sharronpaul

Hi Sharn, yep, it's my work, but was an expensive excercise, $300 for materials alone. If you don't care what your stand looks like though, it's so much cheaper.

missed out on the real big one in auckland. We're going with a cichlid tank for now, maybe in a while we can have both. BTW I need to get another glass cutter, then will make patches for this tank for you. Prolly by this weekend?

Thanks, Caryl and Steve. Yes, Rogan, it's in our lounge - you'd recognise that carpet anywhere! :lol: We're planning our big green sev, some silver dollars, some chocolate cichlids (thanks, mystic!) and a 35cm sailfin plec. And maybe some jewels if they work with the tank. Other than that, we're waiting for fish to jump out and say "yes, pick me! pick me!" :lol:

With all the discussion re MDF stands, this is our new 6 foot cichlid tank, 340L, on a stand constructed of 18mm mdf, with an internal frame of 50x50 pine. Please excuse the lack of a hood (under construction) and the ugly 70's carpet (sadly there for the duration) Stand is sealed, and then painted in textured metallic finish.

Hi Aquab welcome

We have used energy savers to light tanks... The only 6400k lamps I've found is the "Budget" brand at the supermarket. Have run them for a while with no problems. Cheap, easy and idiot-proof.

I'm not sure, got him off mitch when he came up from down south on sunday. Also got a wicked-sized sevrum, about 5" long and 4" high, and a couple of others (chocolate cat and upside down) as well. Have them in isolation (sev is in separate tank!) but not sure what they were like in the tank mitch picked them up from. Sev could be guilty! I honsetly thought he didn't come with a tail, he was so happy.

Yep, his tailfins must have been real tasty, cos he has none! He's real friendly, follows hands along the glass, and greedy. His tail ends in a bit of a stump, no fins at all. Not even a skerrit of one.

We picked this one up at an auction on sunday - we were told the name, but have forgotten unfortunately. Can somebody please help? It's maybe 6 or 7 inches long, and has wicked barbels almost as long as it's body. At the mo, it's in with a chocolate cat and an upside down cat, in a bb tank.

We've seen these fish sold as black line flying foxes (crossocheilus siamensis) and they're not too bad for price - retail $12-$15 each, and they're great.

When to change the heater? Before the contacts weld together and you come home to a tank at 36 degrees... Thankfully it was only guppie feeders, but still. Heater was maybe 18mths old max, good brand, no signs of damage or wear aside from being stuck on. We now check the temps of all our tanks every day or so. (Managed to save all the guppies, icepacks and cold water over a time brought the temps down to a sensible level)

In our experience, MDF will swell (as we found out a little while ago) when it gets wet. It also goes all mushy and lises it's strength. Plywood isn't much more expensive and is reasonably permanent.

Was great to meet you guys from the dark side.... Hope to catch up with you guys in hamilton some time in the near future. Maybe next time you come over here, we'll be at the stage where we can offer chocolate muffins like our tokoroa cousins

(madly mops up drool) Enough to satisfy even the most serious MTS!

Perhaps someone has been here before.... I'm throwing around ideas for our next fishroom. The scale is reasonably substantial but not that important, it will have multiple tanks with independent filtration with each tank. instead of having independent heaters for each tank, I'm thinking of using an infinity water heater and a stainless pipe running the circumference of the fishroom, with a loop/coil in each of the tanks. I've had a bad experience with recirculating sumps, the time taken in cleaning filters and waterchanges with independent tanks is not an issue for us. Even though I'm leaning towards everything being independent, I'm open to suggestions/ideas/advice on recirculating systems. What do you guys think?

The power bill is a bit extreme. However, we are running 4 rooms (my first post was a bit misleading, only mentioned two). Jim the tank cleaner only does the first two as the others are spawning/fry tanks. and require a delicate touch. The fourth room is about to be mothballed, we need more two footers - have some 300L tanks to get rid of, them can restart it and get cranking.

Have also used elto power boards and timers. Power boards are okay if you want to plug something in and leave it, but no good for unplugging and plugging in again. In short they're crap IMHO. Elto timers are a good thing to use to weigh down that those plants that constantly break free and float to the surface.

Hi Ludachris, We have a converted garage that we've made into a fishroom with 20x240L growon tanks. We decided on independent filtration and heating for the lot (we have somebody to do the waterchanges so time taken to change is not an issue), just in case one of the tanks got a bug - we didn't want it spreading. Before we installed the tanks, we were able to insulate the walls with poly, and some of the roof. Then the tanks arrived, and the temptation to get them up and running was too much, we didn't finish the insulation job. As yet we haven't done the rest of the roof - always seems to be something more important to do. Then the other day a power bill arrived - it's the first read account since we powered up the room - $730 for 31 days. So, we have some poly sheets arriving from styrobeck in auckland, and we're going to finish the insulation job this weekend. The poly cost $76.00 plus $12 freight. The moral of the story for us... Do it properly or it'll cost you bigtime. And the waterchanges? It takes him 4hrs a week to do that room and another with 14 tanks. Not really that bad. I guess with a sump system it might be a bit less labour intensive though.

What is the chances of getting some extra and we could split the cost? I have no problems, would rather get these things before I have any problems.....

I know you can re-use carbon if you heat it to like 500 degrees, is the same true of zeolite?

I did an experiment once - put two angels in bags, in a polybox, and put outside the door. For 48 hrs. They were cold but fine.

Hi Aquanut, We're in Tga, have just set up our garage with some growout tanks and if you like you can come and see our garage and rooms. Still need to finish bits and pieces but you'll get the basic idea. If your room is very well insulated, you will have a problem with heat, not cold. PM us if you like. Cheers, Paul and Sharron

It's like daniel said above, it's in their terms and conditions that they are not liable for any losses incurred with perishable items (incl live fish) but they are pretty good. Most of our stuff in the nth island arrives same day, the only overnight from tga is lower hutt/wellington and the extreme top of the nth island. Your fish will be fine, sharn.

Hi guys, We've used NZ couriers for our fish from day one, sent hundreds of packages with them, with no problems. Used fastway once and once only. Thoroughly reccomend NZ Couriers for live fish and reasonably priced too.

Let me qualify my statement a little... Our fish rooms are all at pretty much fixed temperatures year round, and a finger is a good comparative measure between tanks. Crap? Not really, just a reflection of the fact that despite being subjective a finger is a quick check, and if you want to know the temp exactly you should use a thermometer in any case.