David R

Yeah I just use a "normal" cheapo pump with a length of clear hose on the end. One thing to consider is the height from the pump sitting on the bottom of the barrel to the top of the tank. You may want to build it up on cinder blocks or something to decrease the head height for the pump. IMO this is one of the few times where I opted for a cheap brand of pump. Reliability isn't really an issue like it is with a sump pump, and its only going to be running for an hour or so a week so you might as well go for something cheap and grunty. Just make sure its got a long cord (as most pond pumps do).

:facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm:

Going thru one of those restless periods where you feel like scrapping everything and starting over with something completely different..... :facepalm:

I'd suggest two males as breeding pairs can get quite aggressive. Males can get to about 6" though so you might have to watch out for some of the smaller fish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izmeZkIXsOc 8) 8) 8)

Berlin is a lot colder than Auckland in winter!! If I link photos from my facebook account can other people see them or only friends? Mykonos and our boat:

Not banned, just not on the allowable imports list. Probably not likely to given the hysteria over them establishing in the US and subsequently being banned...

L81 stays smaller than L18, so that could be considered a big enough morphological difference to split at species level. But then again doesn't L177 stay smaller than L018? I would have thought this would be a prime example of where subspecies should be used more often...

I guess that explains the flavour of Waikato Draught....

Saw this in the Glaser email and was going to post it up. Interesting they didn't include L81, and it seems a bit strange to me that they lumped them all under one species rather than describing them separately as seems to be happening more and more.

As Ryan said, test the KH otherwise you could be fighting a losing battle using peat and alder cones if your water is hard as rock. I would suggest putting the peat in a stocking and rinse it well, then add it to a filter so it has good water movement.

I just had a look at their [awkward] website, and it looks like the waikato only supplies 10% of Aucklands supply. Not sure where it goes or how it gets mixed in (I can't find a map showing which suburbs draw their water from where, although I recall seeing one somewhere). http://www.watercare.co.nz/about-watercare/our-services/water-sources/Pages/default.aspx I would have thought at this time of year they'd be taking less from the river and more from the dams?

Mine is feistier than I expected, holds its own well with the red devils and bigger jags. Hope someone is planning on breeding them!!

From expol? http://www.expol.co.nz/ Are you going to put a background on the tank? If you want to take pics of it then you'd be better to close the door so the room is as dark as possible and use just the tank lights.

Might pay to check their website as IIRC they're only open Monday-Friday.

What part of Auckland are you guys in? I'm east so will be getting my water from the Hunuas. As Alan said in another thread, water companies usually try keep the pH high as acidic water would corrode pipes faster etc, but I find the GH and KH of my tap water is still very low and it doesn't take much to bring it back down.

Either HaNs or Supersi would be the ones to talk to, they're the two site admins.

Good luck....

How big is the black? You're going to try mixing it with the "secret fish"??? :-?

I've got some coral rubble that I haveused in the past to buffer tanks by adding it to the filters, if you want to come over and grab some let me know. How long until you leave? If you haven't got enough time to experiment and monitor it before you leave to make sure you haven't added too much then I'd say you're better off not to add any at all.

and so in conclusion to answer the original question of "how do I make my pH 7.5+ water into stable pH 5.5 water?: ...........

Perhaps you could explain it for all of us then and answer the OP's question. I'm no chemist, but I always thought that high hardness made it difficult to lower pH (ie the water has more "buffer") but I guess not if they have nothing to do with each other..

What kind of "plastic"? If you're using acrylic you'll need an acrlyic cement, available from Mulfords Plastics down by Sylvia Park. they also have lots of offcuts of acrylic, usually pretty well priced.

Sounds like a good thing to me!! I'll just go check mine... *edit* mine is still off-the-scale blue from the tap. But interestingly enough the pH of the big tank is down to about 6.8 after having nothing but tap water (no rain water) for the past couple of months. Did a 450L change on it on Friday with tap water. Maybe there is less TDS in the tap water at this time of year?

Hard or basic? GH and KH are more important that pH, if your water is coming out of the tap at 7.5 and you want it lower than that then you really need to know the hardness. If the hardness is low it may be as simple as adding a bit of driftwood and/or peat to your tank, but if the water has a high mineral content (if you're getting it from a spring/bore in a limestone area, for example) you may need to look at collecting rainwater or a Reverse Osmosis unit.