Shilo

Yup, timers are a given. Have both the lights and the chiller of my aquarium on them which work out well (chiller comes on every 2 hours for 1/2hr at this time of year to keep temps down). But for the enclosure I am also thinking of using a thermostat to control both a heat lamp and a fan. This will mean the enclosure doesn't drop below 16c at night during winter and keeps the gradient of 27c on one side and 37 on the other during summer no matter what the house temperature is.

Thanks guys, this puts my mind at rest. Currently working out building an enclosure so I might just take you up on that offer Turtlemantaken.

Personally I would swap the position of the bio balls to the outlet side of the sump. In fact I suggest using another of the filter wool chambers for bio balls as well. The filter wool will get rid of suspended junk but the bio balls will do a better job of changing nitrite into nitrate. Where the bio balls are now they will get gunked up by particles that get past the layer of filter wool and develop a biofilm consisting of very little nitrifying bacteria. If it was on the other side then the food source for non-nitrifying bacteria has been removed allowing for more real estate for the right sort of bacteria to make its home.

I've fallen head over heels for these little critters and I haven't even seen a real one yet! I have been doing a lot of research on their care but before I commit to one I have a couple of questions I can't find online: Problem 1. I go away on holiday for up to a week every few months or so. I should be able to get somebody to look in on the BT every day but this may not always be possible. What worries me is its water dish and if it defecates in it. Has anybody left their lizard for that long alone and if so how (leave the lights off and heater on low etc)? Any other major problems? Problem 2. By the time I get my act together and build an enclosure it will probably be mid winter. What is the availability of them at that time of year (knowing that some will be in brumation)? I won't commit myself unless 100% satisfied that I can give a BT a good life for 20 odd years but problem 1 is currently my main worry. Thanks in advance.

Stella, When researching chillers for my native tank I found that the Peltier method to be less cost efficient then converting a dehumidifier. The number of peltiers and the size of them made it 3 times the cost, a 2nd hand commerically made chiller could be brought for the same price. Its doable but beware that the heat from the opposite side of the peltier must be removed efficiently for it to work. Blowing a fan on some fins attached to them with thermal grease will help, but then you have the problems of waterproofing (glass is not a very good heat conductor). The dehumidifier method has worked well keeping the tank 10deg below air tempature. Its on 12hrs a day (switching on and off every hr) but it is quieter then a fridge and I have not noticed any increase in the electricity bill. Keep us informed on how it goes. Cheers Grant

Don't. Having a ball valve on the pump to tank pipes will only make the pump work hard when the valve is off, maybe a risk of pump burnout or something bursting. Turning off a ball valve on the overflow to sump pipe will mean the pump will cause the tank to overflow. Just turn the pump off for filter maintenance. The tank will drain into the sump until syphon break level then all flow will stop. Much easier then mucking about with valves. You can use a ball valve under the overflow (for overflow to sump pipe) to fine tune the overflow stand pipe and stop any gurgling, but experiment with it to get the right level then don't touch it again. If it is closed even slightly to much the tank level will slowly rise and overflow (can take a few days). Cheers Grant

The sump looks great! How many litres is it? You want it big enough so that if there is a power cut the water draining into the sump will not overflow it. This can be controled by the height and size of the syphon break hole in the spray bar I refered to above. Not sure what size pipe to use on a 800ltr tank but if you search the saltwater forum in this site I remember formulas etc for pipe size being discussed. It all depends on the amount of flow needed. Remember the U bend on the overflow must be larger then the other pipes for safety reasons. The internal overflow box normally has slots cut into the top for the water to flow through without fish being sucked into it as well. You would think they would line up for a free hydroslide ride, but believe me they don't look to good after being in the drip tray for a few days! The depth of these slots and the size and height of the box determine the water level of the tank. I found it handy to have this box "clamped' onto the side of the tank so I can adjust the water level if needed. What sort of filter are you going to use? The pics look like a Wet/Dry is planned. If this is the case then you will need a drip tray. With my set up I use a coarse sponge on top of some thin filterwool inside the drip tray itself to stop any large debris clogging up the pores of the rest of the media. This only needs washing out once a month or so (but I do it with the weekly water change anyway). The filter wool doesn't interfer with the drip tray at all. A pre filter in the down pipe will also work, but if it clogs up then the tank will overflow. Cheers Grant

and http://www.niwascience.co.nz/rc/freshwater/fishatlas/fishFinder

No separation of the media. Infact in the filters "real" state its all mixed up together. I used pumice, 5mm long peices of drinking straws, and some of those horrible $$$ ceramic noodles. If I was to start over again I would just use straws - cheap, never clog and good water flow. The filter is made from ply coated with epoxy (glass front) and a shelf was made at its base to hold a tupperware container. This container is drilled with many small holes to let out the water but keep in the media. Same for the drip plate. You don't want 10mm holes but hundreds of 2mm holes to help spread the water over the media surface. If you are making an extra large W/D filter then perspex or some other acrylic is ideal. Cheers Grant

