Feelers

I had a snakeneck and a red ear in the same tank with two silver dollars (well similar to those, they had a red fins I think) , and the turtles chased them for 2 hours, but then just gave up. Lived happily for 6 months together, before we sold the tank. The fish could swim really fast, there is no way the turtles could get them. They occasionally tried to nip if the fish got too close - but to no avail.

A good cheap pond filter I have seen is a homebrew barrel filled with scoria. Pump into the top(drill a hole and seal) and the tap at the bottom is the outflow. probably around $20 (not including the pump)

So what salt would you guys reccommend as the best? Or perhaps the best value for money? I am unsure what I'm gonna do for water changes, I spose for my needs its not really that important. Layton I dont spose you know if uni's saltwater is any good? (I'm geussing its likely to be crap.)

Those are cool!!! , and I was under the impression(from my crappy borrowed book) that triggers were totally reef incompatible. How much does a pair cost ?(out of interest)

Sorry Brian, but my pond is overstocked already, and I cant afford any more expensive, unexplained deaths. :lol: Hope your personal gravitation problem works itself out, perhaps with the money from the auction you can fund an expedition in search of intelligent life on Trademe. 8)

Head down to Mico Plumbing, they'll have everything you need.

I had a cold water hermit in my sump tank and he lived for ages. I dont think they can acclimatise to a tropical tank though. One thing you could try - there are two main species of Hermits here a smaller more common orange one, and a blue one. Perhaps they have different tolerances?

Yeah that was me, things are moving along slowly - at the moment I'm in Hawkes Bay for the holidays, and my tank's back down south. I did manage to buy a new (bigger) sump tank - so I can fit my new skimmer off Brian in there. So now I'll be able to have the bigger refugium I was after. I recently inherited an electric wheelchair (bizarre I know ) and it should be worth quite a bit, so I'll be using some of the money from that to get a chiller. Then I have to get my tank drilled and do all the plumbing - and then If I can be bothered I'll finish off building the stand. All my DIY rocks are still in the sea hopefully getting nice and "live". Actually I might be able to post some pics of when they were finished. Getting the octopus is the "easy" part, I have heaps to do. I dont think my tank is big enough for the bigger species P. Condiformis - but it is big enough for more than one of the smaller species O. warringa/huttoni. Which apparantly bite alot. (But stil should be cool) 8) Off way in the future I have hypothesized about a purpose built big hex tank for squid grown from eggs just like the squidcam one. It would make me the first hobbiest to do so. But thats a long way off. Of course this place has got me into the reefing idea too, so I still wanna do that.

Helifax he might not be totally doomed - he might come right. Unlikely as it is - they are really tough.

I liked this one: "ahh excuse me, I can smell your crabs please"? (sorry terrible I know :roll:) :lol:

Do people here try and match species to what would naturally occur on a reef? I dont know much about coral species - for example - are the species compliments of different areas pretty simliar or are there endemic local flavours. Ie - could you set up a Tonga reef tank , would it be different to a Fiji tank? In freshwater tanks you can set up an Amazon tank ect - and this limits your options, however the plants tend to have the balance you are talking about. Is this idea transferable to a reef tank? Or do the ocean currents make all the places the same?

If you buy one off trademe you can sell it again - worst case scenario you might loose $20 on the resale. If you borrow a tank be careful about whether copper medication has been used in it - could possibly kill/hurt your invertebrates (if you have any).

Interesting article, good info on where silicates ect come from, but the part on "why should I add silicates?" seems (extremely) brief. He spends ages discussing the ins and outs of everything, and then says - add them. I cant really see much point, other than to facilitate replacing your greeny covered glass with slightly more transperant browny glass. 8) Thats it - out of a 5000+ word article. Good read though, I like the more scientific approach to reefing,

Fay you always seem to take really good photos , Whats the deal with these eggs? Impossible to raise, or can you hatch them ect?

I was impressed with my jebao - very quiet, and reasonable quality.

I found a good place to check out the tides is...... http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/PukeruaBay.shtml Has the tides, forecast and temperature ect, has pretty much everywhere on there. Apparantly the high tide was a little earlier, 10:25am but measured from 5km away. (dont know if that would make a difference)

Have a look on www.ratemyfishtank.com , might give you some ideas.

I always wondered this - how do you measure flow, - I have seen calculators, but is there another way to do it?

You would have loved our school productions. (-just an idea.)

Hey chimera, have you thought of having the tank protrude out of the wall a little? I was thinking you might be able to get even more depth outa your current building options. eg:

Thats what's so good about overflows - they will automaticially be at the correct level. , the only place in the whole system where the water level will change (due to evapouration) will be in the return pump section. Check out http://www.melevsreef.com/ ......... there is a good explanation of sumps and overflows, along with popular sump designs, and ideas about how to design your own sump.

Had a look through their other listings - (interesting :lol: ), but no small anemone, so perhaps you could ask for it to be listed.

I have read that adult brine shrimp can actually be quite nutritious, (well after being enriched that is). They need at least 4 hours in the enrichment mixture though, as they digest slower than the baby ones. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... invert.htm Is a comparison for many common foods, given from a marine feeding point of view, but may be of interest - especially about "hobby grade" brine shrimp being the worst of all.

When I was young we had a clown loach in a tank with a gravel bed, and he used to dig into it (I saw him a few times). We thought it had died - we didnt see it for about a year (and this was in a ~ 60L tank), and then one night I saw it going up and down and along the length of the glass, backwards and forwards for ages. A very cool fish

Hey dont worry about it PeneJane, thanks for trying , it's unfortunate that you were told incorrect info. I rang them up to see what the story was(and complain :lol:) , apparantly they were to have chillers for 10L tanks that sold for $200. It sounds as though the chiller company misled them, and now the pet shop will be selling them under the rrp. She was quite helpful, even when I put her on the spot. 8) The chiller brand is "Heilia" , and I cant find anything on the net about them (even though google suggested -"Did you mean: heilia chillers") when I spelt it wrong. Glad your coldwater tank is going - did you end up buying the chiller from them?