Cricketman

if you boil the water for a few minutes before you freeze it, the ice will come out clearer, boiling removes the dissolved gasses in water...

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :digH:

.

yup, exactly what I'm talking about, and I agree, by the time you see symptoms, it probably too late, but! the sooner you can "cut-off" the infection, the less chance it has to spread...

mmm... BBQ Carbon... !drool: You've obviously been to one of my uncles BBQ's... :facepalm: :slfg:

I think the difference would be volume of second hand gear coming in, and whether it was used to conceal whatever else he was bringing in. Like alan said, Disease would be the biggest issue, and being that it may have been un-declared, would not have gone through the normal MAF checks. Give you an example, we brought a blown (no inners) , painted ostrich egg, with us from S.A... (cost ~R80, approx NZ$40-50) We were told that it had to be "treated" as it was a natural product capable of harbouring disease (regardless of the fact that it has been dry/dead for years)... $150 later, and you have the most expensive ostrich egg in the country... which my brother managed to smash within year... :facepalm: You can imagine the fuss they would make over a canister filter+media...especially if they were still damp/wet...

Good idea! K.I.S.S! :thup:

Do your research, take your time... There are alot more things to go wrong in a SWT setup compared to FWT, that said, they are more rewarding with a greater range of live-stock available... There are many threads on this topic already. I suggest a forum search and a trawl through here, which is a much more relaxed forum than this one, and has some really good info/people (some of which are here too)

just remember, if you are running multiple tanks off one filtration unit, if there is an infection/outbreak of algae etc, it will be shared across all your tanks. I can reccomend being able to segregate tanks completely by use of ball valves (or similair) and redundant systems in case of such a thing, if you use this sort of system... :thup:

what a PROP! oh wait, wrong sport/country... :slfg:

This intrigues me... Wonder why the black silica would be different? :dunno:

Plecs generally originate from dirty, scungy rivers/streams with silt, sand, mud etc... I wouldn't panic about it, but: If you want 2-5mm sand, go daltons propegating mix, awesome stuff, wouldn't use anything else myself... and have kept many plecs with it successfully...

I used to purposefully stir up the crap and siphon to ~40%... Works alright if you are consistent in your W/C's, the rest of the crapola goes over my overflow with filter wool then to the canister. I had a powerhead that used to keep it stirred up too...

Here Ya go...

Soooooo much better than that instagram crapola all over facebook... "I've taken a photo and blushed it out, wrote some meaningless garbage in helvetica over teh top of it... You must think I'm deep and brooding..." :facepalm: Good on ya Joe... :thup:

we were organised... then it all went out the window and winged it... :sml1:

Just a follow up, All in all, Great success, No casualties so far, haven't had a chance to get down to check on everyone, but they were happy as when we got back to Tauranga at midnight or dam near... only got lost in Orc-land a couple times... :roll: :slfg: A Huge THAKNK-YOU for everyones help!! :happy1:

When I stripped down my display tank I think my Lady was more devastated than I was! She has always been supportive of my hobby(ies)... though can get vocal when I leave "stuff" (clever substitution ) lying all over the floor, and often may read me my geneology that I never knew... - She doesn't understand the "man-work-space"... :slfg:

Copper is so expensive these days, any house younger than the 90's ( :dunno: im no plumber) probably hasn't had copper lines... Also, the turn-over in the HWC would not be long enough for many (if any) Cu+ ions to come into solution, even if it was copper lined... Trying to quickly fill tanks before you head out the door to work, after just moving into the mother in laws (partner broke her ankle and needed the extra help) is also a recipe for disaster, especially when you turn the hose to what you thought was off, but really turned it up harder... 3 blowers, 2 dehumidifiers, and carpet-burned knees from grovelling later... I don't think :facepalm: is quite enough....

Agreed, best way to deliver the nutrients provided by any of these to fish of any decent size is by gutloading artemia. There is HEAPS of different variations and ways of going about any of these things. whether it is worth the time/effort/setup costs depends on how serious you want to get and the results you want to achieve... Coming from Marine Biology, I could setup a Algae growing room with attached clean room and grow various sterile single-species cultures en mass, but would it be worth it? Not until I get a full size breeding operation of ~ 100+ tanks... and win lotto.... Its all relative... :thup:

It is. But is not a Q.Facility as far as I know, and would need a re-do of the red-tape for a new operator anyway to bring it up to new standards... AFAIK

Out of my own experience, Artificial Colourings don't agree with me, especially Red, they set off my ADHD something terrible... Just some background, I was 8 when diagnosed, and through a series of tests and trying to narrow something down, eventually my parents discovered the artificial red food colouring trigger (Various shades). Once they found the trigger, I was on a ban... No rasberry Lamingtons, no cherry cola, and even tomato sauce of certain brands contained it... Eventually, I gained the ability to SMELL artificial food colouring... I have since grown out of my ADHD (tends to drop away at puberty) but I can still have an off-day here and there. Red food colouring definately makes it 100% worse for the next few days, and the "come-down" is usually emotional... (yea, I know... :roll: ) Since then I have found other people (parents, friends etc) that had similair problems either themselves or in their family, and not all of them were diagnosed ADHD or ADD or Hyperactive to begin with, and not all of them had the same resultant behavioural issues as a side effect, but a range of side-effects... As for the sugar thing, the world intake of sucrose has been expanding exponentially, as has diabetes and obesity, for many years prior to the introduction of artificial sweetners... Artificial sweetners were first seen as a saviour, but was largely unregulated (still is in some places) and all manner of concoctions found thier way onto the market, most of them with very little or no research and long-term studies. Lately there are "Natural Sweetners", the biggest development is the use of the "Stevia" plant, or "Sweet-leaf" that produces a sweetner that is many times sweeter than sugar, and has been used by the Japenese for centuries, and you can even buy Stevia plants to grow in your own garden (I had one, was awesome! 1 cup of tea = 1 decent size leaf left to infuse with the teabag) Like they say " everything in moderation, including moderation"

Found this... Too good not to share...

think you are looking at the wrong date, namely, Hovmoller's join date. post dates are on the right hand side of the "post subject:" bar...