smidey

yeah. the crappy thing about it is the buckets of food themselves are only $60NZD each, the rest is freight.

two buckets for $220NZD

you can import a 2.27kg bucket from the US for $130NZD delivered to your door, why would they?

get a jager heater, they keep the temp really close to what you set and if they fail they shut off. Generally on cheaper heaters the fault is they don't turn off. I got into the habit of touching the glass when i feed the fish to make sure it isn't cold, that's a better option than having an extra heater in the tank i think for cost and visual effects.

i only clean mine every 6 to 10 weeks, when they start to really slow their flow. if you disconnect the taps there is no suction and the top has never been hard to remove on the CF canisters.

i blow into the pipe first which pushed most of the water back into the tank, then a strong short suck which starts the water draining into the canister so there is plenty of time to connect it up before it gets to the end of the outlet pipe.

when i prime a canister i disconnect the out pipe at the top, blow into it to push an water in the pipe into the canister and then suck to create the syphon from the tank into the canister. It seems easier to me than taking the cap off and filling it that way. Occasionally i'll remove the priming cap and let it bleed out any air if the pumps become noisy.

i have a cf1200 and cf1000 on my 400L tank and it's more than enough even for my over feeding of the messy tangs. I do one water change per week of 30%.

what & how many fish do you plan on having in it? As for heating, i would go for two Jager 300W, maybe 3 but how ever many you choose go with jagers.

i would suggest adding e yellows and maybe a peacock species but it does depend on your foot print, what are the dimensions of the tank?

i think our expectations are too high of some of our sports. i think cricket is a sport that's particularly tough for us to compete at the highest level due to population (amount of players here)& the setup of school & club cricket with regard to ground preparation maintenance. local councils prepare the majority of out local pitches and that means the minimum amount of $ is spent but what that creates is slow low bouncing pitches. these are the pitches that we play on at high school and club level, if you do well and are selected into regional teams you play on better prepared pitches but they are different to what you are used to so it's an ever changing situation. it's mostly down to our climate but it simply makes it harder to be consistant, especially for the batsmen. Last season Tim Southie was bowling on the pitch at maungakaramea which is prepared by a volunteer, two weeks later he was bowling on eden park in a test match. i don't believe the sport of cricket is setup well enough here at club/school level and that is where most of the shaping of a cricketer is done.

i have always done 30% once a week. heavily stocked and heavily fed.

if you get a professional in to do it that is minimum what it will cost.

i refuse to send on thursday or friday so there is no chance of that happening. not worth the risk IMO

i have sent many times with poste haste, probably 30 or so which is why i recommend them. all but one package arrived before or just after lunch time the next day and that's even as far as whangarei to invercargill. the one that didn't get delivered in one day was a mix up with rural delivery and only one of 10 made it ok so it has been a great success so far.

hi and welcome. what fish are you keeping?

post hast will charge around $28 just to send it so once you add costs of poly box, heat packs etc it's fair. If they are using another courier the cost of the freight may be higher so it think it's reasonable. i have sent in middle of winter, just added a second heat pack and had no hassles.

check this out http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... allery.php

if your looking for the ballast, it's under the plastic cover above the tubes in the centre underside of the hood.

i had one for about 5 years and replaced the ballast just before i sold it. well, when i say "I", i actually dropped it off to a sparkie mate who fixed it. He replaced the ballast and didn't charge me anything at all so figure they aren't expensive. One tube wasn't working, when i swapped the tubes the same side failed to start so it's the ballast. don't be worried about sunsun tanks, they are far better than the aquaone units in every way IMO.

africans, start with malawians and progress onto tangs later. as for the filtration, i aim for 5 or 6 times the tank volume per hour and would do that with either types of cichlids. there are very few plant options with africans, SA's you can have what ever you like in the way of plants really.

i think it will be quite easy, all you need is a large container like a chilly bin of around 80 or 100L for the 400L. set up a large chilly bin as a tank somewhere where it won't be in the way, put the water and fish in it with a filter and heater and they'll be fine for as long as you want. for the smaller tanks you need smaller chilly bins. How many tanks at what size have you got?

did you expect an immediate answer after 11pm on a friday night and it was a question you couldn't wait to have answered? i wouldn't cross the ob and a red, you should always stick to their own species here as we have such a small pool of stock.

there are a heap of Ecco models, what are they numbers on it?

yeah i'm sure it's a good one but it will need to do around 1000LPH or more IMO to be good for your tank, the model will be on it.