Warren

I hope its not made exclusively from weetbix (I mean MDF). It should have a lot of 4x2 solid-wood ribs / bulkheads. If not it will probably support the weight ok but will not survive an earthquake.

The surge on a MH is usually about 200% slowly diminishing to 100% over the first 3 minutes. This means a 250W MH will draw about 2A at startup. There maybe a single cycle at 20-30A from the powerfactor cap but it should not trip a breaker. If it is tripping the breaker due to overcurrent it is probably due to a faulty PF cap. If it is leakage to earth it could be salt build-up inside the lamp housing. Either way it looks like it needs maintenance. I'd take it back to where you got it and ask them to get it fixed. Hopefully you did not buy it without a warranty or as-is.

I think you will find the metal halide lumen output per watt is similar to fluro's. Fluro's cost a lot less to setup but you need a lot more of them to get the watts. Fluro's also have a much more even spread of light (more natural) than metal halide which tends to be a point source. Overall fluro's are cheaper (by about half) and if you have the space to fit them they work great long term. Other advantages include replacing a few fluro's at a time so the light spectrum is not changed too quickly. A good fluro lasts nearly as long as a MH (the usefull life of a MH anyway). Typical life of a fluro is 2000 hours compared to 3000 for a MH. The MH may actually keep working for 18000+ hours as stated in the datasheet but its spectrum will have changed drastically.

Doesn't do anything. From my experience with it, it seems to be inert. I had 1 big piece that weighed approx 50kg plus about another 100kg's in a 680L tank. Never had any problems with water chemistry. I was also using RO water so any problems would have shown up even faster.

Yeah, agree. There is definitely room for more marine fish importers. If a single marine importer really concentrated on bringing in bulk shipments it might just lower the cost enough to get more people interested in them. Lets face it, freshwater fish are imported in thousands per species but with marines you'd be lucky to have a quantity larger than ten of most species brought in. Good luck and keep us posted with what you're up to. 8)

Have you checked out the NZ Quarantine rules? You could of course set up your own quarantine site. Using other sites would make it very difficult to make ends meet as a reseller. The six week quarantine period is very expensive to run. MAF has all the quarantine rules and regs and will send them to you if you are interested. I don't know what it costs for the inspection and licensing or what the cost of yearly inspections is. I believe it is relatively easy to set a site up but it does cost a bit initially.

Do you want to distribute equipment or fish?

Hi Pies, I've never heard of the RTC type. I even searched the net to check and couldn't find anything. Are you sure its not some kind of ceramic filter. I did find some reference to RTC as ceramic filters that remove radioactive particles from water. I'd expect you wouldn't need to worry too much about that however. What brand / type is the membrane? W.

Hi Caryl, Have updated the Marlborough club details as per your previous post. Please advise when you have further info. Regards W.

Hi Mitch, thanks for the info, all updated. Reminder to all clubs: Please get your FNZAS capitations in as early as you can. We want to get the 2003-2004 yearbook out on time this time round!! 8) 8) Warren

Never said your's were Caryl, only T.A.P.S. W.

New details entered. Who is Vice President, Treasurer and Editor?

Hello All, I've had a few people comment that my email address does not work and their email gets bounced. Well, finally today I got to the bottom of the problem. Because I have a .com email address I have to have a special DNS entry on my ISP's server. Some time ago I changed ISP's in order to get Jetstream (whoa its fast). My old ISP forgot to remove the DNS caching for my domain name. Therefore anyone connected to that ISP or associated ISP would have had email addressed to me bounced. It’s now all sorted. If you have tried to contact me unsuccessfully in the past, I apologise for the problem but it is now fixed.

No Probs with Visitherm. They seem pretty good. The Stainless Via Aqua would also be good for large Cichlids too.

Mine used to on the odd occasion (don't have any now). It was only when they were eating however. I've got several other types of fish that make clicking noises when eating. The most obvious ones are discus. You can see their gills quickly close at the time the click occurs. It forces a high speed jet of water at the food to break it up. The click in loaches make may be quite different however. I never paid too much notice to the loaches when eating as they had the heads buried up to their eyes in the gravel searching for food most of the time.

Hi Pies, a good RO should get 99.5% - 99.9% all by itself depending on whats in the water to start with. I've also never heard of an RO having a micron rating. The membrane works at a molecular level and wouldn't have a micron rating (if it did, it should be a nanometer rating anyway). Best check they are making a true RO and not something else. I use TFC membranes as we have no chlorine in our water. You may need a CTA membrane in your area to effectively remove the chlorine. What is your iron level like in the water supply. CTA's don't like too much iron.

