Mark

This would be a good idea if someone else with a tank not quite at the perfect stage as Reefs tank could try dosing Phyto. Because last time i saw Reefs tank which was a few years ago i could not for the life of me see how you could get corals growing any better. I think there must be a limit on how fast corals can grow and if your tank is doing well then adding Phyto wont improve the results any further would it.?

I can tell you a little bit about Brooklands in the early seventies as my brother started a carpenter’s apprenticeship with Dave Garret who started Brooklands aquarium. I remember my brother working on the aquarium they built down by our local swimming pool on the coast. It was built for quarantine purposes when they imported fish and also as a public aquarium. I use to love going there and I remember them having warm and cold water marines. I think they asked for council help to keep the place running but nothing was offered so it was closed down and the quarantine part moved. I remember my brother building lots of houses for Dave Garrett so I guess the fish side of the business was a sideline then. I think now Brooklands is run by his son Warren. I wish I could tell you more but I was only just getting interested in fish at the time. I’m sure there may be someone else around that could tell us more. How’s this I remember my first large tank being built by them 2mtrs long and made of 6mm glass. It did crack in the end they just replaced the front glass and put another cross member over the top

I have a Laguna 6 for a return pump on similar size tank and it has to pump at a 3mtr head. Does a reasonable job but a Laguna 7 will be better. Make sure the return hole to the sump is near the bottom of the tank so you can install a durso or proper overflow. My tank has both holes near the top of the tank making it hard to set up a decent overflow that is not noisy or doesn’t take the surface water without the slurping noise. Pain in the butt really

To prevent the sand from spreading over the rock work. I used a bit of plastic drain pipe long enough to reach the bottom of the tank then poured the sand in it.

Laguna pumps can be used inline or submerged.

Try blood worms or mysis shrimp if you havent already

I posted the same question a while back as i had the same problem with the cheap timers. Anyway i ended up buying one of trade me for around fifty dollars. The timer has been working for three months now without a problem. Powertech is the brand i think. It says mains timer with LCD display. It says it has a switching contact current of 30amp but the max normal working load is 10amps. It also has a battery backup in case the power goes off so no need to reset the time

Nice live rock tank Steve what do you feed it

While we are on the subject does any one collect their NSW straight off the beach or do you get it from a boat ramp.

Great job owen that pond looks brilliant. I built one out of brick much the same size as yours then used a aquarium under gravel filter and air pump to keep the water clear, worked well

I have been using NSW for about a year now with no problems. But I do agree you need to be carefull and check out the conditions at the spot where you are collecting your water. Last time I went to collect the water at our local boat ramp it did not look right a bit cloudy and not clear enough so I didn’t get any. The next day in our news paper some guy caught a tuna by hand near the rocks where the boat ramp was. He was going to take it home and eat it. Well the next day birds were found dead on the beach what a coincident you say. They reckon it was from a toxic algae bloom not sure where from but lucky I did not take the water. So to cut a long story short be careful when collecting the NSW AND always have some ASW as backup. The other problem is down our way that is New Plymouth there are two many rives so most good collecting places have freshwater within 1 kilometer

I and a few people put offers in for a lot of the livestock at the price that was asked but the sale did not happen. I think it was more of a value gathering exersise. I think it is a matter of how much one is willing to let the stuff go for and to decide if that’s what you really want to do. I think a lot of interested people will not be so interested now.

1.8 x 600 x 600 at a guess. I was going to say keep the old one for a fish only tank but i think it would become to small very quickly. Congrads on the new tank anyway :bounce:

I had trouble keeping three clown fish from picking on the fourth one. I should have got another hundred that would of solved the problem

cool dude thanks for sharing