Native_Tanks

I have just been to Spotlight and what we call filter wool, they call it Wadding. 1.4m wide and selling for $8 a meter. Problem solved. Alan if your ever down this way you will have to give me a practical demonstration and then we could go out to the Cook Strait (South coast) to collect some more critters for my tank....barefoot Speaking of the South Coast, the Island Bay Marine Education Center is having a free open day this Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Lots of fish, Octopus and rock pool critters to look at, an absolute must for the kids and fans of the sea.

Maybe I could use gumboots? or hand wash in the sink using a colander to support the wool. That way I have the option of bare feet or gumboots.

Micron filter bags sound like a good idea. any suggestions where to get them?

Bloody hell You do know that I'm in Wellington in the middle of WINTER! But maybe a large container in a nice hot shower would achieve the same result. No soap. and I know my toes would appreciate it! :lol:

Hi all My new cold water marine aquarium Sump is chewing through filter wool at an astounding rate!!! It works well (maybe too well) but within two weeks it is a solid brown colour and the water starts to back up behind it. To date I have never tried to clean and reuse it (I have just dumped it and replaced with new wool) as I thought that to get the fine particles out of the middle of the wool would be next to impossible. Can anyone suggest; 1. A method of cleaning. 2. An alternative to filter wool that is perhaps easier to clean and reuse, ie: machine washable...... or 3. A bulk supplier of filter wool. Thanks Brent

Thanks, I'll give him a call

Hi all, Can anyone advise me of a reputable tank builder in the Wellington area? Thanks Brent

Fantastic Freshwater tank! I have had the opportunity to visit the Minister of Conservation (Chris Carter) office in the beehive and he has a Freshwater Native tank. It is very impressive and even has a small eel. I tried using a fan for about 3 months and I think the fish and stuff that I had collected preferred a colder temperature as they came from the south coast of Wellington and were used to the cold. I have just set up my second NSW Native tank and this one is sand based and has no chiller it is just at room temperature. All the animals, cockles, shrimp, hermit crabs, horse mussel, anemones, and the stargazer fish have all come from the Pioura estuary. So far (2 weeks) they have survived except for the time the air pump went off for about 6 hours and I had catastrophic losses in the shrimp department and the 3 triple-fins.

The skimmer is a hang on the outside Jobo that I got from "evilknieval69", who I would like to thank very much. ek69 has given me some advise on setting it up and I have done some research on the net and I understand that it takes some time for the skimmer to settle down and to work properly so that it produces 'dry foam'. However after several nights of a lot of white wet foam and having to empty the collection container every 10-15 minutes I still cant get it to work properly. I will persevere. One interesting thing that I have noticed is that If I deliberately create a lot of micro-bubbles, by blocking off the cone into the colection cup and allow everything to discharge back into the tank, then the tank comes alive! The fish and shrimp become more active. I'm thinking that this is reproducing the conditions of a tidal surge. Also it appears that this is a good time to feed them because they show a lot more interest in food.

Yes, I bit the bullet and invested in a chiller, I got sick of the frozen bottle trick. Other than that I'm using my old Fluval 204 canister filter with a 4,200lt/h pump. I originally planed to have have the pump in-line but it leaked so had to put it into the tank and make it submersible. It goes in this order so as to keep the crap out of the chiller. Pump - Filter - chiller - tank I recently got a Skimmer and I'm currently playing around with it but I think the filter is doing such a good job that the skimmer is not working properly. I shifted everything over from my 60lt tank to the new 140lt tank (the one the photos are of) so the plan for the old 60lt tank is to set up a room temperature NSW tank based on a sand beach and stock it with things that will tolerate higher temps, like shrimp, hermit-crabs, cockles etc

Hi all, I just set up my 140lt NSW Native tank here are some photos. Sorry about the quality but the phone's camera is not very good.

Native Tanks are FANTASTIC! :bounce: I had FW tropicals until a friend suggested we go for a walk around the rock pools on the South coast of Wellington. As a result the FW fish have gone and I'm currently setting up a 140lt NSW tank. I started with taking things from the rock pools as they are use to living in a higher temperature zone ie: crabs, anemones, shrimp, Triplefin fish, seaweed covered rocks, starfish, mussels, limpets, brittle stars, hermit crabs etc basically anything that lives above the low water mark. The tank is so full of life and it is fascinating to see how they all interact with each other. Another bonus of Native tanks is getting out and collecting the critters for yourself. When you want to get more stuff from below the low water mark then a chillier becomes necessary I picked one up from 'Duke' for $400. I want to get some schooling fish like mullet etc as soon as the new tank is set up (this weekend. fingers crossed ). I did try Spoties and a mullet in the small unchilled tank but they did not last long. Ultimately I'm work towards an octopus. Hope this helps and good luck Brent

Hello everyone, my name is Brent First a little about myself; I'm a 45 M living in Mt Victoria Wellington, working at Tranz Metro driving passenger trains, My first love is travel and have so far been to around 50 country's mostly developing countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Caribbean and also Antarctica. Now the fish; I started about 2 years ago when I purchased lock stock and barrel a 700 x 500 x 450 (140lt) tank, canister filter, equipment and fish on Trade Me which I located at the end of my deck so I can get up close and personal. A lot of mistakes and money later I have a very nice display tank which I was very happy with, that was until a friend suggested that we take a walk around the rock pools on the south coast of Wellington. Long story short, after collecting some anemones, shrimp, fish, crabs, starfish, seaweed covered rocks and keeping them in a bucket then a cheep 20lt plastic tank I finally purchasing a 60lt tank with canister filter which now lives on the other side of my increasingly diminishing deck. About 3 weeks ago I had this very strong smell coming from my FW tank and after some investigation and a long overdue water change I discovered 2 of my best fish floating on the surface covered in mould . That's when I decided that the Native tank was far more active and interesting tank so the poor FW fish have to go! I have been work towards changing my 140lt tank over to SW as soon as I work up the courage to list the FW fish on Trade Me (it will be sad to see them go). One of the problems I have with the Native tank is keeping it cool! Initially it was not such a big problem as I was mainly collecting from high water rock pools which are use to warm temperatures but the deeper you go and the greater the variety of organisms the more important the temperature becomes. The other day my new secondhand chillier arrived which I purchased from "Duke" who I would like to thank for all his patience and for answering my endless questions and for putting me on to this Society.(so now I've run out of excuses not to sell the FW fish) Hopefully I can empty the poor suffering overloaded freezer of the water bottles that I have been using to keep the temperature down. The plan for this up grade is to have a closed system. I don't have any room at this stage for a sump (the next up grade after this, if all go's well and I haven't declared bankruptcy, is to selling the couch and get a really BIG tank, stand and sump). I going to try having the tank feeding into the Canister filter (internal propeller removed) then a 4800L/H external pump, chillier then back into the tank via a cheep wave maker. I may have to change the pump and filter around if it will not pull enough water through. Somewhere along the line I'll need to add a skimmer as well. Finally; One of the best parts of going Native is getting out and about collecting the different types of critters. Ultimately, I want a Octopus 8) but that will have to be a bit further down the track. That's enough ranting from me Cheers Brent