richms

Noone else uses gallons anymore so it goes without saying that anything in gallons is US gallons.

I did that... once... got sick of changing the water daily to keep the amonia in the lower danger zone of the text kit, never again will I do that.

...I just poured a cupfull of cloudy ammonia into the empty tank and kept testing till it was down to nothing on the test, then chucked some goldfish into it, running at about 22° so the shock to the bactieria when i started heating to put tropicals in wasnt too great.

It should be fine. If you have a lot of driftwood in the tank which makes the water go yellowey, my experiance shows that 2700 or 3000k tubes make it look less obvious. I would not be keen on an unprotected bulb holder over a tank, make sure your RCD is working properly since it is very easy for water to sit in the gap between bulb and bulbholder, since its a small gap it will wick into it and sit there corroding.

Because stupid western people like sitting in the pale orange glow that reminds them of the days of lighting by the way of burning oil and wax, whereas the more onto it people in the east prefer the brighter refreshing color of daylight Also you can get 60ish and 105 watt energy savers from mitre10 mega's - Not exactly compact fluroescent, and the guy told me not to run them horizontal with only the bulbcap supporting it. Bunnings also often have philips tornado energy savers in daylights, both cap types and up to 23 watts, but my pile of dead bulbs shows that they die just as quickly as the elto and home brand stuff.

Yeah, you need something to act as a muffler on the air from the airpump to quieten the tank down. I found that a few meters of airline made a huge difference to the sound from the tank itself. The pump quietened down heaps when I changed the angle it was on. Suspending from the back made it rattle a lot less.

I used some thin wire which I dragged thru the silicone to pull apart a tank, and it was only thin glass and was still a right PITA to do. Does heat help with this at all?

Once its started you can pull the starter out, and you can put the stuffed one in so that it starts and pull it out once it has struck and it should stay on. The starter will be closing again once the light is running. That can happen if the tube is near stuffed however since the voltage across it goes up as wattage decreses.

Its not critical to replace a starter if it is still starting quickly, the problems happen when they dont open within a second of turn on, the tube ends start to blacken. Since aquariums dont start too often, the starters should last for a good few tube changes, whereas ones in offices which are off and on all the time will usually fail at about the same time as the tubes. If the starters dead, and you left a tube in and the ends were glowing, then the tube is probarbly stuffed anyway, so you may want to replace it too.

How bad is the chipping if you just go all the way thru? The glass is about 8mm I think. And yeah, thats far to far out from the wall so I guess all the holes will be in the bottom.

At those sizes it will cost heaps. If you can find a telecom/power contractor with an offcut etc then it may be the way to go.

And if you have your tank on an rcd, it will trip off as soon as you touch the tank, possibly before if there is enough leakage to ground thru the tank stand or light fitting. And if you dont have an RCD, I can recommend the Ringgrip bodyguard ones, since they wont trip off everytime there is a brownout or power cut

anyone online sell them? long way to go... twice.. to get something worth stuff all.

Been given a tank which came with a fluval 303.. went to use it and all was good till water started pouring out of it. Anyway, the oring is missing from it, and the guy who gave it to me has no idea if/when they have it or would be able to find it. So anyway, cant seem to find parts online for it, any one know where I can get one which will fit?

No, it has loads of tiny prisms on it, how else would you be able to see the reflection off the construction workers vest from your headlights from all angles?

Also reflective tape reflects light back in the direction it came from, so it will be sending it right back into the tube, which is exactly where you don't want it. If you cant make a good W shaped reflector you would be best off with a bright white surface.

http://stores.ebay.com/BestHongKong http://stores.ebay.com/Chi-Wing-LED-product-shop I have bought from chi-wing in the past, all good, not bought from best hongkong myself but a friend has and had no problems with his order from them.

Want to put a sump under a 3 foot tank, so need to drill the bottom. What is the prefered bulkhead fitting to use for this. I had a look at miter 10 for some and saw nothing that looked suitable. Idealy I would like to be able to screw a coupler on the end of some 40mm pipe into it, possibly would settle for 32mm, no smaller tho. I would want one for the back that turns a corner pretty quickly as I dont want to have the tank more then 50-60mm out from the wall. Anything suitable? Secondly, assuming I buy one of the diamond holesaws off trademe (like http://www.trademe.co.nz/Jewellery-watc ... 538026.htm ) - what is the process to use it? Just whack it in the cordless and start drilling or do I need to use some lubricants etc. How far from the back edge of the tank does it need to be for safety, and is just regular silicone suitable for gluing it into the hole or is there something stronger that will lock it in place better and stop it trying to turn when things are screwed into each side of it?

The cost difference will pay for itself in no time in the savings that you get from the higher efficiency. Plus they are easier on the tubes when starting which make them last longer.

Your aquariums weigh less then most pieces of furniture do. Certainly less then a large TV or similar so if they have caused the problem, it would have happened with anything. Sounds like a typical investment property where cost was the only driver when building it, and like most of the houses that leak, the cheapness when building has come back to bite someone on the butt. Tell the property manager of your problems, and then start looking for a better built place to move to. You shouldnt have to put up with a house that feels like its falling apart around you.

They are cool, but often they will just park themselves up underneith something like an overhanging piece of driftwood etc so you dont see them often. That one being so big may have a harder time doing that so should be good. My one would let me rub its belly sometimes..

The tap on my 404 is starting to not attach to the filter very well. The first lever is springing back up a few mm when connected, and that means the second one wont open unless I hold the first down in place, and then it sometimes leaks a little (sometimes). I have checked the 2 holes that the hoses go into, there is no gunk in there, the seals all look like they did when new. Any idea what the problem may be? Can you still get the tap handle parts as a replacement for these now that they are a few years out of date?

Dont have it set so that one heater never triggers, as it will seize up in the off position and not turn on till you manually jiggle the control up and down a few times.

That thread is a nice example of modding the hood. Dont know why more commercial hoods dont have multiple plugs on them, the idea of one plug and a bunch of little toggle switches on the hood is an insult IMO. Gotta love how the T5s are slightly shorter so you actually can put 4 foot ones into a 4 foot tank.

5 foots are fine, its when you go to 6 foot that the bulb choices are limited to virtually nothing. I couldn't even find a T8 tube when I was looking for the fitting I had on the old tank. Ended up with some dim flickery old crappy t12 80 watt thing in there. Pulled that and stuck in a pair of 4's staggered so that they overlapped in the middle and WOW it was so much brighter.