spoon

i have no idea what it is but have to say ive never seen anything like it , its pretty cool

in regards to this extra hassle being due to nz fishing hobby and fishing industry due to "implode" its because of trout the govt makes a lot of money from fishing licsences and related things they are particuarly worried that a imported exotic fish could affect this income, neglecting the fact that a trout is an imported exotic organism doing damage already , i find the fact that they value trout higher than our already struggling native fish disgusting but as said before its all about money, pity the wont recognise trout as a unwanted organism

mine will eat flake from the surface! he eats anything and is quite active during the day but more so at night he loves courgettes too i just chuck a big one in the tank and its gone in a few days

me too as long as they arent spraying directly over the fishtank or near it you will be fine

fish-street.com

id use a thin razor blade and run it along the gap inbetween the panes to cut the silicone , you can then use it to scrape unwanted silicon off

didnt pay for the caves when i went there as i have family in king country with local iwi friends

if you get a chance waitomo caves is worth a look and the marokopa land bridge and falls is awesome too just a bit further along the road from waitomo

the berzerker- an aussie industrial death metal band dont play too loud unless your speakers can handle it

there is some reasonably priced quad t5 units on trademe but pl tubes may be another option what are the dimensions of your tank as this can have a lot to do with lighting choice

bumble bee gobies for a challenge

it replace it with 10mm otherwise thats a lot of water to lose on your lounge floor

lots of things to eat them including the shrimps themselves and mysid and my fish

i you want to see one in real life go right out the back of the shop at redwood aquatics there is one near the pond stuff

ihave some glass shrimp living in a saltwater reef tank they breed all the time just none of the eggs survive

i reckon go with colourful fish as these are what non fishkeeping people seem drawn to

looks like crosses ive seen and being in chch its highly likely ,there are still lots floating around

another point i have is that we need to encourage more people into the hobby even though there may seem like a lot of us on this forum and in the local clubs a sales rep for fish products told me once " 1 in 4 households in new zealand own a fishtank, yet only 1 in 100 have had something in it in the last 5 years " now im not sure how scientific that is and i dont really care the point being there are a lot more potential fishkeepers out there and educating them of our causes would be very benefical for the fnzas , for all the local fish shops and the hobby as whole

personally i would try a mock up of what you just suggested to see how well it works it may however be more hassle than what its worth with building the stand to fit and access to the sump

depends really wether you want a sump or not

that pic is using a canister filter normally ie no head which will work great ! but you will need to drill the holes for pipes at the same level in the main tank , even though it may appear the same pumping up with a cannister filter from a sump is a lot different as your intake and return are at different levels this makes it hard to prime and not run very well. in effect that picture at the top is basically using the cannister in a closed loop set up. the sump set up in the next picture down would be more practical and easier for a small sump than using a refugium as well

lol i doubt you would use that much carbon on a 5ft reef tank! i you have the filter 404 not doing anything test it out how you intend to set it up and you will see what i mean . i tried the same thing with a 104 on my nano setup. other thing was i got sick of opening it up to change media (mine just sits in sump now) IMO sell the 404 and get a HOB style (large one) and run your chemical media in that nice any easy and provides good aeration too. while we are on topic of carbon just thought i check that you know to only buy good quality carbon , not the cheap stuff for freshwater as the cheap stuff can leach phosphates id reccomend seachem seagel its a mix of high quality carbon and phophate remover 250ml treats 60 gallons and is around $30

cannister filters dont run so well connected like that and are difficult to prime when connected like that, perhaps use it in a closed-loop system if you want to use it and it can double as your tank circulation(if you dont know what i mean by closed-loop google it ) then buy a cheap pump with a ceramic shaft for your return pump. What type of cannister filter do you plan on using? reason i ask is a large one say a cf 1200 you would likely fit all the chemical media in one tray and have a mostly empty filter as you wont need two trays of carbon in a filter that big for a tank that small for your heaters i would buy two 50w heater and run both in the sump , there is a tiny 50w heater made by elite so you wont have any difficult fitting two and a return in , like you would with a single 100w heater depending on how much live rock you plan to have in the display you could possibly leave out the live rock rubble in the sump and as for your lighting in there , i find some form of lighting helps to see what your doing etc but reverse lighting would only be necessary if you were running the middle section as a refugium and growing macro algae(seaweed) to help with nutrient export, however its my thinking than in a 30l sump(and i may be wrong ) you arent going to be able to have enough macro algae to have any noticable effect on nitrates or phosphates in my opinion you are better off having a skimmer section then a bubble trap as a divider and the second half as heaters/return will also give you more room to work with trust me you dont want no room when you are playing round with a skimmer

re the cement its not too hard should stick like.. to a blanket , also regarding the pvc conduit - you may find the cost of that quickly gets up to the cost of acrylic sheets. the other thing is test out how well silicone sticks slate together you may find it dosent hold well enough i would be inclined to use aqua knead-it although this would be expensive also

perhaps we need to do something to help the lfs out there now as you already know the rules around importing fish have tightened up and the food safety authority are in charge of testing the cost of importing has gone up a lot. for example chch used to have 3 lfs that used to directly import fish and quarrantine them theirselves , we now only have one and they are copping a hard time from the food safety authority who would rather not have to deal with it. an lfs that imports there own fish , particuarly if you are on good terms with them are more likely to import special items and stock rarer fish than all the rest of the lfs who use the same nz importers. what i was thinking about (but not sure how to go about it)was petitioning the govt to standardise the import standards currently policed(there are big differences in fairness between different people doing the checks as those who dont want the extra workload are basically trying to force lfs away from importing) or perhaps in some way make it easier or cheaper for lfs to import- to be clear im NOT talking about dropping any safety standards or allowing unwanted organism in just making it easier to get what we are already allowed to have