hazymranch

I saw a pretty cool recipe on how to make frozen food pellets using gelatin and mussels, prawns, etc. I plan to give it a go this weekend. Anyone havee any advice for me before I get into it?

My wife and I were totally taken with the banggai from the pics in the books I have read and I can't wait to show her the incredible pic you took. I have never seen anything like it and I have looked at alot of banggai pics lately. Kudos and if there are any left, will you ship to DN?

I'm in the process of building a new hood and I would be keen to add to the strength of a bulk purchase. I had planned to visit an aluminium shop here in Dunedin to see if thay had any raw sheet with a reflective side that could be cut and shaped. I will be watching this space...

Hey Tom, First off, that's an awesome setup. Yoru DIY skills are mad. Now, I moved to NZ from the States just over a year ago and had to bring my electronic toys (all 110-120V) with me, of course. So, I have been living with a number of stepdown transformers since then and I have had nothing but trouble with the one that you have there. The first problem is that it is not vented at all so the heat has to diffuse through the plastic to dissipate. You would think that the $60 youspend for it would mean that it would be up to the wattage rating, however, it is not, especially on a constant use basis. They are much more suited to things like rechargable toothbrushes and such. I know you are on a budget, but it would be worth going up to the 50W and keepingthe heat down. It will also burn out in time, in my experience, because there is no way to get to the fuse and replace it. Anyway, Dick Smiths may take it back if you tell them it is inadequate and you want to upgrade to the 50W. Good luck.

There is also a source of electrolumiescent lighting called "exelite" that was originally designed by NASA to backlight instrument panels. It comes in a blue light strip does not generate any heat and is water resistant. I checked out their website at http://www.exelite.co.nz and it looks pretty cool. I think you can get them at bike shops because they are advertised as recreational safety gear.

Can you tell me how you did that? I have a Jebo R375, which is a very similar setup and I am looking to beef up my lighting.

Thanks Brian. I was/am hoping to avoid removing the filter if possible. If I move the bulk of the biological filtration to the sump, which is my plan, then I would like to use the former filter compartments to house chemical filtration substrates like activated carbon, ammo lock, phospho rid, etc. Aside from that, the tank's proximity to my son's cot makes me want to maintain as much of a complete lid on the tank as possible, as well as to minimize evaporation loss. That said, I am finding that it may well be unavoidable. I may have to at least fashion an acrylic lid for the current light hood space and place a new fixture on top.

I had kept freshwater fish for years and this is my first marine tank. I bought a Jebo R375 (140L) tank because the molded acrylic made for great viewing from all angles, specifically from my son's crib, and because it came with a full hood with a wet/dry filter and individually switched lighting (2x20W) incorporated into it and stand. Now that I have read several books on keeping marine tanks I have come to find that it is fairly inadequate for the purpose. For one, the hood makes it impossible to hang anything off the back of the tank, which means that everything has to go inside. Not ideal, but really an aesthetic problem...except for the skimmer, for which there is no room. So, I have designed and am in the process of building a sump (80L) that should overcome my filtration shortcomings and add stability due to the extra volume. I would like to introduce invertebrates at some point and evolve into a mini reef tank and so I have been looking closely at the lighting. It came with 2x18W T8 bulbs and the ballast is rated to 40W. I don't even know if the bulbs are full-spectrum bulbs and I can't find that information anywhere. I swapped one of the bulbs out for a blue actinic 20W. I have been reading that I should have at least 3W/gallon so that means 120-150W is required. Obviously the 38W I am currently running falls quite short. So, ot the first of my questions: Does anyone know much about the Jebo system and specifically what kind of spectrum the Jebo T8 bulb is? How can I add additional wattage to this type of tank? Does anyone have any experience in using the Jebo acrylic systems as marine tanks? What else will I have to do to retrofit it for marine suitability? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.