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

Feelers the fish looks the same but different if you know what i mean. Im sure it has a lomg nose or is it just the photo

Tank photo looking good rocket man now all you need to do is get the actors to keep still so you can get a better photo of them. What is the fish on the right side a wrasse of some type. On the aipatasis control hit them with draino half water half draino in a syringe they dont like it one bit. I heard it from this web site so tried it works well.

Good thanks, One year on so still considered a newbie in the marine tank hobby. I would like to post some picks but I am working off the coast of Indonesia and my tank is at home in New Plymouth. Being minded by my partner Cheryl bless her heart. I have wanted to set up a marine tank for years but my job takes me away from home for six weeks at a time so thought it wise to stick with fresh water tropical. That way my daughter could look after things while I am away. Anyway to cut a long story short and not put you all to sleep I changed jobs last year set up my marine tank and all is good. But I am now back at my old job away from home for six weeks again. I won’t give up the marine tank and lucky for me my new partner is interested in it so much she is doing a bloody good job looking after things while I am away. My Tips on going marine. Be prepared to spend money. You will flood your lounge at least once. You will spend at lot of time setting up the rockwork then changing it again. You will get a lot less done in a day because you have a marine tank. You will want a bigger tank. You will buy at least three salinity tester before you realise the refractometer is the only way to go. Your family will hate the thought of having to help move the tank again You will meet lots of nice people in this hobby. You will post on this site eventually. And hopefully you will end up with a very nice marine tank with soft and hard corals. Good Luck and enjoy i know i have

Sorry to hear of the loss. I would be gutted when you put so much effort in to this hobby then something like that happens. Very strange that just scraping the algae of would cause that. I have only been in the marine hobby for a short while so not sure what type of algae would cause the fish to die so quick. I know it happens in the sea from time to time

Another important test is salinity. I have three different hydrometers for testing the salinity and I have just found out that they are reading wrong. They are all reading very much the same but I still was not comfortable with their readings. Anyway tested the water yesterday with a borrowed refractometer and surprise the test reading was 1.030 not 1.024 as I thought. So get a good tester.

I also have a coral banded shrimp and two cleaner shrimp. The cleaner shrimp are always out and the coral shrimp i mostly never see. Not much point having one if you hardly ever see it.

NSW 5% week

I would be gutted as well JDM. I couldnt say for sure if the fish would have to be dead before the anemone got it. But according to my daughter who is looking after my tank at the moment my copperband was found dead the next morning when he was feeding fine the night before. So the fish could have died over night.

i agree with the last reply the best way is to empty the pond. My pond is about 4mtrs by 5mtrs i need to empty it every second year to keep it reasonably clean. I have hired a large pump to drain it but the fish dont come out the other end in very good shape. So next time it will be a smaller pump then you need to sweep the crud of the bottom with a plastic shovel and brush. Takes time but its the only fool proof way to keep the pond from going green in the summer. Best to do this before the fish start breeding like next month at the latest. My pond has a liner so barefeet only when i get in to clean it.

i know someone in Auckland is having a go at trying to raise the young. Not to sure on how successfull they were. I believe the breeding part is easy it is growing on the young that can be very hard. Would be worth it if you could manage to grow some on as they are not cheap to buy at the shop these days.