Happy New Year, The following is a schematic of my tanks system that has been operating for 3 years now without a problem. It is only a 3 foot tank but how it works will be the same for a larger one, only difference would be the size of the equipment and tubes etc. The overflow works very well during the numerous powercuts we get here. I have yet to have the sump over flow or drain. A breather tube in the top of the U pipe is handy but not necessary if you used a curved pipe. Before the system is first turned on the inlet and outlet containers are filled with water then a small air tube can be threaded to the top of the U pipe and any air sucked out. I have only had to do this once when the system was first turned on since the inlet and outlet containers stay fill no matter what the water level. Most important though is the height of the exit tube in the outlet container - it must be higher then the U pipe ends! A minimum of 4 cm is a save bet. The system can be noisey but by having a tap on this exit tube (below the outlet container) the speed the water exits the outlet container can be adusted to avoid any vortex and air being sucked down. The inlet container is made from 6mm ply coated with epoxy. Outlet is a long tupperware container. All the other equipment came from the gardening and plumbing sections of a hardware store. One other tip, When the pumps are turned off the spray bar will start syphoning the water back down into the sump. By putting a small hole in the spray bar just below water level air will be let in when the tank drains below the hole and thus break the syphon. I don't see the point in drilling a tank when the overflow system works so well. Hope this gives you some ideas. Cheers Grant

Depends where you have your hole to break the syphon on your outlet pipes. If there is a power cut etc the water will syphon out of the tank the opposite way it normally flows, thus flooding out the sump. By putting a small hole in the outlet pipe about 1or 2cm below normal water level this syphon will break and the sump will only fill up to a certain level when the pump is off. You can measure the minimum litreage the sump will need to take by measuring the amount off water in the main tank above the level of this hole. (measure the same was as working out the litreage of your tank in total). I would recommend doubling the size of the sump to cope with partial blockages etc. Other then that, so long as any equipment that needs to be under water is covered you should be right. Of course the bigger the sump the better since it will stablise water parameters more (the more water in the system the less sudden fluctuations it will experiance). Hope this helps

Shakaya, Increasing C02 will not decrease the amount of Oxygen in the water. If you super saturate the water with C02 you can still dissolve the same amount of oxygen and visa versa. Forget the air stone. This will disrupt the water surface allowing the C02 to disolve out of the water. If your O level is ok for your fish before C02 then it will still be ok afterwards. Balance is the answer. Try to increase C02, Light and fertilisers at the same rate as plant the plant growth. Take things slowly with no sudden changes to one or the other. Handy calculator for CO2 http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm Hope this helps.

Thats cheap! They were $9.95 each at Jansons a few months ago. Got 4 myself but they ended up being eaten by the Banded Kokopu (expensive fish food!) I think they would be fine in the pond if the water quality is high enough and steady. Inanga live in very slow moving streams and backwaters with some closley related species living in lakes etc. Yes they do jump well and can squeeze out of small gaps so make sure there are plants for them to shelter under and be happy. You may not see them much in a pool though. In a tank they are an intelligent and amusing fish to keep.

They are legal to catch - not a protected species. Don't worry about traps etc, just head out to a shallow stream or bush drain at night (head torch is handy) and use a aquarium net. Just remember they crawl forward but shot backwards so to catch them put the net behind the shrimp and your hand in front of it. They will swim backwards to escape your hand and end up being caught in the net. Pick a small stream and you don't even have to get your feet wet! If you do get some avoid any medical treatment or plant fertilizer that contains copper (i.e. Ich treatment) - deadly for any shrimp or crays. Heres some more info: http://www.nzfreshwater.org/index_wildlife.html

If you can't see them in the local stream, go at night. Their eyes glow orange in torch light. You will be surprised how many there are living in that "barren" stream or bush drain. I wouldn't use the these shrimp in a tropical though, they don't like too much heat. In the tank they are fascinating creatures to watch and will survive quite happily on tank detritus. But they may seem to disappear now and again even if there is nothing big enough to eat them and you find a "dead body" drifting along the gravel. This is just their moulting stage and the shrimp will be fine and happy hidden away amongst the plants until its new fancy outfit hardens up. In my case I plan on getting some more soon. I know mine got eaten by counting how many times the Banded Kokopu's stomach bloated up without me feeding him. :roll: The plants have grown a lot more now so the shrimp will be able to hide better.

I'm using closed cell foam under mine instead of polystrene. It's just one of those cheap back packer mattresses from the Warehouse ($10 or something). It compresses slightly but works well in leveling the tank and providing a soft but stable pad for it. An advantage is that you can get it in a dull gray so if it is exposed you don't have a horrible white line under the tank.

You can always fill the hose from a tap then stick your thumbs over both ends. Carry it to the tank, put one end in the tank and the other in the bucket. No mouth full of water. Of course doing the sucking method is a good way of testing water parameters "Umm... it doesn't taste the same as last week, must be something wrong" :-? My way of cheating with water changes is to turn on the outside hose and then turn off the spray nozzle (fills the hose with water). Unplug the hose from the tap and drag the spray nozzle end into the house and aquarium. By removing the spray nozzle I have an instant syphon with the water heading into the garden. To full the tank, put the nozzle back on and make sure its off tight, plug in the tap end and turn on then back into the house to turn the nozzle on and full up the tank.

