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So have the lights go off later. The fish don't really give a damn how their day is in relation to yours. You could have their lights come on at midnight and off at noon if you wanted.

If you do it right wacking them on the head would be the quickest and most humane way to do it. I don't think I could quite do that though...

No, it's not going to overheat. With fewer tubes it will actually be running cooler because it will be drawing less current.

Running two tubes in series doesn't always work. The problem is...Well...You're doing it wrong. With magnetic ballasts when you turn on the power the starter puts electricity through the at each end on each of the tube to heat them up. This ionizes the gas inside the tube enough for it to become electrically conductive. Once both are hot the starter flips over and tries to run the current from one end of the tube to the other which makes it light up. If the gas inside isn't conductive enough you just a blink, the light goes out and you have to start over. That's why you get the lights usually flickering a couple times before they stay on. When you run two in a series if either one doesn't actually light it breaks the circuit so neither will light and then maybe the next time around the other won't light... I have though gotten it work several times reasonably reliably, but I think you might need an oversized ballast to have much chance. There are a lot of fixtures that do have two lights run off a single ballast though, I think they use a special type of starter.

Except that's not really the case with heaters. The part that fails is the thermostat(90% of the time anyway). The thermostat only wears when it's switched on or off. So it will last longest if it's either constantly on or constantly off.

You could try, but most likely you'll be rushing to rehome him...

It'd be nice if I could get some stock from these...Ahh...Competing people, instead everything I want gets bought by the shops.

Those would be redwood aquatics, critter kingdom and Organism. Redwood and Organism are very good, I guess redwood's stock gets distributed very quickly though. There are also 2-3 others that I've been to that had marine fish and corals. So, that's about 6 times as many shops as we have here?

Neon lights aren't used in fish tanks.

I don't know what you guys in Christchurch are complaining about, you have heaps of shops with all kinds of corals!

I picked up a small blue cold cathode from Jaycar a few days ago. It's actually a bit TOO bright. But other than that seems like it will work well once I get it properly installed instead of sitting on top of the tank plugged into a 12v brick.

That's three batches of the eggs there.

Gambusia aren't colorful. :-?

You must be talking water pumps? If so there isn't any way to really run them at less than full capacity. They always run flat out, the best you can do is restrict them. Like slowing a car with the throttle stuck wide open by standing on the brakes to go the speed you want. Generally bigger is going to be noisier, quieter is going to be more expensive. In the water will be quieter. First you need to decide how much flow you want then go from there. If you want 2000lph through the filter you'll probably want a pump rated at around 3000 or more LPH at 0 head. I'd personally go for a Laguna pump. Good price, good performance, a bit noisier than something like an eheim, but far cheaper.

All images have been banned from signatures.

Noone can be told what matrix is, you have to see it for yourself...

Volkster, I think you've discovered a new species. You should name it Hermitus Starius Volksterii :bounce:

If it's your average clear vinyl tubing from someplace like mitre 10. Yes, it is.

I clean mine out whenever I've feeling especially industrious...Usually about once a year. Hehehe. I haven't had the algae or whatever the crap is clog the pipes completely, I have however pulled the hose out because it was barely flowing any water and put it under the sink tap to blast it clean... Out came 3 foot long, inch diameter brown turd. Yuck.

And being fat and bloated is pretty much normal for most breeds of goldfish.

The only problem with big water changes comes when the water you're doing the change with is significantly different than the tank(pond). The only time this is likely to be the case is if you have a horrible messy tank and rarely do water changes. If having large water changes alone was bad then fish in rivers would have a life span of...Well, I guess it depends how long it takes the water to travel the length of their body because that's when they'd get a 100% water change. Say...a quarter second?

Wow, this is the first time I've heard of a Seio eating an anemone. It's always Tunzes.

It's not a disaster if a little seawater gets into the main tank. It's not full of cyanide, arsenic and death.

There are lakes there full of obsidian?

Point it at the wall. Or get some less wimpy plants that can stand a little breeze.