Pies

Maybee you should be nicer to them When I got my bottles tested BOC did it all for me. They said 'sorry mate, these are out of test so I can't really fill em'. I said 'dood what can I do'. He said get it tested, which they took care of for me, no problem. C02 is not dangerous, its what pubs use to put the fizz in coke. $120 a year for a fish room like Reefs would be fine, one of those tall bottles would last about 5 years without being filled! There are places other than BOC to try, we have ROCK gas here that also do it. Auckland must have several others. Good luck. pies

BOC gasses will fill any bottle as long as its in test. It costs $35 to have the tank tested, including the fill. This MUST be done every 5 years for C02. I have 2, 1 Dupla and 1 other. A C02 bottle is just a bottle, you can use anything (fire extinguisher, dive tank, anything you can find) as long as its been certified. Last time I had one tested it took 3 days for them to get it back to me. Not to much of a hastle. I take them to BOC, they fill as I wait. They do both for $12.00. Last me approx 9 months (the smaller for the freshwater). Pie

My spelling is off (surprise!). Majano. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/otherpstanemfaqs.htm Its the first time I have had them, but many people have problems with them much worse the aipstasia. Although they are quite pretty. Pieman

Crap? Bit harsh. under gravel heating has many advantages, from what I have read. However unless you a MEGA serious about you planted tank, then the standard glass heater is a better option. Another advantage of under tank heaters is you don't see them in the tank. Caryl and her husband use them to great effect, and they are DIY. I am sure she can help if this is they way you are going. Pie

I brought rock from Steve. Having seen'Chris" tank before I knew it was good rock. I brought 40kg. I had a few Aipstasia (arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) and a LOT of Marjano Anemones. I hope I don't get back from holiday and find out thats all that survived! Overall at $10 per KG its cheaper than buying dead white rock from a pet shop, and its ready to go. Get in while the getting good. Pieman

Well we have finished moving, and my reef tank is setup temporally in the garrage. The move itself went 'OK', but I have lost 2 fish and at least 2 corals, and I suspect I may loose a few more yet. This is very dissapointing and very disheartening. With all the tanks and drama, there was over 300kg of rock, 1200 litres of saltwater plus all the equipment. I would like to say a very big thanks to the following people: Chris Downs, Sarah Downs & Tim Downs - WOW! The Downs family have gone beyond the call of duty and have helped me with the tank move more than is reasonable and well beyond the call of friendship. Without their help I would not have been able to do it. Thanks very much guys. Ralph Cerecke & Chris Bromley - Mussle for the big tank move. Thanks for being 'on call'. Jane Rattee - My partner and all around helper outerer. When I had stoped Jane kept working, without here help, orginasiation and support I would have got no where. JetSkiSteve for helping plan some of the logistics, supplying me with some equiment I needed to move the tank, providing pumps, filter media and listening to all my madness. Alois - Offered some good advice and support when things were getting tuff. Everyone on this board (OK maybee not everyone) but everyone who contributed to helping me with the move, the planning of the new tank and general support and advice. Anyone I missed? Sorry! What did I learn? NEVER move, EVER. See you in fiji. Pies

Melanotaenia - www.wises.co.nz has a free online map service. Very easy to use, very good, ohhh and its free! Looks like the Kapimana club is going nuts with new members! Need to get some more slatwater tanks into the fold! Pies

Now that Steve has finished his work for now, he has a new job. Locate and buy all equipment for piemans new tank. Come on Steve, you can do better than $300! muhahahahaha... Pie

Halides are the same lamps used for street lighting, incase you wanted to see what they look like. The a big, bright and consume mega amounts of power! Whoohooo. 600 deep, 250watt minimum for hard coral. Cost. Well the sky is the limit. If you want a 'good looking' unit, Reef is the man to talk to, he has just brought some 2nd hand units and they are quite good value, I suspect he wants about $1000.00 for them each. Halide bulbs cost over $130ea cheap, and in pet stores can cost over $300.00ea. Expensive? Depends on how you look at it, they are actually the best 'value' lights available, in that more light per watt consumed. However this depends on how you measure 'light', some may argue. DIY? this is the route I am going down I suspect. DIY lighting can cost less than $250 per light including bulb. You will have to build a reflector and be a sparky though. Running costs... I have calculated that its cheaper for me to use 4x 400 watt lights than 5x 250 watt lights (Which I was going to use). Bulb replacement and initial purchase are killers. Lighting is the bane of my new tank design at the moment. Good luck to you. Could be my last post for a while, will be joining Steve in Fiji for 2 weeks of diving and sweet FA. Piefiji

My UPS has saved my bacon (pig fish?) a few times. As stated I only run mine for the 1 return pump, nothing else is important to me. Chimera - I would not reccomend running a heater on a UPS, even if it was a massive UPS. o2 and not flooding my sump are whats important to me. Many people in the USA suggest that Battry powered aip pumps are key to surviving a power cut, if you need to heat the tank, a GAS heater can do this for ya. Sounds like good advice to me. I can also get UPS at wholesale prices, or you can make your own, if your that way inclined. battries for UPS are not expensive. I would look around 2nd hand. Pieman.

