Pies

Thanks dogmatix. I will be in Auckland Tue or Wed next week. Will drop in on the way back to the airport, be late afternoon, hope you will be about. Pie

Anyone? Photos of anything? Tank? Fish? Coral? Algae? Sump? Skimmer? Lights? Cabinets? I would love to see pics from the rest of you! Reef? JetSkiSteve? NickS? Westy1? Wasp? Ira? Suphew? SteveA? Briananomne? And everyone else I missed. Come on! Pics! Pie

Plumbing advice from Chimera... Pies j/k

Agoh - You are talking about the 'Aquairum World' magizine, which is free for any paid member for the FNZAS, and for me a good enough reason to join a FNZAS affiliated club. I belong to the Kapi Mana club with my partner Jane and like to think of my articles as our clubs contribution to the Aquairum World magizine. I have been writing for this publication for the last 15 months. The most recent article features the tank being installed and setup including the crane photos etc from this thread. Join a FNZAS affiliated club and you will receive the mag, simple. Pie NOTE: My website is down right now, lack of time and energy, I want to do something with it, just don't have the time. Anyone out there care to build me a new site? I will of course provide all content.

Having done this a few times with SCWD here is what I would do. I would use 15 or 20mm for the SCWD inputs, NO VALUE in going larger. I would reccomend using it as a closed loop, not as part of the sump return, this is how we modded my old tank (bellow) for Suphews setup. Lots of positive reasons to do it this way. Check this thread for how I built it: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... 95&start=0 Pies

Cool thanks for the correction and info. Layton, it appears that some people have found this easier to keep than the goni's, which is very encouraging as its such a nice coral. DiverJohn - You won't need a drysuit Piemania

Some midway shots you say? Nothing but love for the acros, particulary this acro: Goniopora coral - Some say near impossibe to keep, time will tell. Anyone with hits or times sing out, love to hear it. Suphew and I watched the clowns lay eggs again today: This photo shows the femail actually laying the egg onto the rock with her ovipositor: Enjoy Pie

Small cricket looking things are amphipods and copepods. All good, great at eating fish poo, provide food for fish and coral. Its a great sign that you tank has so much life. Good work, nothing to be worried about, infact exactly the oposite, excellent news.

Mitch Hard to know without knowing what coral you want to keep. Anyone who has seen my tank knows my Acropora are doing really well, I have sufficient current but its not a washing machine. I am also keeping LPS corals (hammers, bubbles, torch) etc with great success. I think if I added more current the SPS (acro, monti) would probably benift, but at the detriment of the LPS. If what you have is healthy and doing well, then probably avoiding having hands in the tank and tinkering is more important that more current. Also you want the tank to look like a tank, not a powerhead farm. TUNZE STREAMS - There is a reason why they are so popular. Perhapps adding 1 or 2 of these and removing the rest is a better option. You can control their power (so they scale to larger projects down the line , and the consume little power and its a good (lamainar) flow for the tank. They are expensive but easy to endorse. More is not always better, but it is always more. Pie

Details about my move are somewhere on this site. It cost me a fortune, my mates labour bills required a BBQ and much beer. Also lost 2 fish (pixy hawkfish, 6line wrasse) and numerous corals including helofungi, several acropora, montipora and some other small frags that were litteraly lost. NEVER again. Pie

We are not sure. It has 1 stripe, black pectoral fins. Some sort of 'tomato clow' which only narrows it down slightly... Currently there is: 1x clown, 1x bi-color blenny, 3x pajama cardinals. He plans to add cleaner shrimp, tang (purple/kole), 6line and clown mate. Pies

Yeah they are great fish, no doubt about it. Pie

Went to Suphews place last night and took my camera, shame I didn't take a little more time as this is really the only photo worth showing: The tank is my old LF&Frag tank. Single corner overflow, 980lx600hx400w, was made at the same time as IRAs tank, same dimentions but 1 foot shorter. Its really starting to look nice and is doing well. It was sold with the sandbed in tact and its bristleing with life, with copepods & mysiids visible in the main tank. Pie

IRA - This is a common problem with the LMB, they often slowly starve to death. Not many happy stories with these fish in smaller/clean tanks. I might have a soultion, in a roundabout kinda way. My sump has an algae problem. It seems to be being used as the Wellington 'storage and recooperation' station. Bring it around and let him beef up maybee. Can't think of anything else to do? Pie

Kalkwasser is less than $100 per 25kg. You probably want a little less though, lots of people here have it. NOTE: You should probably have some to mix with your freshwater anyway, cheapest way to buffer the tank and add calcium. Pie

I get very good success with the kalkwasser paste and syringe, in fact I am confident to say currently I have 0 aipstasia. Taken over a year to get them all but currently I am aware of none. Pies

Good luck. I think the theory is that there are millions of lifeforms growing on the surface of the kelp the release into the water and provide food. The mix will spoil but have no idea how long it takes before it may need replacing. Piemania

Chikan - Live food as small as rotifers can be hard. I know someone who does this for clownfish, not sure if its much use to you. He takes seaweed (wet) from the beech or rockpools hom with a bucked on NSW. He said he loads the bucked so its about 50/50 kelp/water. Hir stirs thebucket every day. The life thats growing on the kelp releases into the bucket and he feeds the babies with this until they are large enough to take the artimedia. Not sure if this is of any help at all. Cheers pie

Yes and no. There is evidence of 1 in 1984 in the Poor Knights, its the only one ever seen or know of in these waters. Lion Fish are listed as uncommon in the Kermidec Islands. These are the only 2 places in NZ water were Lionfish have been sighted. It would be ilegal to take them from either place as both a reserves and sancturays. That being said, most of us know someone with Lionfish here in NZ. Not as unusual as you may think. Pie EDIT - There are no clownfish or tropical shrimps.

Daniel - Having bends etc under the 'bulkhead' is fine. Of course this can have an effect on the water flow but it won't effect the way in which the standpipes work. If your using 36mm plumbing (never heard of 36mm you sure its not 32mm?) then you actual standpipe needs to be larger (e.g. I use a 40mm bulkhead and a 50mm pipe). I am sure it will be fine, most of us don't have the water dropping straight into the sump. In my example mine drops through the standpipe into an elbow, then another pipe then an elbow then into the skimmer before the skimmer drains into the sump. Works fine. Good luck Pies

Perky - You killed the Mantis? What a shame. If anyone else comes across any matis shrimp let me know, i'll take em, pay postage etc. pie

Dan, your own personal tank is PN? You don't want a 'bird nosed wrassee' for it do you? Free to a good home. Might be able to get you a few frags to start you off. Pie

Great news! For 'all' of us. Pie

Yeah you'll have to work a lot harder to offend me. Its a hobby and people spend money on them. If someone they spent 30k on a car no-one would take notice. Whatever spins your wheels Pie

Union coupling.