Warren

He Peety, You would probably get similar results with Glossostigma. It sounds like it would be a lot less work too.

Hi Cat, May as well post it here. If you are happy to have it on the web site in the club contacts area then its as available there as it is here. It will also get more instantanious exposure here as people will likely view this thread more often and much sooner than the club page.

Hi Bill, I see from a previous post you are getting your gravel from someone who supplies roading chip. They of course crush the gravel/stones to create sharp edges so your car tyres better grip the road. I bet most of you didn't know that the main reason for resealing a road is to put sharp road chip down as it gets blunt from all the cars. Can you get the gravel from them before it is crushed? What colours does it come in or is it only grey? The price is really good. The stuff I've been getting is from Southland Sand and Gravel. It is round stones graded to between 2-4mm. They blend 7 different coloured stones together to make a very attractive dark sand. It costs $75 per tonne but $580 per tonne in freight to get it to Napier by sea (the cheapest option). It is the best looking sand/gravel I've seen in the country to date. They also supply most of the non-marble/orange coloured retail aquarium sand throughout the country too. This blend I'm talking about (Oreti Rock) is available in some pet shops for approx $38 for 10kg. That works out at $3800 per tonne. Thats because it first goes in bulk to the wholesaler who bags it and sells it on to the retailer... So the $655 purchase price soon gets marked up somewhat. I needed 500kg for my 8' tank and 250kg for my 6'. I used up the rest in the fishroom. Southland Sand and Gravel has many different sizes and colour of gravel and sand.

Hello Palmerston North Aquarium Society!! I'm back from holiday and as promised I've updated your details on the clubs page. Any chance of getting the missing phone numbers, vice presidents details and any extra email addresses you have?? W.

Check the phosphate level in the water you are using for water changes. It should be below 0.25ppm. If you don't have a test kit, your LFS may be able to help. Also try leaving the water in a bucket for 3-4 days before testing. Take a fresh sample and an aged sample to be tested at the same time. Sometimes phosphates are bound in dissolved organic matter and are released after several days if left to stand. It sounds like a phosphate dose is causing a temporary algae bloom. Once the algae and plants use up the phosphates everything settles down. The problem, of course, may not be phosphates but is likely to be either phosphates or nitrates as these are the 2 most common causes of algae outbreak (nitrate should be between 5-15ppm). If it is neither of these you will have to look for something that is present in the water you use for waterchanges but is not present in the tank (or at much lower concentration).

Its a really bad photo of a discus. 8) Now it's a Xeon Processor, - my favourite...

Just to add my 2 cents worth. The head is basically the difference in height between the water surface and the hose outlet. If the outlet is above the water surface you have positive head and if it is below you have negative head. It does not matter how deep the pump is under the water surface as long as it is rated for the depth. The head is measured from the water surface only. An immersed powerhead should pump its rated L/hr if simply immersed. Any pipe or hose connected will lower the flow due to drag in the pipe/hose. The longer and smaller the pipe, the more drag and less flow. So, if the pump is at the bottom of the tank and the connected hose comes out of the tank, drops 1m then rises 1.5m to the filter edge then hangs over the filter edge by 200mm then the head is 300mm. The pump must have some flow at 500mm head or it will never get started.

Try Southland Sand and Gravel in Invercargill. They have graded colours and sizes. If they cannot sell you the amount you need directly, they will tell you their nearest reseller.

Hi Caryl, Good to catch up on Sunday. Look forward to conference, - not long now. W.

I'll update this too when I'm back. Will be back home on 27th April (2003 for those of you who need to know). W.

Hi Caryl, Will update the 'Clubs' section of the site when I get back from holiday. W.

From 11 April 2003 until 27 April 2003 I will be away on holiday. Please direct any urgent requirements to someone in the exec committee. Will see you all when I get back. W.

