Feelers

Alright, so flow through the durso is probaly gona be in the 5000-7000lph range, and I want to know definately what plumbing I should use. The measurement system doesnt make any sense - it's hard to figure out what's required in terms of internal/external diameter. So for this much flow - how big should the internal diameter of the hanson fitting be? Surphew said he uses 32mm pressure plumbing - which needs a 42-45mm hole. Chim said I want to go with hanson fittings, is this pressure plumbing? Sorry I know squat about it. Are their any benefits to pressure pipe? Would non pressure pipe break or something? Another option is I can drill right through the bottom, since my stand is metal bracing, although I think I'm keen on the durso idea.

You definately want a constant light cycle, the photosynthesis process takes about 2 hours to fire up, so this means that the plants are really getting ~7hours light a day. And it will probably make them do funny things too. Their biological clocks are set by the length of darkness they are exposed to, and in this case it's for two diffent amounts in the same day. Think of it like a state of perpetual jet lag. Perhaps just have them so they are on through the day when you get home from work and so you get to see the tank for a while. Say from 8am till 8pm.

Thought I'd ask if anyone preferably in Christchurch has a drill bit tht fits the description? Gotta get the holes drilled, the durso built, - and plumbed. Then I'm set! Oh yeah I now have a kick ass stand, - built larger than my ghetto tank, in case I feel like upgrading Pics soon. I had a look on tradme, I'd rather not have to buy one. One thing that did occur to me - anyone wanna goe halves on these puppies? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farmi ... 313265.htm $27 each instead of ~$42 seems like a good deal. Will both 42mm and 45mm be acceptable? Surphew was 2mm all that you needed to widen the hole? 45 isnt getting too big to be a problem is it?

Alan how can you get the 97% stuff?? Do you have a permit for it? I distill my own alcohol, but it's so much cheaper buying it straight. Its silly, the law allows me to make as much 95% alcohol as I want, - I just cant buy it. Glad to hear everyone's giving the vodka a jam, I'm gonna use it while cycling my tank. (although its not really recommended for that). I'm also gonna cycle at 32C. Keep us updated. Have you noticed any thing different? Alan - are plants able to use the alcohol effectivly? I'm taking plant biotechnology at the moment so I'll ask my lecturer about it. We use a 3% sucrose solution to clone plants for tissue culture, I think this is about the optimal level, but obviously this cant be done in a tank. I think that alcohol will go straight through the membrane of the plant - so I spose it will work. You could also use vinegar. I know you cant add sugar but what is the reason for it? Does that mean you cant use other sugars like glucose or lactose? Maybe even citric acid?

You need base rock - it has to be dead coral. Any other rock doesnt have the surface area needed for bacterial colonization. After you have some, you can leave it in the sea, put it in your tank with a bit of live sand from the ocean to seed it, or you can chuck it in someones tank. I dont think seeding takes much - a cup or so of sand probably. It can even be done without seeding I think, (its just slower and doesnt have the diversity). Base rock os about $10 - $15 per kg, and you want between one pound and one and 1/2 half pounds per gallon. Which I think is about 1 kg per 7 litres?

In america for example, they can get LR, say tongan branch ect, and its all covered in life. Here, if you import live rock from tonga, MAF makes you dry it out for 3 weeks. Aka making it dead. Its to stop bringing in new organsims ect. Instead you have to buy dead rock and turn it live. Buy putting it in the sea or in someones tank. You can buy "re-liverock" from some shops - $16 -$20 per kg I think is the going rate.

I pretty much have the same thing, I'm happy with mine. For $140 its far beyond anything else you could buy in that price range. The equivalent eheim is $800 I think. And it has the auto-syphon thing, which works really well!!

Oh and for a useless fact I found out today while reading through the books, This anemone can live for 50 years! Ill think I'll get one for my tank.

