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this is what i have: http://www.resun-china.com/products/english/dcskqb%20B-008.htm these the same manufacturers versions of the 'the pump': http://www.resun-china.com/products/english/LP%20A-01.htm Alans pump manufacturer was nice enough to specify the dB rating of the models - resun on the other hand do not, which is a shame as it is the only specification i want to compare! another website (http://www.beautykoi.nl/hailea_assortiment.htm) with a suspiciously similar product to that of my manufacturer, seems to rate their suspiciously similar pumps at '<60dB'. i'm starting to think my original idea of burying it in the back yard is not as bad as i thought...

fan = large hole in box = place for noise to escape the inflow will be piped into the box and the pump will draw air from inside the box - at 120 litres per minute, which is a lot more than an 80mm fan provides, i believe it will provide enough concentrated air-flow to keep the pump 'cool'. considering it already runs at about 40-50degC under normal operation i can only test it out and see. i'll take this opportunity to point out that i'm not going to seal it up and leave it - i'll be checking it every 15 minutes for the first week to make sure i'm not creating a fire hazard having said that, the wood i'm making the box from is from fire-stop doors with a burn time rating of 3 hours, and the only thing that could catch on fire inside the box will be the heat-resistant foam padding and again with the 'the pump' - there is no such product! or at least, i can't find one labeled as such. the one graeme is running is the 'the pump' according to him, but chris downs is also running a 'the pump' but it is from a different manufacturer (and cost him about $600 at stock price - the $300 (retail) ones are loud look-alikes). even the one the LHPC runs is loud - it can be heard from the front of the building, which is basically my problem at home. you know, this actually works rather well - the temperature of the pump does keep the tanks marginally higher in temperature than without - by about 0.5 - 1degC i thought about running the output of the 'not the pump' through copper pipes placed around the heat-fins, but aside from all the work required for an experiment, it could potentially heat the air up to 50degC, which would not be very clever of me

certainly would be intresting to try out - my main concern with the soundproofing idea is that the box is going to end up this big (waves arms in the air) because of all the padding how thick are those batts? the plans are for a box just over foot cubed in size - 330/330/380mm - which only allows about 40mm for padding on the inside without cramming the motor in place - and even then i'm sure it will overheat in no time.

it is indeed... right down to the engrish instructions i'd love to know what a 'the pump' is - people keep talking about the 'the pump' and pointing to things that are similar to 'the pump' but i still don't know what it is ira: lol - then i'd need a pair of earmuffs for when i'm in the room! i'll get some pink fluffy ones for when you come over i'm almost finished building the box it is going in and even though it is made out of 40mm fire-stop door timber and to be sealed with silicone and lined with foam, i don't hold high hopes that i won't be able to hear it afterwards.

Currently i'm running a large air setup through 13mm garden hose with 6mm bleeders to each of my tanks running off a 120 litre per minute air pump. the problem i have is the noise level - the pump is working correctly and has had a couple of mods made to it to make it quieter, but is still loud enough to be heard at the other end of the house if the doors are left open (or even with the doors closed when the house is quiet at night) i've looked into options including my current favourite, which is sealing it in a box with insulation and sound-proofing, and burying it in my back yard... ok, so without the burying bit... i then start to get worried about overheating issues and i'm not actually going to know how well this will work before i try it. i looked briefly into other options, like so-called 'silent' air compressors, as used in dentist labs etc, but these all run rather loudly as well, the only benefit being that they only run half the time because of their reservoir tanks. ideally i would like to be able to get about 120l/m of air with around as much noise as a normal air-pump, or perhaps a quiet fridge... not a freaking motorcycle! what do you other insane-pump-needers use? i'm using a resun aco-008 - and you don't need to tell me how ^#$&% it is!

:lol: :lol:

oooo! can i be an honourary 'martian? i only live about 2k from the bottom of the other side of the great divide! welcome to the website thingee... if you join our club we can unlock the magic club forums for you to hassle us in and the 10% discount thingee at the nice pet stores... did i mention that? (spent all day selling things, it's getting harder to stop... actually it's getting harder to go home... must leave the office... must leave...) don't mind him, he's like this most of the time

well i have the N problem under control now, so we'll see if that has any bearing on the numbers dying i'm still concerned about the ones floating to the surface that are alive - they try to swim down to the bottom again, but just float back up to the surface - i noticed this long before the N problem, it is just more prevailent now, and i am concerned that the N spike may not have effected them at all considering i got to it quickly

I had a spawning of Corydorus aeneus about 6 weeks ago, and the babies have been growing up nicely, with minimal losses - they are about 12mm long now Yesterday I came home to about 10 dead ones floating on the surface of the water, and a few live ones doing the same... The ammonia levels were a bit high (15 - 25 ppm) so i did a water change and got the levels back down below 15ppm - i think this happened because i changed the filter in the tank... but i noticed that some of them were still floating up to the surface this morning. I recently started feeding them ground flake, until now they have been on a soul diet of microworms and baby daphnia - don't know if this makes them more buoyant? Any ideas what could be causing them to float to the surface/die?

do you think reverse undergravel filtration would work or something more like an undergravel spraybar?