Why do you think the mix is yellow... Maybe because chelated iron is yellow and it represents a major percentage of the trace mix. Don't know where the blue is coming from, - maybe copper. Dissolved copper will react with chelates to make them precipitate. If it is copper in solution, be careful of its ppm. If it gets too high it will kill the fish and plants + filter. Therefore it is highly likely the cloudiness is caused by a precipitate reaction of the trace element mix. The brown sediment sounds like it is a solid. If it wasn't there immediately after the mix was made but settles later then it is a precipitate. Try mixing some of the trace mix just with water to se if you still get a precipitate. Here is my mix. It does not use powder trace mix other than the iron chelates. 1 480ml bottle of Aquatic Plant Stimulant (Aquarium Pharaceuticals) 20 Tablespoons of K2SO4 (Potasium sulphate (Sulphate of Potash)) 40 Tablespoons of MgSO4 (Magnesium sulphate (Epsom Salts)) 0.25 Teaspoons of Manganese sulphate 4 Teaspoons of Iron Chelates 1L of Water (from the tap - who cares whats in it) 4ml of HCl (Hydrochloric Acid - Conc) The Aquatic Plant Stimulant has all the nutrients in quantities close to that required. It is just a little deficient in manganese and iron (hence extra added). The water is from the hot tap (no hotter than 50'C) to help everything dissolve faster. It is left to cool with an airstone in the bottom to stop crystalisation during cooling. Makes just under 2L, - enough to last abot 2 months. Never goes cloudy, never precipitates when added to the tank. The only other difference I may have is I used RO water mineralised with the following salts. Per 1000L: 30g Sodium bicarbonate (Baking Soda) 20g Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts) 20g Calcium chloride 15g Potasium sulphate (Sulphate of Potash) These are added to the RO storage tanks 24 hours prior to use. This keeps the pH stable at 6.8 with approx 15ppm CO2 added. Because I have a very controlled environment with no organics or other unknown dissolved salts, I don't have any precipitate problems. There may well be something in your water source that reacts with one or more of the fertiliser ingredients.

You are probably getting a precipitate from the iron. If the wrong chemicals are used, the chelated iron will react to form an insoluble precipitate, - hence the cloudiness. Will post the exact chemicals I use later tonight. Maybe you can try them instead.

It shouldn't be cloudy. I'm using pretty much the basic mix as per the Sears-Conlin report and its not cloudy at all. It also does not cloud the water. What are you doing different to make yours cloudy?

Totally agree, why spend hundreds of dollars on gear you can make for under $20, especially if you can make it at least as reliable.

Hi Jane, All fixed, sorry for the typo. I got your name right at least in the Clubs page. W.

Done, Who's next, hungry, feed me more info...

Pump is 100W, 6000L/Hr at 0m head. I have 0.5m head + mechanical filter. Have measure how long to fill 100L drum. Total output based off measurement is about 4950L/Hr. Pump is Grundfos FP4 now known as the Oase 6000. I purchased mine for $300 8 years ago. After Oase bought the design off Grunfos, the price has tripled to $890 for the same pump, *$#!@rd's.

Updated, next please.

Well done Shilo, - exactly my point. Use overkill. The piework is cheap, so why spend hours calculating.

Thanks for the info, will update when I get home tonight.

Hi Pies, What's a T5 fitting? $380 sound pretty expensive to me for a dual 5' fitting. You can get a standard double fluro fitting with Philips TLD95 5 phophour 6500K tubes for approx $85.00 at Mastertrade. Is there something special about the T5?

Its relatively easy to calculate the pipe size. The best method is as Pies says, us a siphon overflow / gravity feed system to the sump. This is a box on the side of the aquarium with a water level similar to the tank. There is a U shaped siphon to keep the level in the box similar to the tank. The overflow comes out of the box and is gravity fed to the sump. Its a very standard setup us by many wet/dry systems when there is no pre-drilled hole in the main tank. The siphon pipe size is basically proportional to the difference in the water level between the tank and the box. The size of the pipe is basically a resistance to the flow with a little drag added from the sides of the pipe to help confuse things. A pressure drop is caused in the siphon pipe by a drop in the water level of the box. This cause flow. It is our good friend gravity that creates the pressure drop in the pipe. You probably don't really need to calculate the pipe exactly in reality. All it will tell you is that for a given height different between the water level in the box to the tank you'll need a certain diameter pipe. I used a 40mm inside diameter pipe on one of my tanks with a 5000L/hr pump. The level difference between the tank and box was 35mm. If I needed less difference I would have used a bigger pipe or multiple pipes the same size. Basically the less resistance in the pipe(s), the less pressure is required to get the flow, therefore the smaller the difference in water levels. If you really want to work out the pipe size I'll see if I can dig out the correct maths to help you out. I can tell you right now how to work out the pressure, but I'd have to look up how to work out the resistance and drag in the pipe. It will also depend on how many 90' bends in the pipe and the bend radius as well. pressure p = height (mm) x gravity (g 9.81m/s²) in N/mm² Once you know the pipes resistance and drag, flow = p*(r+d) where r is resistance and d is drag resistance in mm. This is just off the top of my head and really need a bit more work to make sure I've really got it. If you want me to get the real formula let me know as it could be a bit of work and I don't want to do it unnecessarily. Warren.

Hello all FNZAS members and guests. I've now finished entering all the information I have detailing all the affiliated clubs in NZ. The list show is only the information supplied by each club. It will only be as good as the feedback I get about it. If you spot information that is incorrect or it has changed, let me know and I'll fix it pronto. Hopefully this will serve as a usefull tool for people who wish to contact us. Here is the link: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/clubs.0.html