Yo to all the QGL aquarium keeping peoples! :D I am just starting to get back into keeping aquariums ( i got given a little 2'x1'x1' tank that i mostly had gear to setup without spending any monies. ) & i want to start collecting bit's & pieces for a larger aquarium on a very tight budget.
So i was wondering... do any of you guys know of brisbane based aquarium clubs or the like that hold swap meets & are basically a good source for used (cheap) aquarium gear? Ebay seems pretty crap for aquarium gear & the trading post didn't have much that interested me either :[

My little fishs

also any information on good or bad experiences with local aquariums & pet shops appreciated! :D

This mob aint half bad, http://www.aquariumsrus.com.au/

I had some tasty salmon on Friday.

Mmm fish.

I was over at Pet City at Mt Gravatt on Sunday and they had some pretty sweet tanks for $99. I think they were 3' by 2' (but don't quote me on that). Regardless, the tanks were pretty friggin impressive for $99 and they may also have info on clubs etc, being a pretty specialist pet store. The shop is off Logan Road just past Mt Gravatt shops outbound. I am sure they are in the book.

Also the Aquarium at Stones Corner (it used to be the one at Annerley) is quite good. It is on the cnr of Old Cleveland Road, just past the turn off to Easts Leagues Club (sorry about dodgy directions, eating lunch and cbf looking it up).
Let me know if you need more info.

I just set up a new tank and killed my Black Ghost Knife Fish :(
Had to relocate the other two (a gourami and a bristlenose pleco) into my Oscar tank, so I am curious as to whether they will be still alive. No choice on the sacrifice unfortunately, as Ghost dying left the temporary tank unihabitable. Oh well, that be nature at work.

I've always gone to Clayfield Aquariums, I have no complaints.

What sort of tank are you setting up? Tropical, Marine?

This mob aint half bad, http://www.aquariumsrus.com.au/

Yep, that's where i got my tank from. Hella cheap.

for the other bits and pieces, try these places:

http://www.theaquariumshop.com.au/ - $6.95 postage, no matter how much s*** you buy
http://www.fishsupplies.com.au/
http://www.aquariumproductswholesale.com/

Some good places to find second hand gear are these forums:

http://www.ausfishforum.com/forum/
http://www.qldcichlid.com/modules.php?name=Forums

thanks for the info guys :D
i bought my light from aquariums'r'us... they do seem fairly cheap but it's all brand new stuff of course. no probs about the dodgy directions incredible_vegetable :] i am pretty sure i know that place at stones corner. i'll check out pet city... heard a few good reports about it... cheers.
good to hear the clayfield aquarium is still good! it used to be one of my favourite aquariums... but that was more than 15year ago when it was run by this crazy discus obsessed german bloke... top bloke though! :D
when/if i finally get a bigger tank i will be setting both tanks up for tropical freshwater fish... mostly american cichlids & use the small tank i have now as a breeding tank for food fish/shrimps.

[edit] cheers splash... good stuff! :D

if I remember i'll post some pics of our setup when i get home tonight :)

Queensland Cichlid Group http://www.qcichlid.org/

Members get discounts at most aquariums.
Lots of DIYers and industry peeps in it.

Regular Auctions etc etc

Used to be great haven't been a member in ages!

Best thing that you can ever do is locate a wholesaler of aquarium gear an buy direct from them (if they are willing to sell directly to the public).

I picked up an 8,000 lph powerhead for $66 by doing this =)
I've seen the very same powerhead retailing for $200 + in most aquarium stores

Complete accident that I found em too as I was looking for a completely different item unrelated to fishtanks!
Which reminds me. I need to update some up the pics of my tank now that I have Stinky's old Saratoga (~ 60cm!)

60cm wide Hermitech! Bastard is fat.

thx again for the input lads. i'm gonna check out a 4footer with all the shiz on the weekend that i found on the qldcichlid forum that splash posted :) then i can get the rivulatus i've been wanting :D
hey hermitech... the wholesaler that you used... was it the big place at burpengary? i went there a while back but they sed they wouldn't sell to the public :[

the trading post didn't have much that interested me either

Indeed, lately the aquarium section is almost dead, there were times it was like 3 pages big. I'm trying to find a backup 4 footer so I can pull apart my current tank, no luck so far.

hey hermitech... the wholesaler that you used... was it the big place at burpengary?

Nope, we go to a different place, much more closer to where we are (Robertson / Coopers Plains area).

If you're starting from scratch, brand new or just bare second hand equipment, I can point you to another place for rock (christ it's expensive at pet shops) aswell.

Yet to have found a current wholesaler that does tanks and cabinets, so desperate to find one that I'll sell a kidney to do so.

then i can get the rivulatus i've been wanting :D

Start off small and you can have a community tank of south american cichlids :), it's what I have pretty much at the moment: 2 festaes, 5 red devils, 3 convicts, 2 splendida (coming soon to replace the two festaes that have died on me), clown knife, 2 red tail sharks, 1 rivulatus, 4 plecos (lots of algae in my tank atm :[ ) and a token gold fish that will soon die. 6 foot tanks ftw!

Something this thread needs is pictures, when I can be bothered I'll show my tank and head over to Troy's and take some more up to date pics of his so that everyone (Stinky!) can see how big the saratoga is now.

