to cleaner shrimp and suchlike but I know they won't survive in a mixed tank. I lost others eaten by a dottyback a few weeks ago. So I took a Chalk Goby home.
I am amazed at the amount of sand he shovels through. He seems to be at it all day, except when I drop in some brine shrimp. I think that the brown stuff's days are gone now. He simply sifts it all out. I'd recommend this fish to anyone with dirty sand. What's your favourite for this problem.
Now for the Useless bit.
Having had several jumpers over the years in my freshwater tanks and a couple in my existing marine tanks, I bought a jump guard net to prevent further losses.
I got the AquaOne version. BIG MISTAKE.
It's absolutely the worst designed bit of kit I've had the misfortune to waste money on. Opening the roll shows a net that would be more useful to a commercial trawler. It's bulky, thick cord which is hard to handle is about as pleasing on the eye as a rotting tomato. It just cannot be stretched into the required shape and makes fitting it onto the frame so bloody exasperating. You try to pull one side and it displaces the corners on the frame, opening them up out of square.
The frame itself? What a shambles. The corners have to be cut at an angle and held together by plastic inserts. Sounds simple eh? Believe me, even using the special angle cutting block makes getting a true cut something of a nightmare. Any slight variation from the true required angle leaves a corner slightly open at the very least, and when there are more like it, they give a loose fit all round. The plug in corner inserts simply can't hold things together properly. Then with the frame all ready for the net to fixed, as mentioned already, pulling it into place on one side opens the corners. I tried using superglue to fix the corners but this had limited success. I spent 4 hours trying to make this jump guard before I eventually threw it all in the bin.
I then bought the D-D jump guard. What a hell of a difference. It was as easy as Lego and looks a whole lot better than the trawler net on the AquaOne.
What's more I was left with loads of spare mesh that I am going to try and use with the discarded AquaOne frame and a litre of superglue.
