skippy

Dunno if i'm doing it wrong but I use water straight from the sky . Roof collection system, thru the water tanks and pump, through the pipes and out of the tap Mix with ASW (2 cups to 20 litres) and toss in an occasional 20 litres of fresh water to keep the salinity right. Doesn't seem to cause any problems. If you have a big tank and buy water to add in it is going to get &*%@# expensive. Also, research has shown that the bottled stuff is not much better than standard tap water (without the chlorine! but salt mix dechlorinates that anyway)

Looks good Chim. Its grown since the pics in the saltwater members section. Must admit I love the moonlight pics in the members section. Have been trying to find some moonlights but having trouble finding them locally. Any suggestions?

Go digital - no problem then

Suphew wrote You reckon you're lonely - think I am the only reefer north of Whangarei (and there is only a couple down there that I know of) at least until Puttputt moves up soon

Smidey wrote: What were you thinking when you wrote that Smidey

Northland is not much of an earthquake risk - thats why I shifted here . Seriously though, I have never even given it a thought, even when I was in Auckland. I note you are in Paraparam so I guess it is more of an issue down there. I think Jude is probably right - bit of a case of cross everything, hold your breath and hope like hell it doesn't happen Your idea of extended freeboard (tank much higher than the water surface) is probably a good one though. I'm not convinced that the cover glass will stay put if a wave of water hits it from below though. Are you going to get back into the fish thing? Fresh or marine (or both) Don't let the threat of an earthquake put you off. BTW, welcome to the Forum. Cheers Skippy

When I did mine - Enamel spray from Mitre10 - light coats with plenty of drying time in between. Masked off the entire rest of the tank and made a home made spray booth out of a couple of saw horses, and crusty old tarpaulin. Worked OK for me. At least overspray is easy to scrape off glass if you stuff it up :D Oh, prep the surface by giving it a thorough clean then a wipe down with meths and let dry (I covered the open top with a plastic sheet taped down so nothing could get in - meths, fumes or paint)

This be mine, 370 litres, bow front jobbie. Lights have changed - now have an Arcadia 3 Series pendant. These are older photos (except the first one which was August). Need to take some new ones to show off the new lights Overall Overall at night Closer up from front Closer up from rhs All the engine room is underneath (no fish room here ) incl sump, fuge, insump skimmer, heater, pumps, etc (and even a bit of room to store stuff :lol: ). Chiller to the left of tank. Have had a bit of a change around inside since these were taken. Hope you like it - I do but it is a work in progress (aren't they all ) Mmmmmmhhhh - Streams :lol: Cheers Skippy

All of a sudden door sliders become "specialist electrical equipment" and the price goes through the roof

Very nice Puttputt. Some awesome growth going on in there. Will be great when you finally get it up here and I can watch it progress from close quarters You are going to find it tough to leave it for someone else to look after while you move and commute!

Yep you're right Fay - he was totally blind. Not now though - he's in Heaven

Westy1 Your tank is stunning. I have a brick wall at the moment but have been thinking about re-scaping to give me more room for corals You may have pushed me over the edge Time to give some serious thought to what I want to do and get into it. Good opportunity to start a new thread Seriously though, you should be proud of your tank - it really is beautiful.

welcome to the "dark side" PJ It gets addictive The nano won't be big enough soon

Bummer You could bring your tank up here early and stick it in my store room Then you could get a new 'fuge (You'd have to contribute to the power bill though - its scary enough already)

Thats real nice Wasp. I love the colour. If you reckon it has a couple of months to go it is going to be absolutely stunning. Have you got any full tank shots?

Very ethereal

Same problem here Posted in the marine section Skippy posted Fish Gone Blind As said previously, any advice most welcome

Wasp wrote: I got one of those about 3 weeks ago, together with a couple of anthias. The wrasse is pretty frantic, whizzes around all over the place but he hasn't looked like he's wanted to jump out ---- Yet Hope he doesn't as he is very cool Better keep an on him then

I think mine came in on a rock from a lfs It looked quite cool so thought I scored a freebie bonus :oops: hah, nothing in life is free is it That'll learn me

Oooooooooooh I have one of these in my tank :evil: Guess what I am doing tonight

Cool, be good to catch up again. Will be coming down for a weekend sometime in the school holidays so will probably get anything I need then. Got an awesome red mushie rock from Jansens last time I was down a few weeks back (together with some other stuff). Managed to beat you Aucklanders to the new shipment for once

looking good Puttputt. Have you moved things around a bit? the growth is awesome.

If you are looking at a reef system, a bigger tank will be more stable (goes for any tank I s'pose) and realistically the equipment you will need for a small tank will be pretty much the same as a larger tank, probably just a bit smaller. Although some people have stunning success with small and nano tanks - check out Fays nano. I started out with a 190 litre setup, pretty basic really. Canister filter, heater, couple of Aqua 1 fluoros and a Berlin air skimmer. I prefer lots of rock and sandy bottom (said it was my preference so lets not get into a debate about the pro's and con's of sand and bare bottom tanks here ) In the overall scheme of things, the set up cost for this was relatively minimal once you start to stock it. Think hard about where you want to go with the tank before you leap in with both feet, hard I know but it will save some $$$$ Am running 370 litres now but always wanting something bigger (1000 litres sounds good ) Bottom line is start out where you are comfortable and build from there (does this contradict what I said above ) T'is much fun once you really get bitten

Find yourself a chiller If it is getting too warm now, it will be worse in summer, especially with a 120 litre tank. What lights are you running? Can you vent the heat away from the tank? The cheap option is plastic milk bottles with frozen water in them. If you have a sump, stick them in there, if you don't in the tank. Doesn't look real flash but it will cool it down :lol:

Hey Puttputt Lights are awesome. Took about a month to eventually get them up and running as the work sparkie was pretty busy. They seem to be making a serious difference to the life in the tank. Have not had anything freak out too badly, and everything that did has recovered. When are you next heading up? Sorry tel, didn't meaning to piggy back on your thread