I found a really good book "A functional Biology of Sea Anemones", quite a bit to read through. One thing of interest - in some anemones if a severed arm is accidentally eaten - it can begin to bud inside. Perhaps you could try cutting off an arm and placing it inside the mouth? Unfortunately this book seems heavily based on coldwater species, so I cant find specifics. Sorry just paraphrasing.... A difference of +- 5C can quadrouple the speed that splitting occurrs. Exposure to air doesnt seem to be very useful in getting a split. The overall picture I get from the book is that it's quite different between species depending on where they live. Another thing it points out is that pointing a power head at them also counts as extra feeding, combined with increased lacerations , which may be good at getting a split. SO............ suggestions to try -(in no particular order) , 1.feeding heaps then feeding nothing. 2.Feeding nothing then feeding heaps. 3.Different temps (higher probably better). 4.Different flow exposure. 5.Mild Osmotic shock. 6.Mild dessication. 7. My favourite..... chopping off an arm and feeding it into the mouth:D Combinations are probably helpful. It's all very trial and error, I think if I had to suggest something based on the book, increased temp by say 2.5 to 5C degrees on the edge of its tolerances(obviously making sure its not just killing it). Perhaps with a powerhead pointing at it and some heavy feeding.

I've had a read through a big list of Q's and A's on anemones with that Bob Fenner guy. A temperature spike to 88 for a few hours is how one person had them split, alhtough this obviously isnt practical in a community tank. He also very briefly indicated that cutting out of a small peice is possible, with a razor blade ect - going from the top to the foot, and deeply cutting towards the middle. And a cool time lapse thingy of a split on progress.... http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002- ... /index.php

20 About people reproducing hugely in Africa, there is an effect that causes a mother to go into "full production", if her first child dies. I cant remember what it's called, but it's a well documented environmental trigger to start reproducing quickly. This effect is what's responsible for the "baby booming" that happens after a war. I'm saying that there is no point in reproducing if it lowers the parents chances of surviving, and ends up with dead/low chance for eggs. The resources are better spent when conditions change for the better. This is why many clowns eat their own eggs - if conditions arent perfect. Clown fry have a very low chance of survival, so it is much better to have the parents survive to make many more batches of eggs, than die for just a single batch. Do clowns spawn in poorly maintained tanks? (Now) I'm not so sure, but I wouldnt think they would? Never imagined that I'd be posting this, :lol: The reason sex is fun is because it increases our survival. It it was a drag, there'd be a lot less people in the world. However sex life is one of the things that goes when stress is introduced. Reproduction generally thought of as an indicator of good health and "happyness" in animals.

Dude that sucks! I walked into my room as that power spike happened - my computer went weird, and the light flickered. Someone we know had all their appliances get fried!! It wasnt that cold here, I went out to town in just a longsleeve shirt and it wasnt a problem.

I'll see what I can dig up at uni tomorrow. I dont see how one anemone is so different from the other that it wouldnt work, ? I'll perhaps try on local species when my tanks up and running. This might be a cool one to try it on. Can you tell if this is photosynthectic? I'm geussing it is, are all the local ones photosynthectic too?

Chim - I'm about to get my tank drilled (I know finally!) , but cant use the search thing. I want to go with 32mm plumbing(is this what you use) I think? So what size drill hole for that? Also am I best to have 2 corner overflows or one corner, or on in the middle? And how can I tell if the glass is tempered, and how much should I worry about where I drill the holes. Sorry for the torrent of questions? Its all a bit scary. Ohhh- anyone have the drill bit for this that I could borrow?

Well I think if you want it for denitrification you want an anerobic area inside the rock - meaning it has to be quite thick, and perhaps broken coral rubble wouldnt be good at this. Maybe someone else can answer this? Kind of like how a deep sand bed has to be 4 inches before it starts having denitrifing abilities.

Fish_nemo is reefman, who has just joined us here . It does look cruel, I think he was just asking out of intrest. Wasp can this be done with feeding and water changes just as easily as they say? I'm not worried about the pain thing, just interested. If I remember correctly there are 5 pie sections in a anemone, each cabable of regrowing, so that begs the question - perhaps it is possible to cut say a small slice out and leave the big one whole. Cutting it would be the problem - a scalpel would be useful. I think maybe even a 5-way split it has been done sucessfully. Obviously increased stress/smaller peices would play more of a part.

If you look at clowns for example, they will often not spawn untill good food has been fed for a while - a balanced, nutritious and varied diet is needed. The survival part of reproduction I find odd from an evolutionary point of view, but for example clowns wont spawn in a poorly maintained tank. I think the explanation is that survival of the parents is more important than reproduction - as they can lay eggs another day. So in poor conditions looking after number one is actually a better method of looking after number two. The eggs would likely die anyway. Thus when life is good, spawning is on the cards. Just like in humans - in failing marriges sex life is generally on the low down. On the crayfish thing, I still find it surprising that people still boil them . Although it is supposed to be quick. With freezing I dont think it would be painful, (disclaimer - I'm not a crayfish ). Their metabolic processes are determined largly by temperature, and the colder it is the slower they move. So I would imagine that being slowly chilled to death is like being gradually shut down. Just like in people you'd black out, which to me doesnt seem like a bad way to go. (disclaimer: I've never been frozen to death either :lol: )

Yeah "true" live rock cant be bought into the country. You can go diy, which is real cheap. Also you can buy dead coral and chuck it in the sea to make it live. Soon I'll be dredging up my attempt at diy rock cured from the sea, so I'll let everyone know how it went.

