peety

No adsl here, sigh.... back to 54 k, but i'll just leave the modem running at night. I have that diagram done, I see you asked about the pic post thing, I wondered how to do that as well. I'll just email you once I get your email address.... Calurpa would be good, have you tried any NZ seaweed yet? Something must work the same.....

Have a quik read of the play or see it if you can... it was written as a war protest, by a German, and as a portent of doom around WW1. And yes there are some scenes where they sing, Yup SING!!, about slicing up the blacks and yellows and eating them as a steak tartare!! Take that!!! Set Silence of the lambs to music and you get close....

I'll try and score a digi camera. I have a digi vid, i'll see how small I can get an avi. My plumbings pretty insane, i'll work up a drawing and scan it. It all works really good now. The water has yellowed due to seaweed but I have had more growth since i added the extra tank less than months ago, than in the 6 months previous. It's all a bit empty at present since I was a bit hesitant to go forwards... alls good so I need to get some more corals. Where did you get get glass shrimp from? are they what I have? I have noticed lots of little clear shrimp in my tank. I bought two cleaner shrimp and they have shed their skins a couple of times now. I have a lot of red cyano, but it is reducing by the week, I have reduced lighting to twelve hours as well. Pics would be cool... email me on [email protected] ta peety

They're a pretty special fish, just because of their size !!! They really do look cool, even if the free ones do just tend to be orange, white, and shades of grey. You could selectively breed a few....keep the ones you like and use the others for bait (they sell them as that in the shops)... Free is free.... and I'm sure those ones you had pics of cost a small fortune overseas....

BTW.... Mack the knife is a character from a play called 'The Threepenny Opera' (pronounced 'thrup-knee opera'), he was a real scum bag, would prowl the streets and roof tops breaking into houses, commiting burglary, rape and murder esp. with his favourite weapon, his knife. He was the original anti hero. Hannibal Lechter eat your heart out.....

I had some a while ago until I moved. Since then I have met several others who have them. You can find them all over NZ thanks to some idiot who thought that native wildlife didn't matter as much as a bit of sport (fishing), he also released other species. Anyhow, if you ask around you should be able to catch some for free in most parts of north island. When they are in every creek, it seems unlikely that MAF will care too much, just don't let 'em go again once ya got em.

Its ok if you are sure both tanks are disease free..... I have had fish diagnosed with TB in my freshwater tank. Since there is no way to remove the TB cyst, and it can survive for two years even outside of water, I never move anything between tanks. TB is common in freshwater fish esp. neons, guppies. It took 4 months for mine to show up and start wiping out my other fish. It is zootropic and can affect salt water fish as well as humans and other animals. For the cost of a couple of bucks I would use two sets of hoses and buckets.... peety

Just an update.... I have moved house.... sigh... It took a day to move each tank (freshwater paludarium and marine). I moved all 250 litres of water in the marine tank and kept the sump wet. It has taken about two months for everything to settle. I have also added another 250 litre tank to the marine tank by plumbing in a passive syphon at main tank level and at sump level, increasing tank volume to 500 litres. I plan to have two different styles of marine tank side by side running same water. Adding more water really increased polyp growth on corals, and mushroom growth. I added more snails and hermits from the beach and all are well. I added seaweed but it has died so will look for a different species. I have noticed lots of worms which I am leaving alone since they seem to eat algae and rotting seaweed. Lots of seawater shrimp, bugs and water fleas (assume they all came in on rocks and seaweed.) Have just started removing Aiptasia from the tank as they were getting huge!! I had a couple that were over two inches high, looked really cool but started spreading too fast. I have a local anenome that has reproduced as well but does not grow very big. I recommend taking a chilly bin and zip lock bags to the beach. Zip lock any snails or crabs, and seaweed. Store all bags in chillybin on the way home. All snails, anenomes, and crabs from rock pools survive fine in my tropical tank doing this. The snails do try and crawl off though. Also throw some empty shells in the tank for the hermit crabs to grow into since they grow quite fast, and look kinda silly 'nude'. YAY! Back online peety

I've been trying to use the babies tears as a ground cover.... I let it grow up them bend the runnners back and pin them to the bottom.... its taken a while so far, but four months down the track I'm starting to get it looking right.... I trim back real hard when an area is done and it produces lots of little leaves instead of the larger ones.......

Another good one is.... http://reefcentral.com/

I use gravel too but added some normal aquarium stone to reduce the sharp edges not for the fish, but because they cut the roots of new plants. The fish seem smart enough not to get cut, the plants had to rely on me being careful.... hence a lot of dead plants...

