richms

ANyone?

Its the only survivor after a flatmates fleabomb a few years back, spending a fortune keeping the tank warm for it in this weather so just want it gone to someone who will appreciate it more. Can have some dated bottom feeder food I bought a while back as well.

Its not running because it would wake the dead with the noise it was making. Am running all the old crap airpumps for now, anyone know a place that can send them out? Im not really able to make it out anywhere at the moment till I fix my car up.

3ft fittings are rare as since they are never really installed commercially, also 3 ft tubes are a lot more to buy than 2 or 4 foot ones when you are talking the non specilist ones like 865 and 965. Infact I was not able to get a 965 in a 3 foot when I tried. If you go to a wholesaler you can get a reflector for the batten fittings which you can just sit on the top of the glass. Otherwise you will have to hang it there somehow. I have reflectors that are over 10 years old that are just starting to rust now so for the longevity they cant be beat.

Have had one of these, probably been running for 4-5 years now, just tonight it was making a hell of a racket, could hear it thru the whole house. Its a 40 or 50L/min one (from memory) Any pointers on what may have gone wrong with it? I got it off trademe ages back so any record of who it came from is long gone, Says COM-3540 on it on half a sticker that is left on it. So anyway, need to sort it out, or replace it. Any issues with opening these up? I have never had any luck fitting new rubber bits to the crappy little pumps and having them last, but I am assuming that something larger like this would be easier.

Have 5, about 8cm long, and a big-ass pleco in a 6 foot. Got filtration sorted now so can restock. Had tinfoil barbs in the past but they look the same as the silver sharks which is a bit boring. No planting in the tank (thanks to that pleco) Wanting some suggestions on something more visually interesting that will coexist happily, eat the same stuff, be reasonably tolerant of the other fish and most importantly be cheap. Would be picking up in Auckland so ideally suggestions on fish for sale on here or else trademe would be welcome. Thanks

The standards are quite strict, its just that most of the stuff that comes in doesnt comply. If it is doing that contact the ministry of economic development (med.govt.nz) as they handle RFI and energy saftey issues. It could be coming out the power cable and into your antenna system that way rather than being radiated to the antenna, but really both paths should have filtering in the ballast so its a problem in either case. That is unless you are one of the people that has a noisy crap reception which a small amount of noise will have a massive effect on it. In which case there could be nothing wrong with it. TV1 is usually the strongest so long as you have a proper antenna, if you have an indoor one then you only have yourself to blame for it.

Dont use turps based paint unless you like it stinking for weeks after painting and it being very soft. Get lacquer if you can - drys fast, nice and full of really volitile solvents which evaporate _fast_ - you are supposed to spray it but if you are really fast you can do it with a brush or small roller, just have heaps of thinners and put some more in every few minuits. Also there is a BIN sealer that is good fast dryer. Just do it away from the house with a good mask since the fumes are nasty.

2 and 4 foot tubes are used in the fittings in drop cielings - every office will have hundreds of one or the other size, or both. 3 foots are used... ummmmm not many places... Simple economies of scale going on. Seems that all the cheap battens in mitre10 etc are still magnetic ballasts - that with an aquarium tube makes for some funny blue/red ripples on the surface of moving water since the 2 phosphors have quite different glow times.

t8's are 1 inch diameter, because like halogens and par's they are measured in 8ths of an inch. the t12s are 12/8ths which is.... ahhh... 38mm

Except when replacing a T12 with a T8 the wattage will be different, but its all ok.

The thing is the thermostat that is set slightly higher will never cycle, so you end up with it on all the time which is possibly why I always seem to get a stuck heater or 2 coming out of winter since they never cycle over winter.

Ouch, bute is expensive! I found the best prices on the Hansen fittings was at RD1 - Bunnings didn't have much of a range, and neither did the Wairau Mitre10 mega - no bulkheads with a threaded hole on the inside - just the ones with a hole that is no use. Mitre10 mega in botany had more and that's where I got the one I have now from.

No more big gaps is one brand, there is also a bostik and sellys version. The are near the sealants normally at hardware places.

I have used the stuff from spotlight in speakers, and to me it was exactly the same as the stuff that the fish shop sells, but I have never used it for that.

They can weld nuts into the legs so you can attach adjustable feet if you need that, otherwise the top will usually twist to conform to the floor if its on a non level surface.

Inorganics are a good source of this sort of thing, the vultures are just after the power cables and motors from them so there should be plenty around with the valves left in them.

When I was trying to photograph the tank, I had the room totally dark and had slave flashes on the 2 ends of the tank and the top above where I was taking the photo. No flash made it need a long exposure and the fish were just a blur.

The wheely storeres at te warewhare are not good for liquid. I have had 2 60 liter ones let go on the base around some of the ribs and subsequently leaking out. The guys at peroplas said that it was not made for liquid and the literage was just to let you know how much would fit in them.

I have used some lacquer thinners to join PVC in the past - did an alright job of it.

Black flickering lines are because you have the horrid but all the rage low mercury content tubes which take forever to get going properly, particularly on their first few start when they have being idle for a long time. On a magnetic ballast the tube just glows at the ends till it gets warm enough, but the higher freq of the electronic ones will sort of excite the whole tube like that. Just like current energy saving lamps suck for warmup times, so do the big tubes now.

Both times I have got a shock its not being too bad, one I barely felt before the RCD tripped, the other I had a bit of pain in my fingers but nothing else.

$16 bucks!! whoa, who are surplus kidding! besthongkong.com or deal extreme are where I have got some from in the past. DX have some nice 60 degree lenses http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4628

And ease of replacement when it gets dirty, since its so cheap

If your runtime is that low then your doing very well for making it cheap. - thats coming in at about $1 a day by my calculations. would be happy if my tanks were that cheap to heat. I would just be concerned about the time to recover from any water changes etc