lduncan

Well, I just cancelled my order for my new Macbook Pro laptop, to help with current funds. Budget wise, can't really afford to do absolutely everything i'd like to do all at once. But the thing is I can setup the front have of the tank with rock lights and streams which I already have, then add to the back as finances allow. I estimate about two months for the finalisation and construction of the tank and stand. Hopefully have transferred the stock from my tank into the new one by mid April. And final completion by the year end. Layton

I think it has more to do with the fact that Petworld in Christchurch is no longer supplying Auckland shops. ;-) Layton

I'm guessing around 8 6100's, but may need more. Plus a closed loop within the rock structure to keep it clear of crap. Layton

They love corals I'm going to try a pair of pakastani butterflies and see whether or what damage they do to large acro colonies. Hopefully keeping them well fed will mean they won't eat as many coral polyps as they would naturally, and whether the corals in the tank can sustain occasional polyp muching. Based on growth rates, i'd say that in a largish tank it could be sustainable. Layton

While we're on butterflies, this one is cool too.

15mm glass is a lot more expensive than 12mm though. Yeah, i agree, i'd rather it look good proportions rather than being practical in terms of reaching stuff (that's what tongs are for ;-) ). The only worry I have about going deeper is glass thickness. Using 15mm glass could be around 2.5 times more expensive than 12mm. Layton

It's when price isn't mentioned you should worry. The retic's, from the one i've ever seen available online, are one of those fish with no price tag ;-) Layton

I might be waiting a while for a pair of retic's to show up, I'd settle for a pair of these though: Layton

Nope not going to bother with vortex, for the reason that based on how I think they work, streams are more energy efficient, especially through thick glass. Plus streams have a proven record of being high quality and extremely reliable. What I really want to achieve with the tank is have large (2ft diameter plus) arco colonies, rather than a lot of little scrapy ones around the place. Then keep a couple different species of butterflies, without having to worry too much about them hammering corals. This is one of my favorites: Layton

More than likely i'll still have holes drilled for closed loops, incase I change my mind. But streams look like the go at the moment.

That's not that hot. My tank runs at 27 in summer peaking to around 30 on hot days.

Yip totally in wall. I have a room next to the garage, so the tank will be in the garage with a hole in the wall facing into the room. What i'll be doing to try and make the streams appear less intrusive is have the tank width at 2 meters, but have the wall opening at 1.8 or slightly less. At the moment i'm favouring streams for flow over closed loops (both power consumption, and lower cost). But for under the rock structure i'll be using a closed loop, as it's obviously inaccessible to streams. The Royal Exclusive custom tanks look really nice, but i thing it requires a lot of skill and experience to make that type of thing look realistic, as opposed to looking like stucko in a tank! I think i'll stick to some ultra large pieces of live rock.

The yellow pages website is down, and doesn't look like it's going to be available anytime soon. Telecom's complete incompetence strikes again. Anyone happen to know any glass company websites / contact details? Layton

This is an area I will be devoting a LOT of time to.

Anyone know anyone in ChCh who does metal frames at good rates? Looking at powder coated tubular steel. Also very interested in what people are paying per square meter for this thickness glass (in standard float, as well as low iron) around the country. Layton

Looks like it's the season for upgrades. It'll be good to get some tips from your design and planning as I go too. Layton

Well today I went around to check the tank, and do the usual topup and feeding, and found that the top centre brace has popped off, so now the front panel is bowing about 10mm. So with that, I think it's time that I finally get on to the upgrade which has been a long time coming. So the dimensions I'm looking at for the new tank is 2000 x 1600 x 800 I'm hoping to make it totally from glass, but depending on the cost I may consider a ply / glass combo. I'm after some prices for 12 and 15 mm glass around the country, they can vary a lot from what I can remember. Also I would really like to go with low iron glass, but that really depends on price and availability of glass at 12 or 15mm . Also feel free to assault me with recommendations and tips for the design of the new tank. I want to do it properly, but at the same time, relatively quickly. Layton

Well it looks like a few people are interested, so i'll investigate further about setting this up. Layton

Very true, I think it is a combination of both. Layton

250 gigs is a lot of bandwidth to use every month, might as well get my moneys worth

Unfortunately, it's a pretty basic package I have hosted by godaddy so i don't have the option or control to add virtual hosts, so the base domain would have to be nzreefs.com But you would have total control of what you upload and how you want it presented etc.

The hosting account for my domain www.nzreefs.com has had a bump in storage and monthly traffic allowances. I now have 5 gig of storage, and 250 gig of monthly traffic for no additional cost to me. So i was wonder how many people would be interested in having there own area on nzreefs.com to setup and manage their own marine tank related webpage / blog, or for hosting of images etc? If a few people are interested, i will explore further some php based tools which allow a geocities type function, where you get a site such as www.nzreefs.com/username/ or alternatively a sub-domain like username.nzreefs.com Layton

It was a question, hence the question mark. Layton

So you have no concerns about NSW?

Instant ocean is considered one of the better ones. I use it or Red Sea. Dunno about the uni's saltwater supply. I guess it depends where the get it, and what they do to it once they have it. :lol: by Korallen Zucht? They are more than happy to help you solve this problem by selling you a little bottle of it for the low low price of 35 euro, with contents valuing a fraction of a cent. ;-) Layton