Hmmm that bio is interesting... no importance to fisheries....endangered just about says it all..... An article i read in a marine book was interesting in that they suggested that some endangered species need to be sold to hobbyists because they are able to raise and care for them better than the environment in which they evolved.... sad get some and breed the bug eyed critters

My tank is a paludarium.... basically i have plants growing on top off my tank with runoff spilling back into the tank. Lights are placed under the plants as well as a light above them. I have ferns, mosses, creeping ground cover, and some bromiliads growing, as well as the plants that are in the tank. Water from the tank is pumped up to the top plants at small time intervals, and it trickles back into the tank. I have to trim the ferns often, same as the water plants. I agree ya can't beat plants for keeping ya water clean. I have to move soon, so it's gonna be a killer establishing it all again, but I haven't cleaned my filter now for about 4 months, never clean the inside of the the tank, no substrate cleaning, partial water change once a month and nitrates are pretty close to zero. If you can imagine that one plant in the picture multiplied by 5 or 10 you get an idea of how much you can grow on just tank water... There are some interesting articles around on aquaponics, i.e feed your tank water to a hydroponic garden and eat the food.... I tried that as well on an outdoor pond with limited success... I don't think I had enough fish to provide enough waste!!!! Fish and gardening.... two great hobbies....

Boy need to look up the fancy names I got mine from hollywood but saw some cheaper the other week at massey and they definately don't have the same colors happening. I thought I had male and female but the smaller fish is now displaying same patterns. Wow it has colored up really nicely.... I read they got to 3 inches and hope they will ( I will get some more once I move). Mine must be a couple of cm's now and they are definately getting bigger....

I got a couple of Butterfly rams about a month back. They have started to develop really nice colours and get to about 3 inches. They are always up to something, not just circling but exploring or hassling other fish (not in a mean way). They are definately a fish I want more of ... try a couple of them....

I agree that it is probably water volume turnover i.e my pump is too small. The sump has virtually no problems even tho it has rock and same water... I think the main tank has too little circulation.... o well, ya live, ya learn

Pies, You are welcome to drop by.... unfortunately I have to move so have forgone my tank rebuild and the marines a bit of a mess.... waiting to break it all down in about 4 weeks... Everythings being boxed now, but the tanks will be the last to go so they will be in some shape to view :-? Give me a call on 833-9300 when you in town. I'd love your opinion on my big tropical, I haven't seen one done the same way before so you should get a surprise..... I still have snails and bristleworms, and everythings still alive but I have a major bubble algae problem, I have been reading that crabs will sort it out but will have to wait until I move and I'll scrub everything when it goes back into tank..... peety

I'm moving again soon too Last time I moved was nightmare (2 metre planted tank). Barrels are definately the go. For a large tank I would suggest to fill it with tap water once it is setup to test it. Mine deveoped a leak in the move so I had to empty it all again a few days after setting it all up again. I make my moves overlap by a couple days so I can setup my tanks.... Moving sucks.... unless you get more room for more tanks

You'd be surprised how cheap they are if you find someone who makes em and sells them to the fish shops... new, so you don't inherit leaks, or disease.... you also get to specify exact size for your stand and can get drilling done.... I had a couple of 700x400x500 made up for about $65 each.... which I reckon was pretty good.

Its probably more like a one sided mirror (or two sided, or false, or whatever it is...) , anyway, if theres more light on the outside, you can see out, but if theres less you get a reflection, so the back corner is probably a mirror from the inside, and the front is a window. Don't dump the sae !!! They really are worth their weight in gold !! If he's putting on weight he's helping.... :-? I like the camera idea.... I'm off to get a cheapie usb and see what it looks like...

When I had algae growth on my plants they never grew. I agree, more light but try to get algae growth down as well..

If you are sure you don't have probs with your other fish, I agree, he's probably just a show off. If you have recently added new bristlenose they may have brought something in....check for ich or have a really close look at your other fish for signs of anything. I had a runt once that spazzed out whenever the tank parms went out by a fraction, it always got sick first so if he was happy the rest were happy. (Unfortunately he succumbed ). peety

Aqua, This site http://p2.utep.edu/watts/resources/myths.cfm Like others dispels the myth that flourescents should not be switched. You will get greater life by switching....

I never thought of that... do they rate throughput on a water level basis .... if so I don't know o0f any tank where the filter has been leveled with the tank....yet it does make some sort of sense for measurement..... peety(not peet)

Its a bit blurry, but not what I was thinking of.... I thought a marine tank in front of a thinner tropical would be quite good. It would give the impression of vegetation in the tank along with colourful marine fish. I reckon you could blend the two quite easily since the marine reef would mask the bottom.... just an idea I might try one day..... anyone seen something like this done?