spoon

just to be sure sterilise everything that the dead rabbits may have come into contact with as calci virus is highly contagious also limit handling them as you yourself may be a carrier(dont worry you wont get sick) other animals and insects can also carry it its a nasty disease it takes about 7-14 days to kill them but you wont know until they drop dead as the signs are all internal you can also get your remaining rabbits vaccinated after that if they last 14 days then you will know they are ok a vet can autopsy them and tell quite quickly but if you dont make sure you either burn the bodies or bury them deep and far away from your other rabbits

I bet there are people out there that got away with using organic sea salt from the supermarket although it would have caused issues in the long run

i agree p44 the ecological cost of a hydro dam is very great. one nuclear power plant would solve our energy problems for the next 25years+ as long as it was in the north island somewhere :nilly:

best i found when i had it placemakers wanted $40 for a sack

im not sure on the coral sand my guess is if you cycle it now in a container in the same bucket as the live rock it will still go thru a mini cycle when you add it to the tank later on as its been disturbed

have a think about the heater though its on a thermostat so its only going to be on sometimes the better you insulate the tank or heat the room the tank is in the less it needs to be on so less power it uses

solar panels are a huge cost i wouldnt bother with them unless your wanting to go massive and try and run your whole house with them it would likely take decades before you recovered your power costs anyway i think your time and money is better spent trying to make what you already have more effiecent eg more effiecent pumps , perhaps led lights, insulation on tanks etc

the other good thing about silica sand is its cheap firth pavers sell it for $14 for a 20kg sack down here i found it great for plants and really natruyal looking , a bit more difficult to keep clean than gravel but well worth it

a tank that small you can get away weith out using a skimmer just use purigen and other chemical filtration as well as regular water changes id ditch the silica sand as excess silicates will cause major algae issues . perhaps buy some dead rock now as you wont need heaps and get that started cycling in a bucket while you sort out the rest of everything once its cycled and ready to go and your tank is set up then ask on here for a small piece of live rock from an established tank to seed your now "live" rock with benefical creatures but perhaps leave the sand out for the first 6 months or so as it can be really hyard to keep clean when going through the cycling stages. a pair of clowns and a cleaner shrimp would go all right in that tank or perhaps a banggai or pjama cardinal and a firefin goby t5s or a power compact light should enable you to keep a range of corals except perhaps some of the really high light requiremant ones

it may be your thermometer thats dodgy a lot of ones for aquariums are very inaccurate

i put one in my old tank for my big pleco it was the yellow variety. i just jammed the whole thing in a hole in the background after one week i went and had a look normally it would be gone within a week . the pleco had made a hole in the side and hollowed it out and was living in it

thats one of the coolest tetras ive seen do they get bigger than say neons and glowlights?

a blacvk light may not harm the fish but there really iosnt any point it wont make the fish glow in the dark nor will it make for pleasant veiwing as the visible part of the light only penetrates a few inches into the water

i wouldnt bother with any of those skimmers the first one is just ugly and will need a rather large , possibly expensive pump to operate it and even then its only an average skimmer ns- 80 isnt a great skimmer and dosent allow much room to upgrade and the airlift ive heard they work ok adjusted properly with a grunty(noisy) airpump but they have there own problem like small collection cup and having to replace the limewood airstone often, not to mention micro bubbles, all that aside they are only suitable for a really small tank or a tank with next to no bioload

fast growing hedge? will further reduce wind problems and also very private the other good thing about a hedge is that there are no height restrictions like there are with fences

dont chuck anything out unless its dangerous or perishable until you recieve the check from eqc as they had started to check things out for themselves after the boxing day quake to try and save money and catch out fraudsters , i think they will be too busy to do at the moment but its not worth the risk of having your claim downgraded. once you get the check go for your life as the claim is deemed as settled once the check is sent it will still take 1-2 months for you to get your check

there are some good cheap skimmers availible at the moment but there is some crap out there too id avoid buying anything off ebay as its more than likely to useless unless you spend hundreds if you do come across something that looks good on the net or trademe at a price within your budget check with us on here first before buying it

nah sorry less lighting for soft corals , i didnt explain my self properly where you have the coral in the tank effects how much light it gets so with 2 250w Mh have high light corals up higher on the rockwork and softies can be lower

it was pretty upsetting, but im over it now and the house is all cleaned up and carpets clean and dry just very empty we are watching a small tv and two bean bags instead of a couch we will get a new one soon enough will get another marine tank later on too (mite have to bribe the landlord before i get another tank though :roll: i think possibly the weight of the tanks might have something to do with how they fare i have a 5.7l tank that didnt lose a drop or even move and its on a dodgy bedside cabinet

well i have to admit a lip helps but so does a $10 warehouse book shelf this tank enede up cracked at the bulkhead fitting have a look at this this tank didnt have a lip it fell the same way as everything else in the room

if you have heaps of rock and stack it up high and only keep low light corals you could get away with t5s possibly even t8 but Mh would be ideal with that depth id say 2x 250 watt units for soft corals

sometimes it just dosent mater what you do ..... in a quake as violent as tuesdays one it may not make any differece at all , our cats are in a cattery out in kaiapoi atm the woman who owns it had a 200kg plus granite shelving unit fall over. her husband was in the room he said it was if someone picked up off the ground and threw it

ive got an aquis 2200 and jebo 819 as well as a 150w aqua one heater that may be of use

a nice guy by the name of craig rung me and has helped out whikle i was cleanining up today i also found the blue damsel and pj cardinal alive so craig has taken them as well i didnt bother with organism as i thought john would have enough on his hands and being just around the corner i was thinking he might have a lot of damage thank you for the help and suggestions though i was a very sad day as i lost all of my other fish apart from a sparkling gourami and my frogs the tanks taht broke also ruined everything in the longe and flooded the flat right into our bedroom we have lost around 80% of our gear and the flat smells like an estaury at low tide'at least we are unhurt

we have lost almost everything in our house my 200l african tank gone s=as well as my marine tank but have managed to save a common clownfish pair this morning . im wondering if there is any one able to house them for me for a while possilby a few months as our house may be unlivable we dont know yet if you can help out please call?txt me (tim) on 0211907988 i can drop them off evrn to outlying areas