April 2009 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

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A. Well, the expansion from the first tank to the second was simple. We needed a quarantine tank. [Phil: Cam’s wife reminds me it was a 30 gallon quarantine tank]. Then I thought it would be cool to have a place to quarantine plants too so we set one up with eco [complete], fluorite & powerful lights. We then thought we had better keep some fish in that tank to keep the filter going while we wait for any possible quarantine fish. Shortly after putting fish in that tank we decided we liked how it looked as a show tank so I went and bought two more 10 gallon tanks for a real quarantine. [Phil: At this point Cam’s wife mentions that at one time you couldn’t use their downstairs bathroom unless you were willing to sit sideways on the toilet because of all these tanks and buckets and hoses etc. ] Q. If someone wants to breed fish and raise they fry, what tips do you have for the beginner A P R I L 2 0 0 9 this tank is setup, I can leave it alone for 4 to 8 weeks, other than the occasional glass cleaning and some plant trimming. This tank has pressurized injected CO2, lots of filtration, power heads and very powerful lighting (over 350 watts of T5 High Output), over 10 bags of Flourite and EcoComplete, special pH monitoring equipment and UV sterilizing, multiple timers etc. So it’s definitely not cheap. The benefit is that this tank basically runs itself other than having to feed the fish and some trace element fertilizers. Q. Recently you did a presentation for the club on building a custom 6 tank compact fish wall. It’s obvious you and your wife are very keen on this hobby. What sort of tips can you offer someone wanting to follow a similar course Yellow lab from Cam’s breeding colony A. Pick easy fish first. Pick fish that are okay with the type of water your house has, rather than changing the water to match the type of fish. The first fish we bred were Kribs, but the fry didn’t survive. Then we were successful with bristlenose plecos, then yellow labs. Q. Over the past year or so you have put together a large 540 litre (135 gallon) high-tech planted show tank. What sort of challenges have you faced in creating this beautiful show piece and what tips can you offer the reader should they want to create a similar tank A. Cash! It’s very expensive to go big. It’s probably not as expensive as salt, but it is costly. I don’t like doing a lot of maintenance and having to constantly check on things. The way 180 gallon custom fish wall A. Well, we worked with the space we had, and we tried to find tanks that would maximize the volume of water for the space we had. We had custom built tanks that allowed us to do this. I’ve over engineered the actual wall stand with a lot of extra 2x4’s but I wanted it to be built strong. This is called being 14
A P R I L 2 0 0 9 ‘Turner’d’ in my family. Some consider it a genetic defect, I think it’s just being safe than sorry. Q. Do you have any additional thoughts for people considering setting up their first aquarium I’ve got it bad. There is no known cure as far as I can tell, with the exception of the amount of living space available in your home, so I guess there are some theoretical limits at least. Some of Cam’s Mixed Malawi Cichlids Lethrinops letrinus On that note, I would like to conclude this interview and wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Once again, thank you Cam, Tanya and Owen for your time today for this interview and photo shoot. - Phil A. Perseverance is the difference between success and failure. Also, I don’t think I would still be in this hobby if it weren’t for KWAS. This is why we like to give back, but at the same time we did a lot of early learning from books and from talking to staff at fish stores. We received a lot of contradictory advice, but learned that it’s up to the hobbyist to ultimately decide what they want to believe and go forward with. Also, more information is definitely better than less. We took about 6 weeks from the time we decided we wanted our first tank to the time it was actually running, so impulse purchases are probably a bad idea, if not for your pocket book then a least for your long term enjoyment of the hobby. Q. Who invented the phrase ‘MTS’ which in our hobby is short for Multiple Tank Syndrome Do you feel you suffer from it, and is there a known cure A. I actually learned the term on the KWAS forum, so I have no idea who actually invented it. After the purchase of our fourth tank within 8 weeks, I decided that MTS needed a mathematical definition for clarity and severity. So I started a poll on the forum that defined MTS as the number of gallons in your tanks divided by the time in months you’ve been in the hobby. The higher the number, the worse you’ve got it. So as time goes on, dedicated hobbyists are going to need more and more tanks. If it’s slow and steady I wouldn’t call this MTS, but if there is a rapid escalation in gallons then this I would classify as MTS and 15
Page 1 and 2: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 Fins & Tales Serv
Page 3 and 4: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 KWAS Mission Stat
Page 5 and 6: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 The Minimalist Aq
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Page 9 and 10: from dwarves that will grow 18 inch
Page 11 and 12: on a constant basis and will grow t
Page 13: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 Filter Schmutz by
Page 17 and 18: etaining wall. It also gives someth
Page 19 and 20: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 50 th CAOAC Conve
Page 21 and 22: A P R I L 2 0 0 9 Clownfish in an A
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Page 27 and 28: Through private emails a number of

April 2009 - Kitchener Waterloo Aquarium Society

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