Warren

The very fine whirled one under the grey rock looks a bit like hornwort. It's illegal to take or keep this plant. I'd burn it, it's the safest way to dispose of it. Our local waterways have a few pest plants in them. The problem is they look quite good! It's our responsibility to make sure we don't use any pest plants in our tanks. You local regional council has a little book called 'The Pest Plant Manual" which lists all the plants you're not allowed to keep. There's a whole pile of NZ plants that work well in aquariums (both coldwater and tropical). Good on you for trying but I'd dispose of the hornwort. I'll look up the others to see if there are any more pest plants in your photo. It's important to note; being caught with pest plants can land you a fine between $5,000-$200,000 or even a nice stay in prison... A pest plant is one that out-competes the NZ native species and displaces them. NZ has a strong drive to keep it's native species, it's part of make our country unique. It's our job to make sure we don't accidentally spread these problem plants.

If you are going to help kavaman, please PM him. Remember, it's against our rules to post personal details about someone else...

I'd also expect a bit of diesel to have seeped into the sleeper if it's been in use for a long time. Sounds too risky to me...

Go for it, the more clubs the merrier...

They could always just hug the nice big reef tank??

Good Link!! 8)

Elodea and Hornwort are both Pest Plants and it is illegal to keep them or collect them. If you have them, they should be destroyed by burning them. If you get caught with them you could be fined or face prison. If you are going to collect and use plants from local waterways, be sure you have identified them before moving them. Take only plants that are not on the Pest Plant list. Glossostigma is a great NZ Native that adapts very well to tropical temperatures. I have it growing very well in my tank...

I'd go with glass too. Unless you glue the perspex in at exactly the same temperature the tank will run at and then always keep it at that temperature, there will be stress setup in the join due to different rates of thermal expansion... Of course the stress will be small due to only small changes in T but it's there all the same. Why use a different material when you can use glass and overcome all the issues with a glue sticking and staying stuck long-term... I had a similar issue when building my 3m tank. It was a steel frame with glass set into it with silicone. I had to make the silicone 6mm thick between the steel and glass so it could stretch enough with the different expansion rates and not add any more stress to the join. The steel also had firbreglass over it so I had to use primer as well.

Yeah, but I'm not old!!

Approx 304.8mm in a foot or 30.4cm (if you must use cm) or 0.3048m in a foot which works out to approx 25.4mm in an inch. Interstingly as we are talking about metric / inperial; I went to Subway recently and the young fellow behind the couter asked my what size sub I wanted. I said a twelve inch, - he replied, sorry we only do a 6 inch or a foot-long... It would seem today's young people know little about imperial measurements.

Damn, that's even worse, - heard of the metric system?? 8) Oops, looks like you have...

Except that they used cm as a unit. Cm is not an official engineering unit and is the pet-hate of most engineers. I wish people would use proper units, namely mm, m and km... If we are going to use cm, we may as well use dm as well, making your average 250-300L tank about 12x5x5 dm.

I've updated all the club details. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/clubs/ If I've made mistakes, please PM me with the details so I can fix the problem.

Hi Straps, See your PM, I've sent you Kev's address. The problem should be sorted very soon. If indeed the certificates are printed it is surely only a quick and simple job to cut them out and post... Will push it along.

Hi Everyone I'll be away until the 14th June. Please bear with us during this time as new memberships and some post approvals may take a little longer. Thanks.

Conference 2005 was great. I had to leave yesterday morning as I'm flying out for Frankfurt, Nuremburg and Paris today (in about an hour). I hope everyone travels home safely today.

Next time, make the hole one drill size smaller than the tubing and force it into the hole. No need for glue as it will seal itself. Keep an eye on the fish when you start to add CO2. If they start looking distressed and are breathing at the surface there is too much CO2 for the amount of light. You often have to increase the amount of light when adding CO2...

It didn't say to use a spa pool pump! I said a spa pool cartridge filter will help, no mention of a pump. A good standard aquarium pump will be fine. I also suggested a pump of capacity 9000L/h. Filtration is the problem... Forget canisters unless you want to run 8-10 of them. Even then they won't get the water as clean as a pleated cartridge filter and a decent sized trickle filter. One good trickle filter, pleaded cartridge filter and pump will cost a lot less than the equivalent canister filters and will do a much better job. If a pleated cartridge filter is used the trickle filter never needs cleaning. You'll never need filter wool again.

I have it. I'll have to borrow the digital camera from work. If you can wait until Monday night I'll email it to you direct.

Pet Planet is correct about not enough filtration. Big Cichlids are messy fish. They eat a lot and create a lot of waste. From the photo it looks as if you have no undergravel filter. All your filtration comes from canisters as the internal filter will do stuff all unless you clean it every second day. Personally I wouldn't use canister filters on a tank this size. Mine is 2400 x 820 x 660 (1200L) and I use trickle filters. Years ago it was set up as a large cichlid tank and I never had any trouble with dirty water. You need to turn the water over 5+ times an hour through a very good filter. This means a pump with at leat 9000L/hour capacity. Get a trickle filter sump made with lots of media with a high surface area (Siporax, Effisubstat, Biomax etc - no bio balls). Use a thick layer of filter wool at the filter inlet. You could even consider using a spa pool filter cartridge to further clean the particulate matter from the water. This will also extend the life of the filter media considerably. Read these articles: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/technical/filtration/ http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... tration_2/ http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... tration_3/ Many big tanks in NZ could look a lot better if the filtration was improved. My tank is always crystal clear. When looking through the 2.4m end you can see the lounge wall through it almost as if the tank wasn’t there. That's not bad for 2.4m of water in the way.

Go here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... thickness/ to see if your glass is thick enough to start with. If it's too thin then bracing won't help a sausage. Bracing the whole top edge increases the capacity of the glass. Front to back braces aren't usually enough though, full length braces need to be run along the front and back edges as well.

Keep in mind an imported filter will have no warranty...

Caryl needs an article, thanks for volunteering! Anyone else wish to volunteer too?

We'll take more complaints like this one please!!