Warren

I buy my metal halides from an electrical outlet or aquarium shop, whichever one has the best deal. Last time I got them from an electrical store as they gave me the best deal that time. If you want to look on Trademe, go ahead, nothing to stop you... Sometime there are pretty good deals too. For now however, the cheapest option would be fluro's and upgrade to MH later when you get corals. No need for them until then...

Remember, only references to electrical or retail outlets please...

Nope, the sides are calculated the same as the front, just substitute width for length...

Yip, the magic number for UV is 4. This means contact for 4 seconds and 4mm maximum depth of water. From this you can easily figure out what diameter tube and length tube you need for a given flow of water. This will guarantee a 100% kill rate in the UV steriliser. If you don't care about 100% then make it any way you like. It will still have some effect, just not as good. I made one for a 1200L tank using a 4' fluro tube with the water in direct contact with the quart. There was a 4mm gap between the quart and the inner wall of the outer tube. The flow was adjusted to give 4 seconds contact (I used 5 to be sure). It was only use to fix disease but did also help a lot with algae.

The height of the water (head) does not effect this type of filters flow rate. All it does is change the operation pressure inside the filter. As the inlet pipe and outlet pipe both start and finish from the same height and the system is sealed, there is no head. If there was then you would get flow without the filter plugged in as you'd have a siphon...

There is a company here in Napier who can make any sized and shaped tank you like out of acrylic as well. The tanks aren't cheap (depending on shape) but look great. You could go for glass and just make the front panel out of low-lead glass to make it less-green. 1500L is close to the limit for all-glass tanks. I have seen a 2.4m x 1.2m x 1.2m all glass tank made out of 25mm toughened glass but why spend so much when tanks this big can be made out of composite materials (3175L). What type of tank do you want - view from the front only, both side or all round. That will decide how much of the tank needs to be transparent. If you only want to see in the front then a composite tank will be much cheaper, stronger and low risk. NZ Has earthquakes so the tank has to be built to withstand them.

But Caryl, your tank has lots of plants growing well and not very many fish. Good growth in the plants makes a huge difference.

The search function uses Google. You have to give the Google-bots time to search the site and catalogue it. It can take a few days for new threads to show in the search.

What? - No CO2 injection?? I see you have the Amano books - looking good...

Myriophyllum aquaticum is now a Nationally banned plant. It is illegal to poses or move it. Any sightings of it should be reported to DOC.

It's quite difficult to get the manicured look of many of the tanks on the ratemyfishtank site when you are using sword or purely Amazon plants. The Echinodorus plants are all quite big (except tenellus) are tend to look quite wild and straggly. It's difficult to grow other plants around them and keep things looking organised. If you are willing to forgo the larger swords it becomes much easier to manage. Echinodorus tenellus Echinodorus uruguayensis (if you can find it) Hydrocotyle verticillata Ludwigia inclinata Christmas Moss Cabomba piauhyensis Cabomba caroliniana The above plants are either totally Amazon or very close to being so. Not a huge range and they're not all the best or easiest to use plants. An Amazon tank has a very untidy look due to the types of plant. These plants will give the least untidy look. If you go for some of the larger Echinodorus plants it will look more wild. I've had most of these plants at some stage over the last 10 years and change the style a little now and then so it doesn't always look the same... However, having thought I had an Amazon tank, I've discovered tonight that only about 40% of the plants are... Searching through my books has revealed a slow introduction over the years of non-Amazon plants. The tank certainly looks less wild and out of control than it used to but it's also now a bitsa tank. There's plants from Africa, Sri Lanka, Asia, America - basically everywhere. While there's still a definite Amazon theme, the original concept has been lost. I prefer the Amazon look though as it is definitely more natural looking than many of the beautifully manicured tanks around. It's only my preference mind you. I'd also put money on the manicured tanks being harder to look after.

It tend to agree with service being a strong reason for shopping at the same place(s) all the time. I've visited both shops in the 3 Kings area and bought different things from each one on the same visit. One had a particular fish of one type and the other had a different fish but neither had everything I was looking for. Between them I got what I wanted. They're both great stores, each with their own good and bad points. I believe it's possible to be loyal to more than one shop, especially if there are certain areas each is better at. At the end of the day, why do we keep going back to the same places. There's only a few shops I visit when I go to Auckland as it takes to long to visit them all. It's pretty easy to work out which are the best (including the best service) and that's where you tend to go...

Yes, new growth will look like it should. Don't be surprised if the existing leaves fall off, this sometimes happens and is usually nothing to worry about. Not sure what happens to star-grass as I've never had it - so the leaves may or may not fall off. Someone else who's grown it before may be able to comment. Good on you for getting into plants. They really add a lot to the tank and the fish are a lot happier with them too.

O2 is really only needed for long trips. If you are traveling with fish you've just purchased, standard air is fine for up to six hours. If they're going overnight then O2 is a good safety measure. Some pet shops have it. Unless you're good mates with the shop it's a bit cheeky asking them to put O2 into a bag you're sending to someone else... If you're just bought the fish from them they'll usually fill it for free. I have a friend with a workshop and use the O2 off his oxy-acetylene set. It's not medical grade O2 but I've never had trouble with it. The best is medical grade if you can find it. You should never blow the bag up using your own breath as there is less O2 in your breath than in air. Also, you'll be adding CO2 in a much higher concentration than in air. CO2 dissolves almost directly and very easily into water...