Bula Well Fiji is just 5 days away for Jane and I, and we couldn't be more excited. I was just woundering if there was an itiniary of events planed or if its just going to be 'take it as it comes' when we get there. Even though its a few weeks away for the rest of you, its just a few days for us, so if there are plans, dates, activities etc please let us know soon. Pies

bump. Anyone?

To get the thread back on track, I would reccomend an Ehiem 1262. I use 2 of these for sump returns. If you are paying more than $400 for these pumps you are paying to much, get hold of me 'I know some people'. As a sump return I agree with what Chimera said, its a maximium for the plumbing, not a minimum. My system has about 9 Ehiem pumps running on it, and its no accident that companies like Korallin and Deltec use these pumps. They present the best 'value' on the market. Value however does not equate to be the cheapest at the point of purchase. I try and get the most out of my pumps, hence the reason I use gravity so much. I feed the tank via the Ehiems, then I feed the skimmer via gravity (3000 litres an hr), my mechnical filteration and my Zeovit are all fed via gravity. And they also circulate water through my Sea Swirls and SCWDs so I am using them as much as possilbe. Yes Ehiem are expensive but its not for nothing. They work for ever, spare parts are available here in NZ (and often locally), and they are suitably powerfull. The 1262 is the biggest, the 1264 is not available yet. Get the ehiem, NEVER worry about it again. Pies

I find this subjecy so confusing! Any chance of an answer? FINAL CONFIRMED DIMENTIONS - 2140Lx900Wx700H 12mm all around. The base support will be 10mm and will 'insert' inside the tank, thus giving the sides twice the glass to glue too, and making the base 22mm thick (12mm with 10mm on top). The lid will be braced in the sides and center. What say you Warren? Am I safe? I don't understand this 2.2 saftey factor. What we need is 'glass thickness for dummies'.

My tank is a standard 3ft tank too. Its not very wide, doesn't need to be. Just make the front (refugium) about 60% of the tank, and the baffles at the back. Longer spacing of the baffled. My back compartment is wide enough to place an ehiem 1262 in (infact I use 2 side by side). This was my soultion to make the most of my light, while using the tank I had. Has worked well for over 12 months, and will consider similar again. More advice? Where you feed the water in, don't do it through the top. Drill the side, and but in a bluckhead and an elbow facing down (near the end of the tank). This will reduce 'splash' which means salty nastyness everywhere. Even better would be to have the pipe in through the elbow nearing the bottom of the tank, spash can be a real pain, in both mess and in noise. Good luck, looks like your getting close. Ohh also, I just used persepcs for the dividers, not glass. Even though persepcs doesn't glue too well to glass, it glues just fine for baffles and dividers and a drill bit set for holes is about $7 from Mitre 10. Pie

1 sump! Half as many things can go wrong. The problem with running 2 sumps from one tank its it will be to hard to gain 'ballance'. Also if a pipe is clogged or slows down, you may get an overflow out of the other sump because twice the water is being sent down it. The only realy way to be safe is to feed (via overflow) the 2nd sump from the first sump. This way the 'cascade' effect still works, and gravity will do its thing. I would reccomend using 1 sump, with 2 partitions, 1 for equipment, the 2nd of refugium (I assume thats why you want 2?). You 'could' do 2 sumps but I think there is some danger associated with it, I personally wouldn't be willing to take the risk. YMMV. Good luck Pies

Chimera - Thats pretty much 'stock standard' sump design! It will work fine. Comments: The space between the dividers is important. The closer they are together, the faster the water flows through it. If the flow is to fast, air bubbles don't get a chance to rise as they get sucked through the fast water flow, if you know what I mean? Lighting - I know I have mentioned this, but to remake a point. If you are using a 3ft tank, and are using a 3ft light, then you will have light in you baffles, which means algae and feather dusters etc. I would rethink you sump. Here is what I suggest: You can use 2ft lights over the refugium section. But I suspect you have the 3ft lights? So... Try this: This is the sump design I am currently using, and it works perfectly. 2 mistakes made. The center divider should have run right to the top of the tank (or higher) and been made of something to not let light through. My baffles should have been lower as I would have liked to run less water actually in the sump (reverse syphon protection). I have egg crate over the 'inputs' to place filter wool when needed. I put carbon etc pegged to these baffles. This is also where I have my heaters and my probes. No light in here helps keep things clean. Looking good. Pies