Yeah, good idea. You also seem to have found a much cheaper source for the cartridges. It was at least 6 years ago when I got one. Then it only came with one cartridge and replacement cartridges cost nearly as much as the original unit. I guess pressure from alternative purification methods has pushed the price down. RO is relatively compeditively priced now considering how much extra water you get per $. If you can find a reasonably priced source for the anion and cation beads it wouldn't be a bad idea. You could even set it up from scratch if you can find 3 suitable containers to start with. The recharging solution is also very cheap, from memory I think one is some kind of salt (or maybe both). You can pick up most salts really cheap ($20 for 25kg) and this amount would last many recharge cycles. RO may still be the way to go. It is much lower maintenance and no recharging is required. You just replace cartridges and membranes when they are shot. RO will normally go for 6 months 24/7 without any maintenance.

Sounds like it had better be a topic for the FNZAS AGM Agenda. It obviously needs to be sorted out. Members of the fishroom who are in clubs around the country should discuss this before conference so their delegates can come armed with the necessary responses.

Ok, maybe isn't quite 6 months then. I only hope everyone does indeed get there A's into G too. I was still chasing some clubs in December for their list. Had it been submitted before then, there would have been less than half the previous years members listed and several clubs missing. Some clubs are very good at getting their details in early and some are not. Keep in mind that we have a new Treasurer and new Editor. There are bound to be some teething problems as these people learn their new jobs. No one else wanted to do them so count yourselves lucky we have Aquariums Worlds and Yearbooks at all. As it happens I've rather enjoyed doing my part of the job this year. Hopefully this year we will get a little more support and people will get their lists in on time. Now that I've learned what to do and how long it takes the same delays will not occur again. I will be chasing clubs up much earlier this year (assuming I'm still Treasurer after AGM).

It's still 6 months until the next Yearbook is due out however. Are you really sure you don't want a yearbook now. So its 6 months late but its better than nothing!

The AP Tap Water Purifier does work very well but is also just about the most expensive way to purify water. I purchased one once. It produced about 200L of water before the resin was exhausted. It is specially designed so that the anion and cation resins are mixed together. If they weren't you could easily regenerate them for re-use. Whats worse is I'd emptied 50% of my tank (500L) so once the filter was all used up I had to put 300L in from the tap. So I wasted what little the filter had done anyway!! $150 down the drain (literally). Others may get more than 200L from this purifier depending on the tap-water quality. A much better alternative is RO. The water is just as good if not better. You will get approx 80000L from one membrane before it gets blocked up. A new membrane is about $140. So $150 or so to get 200L using DI or $140 to get 80000L using RO, hmmm... I wonder which one to buy... :-? Its not quite as good as it sounds as the RO needs extra filter cartridges as well. It still works out that you get about 200x as much water from RO for the same price as DI. The example above shows 400x as much, but you'll need about $140 of filter cartridges per membrane throughout its life. I get about 1.5 years out of a membrane running 24/7 and producing approx 500L / week. I'm currently using 2 membranes full time so get approx 1000L/week. It all gets used up in water changes. 8)

Yes, very difficult to prime. I even went to the extent of keeping a spare powerhead to force prime the Fluval. I've found the new ones to be a pretty crappy pump design. The media area is good however. My personal preference is definitely for the Eheim, its superior gear.

Hello All, A friendly reminder to all affiliated clubs to send in this years capitations nice and early. Remember too that FNZAS capitations have dropped from $7.50 to $5.00. I've already received the first clubs capitations for the new financial year, - well done CAPS. Please note too; I prefer the membership lists by email in excel format if possible. Warren

Natures Sunshine Products make a RO unit that easily plumbs onto a tap. It produces about 80L of purified water a day. RO units aren't meant to be turned on and off but if you use it every day it should be ok as the water will not go stale in that time (this particular unit seems to have been designed for intermittent use). It would take about 45 mins a day (depending on the water pressure) to get 2.5L. The unit used to retail for about $250.00. I have 4 of these units permanently plumbed in outside feeding 2000L storage drums. After adding stabilising salts I use the water for all my water changes. The quality of these units is such that you should not need a DI after it. The basic unit will be good enough for all you want. One of these units is good for about 80000L of purified water if you replace the pre and post filters with bigger commercial ones. For your situation however, I'd expect you would get years of use from it with the amount of water you require. You would also be able to use the standard filters supplied with the unit. W.

Done!! 8)