In short, no. In long, The surface will be as warm as the water, but the deeper you get the cooler it will be - if you have the tank set up already just stick your hand down into the substrate - you will notice the difference. you can get around this by using an undergravel heater, a heating pad (under the tank itself), or by piping the flow from your filter through piping under the soil. i wouldn't recommend the undergravel heaters - they are a fine wire that gently heats the substrate, and if your puffer goes excavating... the heating not only causes the temperature of the sand to warm up, but causes water convection in the sand - the water rises where the heating pipe is and gets drawn down where the sand is cooler. don't be fooled by sand either - just because visible crud can't get between the particles doesn't mean bacteria can't, and if they get underneath and die you'll get, simply put, swamp gas. the other consideration is that if this fishie does a lot of digging, you'll never have a problem with stuff building up under the substrate

the plants basically row roots into the cracks in the wood and rock to help them stay in one place in the wild the anchoring plants would probably float away when something disturbed the rocks they had managed to grow between. in the tank this translates to; move the rock and it will float away smooth rocks and wood won't be much use, and for a plant to anchor into wood the wood often has to be half rotten.

i just cleaned out a 600L tank that had about 15-20cm of gravel in places - and just in typing this i can remember the smell... the gravel was dead and STUNK. are you using any form of substrate heating or water circualtion? i think that the puffer will be happier hiding underground if the substrate is warm and clean...

i guess i'll be bringing this one back it it's own container then

Anchoring to wood and rocks, i use cotton thread in a variety of colours. Get some of the thicker stuff used for jacket buttons perhaps. brown for logs, grey for rocks. Never had much luck with clear thread - it tends to slip, and the cotton threads (make sure they are cotton) bio-degrade over time, so they fall off when the plant has anchored itself, and you don't have to disturb the plant to get the thread off. as far as what plants you can keep; go wild. I have kept amazon swords (which can grow to over 3 feet in height) in 2/1/1foot tanks before - you just have to make sure you don't over-feed or over light them, and consider binding their roots or giving them very little substrate (or putting them in a pot) as this stops them from getting too many nutrients, and therefore growing too large (bonsai!) The cooler water will help keep the growth down too. if the water is below 18degC average you could try ambulia, cabomba, hygrophila, java fern, crypts... some swords will survive... java moss, zealandia grass... valisneria... the main thing that cold water does to plants is slow down their metabolic rate - if they are too large this may kill them, if they are small they usually just don't grow any larger and you'll find that most plants are hardy when they are growing well - getting them established can be the hard part. i recommend getting cuttings from other people with plants and growing them up - at least then you don't have to pay for the plants

cichlids in general tend to be best kept with other cichlids and fish that can stand up to their territorial and generally bolshy nature... or are good at hiding and happy to do so. the electrics might not take that much interest when they are young, but as they grow the other smaller fish could become victims of territory defense or midnight snacks. water quality might also be a consideration as some cichlids have quite different water requirements to non-cichlid types. obviously you just need another fish tank

if you make a hood as part of this project i would suggest running the power in there. i have found that i have more leads that go in through the top of the tank than go in underneath. regardless, don't forget room for a computer in the bottom so you can hook up your computer-science 'fish tank monitoring station', and if you are doing a double 'tech (metal and wood) you could make the frame for the stand out of metal and add the rest of the case around it. and hydraulics for the hood so when you press a button it goes 'pssssssh' and slowly opens the hood... and don't forget to wire one bulb so it is always on so you can see into the tank when the hood is open and the rest of the lights are off (cause you'd have those on a micro switch...) and for your electronics class you can design a neat 'lil twinkling starlight system... and get extra points for your wood and metal by inlaying design stuff around the edges of the hood or doing some carving... and sliding panels in the top of the hood for the computer readout or temperature gauges and light timer and switches... and neon... underglow neon, and a huge exhaust pipe... and a turbo! you can't have a fishtank without a turbo! oooh! and if you are taking plumbing... (they do have plumbing in schools don't they?) you can attach an auto water changer with an in-line doser and heater! and a sump and uv steriliser!! man it would be awsome! i bet it would do over 300km!!!

