jolliolli

im feeding reef roids so that should be suitable?

ok so then just an auto top off for the water, lights and fans are on timers so they're ok, anything else i'll need?

So its coming up to christmas shortly and it occurred to me i should start thinking about what i need to do to my tank to maintain my tank if i go away at christmas. With my freshwater tank i could probably get away with leaving it as is for a week or so. With the marine tank, i'm not sure how that would go, I won't have anyone to look after the tank so would like to make it as self-sufficient as possible. So what gear do i need to have to make this possible? So far ive determined i'll need a Automatic fish feeder (anyone have any personal experience with these, reliability etc?) DIY top off unit for the sump, have seen a few designs on the net my partner made me a DIY fan last weekend which seems to be doing a fairly good job at keeping the temperature fluctuations under control. so anything else i need? what do others do when they go away?

Hi Zaita where do you get the phytoplankton from? is it available to buy? My tank is 400L with around 50kg of live rock, the mandarin is the only fish in the tank that eats pods. I think the mandarin has been in the tank at least a year prior to me owning it so must be finding enough food ( i do see pods racing out and about at night and also when i clean the tank) but i'd still like to boost the pod population. BTW do mandarins eat both amphipods and copepods? i see quite a few larger pods in the tank.

ahh the powers that be, i've edited the response to appease the mods

i can't really say sorry do the forum rules

ive been feeding nls marine food to my marines and all the fish seem to love it

great setup!

i tested my tap water for phosphate today with a salifert phosphate test kit, reading was zero

are the a couple of centimeters long like a fine white thread and free-swimming? If so they are harmless and usually due ot overfeeding, cut back on the feeding and they should disappear once the food supply runs out.

How often do you feed it reef roids?

You'll need at least one or two fish to start the cycling process unless you borrow some filter media from a friend to kickstart the process for you. otherwise i'd recommend some small dither fish to start the process

that mini sump is very cool. If i redid my tank i would redesign my rock and mount them on pvc pipes like he has

Talked to my friend last night but doesn't look like she has access to a TDS meter in her department, so if you're keen to know some results i might talk to you wasp

wow thats stunning

your mandarin looks fatter than mine, :-? i would like to fatten him up a bit, its a pity you can't buy live copepods here like you can in the states

wow 5ppm, thats a surprise, i'll test mine out of the tap tonight and let you know the results. Typically my pH was around 7 - 7.2 out of tap, might do a full test tonight and post the results.

I was at redwood aquatics last weekend and they were selling bags of live daphnia for $3. I grabbed a bag and stuck it in a small tank with an airstone, banana skin (no heater) and now i have my own little daphnia supply. They were selling fast so perhaps give them a ring?

This is a great discussion! I spoke to my friend last night, she didn't think they had a TDS meter in her department but will check for me on Monday so i'll find out then. If not then i'll get touch with you wasp and let the testing begin!

i;m using asw

I will talk to a friend tonight and see if she can run a test on the water for me and let you know. One of the articles above states not to use pure water alone in the aquarium as it contains none of the minerals that fish require and has no ability to stabilise pH. They recommend mixing it with tap water or similar to add in these minerals, does anyone here do that or do you use it undiluted?

hi wasp, thanks for providing the info, i keep hearing conflicting advice on this issue so its hard to know which way to go on the issue, i'd be really keen to hear if anyone in chch has used both tap water and ro/di and what their observations have been. i've been looking at ro/di units but i'm not really sure what i should be looking for in a unit, and how they work in terms of how much water they produce, whether they only product ro/di when turned on or whether they continually produce etc. If anyones got some info on what to look for in a unit and how they work etc i'd be keen to know

those are good pics caryl

i'm still battling a diatom issue, although its hard to know how much of it is due to the tank being shifted to my place. Th previous owners only used chch tap water and when i picked it up there was no diatom algae/hair algae or other. One of the guys on the forum here works at the chch council and tested my tap water, apparently the nitrates were barely detectable so i thought that was pretty good

lol do we have the same partner?! actually hes very understanding but i think a 10 hour water change would drive him up the wall!