Pies

I have one in my tank. They consume coraline algae. Mine only comes out at night. Would I keep it? Yes particualy if your tank is big enough that a little loss of coraline isn't a big deal to you. If you want to find it a new home sing out, i'd take it. Pie

Anthony - Easy Egg Crate - You want to only use the non-coated stuff. Costs $15.00 per sheet, available from Mulford Plastics in the Hutt. All the plumbing you nee can be found at Mico Plumbing & Pipelines in lower Hutt (Parliament Street). WARNING - They are grumpy buggers, make sure you know what you want before you go in (name and size) and don't expect them to refund your mistakes more than once. I can help you out, it can be daunting but easy when you know how. Food for fish and coral - You are so far away from needing this its not funny. For a begineer I suggest flake (Lower Hutt Pet Centre) or frozen Brineshrimp (Lower Hutt Pet Center). Forget feeding corals for now, its a long way off for you. Overflow box. Cactus plastics or any of the 3 plastics placed on Sydney street in Petone. Plastic will cost between $0-$20 depending on size and colour. Folding included in that price. Cut a comb out with a hack saw/dremal and a drill or get it laser cut add $80.00. Easy peasy mate. Pies

I think its called 'The Natural Reef Aquairum' by Tullock. Its the same company (TFH?) that did the Bourneman Corals book and the Fenner book and the Clownfish book. I also have this book if you want to borrow it

I spent $135.00 on plumbing today. 1x 50mm tank inlet (bulkhead), 1x male thread to slip 50mm, 1x female thread to slip 50mm, 1x 25mm femal thread to 50mm male thread, 1metre of 50mm pressure pipe. Thats it. Then add $90.00 for a 50mm union tap. So thats $225.00 for the plumbing from my sump to my return pump (not the plumbing from the return pump to the tank!). Less than 1 metre of plumbing for $225.00. Would I buy 2nd hand plumbing? Hell yes. Pies

RnB. I have it, you can borrow it as soon as its returned to me. Good book for beginners, very little relivent for the more experanced though. Bob fenner is a good author. A better book using the same format is the Tullock version. Its a few years newer, and for me, the bible to modern reefkeeping, where as the Fenner book is a little older (You must use bio-balls etc). Pie

Jousting sticks?

Wrong. Pies

Be nice to see the photos from the same angle and with the same light and exposure etc. Hard to tell from the photos as they are so different. Good to see some colour potential though. Pie

I got around the cabinet not fitting by using a crane and bringing it through a window. However Brian, if you still thinking of moving wouldn't you be better of waiting until you find a house? I mean shame to buy a new tank etc then have to go through the hastle of moving it, then find out it doesn't fit the spot in the new house or looks silly. Just some thoughts. Piez

Chimera - Lots of people using lighting systems on rails. I looked at it, but don't have the skills to get in running. Reef - Why not stagger the 400s, front back front back etc like on mine. I like the 400s more than the 250s, but its a different tank so hard to know if it has really made much difference. The bulb replacement cost of 8x250 is why i didn't go this way in the end. My acros grow anywhere in the tank, and my tank is 950 wide. SteveA - Need to pop over for a look first hand, looking awesome. PS: Whos that good looking fella in all of the photos? Pie

POMEREEF - Like the pictures 2 pages back? Pies

Thanks guys. The tank is comming along really well. The cabinet upstairs is finished and all looking great. The tank itself, to me, still has a long way to go. But corals are growing, colour is looking reasonable, and I will be making more of an effort once the sump has been moved. Been a bit up and down with the tank though, and at the moment I would say its OK. A long way to get before I am truely happy with it. POMEREEF - Yes its been a long expensive and time consuming project. But I think all the planing etc has paid off. Can't wait to start with my clownfish breeding program Pieman

Agree with Cracker, Nitrite is a poison for the fish. Pie

800 is MEGA deep. Also check the glass calculator, probably need 12mm+ glass thickness. Pies

Don't forget that with some of these pumps (not sure about the sequence) but certainly for the dolphins, they claim that if you use plumbing smaller than 40mm than the pumps performance is reduced by 60%. They are no good with any pressure. 40mm is a big pipe for a closed loop. About that 110v, never used it so I don't know. Sounds like a hastle to me, but not experance myself. Pie