Brendon - couldn't remeber what you were using, but I did put a plug in for your media! Chimera - The reactor up from the 1501 from Korallin (the 3000?) is supposed to be much better. I remember reading on www.thereefweb.com that they had trouble with the 1501 being big enough for their 180gallon/700 litre tank. Bigger is better, I am glad I brought the 4001, and now I am going for a bigger tank, the reactor can stay, YAY! Piemania

Chimera - I am pretty busy at the moment, however I am in the market for 4x 400watt MHs and bulbs. Get me a price and tack that on to your order, should help get things fairly close to the 2k mark. Busypie

My new sumps will total about 800 litres of water Sumps are a GREAT idea, far less practical in freshwater though, requires some planing and a good idea of exactly what you expect to keep in your tank. UV doesn't just kill bacterria and algae. It also has an effect on certail other properties in water. For example if you are dosing liquid iron and fertiliser supliments with your c02 injection system to boost plant growth, the UV will sterilise it. I have used UV and had major problems with the ballance of iron and plant growth. As soon as the UV came off, everything returned to normal. I think UV has its place, perhapps ciclid tanks that have no plants but often problems with aglae are a good option? In fish only marine systems that you want to be sterile they are still popular. Also they can treat whitespot and other pests. c02 injectors are used to increase c02 additions to the water. uesefull in heavy planted tanks with light fish loads. Often the pictures you see of planted tanks use c02. Its important to remember than c02 alone is not the soultion, there are lots of other things to consider. also c02 has a negitive side too. Pie

Note sure if anything like that will exist (outside of garden hose Y connectors). You may have to attach a tap to the 2 parts of the T you need to control. I would reccoment the use of 'union taps' available through MICO at about $30ea. These taps have union fittings and can be used to disconnect plumbing while maintaining a seal. I am using dozens of these taps and they are great at it lets would disconnect plumbing without any mess or fuss. Also if you environment changes you can just change the one bit of plumbing without the need to replace it all. It can get expensive if your using pressure piping. If your using 20mm pipe, use the 19mm black stuff from garden centers. Looks great, works great, cheap and lots of fitting available for little. Taps for $10ea, T connetors and elbows found at any mitre 10. Pie

Chimera - I've set a few sumps up now and have some thoughts: I don't see any problem with the angle, but I think you may find it a bit awkward, why no glue the divider on top of the supports? Fill the hole in with silicone or another piece of glass. Because of the way that gravity works, bubbles and the likes, I would consider the use of a baffle. So you drop the water over say 2 or 3 dividers, less splash, and a great way to channel the water for things like carbon and phosphate resins. In the final compartment (above the hole going out) glue some supports to the side, and put some egg crate in. Then if you want to run filter wool (which I do for a few days a week) then you just drop it on. Easy access means it will be easy to remove it. You have a center brace, because the tank isn't going to be even close to full you could remove it. I still have a centre brace and its a REAL PAIN, knock it out. Lighting? I assume that you want to light the sump/refugium? Lighting is fine, but the problem with light is Algae. So paint the outside glass and use dark glass / plastic for dividers to contain the light. Otherwise its a real hastle. I am sure you understand what I mean. Good luck Pieman

I feed my CA reactor via gravity. You should restrict the flow on the CA reactor from the 'out' not the 'in' as this helps keep water pressure higher in the reaction chamber and prevents air pockets and build up of Co2 in the chamber (which can 'stall' the reactor). Many people feed their CA reactors witha peri pump. I use gravity, I have 'John Guest' fittings from the overflow chamer in my tank down to the reactor. This gives me perfect results and is always a constant flow (gravity is good like that!). I am using a Korallin 4001 and am very happy with it, Nick uses a Aquamedic, Steve uses a dupla and Alois uses some hybrid monster. I am sure that all of these brands are fine, I like the design of the Korallin as its designed to prevent addition of c02 into the tank, negating the need of a secondary chamber (I use one anyway, made out of a Pump water bottle, also has phosphate resin in it). My only advice would be to buy a reactor that is overkill for the tank, I have read that many manifactures under rate their products (no surprise there!). Also remember that the larger the reactor chamber, the more media you can put in it, so the less often you have to fill it up (I have had mine running for 7 months without having to touch it). Also a larger reactor allows you to use different media too, I am using some magnesium chips, which disolve the same as the calcium and help maintain my magnesum at about 1300, so no more additions. to keep it up. Brendon is selling this stuff, its fairly reasonably priced and comes with the 'pieman aa aproved product' logo. Good luck, CA reactors are a good kit. Piemania

But coke is wet, brown and fizzy?

How come for me? I have 3 floating maganets! I even have the 'mod' going with a magfloat and a boyu so I can use the bigger maganet on the inside (Steve was most impressed). Piemania