charzar-g

I guess if they grew there, they must be content!

Hey Char, congrats on your new additions. Here's some info that might help: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...002/invert.htm

Take a look at the new shots in my album, I got a beautiful Mandarin, He's a male ans seems to be adjusting well, also a new violet sponge!

My system has a sump, but I don't think I'd put a Mandarin in there, but good news, yesterday I was removing an aptaisa and when I took out the piece of live rock, there were indeed copepods. So now I will start to search for a healthy specimen.

I love the Mandirins as well. I want one but don't have a stable population of copepods. As for plankton, I think it's not always visible to our eye maybe a microscopic organism, but not sure.

Hardware stores will sometimes carry it in their plumbing or garden areas. You can look around and see what you can find. If nothing else, you can print out the picture and show it so they will know what you are looking for.

No. I get mine at Dr's Foster and Smith because you can order the black. Home Depot or Lowe's would probably have it also. Here is a link to what DRsF&S have...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...163+10124+9403

You would not need to drill a hole...I have tubing running from the pump in the pond to the filter outside the pond. It just goes up over the edge of the pond. I built a shelf to hold the preformed waterfalls and the tubing runs underneath and is hidden by the waterfall and rocks. The tubing then goes from the filter to the top of the waterfalls. Same thing, it just lays over the top edge of the waterfall and is held in place by rocks. The nice thing with the preformed waterfalls, they come in a lot of shapes and sizes...I have a stream one that I use in the birdcage for my birds' water. I have two main waterfalls into my pond...two tiers on one side and three tiers on the other. I used rock and footpath stones to build the shelves to hold the waterfalls. That way the shelves were more open underneath so I could plant plants under the bottom and have a place to run the tubing. I had clear tubing in my pond for a while, but it turned white and grew all sorts of algae inside. I switched out to all black tubing and now I don't have to worry about the algae growing inside anymore...no sun = no algae. I prefer tubing over PVC pipe simply for the flexibility. You may want to get the no-kink tubing. I didn't and I had to put some 90 degree elbows where the tubing really kinked. It worked out just fine though.

I have dirt between my pond and the wall for two reasons - 1. My pond was a preformed and the dirt helps to support it - 2. I wanted plants around the pond that would help to hide the edge and make it look a bit more natural.

My sister has a pond and used the flexible liner. She does not have dirt around it. How you want it set up is entirely up to you.

The bigger ones are actually easier to tend. More volume of water means more room for fishies and less water changes. I would love to have a natural pond and stream that I could stock with trout and bass for fishing.