JetSkiSteve has one of these anemones in his own tank. Stunning. Pies

Car analogy is poor at best, what about dogs or cats? What if pet stores were selling dogs or cats that had a less than 90% chance of survival, and that 90% slowly starved to death or dies over months from slow poisoning. Now if people were buying dogs or cats that died in this mannor because the pet-stores were not correctly informing their customers on the right way to care for these animals, you are saying that would be solely the responsibility of the owners? Would the customer have brought these animals if they knew their survival rates and the fact that they would be treated with contempt. These animals are in our care, and I am glad the 'hard ones' are around, so the more advanced and responsible pet owners can try to keep them. However I do get annoyed by stories like this, when someone is buying an animal, only to subject it to poor environment, ultimatly dooming it to a slow and painfull death. But thats just my opnion, and I am not pointing the finger or blaming anyone (customer, wholesaler, importer, exporter). But its food for through all the same. Pies

Why? Because there is money it it. We pull hundreds of thousands of tons of fish from the ocean to kill and eat, whats a few anemones if someone can make a buck. Chance of survival is not a factor considered, can I sell it is. Pies

Question - Why 1100? Why not 1250? 1100 means you will be using 3 foot tubes with dead space each end. 1250 is just over 4 feet, so you will have room for the 4 foot tubes and they will be snug but not tight. Using the Oceans Motions on a retun pipe would be for kamakazi pilots only. Just go 'up and over' for the return pipe. Looks fine and you can add a sea swirl or whatever else you may think is cool later on when budget allows. I would add that I would not be without the Sea Swirls, for me they are a must have. Pie

Heya Reef, any indication on cost? Approx.

$250.00 per KG? Surely not.

I'll take a punt at answering a few questions: Its only a small tank, 1 overflow will be ample. My tank (1500 litres) has 1, and its driven by an IWAKI 100. 40mm hole. I would say, use one, use a 32mm hole (40mm standpipe), and you will have more capacity than you could ever use. Overflow boxes vs. weir. Seems to be some confusion about what these 2 things mean. Again symantecs I know, so I will explain this as my own difference. Overflow box is the box in the tank normally housing a standpipe, overflow requires the tank to be drilled. Weir, a syphon driven device used to get water out of the tank 'safley' without the necessity to drill. With that out of the way, personnaly weirs are dangerous (syphon could break, floods ensue). So we are now onto overflows. I would check richard dursos site, and read all about DURSO standpipes and overflows. Combs ONLY at the top, if at the bottom the tank could drain, water level at the top of the tank could flucuate, getting water pressure right for even flow would be difficult. Hope that helps. Have a read through my thread, there are some pics etc of my overflow and Durso, and I honestly belive there is no better way to do it. I think you will find that this is also the concencious, with approx 90% of all people with sumps using this system. It works. If you get stuck or are confused about anything, drop me a line, glad to help. Have build 5 of these now, all have worked out perfectly. Even know where to get the boxes made cheap Running water returning from sump under rock? I would say its a poor idea. Could drain the tank, take away a lot of pump pressure because of excessive distace, would look bad (you would see the pipe returned into the tank. Bad idea. Closed loop doing the same thing however would be a great idea! You can either stealth the return at the top, or I would reccomend using a Sea Swirl device, these things are excellent. Pie

Briananemone - You probably won't get any different results with ROWA than with any of the other phosphate resins. ROWA is popular becuase it can be fluidised, which is a popular method in Eurpoe for ringing the life out of the media I am looking at adding it to my own tank, running a kg or 2 at a time. Mind me asking what 100g is worth and where you got it? Cheers Pie

I have 5 anemones. They will find their own spot. Chimeras comments above are fair. You should have a well lit aquairum (with pristine stable water conditions) before the introduction of the anemone, so it can find its own home. At least thats what my own experance has shown me. Feeding an anemone. You can kill them with too much food. I havn't fed mine in over 15 months, all are looking well. I would reccomend not feeding them. Pies

I guess its how fine is the right fineness to colled plankton? And because they are microscopic how would you know? Pie