the official recipie for melafix uses melaleuca cajeput oil, which is a LOT stronger than melaleuca alternifolia. the latter is the one you will get from most chemists. places that deal with the cajeput oil will often sell it to you for a large sum of money - large enough to make the cost saving quotient go out the window. using alterfolia you need to mix about 15-20% oil to 85-80% water to get the same effect (instead of 1-5% to 99-95%), and then smells a LOT stronger, and is a lot harder to mix (because of the ratio) if you do get teatree oil from the chemist - go for the one in the bottle with POISON written on it - don't get it from the rack of 'essential oils'. it is sometimes kept behind the counter... use distilled water - i don't know what is in your water, but you probably don't want to be throwing extra stuff into the mix and getting a dead batch. to get them to mix you can use dishwashing liquid, which does not break down the oil, but emulsifys it into the water and holds it in suspension. try to use an organic dishwash, but beware that they usually biodegrade, leaving you with a layer of oil on the surface of your tank. the main problem with this approach is that it foams. commercially available emulsifiers also have this effect. if you are going to use dishwashing liquid, add one small scraping at a time, as the commercially prepared melafix uses about 0.2% emulsifier. same goes for the others, but they generally come in powder form, so you would be mixing a paste with the oil then adding it to the water. de-foaming agents - i have tried to find one that is readily available and not overly expensive - no luck. di-methyl-something-icone is apparently the most commonly used defoamer in NZ but the only way you can get it that i know of is in a anti-collic formula (infant burping lubricant ) and that stuff is also not the cheapest... and contains loads of other ... stuff. ps: i am in the process of writing a recipie that will be on this site and in one of the next aquarium worlds - and i am working with a chemist to get the mixture right and the ingredients readily available... and i am typing this from memory!!! so DO NOT quote me on the mixtures, ratios, statements, punctuation, or anything else! oh, and teatree oil makes plastic and rubber stick to themselves... when you are measuring it out use a glass pipette, not a plastic syringe!

enough to register, but otherwize not that impressive the parents are about 1/2 grown - perhaps 50-100 eggs? I'm not how long it takes for them to hatch - sources say 1 to 2 days. i'll keep you posted... or keep posting... or something...

What colour are the eggs for the black widow Gymnocorymbus ternetzi supposed to be? I keep getting spawns of white eggs and giving up but according to some websites their eggs often are white... anyone?

By far the most effective method for diffusing CO2 is the bell method - trapping CO2 underwater and letting it dissolve at a natural rate. Tank water has its own buffers (including hardness) against pH changing rapidly and CO2 in a bell will dissolve at different rates depending on that capacity. There is also some evidence that it could be the safest method... CO2 is heavier than air. When it bubbles up out of the water it just sits there on the surface under the rest of the air. Although we are probably talking quantities of CO2 that are not likely to cause a problem; most of the oxygen you get in a tank is absorbed through the waters surface. The CO2 could potentially form a layer to prevent this happening normally. One also may find that fish which breath air will be taking breaths with a higher CO2 content than normal. Again, when talking small scale CO2 I don't think it would be a problem but if you are using diffusion methods that are not 100% effective at consuming and dissolving the CO2 that is where your CO2 goes. However, as with air, CO2 will also be absorbed when it is sitting on the surface of the water. And a point or two against the cannister filter intake injection method: firstly you are putting raw CO2 past organisms (bacteria) that probably won't like the initially high pH of the dissolving CO2 (pH4 or so) or be able to breathe should the CO2 get trapped around them, and secondly, if the gas should somehow get trapped around the impella and develop an 'air' pocket, your cannister filter will burn out and die. (I had the 'burn out and die' happen... the first i knew about it was a burning smell )

the water was a bit N-high when i put it into the holding tank but she was happy in the tank i took the water from so i saw no harm - i had been doing water changes and vacuming out the food every day so i was surprised when she started trying to get out... the water came from my 600l convict tank - i think that there is a LOT of crap floating around in that water - fungus and bacteria and the like - so i rekon the methylene blue and melaleuca killed off all those organisms and their decaying remains caused a breakdown in water quality. i don't know how likely that sort of thing is, but it is the only thing i can think of...

you can ask me anything you like but all consultations come with free convicts if you want me to post my life experience with convicts i'm more than happy

Well the last day or so was interesting! I went in yesterday morning to check on all the fish, and she was trying to leap out of the tank! She punctuated this behaviour with lying-on-her-side-at-the-bottom-gasping and swimming-erratically. I don't know what exactly her problem was but i think there might have been a Nitrogen spike in the quarantine tank, and i was unable to test for it because of the methylene blue in the water - damn those colour-change based tests! I took her out and thought 'nothing can be bad compared to what i got her out of' and threw her in my community tank where the water is well looked after. She flipped around for a bit and gasped a lot, but after about 10 minutes she was sitting upright and 'jumping' from one resting place to another. Today she is swimming mid-water with all her fins fully extended and hunting around in the substrate - I am assuming for food! Hurrah! :bounce:

apparently the conversation about that went something like: MAF: 'get us a list of all imported fish from the importers' FNZAS: 'but you have those lists, the importers give them to you when they file their paperwork' MAF: 'yes we do keep the records given to us by the importers, but that's handled by another department'