I agree it's definately selfish, after all they are taken from the wild for our amusement. But personallyI dont think that looking after animals well in a fish tank is cruel. Many people have fish that breed in their systems, and that shows me that the inhabitants must be reasonably happy. The octopus community had a discussion on this, and with the very impressive mental capacity of octopuses(above that of dogs), it's a difficult question to answer. People generally find that thier octopus appear to enjoy themselves in captivity. Afterall, they never has to work for food (they are known for being lazy), and they will never have to worry about being ripped appart by a moray eel. Some are now releasing their octopuses when they begin to show signs of senescence, so the octopus gets a good protective home for most of it's life, but is still able to partake in the wild population. I dont know how much it applies, but there was a study done on domesticated cats, and found that cats were just as happy in inner city apartments as being able to roam free on a farm. Dont ask me how they measured it.

I can definately see why people are concerned about this : an anemone is capable of wondering around to find a suitable spot, can withdraw from conflict and all seem to have thier own "personalities". This looks pretty cruel, and many would veiw it the same way as chopping say a shrimp/fish ect. However the idea of pain is totally subjective. By definition to feel pain you must be able to think. We feel empathy and project what it would be like for us if we were getting chopped up, in this case based on how the anemone appears to show a "personality". If I culture a bunch of nerve cells in a test tube, noone would care at all if I chopped them up. The anemone is exactly the same. The "pain" is sent as electrical impulses - the stronger they are the more the anemone's muscles will move away from them. Thats it, no computation - nothing. This is pretty much how it works, slow impulse - move slowly. Fast impulse - move fast. It doesnt care whats going on, whether it's fast or slow - it just responds. I hate the idea of cruelty, and its good that people worry about things like this - it shows that they do really care about being responsible reef keepers. But I would have no qualms ethicially with horrifically bludgening an anemone to death, other than the same way I wouldnt smash down a tree for no apparant reason. Its a cool topic, we had to learn about bioethics, it gets a lot more complicated after anemones (aka central nervous systems) though.

If your after a mandarin, like the others say they need a big tank with lots of rockwork. I think its pretty rare to find a madarin that can be fed frozen foods, so that guy got lucky. Definately dont rely on that happening! Try to decide what you want in terms of livestock and tank size, and go from there. If you go the whole hog and want sps corals most people agree a 4ft minimum tank size, with a total cost of around $3000-$5000. It can be done cheaper though, but you'll have to be on the lookout for bargins, and possibly do some diy. It aint cheap , I'm studying too, so I dont have much cash but my tanks coming together (el cheapo). Although I'm going for a coldwater native tank, it would be more for what you're after. On the seahorse front, you pretty much want to have them on their own, so it would be quite limiting. Have a look through the members tanks section to see what your going for. Pc100's second tank looks like a good thing to base around.... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/pc100s ... t8031.html

I'd just try the petshop, or you could ask in the privatetrade/exchange part of the forum. I know Organism in Christchurch sells them, but thats probably not much help.

Check out www.nanoreef.com if you havent already. Well, there are lots of nano's without skimmers that do fine. You are better off with a skimmer, but it is definately possible to go without. I would suggest a cheap skimmer, it will be better than nothing, and wont cost much. Wiepro 2014 is a cheap skimmer - ~$140 , and people have generally said that it's good for the price. www.deepblueaquarium.co.nz Queen turbo skimmers are very cheap ~$40, there are some mods that can make them better, but the consensus is they're probably the worst available(but will still be better than nothing).

Hey man I'm geussing your "fish_NEMO"??? Yeah www.deepblueaquarium.co.nz has fairly cheap lights if I'm correct, for most ot the marine things it's easier if you specifically know what your after. Are you after a tank for sea-horses? btw are you studying at canterbury per chance???

Isnt asking people to post about their posting habits probably gonna give you rather one sided data?