Old pic of my tank, roughly still the same but didn't do the hood at that time, also it'll give you a rough idea on a type of rock you can get from a wholesaler for $1/kg.

werd. my ideal tank setup would be an 8x2x2 :D but as i sed before the budget is too tight to buy new... so i'll settle for much less if the price is right :]
as for the rocks... i love slate & know where to find it for nix :D i just goto caboolture creek junction with my trusty mallet & in 10mins i'll have a huge bucketload of good flat slate bits. boil em to kill any nasties & in they go!
my plan is for an american cichlid tank with some cleaners (wanna get peppermint bristlenoses... if i can fukn afford one) i was originally gonna go with african cichlids but after checking out a heap of aquariums there just seems to be a better range of americans than africans. i also want to avoid having cichlids that i have had before.
cichlids i want : rivulatus, texas, dempseys, brasiliensis & jurapi.. so far :)
cichlids i don't want : oscars, convicts, meeki, blue acaras & a few others... not coz they aren't good fish... just i've had heaps of them in the past.

here are some very boring pics of my 2footer being setup! ;P
http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/gravel_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/tehmurk_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/Filterstarted_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/gettingthere_t.jpg
http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/morningclean_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/lil_yellow_1_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/lil_yellow_2_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/with_fish_t.jpg http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/bronze_corys_t.jpg

Yeah Step
Bring over your camera an I'll get some happy snaps
Hmm, I should borrow a mates vid camera an get some "live action" at feeding time

Hang on, that means I'll need to do a half tank water change...
damn, that's like 750 litres!!!

last edited by HERMITech at 16:48:45 27/Jun/06

Enjoy some s***ty phone camera shots :)

http://members.iinet.com.au/~rips/DSC00029.JPG

http://members.iinet.com.au/~rips/DSC00031.JPG

^ aww no fair, you got a marine tank

w00t. i found a 4footer on the qldcichlid forum that splash posted (thx m8!) for $250 with all the accesories, including a ghostknife, regular bristlenose, peppermint bristlenose & an 'orrible asian sucking catfish (h8em). i got it all setup & the filter cycling on saturday arvo... gonna let it settle for a week or so while i get the plants, logs & rocks how i like 'em then add the fish (which are currently in my 2footer) & start looking for some nice american cichlids to populate it :D

pic : http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/DSC03554.JPG

the plants all still look a bit ratty coz they got dried out a bit during the move :[ & the pic was taken saturday arvo... the water is crystal clear now :)

lunch: are those pics of your fish?

yeah, I got a better pic now tho :)

http://members.iinet.com.au/~rips/fishtank.jpg

your tank looks nice :) Im guessing the Ghostknife lives in that bit of driftwood at the front of your tank?

We put a big piece of driftwood (tree root type thing) in our freshwater tank and the water is fully dark tea colour and has been for ages now, I would be too ashamed to take pics of it hehe.

i haven't put the ghostknife into that tank yet :P but when i went to buy the tank on saturday... all the fish were hiding in that big log heheh. we pulled the log out & the ghostknife & the sucking cat jumped off as it left the water & the 2 bristlenoses jumped off when the log was put into a bucket of water :P~
i know what ya mean with how much new bits of wood leak s*** into the water... gotta soak em in a tub for months to get it all out :/
that coral is insane man! :D the black & yellow clowns look very nice too :D i've always been tempted to go marine & get a cuttlefish... but all that i've read about it & how difficult some aspects are to maintain puts me off.

pic of the fish : http://dem0n.qgl.org/images/fish/DSC03540.JPG

shown there is the ghostknife, peppermint bristlenose, 2 corys, sucking cat & the head of one of my electric yellows. :D

cool!

Yeah we were told the piece was already pre-soaked, lying pricks :( we used to use plurigen every month or so to get rid of the colour but are just too lazy now.
Ghostknives are awesome fish, we have one in with a Saratoga a Pleco and a few clown loaches and its fine :) Was thinking of getting a few cory's like you too but dont think I should saturate the tank with bottom dwellers.

Marine doesnt seem too difficult compared to freshwater, Its just the initial costs to get it running plus the cost of stock/live rock/corals etc. What I love about fish too is that they all have their own personalities. There is one fish in that marine tank called a Flame Hawk, and he is like some raver on a bad trip. Pupils dilate all the time and he sits still for like 10 seconds then goes off his brain all over the tank, then sits still for 30secs, then repeat. With the corals changing colour and the Anenome's moving and changing all the time Marine tanks just seem so alive :)

That tank is really young (3 months or so) so it should look alot better in a year or so. Same with yours too I guess, make sure u post some pics after its settled and I hope u have more luck with planted tanks than I did :)

hello here are my dads tanks

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8643/dsc000031ys.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc000057cp.jpg

[URL=http://imageshack.us][IMG]http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2340/dsc000021bz.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Nice tanks, pity you didn't have some clearer pics of em

Would love to see them in better quality.

Big tanks are win, until you have to clean them.

f*** that's a big tank :/

Nice work.

jebuz acetame.. that tank has mega rocks! must weigh a freakn ton! :D some clearer pics would be nice so i can identify the fish though ;]

Just for the record, pet city are on Wishart Road at Mansfield, basically on the corner of Newnham Rd

that tank has mega rocks! must weigh a freakn ton!

heh
My tank is only 6x3x3 an it weighs ~ 2 tonne..
At a guess I'd guess that weighs considerably more =)