It looks like you have Cabomba and Java moss but I can't Id the rest. They look like they're in their emergent form at present. Many aquarium plants are grown emergent (top out of the water) as they are easier to grow and there's no algae. They can look totally different when grown under water. If what you have is star-grass then only the new growth will look like it should. As it's been 10+ years since I bought any aquarium stem plants I have forgotten what they look like when grown as terrestrial plants. If nobody can help, give it a couple of weeks and put up a new photo showing the new growth. By then you may have worked it out for yourself...

Yeah, I'd go with finding the cause. I run metal halides on my tank and that's about the same as sticking it in the sun. No problems with algae as long as the nutrient levels are ok. There's a very fine line though between plants growing well, correct nutrient levels and total algae problem... Check your water source for phosphate. Check how dirty the gravel is. Look for any source of excess nutrients. If the tank has an undergravel filter, eventually the muck that collects underneath starts releasing dissolved organics into the water at a rate fast enough to cause algae problems. To effectively keep an algae free tank in direct sunlight you'll likely need to do 50%+ water changes weekly with very pure water and have quite a light fish load (tap water may not be good enough). To make the tank algae manageable, you may be able to find a compromise somewhere between what I've suggested and what you do now. As Fee said, the UV steriliser will no little or nothing to fix the surface algae.

Nobody is doubting the fact that bacteria can come in with new fish and the posts certainly do not state that it definitely can't. The discussion has simply been that it doesn't always come in with new fish. Sorry if you find the statements misleading but I can't see how as they're just offering another alternative for where it came from... Suggesting that the bacteria always comes in with the new fish is just as misleading.

You may not like the statement but it's often true. You can also introduce bacteria off your hand or food as well. Healthy fish will not notice the bacteria but new stressed fish get sick. Once a host is found the bacteria multiply to the point where other fish can no longer cope... Even the best fish keepers make mistakes.

Good on ya bud! Wouldn't have expected anything less of the little nipper...

At 2, you'll never know. But as I said earlier, there are thousands of tanks out there with a safety factor less than 2 that have never had a problem and are just as likely to never have one. There are also many other factors effecting the overall life of the tank. How flat the stand is, how often the tank is thermally cycled, contact with direct sunlight, knocks and bumps etc. The tank you're looking at will most probably be fine. Just make sure you do everything else properly, like getting a very flat base for it to sit on so no extra internal stress is added to the glass or glue joins.

A safety factor of 2 is only barely acceptable. It does not allow for defects in the glass or assembly of the tank. It could mean premature failure of the tank at any time. 3.8 is the glass manufacturers recommended minimum design point. This guarantees very close to 100% success rate for sustained loading over a number of years. The value 3.8 has been derived from statistical failure analysis of commercially built aquariums around the world over many years. Building a tanks with a safety factor less than 3.8 simply increases the statistical likelihood the tank will fail. In saying this, I regularly analyse tanks I see when I'm traveling. I've seen some pretty big tanks with safety factors as low as 1.3 that have been around for many years. Many tanks available in aquarium shops have safety factors less than 2 due to the maker using gut-feel rather than calculating the required thickness. Most of these tanks will never have trouble but will have an increased likelihood of breaking. Basically it's your risk if you go below 3.8 but if you do use 3.8 or higher you can be guaranteed of a good tank...

Looks like it will only have an effect if the system uses a pressurised permeate tank. Most of use probably collect the permeate in a big tank with no pressure. Mine dribbles (my RO that is) into a 2000L drum so the only pressure is the 1m head it has to overcome to get to the top of the tank. Waste water will only be reduced if there is back-pressure on the permeate side of the membrane. If there's no pressure then it will not help... I may have misunderstood how it works so if I have just shoot me...

Yeah, good on you for apologising. As you've not stepped outside the FNZAS guidelines you're completely welcome here. You've been very helpful to many people and supplied many legal items to members of this site. However, let this be a remainder to everyone to check before you do anything you are not 100% sure about. Fishing is a prime example; It's up to you to check if your license is valid, you are catching the correct size and quantity of fish. The authorities do not accept "I didn't know". It is your responsibility to know... Same goes for fish keeping, make sure you are allowed to keep that fish or plant. Just because you can get it doesn't mean you're allowed to have it. Also make sure you're using the correct process to import animals. It's not impossible to do, just a lot of red tape and high cost, - nothing too bad that doesn't make most of us completely give up before we even get started (excuse the sarcasm). 8)

I too agree with Joze. The cost and potential future cost of his actions is huge. Hopefully he won't get pulled through the ringer too much but he certainly deserves what he gets. A precident has to be set and if everybody who did this "got-off' then it would happen a lot more often. We've got a very special environment in New Zealand, - free from most of the worlds nasties. We won't know what we've got until it's gone and actions like this put what we've got at risk...

The calculations show it will be fine. The distortion of 1.88mm (1.66mm mentioned before was for 10.41mm glass) is measured 1/3 of the way up the tank. There will be approx 3x this at the top of the tank or about 5.5mm when full. Everything matches the calculations so it should be fine and you will still have a safety factor of about 3.5. I've never made or used tanks without full top bracing as the bend has always worried me even though the calculations say it's ok. Have you measured the glass thickness, is it 10mm or is it 8mm? Use good quality calipers and check just to be sure.