David R

KiwiRail has been, thats why we're making staff at the workshops redundant because its cheaper to buy from overseas than make it hear ourselves...

That doesn't make it good for them... Thats an interesting link Graham, I wouldn't recommend feeding the uaru nori when there are so many other ways to give them the greens they need, why risk it.

Clementi is a great shop, well worth checking out if you can. Walking distance from the MRT...

Could be worth a try if its cheap, but IMO feeding them a staple of something like Hikari Cichlid Excel would give them plenty of green matter they need. Feeding the nori could get quite messy as with things like that they tend to rip it to bits and half of it ends up floating around the tank (which is why I only fed cos lettuce the day before water change day). Just make sure they have some driftwood to nibble on too!

5k litres is still huge! Big bill heating it if you can't keep the room well insulated and warm. I certainly wouldn't bother welding one big long window if you're doing a long tank, either just stick with 2.4M window length (or how ever long you can get a single sheet of glass/acrylic) or use a central support. Could go for a 3x3x1M "cube" with 2.4M windows in three sides...

Cut it down to 6 metres in length and use two 2.4m acrylic (or glass) panels for windows with a central support. Henward what was the website for that crowd you were talking about a while back who did work for Kelly Tarltons etc?

:thup:

Not sure if I'd trust this guy with cardinals.. then again most of the t-bars I've seen don't seem to get anywhere near their full potential size, not sure why, maybe breeding at a small size, small tanks etc, much like convicts I guess. Larger high bodied tetras should be ok, scissor tails and other medium sized barbs would work too, it depends how big your T-bars are, maybe smaller tetras would work ok, its obviously working for phoenix. That pic is just to show the size, the colours look terrible unfortunately, it was a really good looking fish when it was alive!

Thats pretty damn cool, any pics???

:sml1:

sounds cool, any pics?? come round and get the rest of that rock some time this week, I'm home in the evenings!

I've still got the Deltec skimmer that Jeff originally used with the tank you have, fits perfectly in the sump and will do a good job. Let me know if you want it, don't mind hanging onto it for a while if you're not ready to buy it yet.

I'd certainly recommend it [quarantining new arrivals] so you keep it that way. I learned my lesson the hard way, "it hasn't happened yet" doesn't mean much when you're watching your oldest 20cm CL battle to breathe in a soup of malafix and malachite green...

Amen to that. My 6" royal would make a remarkable amount of sawdust, enough to cover the bottom of my pre-filter settling chamber (about 70x38cm footprint) with a 1cm thick layer, and thats not counting all the stuff that didn't make it over the overflow!! Great fish, but soooo messy...

The inlaws kettle in Kent had big chunks of what I can only assume was limescale clunking around in the bottom of it from boiling the hard water for a billion cups of tea a day. Many LFS's there sell RO water by the litre so that could be an easy way to soften it up if its too hard.

Mine comes out of the tap at off-the-chart purple but very quickly drops to a more "normal" level because the GH/KH is very low. If the water has a low hardness it should be pretty easy to adjust it to a more suitable level.

Do it, school of 50 in the 5'......

HFF had young ones not so long ago IIRC, hardest part seems to be finding a female, I thought I may have had one but judging by how uninterested in the caves provided they were I'm not so sure...

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=56493 :thup: Although, how big is the one you have now? I had three [suspected] male L128's all around 14cm in a tank with a 2400x900mm footprint and there was quite a bit of aggression towards one another around feeding time, or even if they spotted another one outside of its usual hiding spot. Maybe more cover in a smaller tank would work (how big are yours bigbosspants? Have they reached maturity yet?), but it could also be asking for trouble...

but on a slightly smaller scale perhaps? Ply and fibreglass for the sides/base, glass front 2300x1080, water maybe 500mm deep....

Only thing I can suggest is the skunks aren't/weren't as large/old/sensitive as the big clowns? I have no experience with skunks, but know from years of keeping them that clowns don't deal with moving well. In fact almost every time I've had trouble with them [mainly whitespot] has been after a move, and thats transporting them in large plastic tubs. I'd certainly be reluctant to ship them, especially at a larger size. Its good you guys got it sorted [financially] though and there's no sour grapes. Sometimes with this hobby you do everything you can and things still don't work out.

Loaches require highly oxygenated water (regardless of the conditions they're "used to"), more so than lake dwelling cichlids, and are more sensitive to stress and deteriorating conditions than most cichlids, especially when they get bigger. Small bag + high temp (less dissolved oxygen) + deteriorating/less than ideal water + sensitive fish could explain why you had problems this time when you haven't in the past. I also think Adrienne could be right about the temp increasing, I've never used them before but I understand heatpads generate a considerable amount of heat in which is why people usually put them on the top of the box so the heat can diffuse throughout the parcel and keep everything warm. If put directly underneath the bag it may have excessively heated the water when first activated then cooled down. Would be interesting to see what temperature the water would get up to with the heat pad sitting directly underneath it in an insulated box.

ATF + dorado + armartus = winning at life.

I think the ground idea will work to a certain degree, and could even be used in conjunction with a chiller (DIY or store bought) to reduce the load, but even if your ground temperature is 10C the water is going to need a long exposure to get the desired drop in temperature because of the minimal difference. I know with my brewing the temp in the cupboard can fluctuate between 18C and 24C while the actual temp of the liquid in the fermenter (plastic barrel) stays far more consistent around 20-21C. As someone mentioned the plastic tube will have insulating qualities, and using something like copper (which would make the heat transfer far more effective) won't work with a marine tank. With regards to sustainability/reduced power consumption, I would seriously think about having a large tropical tank in the same room as the cold water marine. I know in my room it easily gets up to 30C (tanks and air temp) on a sunny day with all the lights and pumps running. If you want to try the ground cooling idea then I'd suggest making the cold water set up as efficient as possible; keep the room well insulated and reduce as many potential heat sources as possible (LED lighting, running an in-line pump in its own insulated and externally ventilated compartment, no tropical tanks in the same room, etc). A large reservoir kept underground where it can stay cool along with a hose coil heat exchanger type thing could work quite well, but I'm not sure if it would be enough if it has to consistently battle with the heaters in a 26C+ tropical tank. ps. I know all this may not be particularly practice with your planned set up, just throwing some ideas out there.