Ira

Hmmm, Yeah, that does seem pretty good, I think that's $au since it's an aussie website. Be much better than even a second hand MH. Just need to get a cheap standard light socket it looks like, so be about $100 give or take. I've added it to my favorites for later when I want to upgrade my lighting. I might check and see what Lamp Specialists have too whan I do, they seemed to have a good selection of screw in flourescents like that when I was there last.

By freshwater filter, I assume you mean RO/DI? Any evaporation at the moment will be practically nothing at the moment since I'm not going to leave the top off the tank for cooling. If I do need to add water I'll just use my tap water(Rain water). Given the massive innefficiency of RO filters and my limited water supply, it's not a good idea. Water supplements: I'll wait to get them until I need them which I won't immediately because for several months it's just going to be some stuff from the beach, nothing like corals for a LONG time. Test kits:Yes, I will need a few new test kits, right now I think I'll just need to buy a high range PH test kit and hardness Timers: Got timers. Lights:Got lights, may replace the tubes. Enough for now, won't need anything much stronger unless I want corals or similar and I'm just aiming at fish right now. Rock: Yes, I know I need more rock, but I'm doing my best to convince the budget of that, otherwise I'll add it as I can afford it. Heating: I've got heaters. Cooling: Won't and haven't needed it as the 60 watts of lighting over the tank doesn't exactly put out much waste heat. Stock: Will wait until the tank is ready but last time I checked prices for the fish I'd like it came out to $250. Skimmer: Still haven't sorted that out but will be the next big purchase if I can find a good one available in NZ otherwise I might just order a AquaC Remora from the US. Water storage: Still need to sort it out. Removing the current tank residents: They're getting demoted to a 100L Hex. New Residents: Whatever I can catch/find for now.

That 10 kg of rock is just what I'm going to put in to begin with along with whatever rocks I can collect. If you prefer think of it as me throwing it all in a large glass bucket in my computer room to cycle. As far as goldfish fitting the budget better, did you used to own discus and then upgrade to a reef tank because they weren't elitist enough for you? I'm sure your fellow reefers will thank you for doing your best to discourage those nasty commoners trying to set up a tank within their pathetic little budget. And I'm not even sure what I'd spend $4000 on equipment for just a 200L FOWLR tank unless I used the ground up bones of swedish barmaids as substrate. Somehow I doubt that would be available anyway.

Just a note, you should be using some kind of dechlorinator other than stress coat. It will likely do a MUCH better job and you won't be adding all the extra crap included in stress coat.

The driving carefully wouldn't be too bad, except for the last 3 miles of the drive home consists of something in the range of 20 hairpin bends.

Looks like I've decided on what I'm going to do to start off with. I'll get the two powerheads and wavemaker and maybe only 10 kilos of base rock, throw that all in the tank, go and collect rocks, water, etc from the ocean and throw that in the tank. Kinda just cycle everything in the tank and build up from there. I won't go BUY any fish until I've got at least a skimmer so anything I do accidentally kill will be free. Pies, you've mentioned you use natural seawater, right and have collected from the ocean, where did you get it? What do you carry the water in? I guess I'll hassle you about it when I visit. I've seen big plastic bins for not too expensive, but I'm not sure I'd trust those in the car full of water.

They sometimes jump around at first, I guess because it startles them, but after that don't seem to pay much attention to it.

I stopped by Paws and Claws and have them getting me prices on Via Aqua 1300 powerheads(1150lph) and a via aqua wavemaker attachment. Hmmm...I'm a bit unsure of going through the lower hutt pet center. They really don't inspire any confidence in me. Also, just got an email back from Redwood Aquatics in Christchurch(Great store, I visit it every time I'm in chch), they got back to me in less than 2 hours, awesome! Anyway, looks like a 40kilo box is $9 per kilo or $12 per kilo under that. I was thinking about 25 kilos and getting 40 kilos would only be $60 more. That's not including shipping though.

Yeah, I realize I'll need to get a hob skimmer. Part of the reason i'm skipping the sump is because there really wouldn't be enough room for an in sump skimmer anyway, so it would be a lot of extra work just to get the heater hidden. Actually, the skimmer is the major part holding me up. Though, I can run the tank for a while without one so I should stop worrying. Who is graham? I figure with the rock if nothing else it can just sit in the closet for a while without a worry, but once I get it I will get a big bin and take a trip to the ocean. Would sometime this weekend be good to stop by? Looking at your tank would probably give me heaps of motivation to get mine running.

Where do you guys get your base rock and sand? Needa get me some! I've also changed my plans a bit, planning on just using two big powerheads instead of a sump. Should simplify things a bit because I won't have to drill overflows in the tank or anything.

He's practically a new born, give him a little time.

What I did with mine in the same situation was(After giving everything in the filter a good wash) filled a sink up, got the filter running with the hoses in the sink and dumped a cup or so of janola. Ran it like that for about an hour, drained the sink, poured all the water out of filter and replaced it with fresh, ran it for about another hour then poured out the water and let the filter sit open for a while to let it dry and let anything left evaporate.

I collected about a million aphids for my guys. They really love them. Stuffed themselves silly and now they're piled on top of each other on top of a leaf right under the light. Too bad I don't have a digital camera.

http://puffernet.tripod.com/main.html Puffernet.

Ah, my wingless fruit flies showed up YESTERDAY and were in the mailbox, but I forgot to check the mail. It's all larvae, have to wait a bit to set up some new cultures, I think.

I bought 5 and 4 survived so far. They've been frogs for about 3 weeks. The one tadpole I lost wasn't long after I got them, so I'd say it was more of an acclimation problem than how I took care of them, just using water from my pond. They're in one of those little bluish generic pet containers you get at the pet stores along with a small birdsnest fern, some generic fern type and a bowl of water. It's smaller than I'd like, but I'll need to find them something bigger. I tried whiteworms on my guys, they didn't seem interested and the whiteworms just crawled out of the container and have taken up residence under the moss. Kinda interesting watching the whiteworms crawl out of a container, they kinda group together, a bunch of them forming kind of a superwhiteworm that looks around and crawls.

Aphids don't move too much. And them moving a bit and being hard to find would be kind of a good thing, I'd think. Give him something interesting to search for.

Wander around your yard and see if you can find some aphids too. That's what mine have been eating for the last two weeks while I wait impatiently for Biosuppliers to send my wingless fruitflies.

Yeah, mesonemachelus triangularis looks right, here's another pic of what the website says is a zodiac loach(Ok, skip that, tripod won't let me link it) and is Mesonoemacheilus triangularis, slight spelling difference. (Though, you've probably done this yourself already) Hmmm...A search for Mesonoemacheilus triangularis comes up with printed loach or Batik loach...That's all I can find. Though, Printed loach sounds vaguely familiar.

Also my brazilians ate frozen blood worms, both of them loved them so I think most of them probably would.

I think they normally go for around $7-10 each?

I wouldn't go with the tiny ones that Animates usually has. I think they actually prefer brackish water, stay pretty tiny and are nippy little buggers. I'd suggest Brazilian puffers. They're more placid, are definitely freshwater, get a bigger and are nicer looking. They're more expensive than the yellow spotted puffers? at Animates though. I think I got my pair for $30 each. Figure 8s are nice too, but they're a bit more expensive again.

Not particularly rare, but I don't see them often... Mystus Gulio, Silver Mystus Mystus Vitattus, Striped mystus

There's a fluval 505?

Easiest and cheapest way would be to put a bunch of peat in the filter. That will soften it a bit and lower the PH.