What ever I could lay my hands on Probably 20% ceramic noodles, 10% pumice and 70% cut up drinking straws. If I was to do it all again I would make it from 100% straws. The noodles can clog and are too expensive while the pumice lacks surface area and aren't that good with water flow. With the 5mm - 1cm straw sections, although they don't have as much surface area as the noodles they channel the water very well and there are no dry spots in the filter. Theres a lot more surface area with them then something like Bioballs. An added advantage is that I don't have to clean the filter at all (apart from the prefilter sponge).

I'm not to worried about C02 loss with a W/D. Currently running a DIY yeast system with a W/D filter. My readings range between 11 and 15ppm. I actually believe that C02 loss with a W/D is an old wives tale. Sure there is a lot of out gassing when the water trickles through the filter but C02 is heavier then air and will sink to the lowest part if there isn't to much air disturbance in the system. If the C02 sinks then it will come in contact with the water that it had just out gassed from and be reabsorbed. The only way C02 will be lost to the system is if there is air turbulence in the sump which can blow the C02 away from the water. Strong water movement (waterfall effect from baffles etc) could cause this air movement but if its a quite sump then there shouldn't be much loss. This article might interest you: http://www.hallman.org/plant/booth2.html Pic of my W/D filter and sump below:

Buzzy, Try your local garden centre. Glossostigma is used a lot for ponds and it will most likely be cheaper then the LFS (or at least you will get much more for the same amount of $) It will be potted in soil but that is easy enough to wash away with a hose.

Misnoma, don't worry about it. As Tankman said CO2 and O are independant thus the CO2 won't displace the O. Also although plants use O at night, the tank water should be so saturated with O during the day that what they remove during the night is to small to worry about. When plants pearl its the excess O that can't be dissolved in the supersatuated water. The main problem with excess CO2 in the night is PH swing. If your water has a high enough KH then it shouldn't be a major. Would be surprised if the Yeast system produces enough CO2 to be dangerous to the fish unless a large DIY bottle is used in a very small tank.

Balance, Balance, Balance. Finding it is the main problem. Somewhere in the system you have an excess or a shortage or both. In my opinion the C02 would be the least likely suspect. First thing to do before making any changes is measure the Nitrate and Phosphate levels. If the plants have taken off then I don't think Nitrate would be too high. But algae loves phosphate and when I have problems this is normally the problem. Now you can cut down on ferts and feeding or you can up the other nutrients without adding phosphate. Since you have been away for a while then I suspect the plants have used up all the other macros leaving an excess of phosphate for the algae to take advantage off. Take a reading to be sure. IMO the solution is to clean out as much algae as you can find then add more Nitrate while keeping everything else the same. The plants will continue to grow at even a faster rate while sucking up the excess phosphate and starving out the algae. If you want to slow the plant growth rate then all the inputs (light C02 & ferts ) have to be decreased by the same amount. I.e. Balance. Hope this helps.

If you have 2 Skunk Loachs then the will spend all their time picking (playing?) with each other and leave the other fish alone. Well, at least that is what happened in my tank.

Version 2 Main Changes: Had to come up with another idea for the chiller tank since the previous one sprung a leak. This ones just a click clack container which has had the lid siliconed on and one end cut off. Cut up the old chiller tank to make a mount for it. The green stuff is anti-freeze. Couldn't find the non-toxic stuff so just used car anti-freeze. There is nowhere in this system where the anti-freeze can leak or contact the aquarium water. All joins in the tubes are external. Have had the anti-freeze down to -8C before mushy ice started to form. Internally the evaporator coil is wrapped with 8m of clear tubing. Additionally I flattened a piece of 5" stainless pipe, blocked off the ends and have the water circulating in there. Ideally a stack of 1/2" stainless pipe on both side of the evaporator should be used since the plastic tubing is a fairly good insulator but 5m of s/s pipe would have cost another $45. Tapping off the main pump outlet didn't produce enough pressure to circulate the water through the system so a dedicated pump had to be installed. This is self defeating in a way since each additional pump in the sump (I now have 3) heats the water, but it means that I can have a strong flow through both the chiller and aquarium. To disguise things I made a cabinet out of scrap ply to fit over it. Will replace the air grid in the back with something black sometime in the future. The cabinet is larger then the chillers since I want to move all the timers and power boards from the sump area into there. Does it work? Yes. Not as efficient as it could be but it with the fan in the light hood I can now keep the aquarium 10C below room temperature. Total cost for version 2 is just under $200. Another $50 would make it much more effective.

Don't know to much about the swords but they root in the gravel so a lot of their nutrients will come from there. Instead of a rooted plant try a floating one. Water Sprite http://www.tropica.dk/productcard_1.asp?id=005A would be ideal for your purpose. You will only need one small peice and within a month would have stocked all your other tanks and started to use it as compost in the garden. It can be planted but prefers to float around. Very hardy and it has the advantage over other floaters like duck weed since it is easy to harvest and get rid off if needed. Indian Fern is another name sometimes used for it.