richms

Some din mount RCDs are the combination ones that do both, so they do have an amp rating on them, but are only single width. Better to do that then have a couple of rcds doing the whole house since one circuit tripping will only take out that one circuit. I know the sparky was bitching when installing them since they are taller then the normal breakers he had to move most of the board around to get them to fit since they would only go on the bottom 2 rails in the board, the top one was hitting something.

Just use a stepdown transformer. I am thinking that most of my next tank will end up being 110v since things are _so_ much cheaper over there and I have several 2kva stepdowns not doing anything anymore.

Normal fittings will rust tho with the condensation on them when they are not running and are cold. Means you may replace them after 4-5 years, but by then you may need some motivation to upgrade the lighting anyway so its not all bad

All plug in ones are supposed to trip when the power into them fails - thats since it means that the attached powertool wont restart when power comes back on. The only one I have found that doesnt is the ringgrip bodyguard. Cant find them new anymore and they seem much worse then the PDL ones for false tripping. The socket outlet and the breaker panel ones will all not trip when the power goes out, so either way your fine, but sometimes they will trip when power comes back because its not a smooth resumption so there is a lot of noise on the power. Also, surge protectors downstream from an RCD make them more prone to tripping on small spikes since they will send the spike to ground, which makes the RCD trip. If you dont have an RCD, just turn off the power before working on the tank.

I say avoid the hrv - mum got one, in the morning its bringing cold air into the house from the roofspace, so you have to heat the house. By the time the roofspace is warm, everyones gone out so its of no help In the afternoons, the roofspace cools well before the house, so the only useable hours are when there isnt anyone there, so the house is closed up and theres nowhere for the air to vent out. And they never turn off, the fan just cuts back, so even in the middle of night you get a small amount of bloody cold air blowing into the place, which is pushing the heated air out somewhere else.

Virtually all 5mm LEDs put out about the same amount of light. Its just more or less focused, and then there is the BS they put into the MCD ratings since most people have no way of checking them. If you want bright then look for a 3w power led, just be sure to strap it to something large and metal so it doesnt overheat.

Those elto meters give stupid values for anything with a switching power supply, its like its not properly calculating the watts averaged, and is just averaging the voltage and current and then muliplying. Apparently my magnetically ballasted fluros use 83 watts for the 2 of them (36 watts) yet my electronic ones which run cooler are taking close to 100. Power factor that it reports will not go below 70ish, its on 100 for things I know have crap power factor. Useless for computers, quite accurate on my 1000 watt halogen worklight and a heater. I worked out its about 80c/day for my 3 tanks

Free polystyrene wont have the flame retardents in it, so shouldnt be used for insulation.

I had 2 fans in the hood on my old 5 and a bit foot tank - worked sweet as. 12v computer fans swiped from dead power supplies many years back. Used a powerpack from an old cordlessphone that we were chucking out - only 9v but still loads of air moved and much quieter then on 12v

They were able to order some in at Hollywood for me. But there were other things worn out in it as well - the place that the internal hose pushes onto just disintigrated when I pulled the pump to pieces, and rather then keep it around with 2 working channels of air I biffed it and replaced with a couple of 2 outlet ones that were less then half the price of the 12000

I have never heard of one that will cover the fish, what policy do you have that does? You may want to read the contract because it wouldn't be the first time that an insurance salesman has lied to get their commission.

I dont know of any others that sell hobiest stuff, most of the china/hong kong eshops just sell the mp4 players and cool cellphones and not the cheap stuff. If you know of any others like dealextreme I would love to know of them

Also the "high brightness" leds are typically higher in the candella rating (normally done in thousands of millicandellas to help the ignorant americans with their SI units problems) is that they are just more focused whereas the lumen output is all the light made by the led no matter where it is directed. There are much cheaper sources for bare luxon and equivilants - deal extreme are ok for small quantities, if your getting more then 100 then the sellers on ebay are sometimes able to swing a deal. A mate ordered 500 RGB 5mm leds for about US$80 which would have being several 1000 locally at the likes of jaycar or surplustronics. Heaps of toys here for anyone looking at playing with leds - http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.917

Correct, beams are for floors, the wall will have studs and dwangs/nogs, either of which you can attach to. If you cant find them then borrow a studfinder because there will be something holding the drywall up, has to be since it cant stand on its own.

You could do it with 2 returns at different heights and 2 pumps from the sump back to the tank, the second one coming on would increase the water in the tank till it got to the second overflow - thats my theory at least, Seems sound enough

Yes its the warehouse, Some people get offended at the name te warewhare so it got a new nickname a few years back. I thought everyone knew it as the red shed.

When I was at the red shed, they had the same watt meters that jaycar sell but at only $20 by the timers and other electrical stuff. Then again, for those with wives this is probably something you DONT want to buy

Im thinking of doing my big tank sometime soon. Whats the exact process, and how close to the edge can you safely go? Also did you drill the back or bottom of the tank?

Thats really good. Could you disolve out the foam with a solvent to remove the boyancy once the shell is hard?

Heres what I have for when I use the spraycan ones on the room. I got a long piece of irrigation hose (the 13mm black stuff) and it has those 4mm sticky in things for drippers, I have a hose between inside and outside that I use when siphoning the tanks, I just put the black hose on the end with click fittings. Then I put the airpumps outside, and the other end I hook up to the air manifolds (not really any loss of flow I can see) and then I gladwrap the top of the tanks totally, as tight as I can where the canister filter pipes come out. The positive pressure means that no room air will get in. Then set off the spray can and walk out. Then I go out for a long time since those fumes really mess me up. No casultys yet, other then the fleas

The one I saw in use was similar but there was a T in the center of the hump extending upwards for 200mm or so with a cap and a valve to suck the air out. The guy said that its so there is lots of space for the disolved air to come out before the sipon will get broken, he sucked the air out every month or so. Also, doesnt the pipe ending at the tank surface make it suck air? the others I have seen have it stop well under the tank level.

You would need 2 of them anyway, unless you like listening to music in mono. Is there a subwoofer version of it? That thing looks like it will be pretty tinny too

When it happened to me I found that no matter how little of the green water was left in the tank, it would turn from a light green to a deep green in a couple of days, till I gave the tank some dark days with no light and a blanket over it. Greenish turned to quite clear and it was ok for a while. Now I have the tank where it gets sun and its always green, but I will solve that with some curtains sometime over the summer break.

I would be disputing that with them, a pipe fitting letting go should be covered

The landlords insurance company will then come after you as it was your fault the landlords property was damaged. That is why you need to have contents insurance which will usually get you a couple of million in liability insurance as well.