DubbieBoy

My 2ft cube tank has sprung a slow leak after 15 years or so. Looking to have another made as I really like this shape. (this one was originally made by Redwoods in Christchurch but they're not making tanks any more unfortunately)

Dear all, Came home from the Christmas break to find my tank had sprung a small leak which made its way along a power cord from a light, into a timer, and down to an extension block filling it with water ?. The extension block was lying on the floor without a drip loop - I KNOW BETTER THAN THIS, BUT IT HAPPENED ANYWAY. Very thankful that the overload tripped and shut this down before anything really bad happened while we were away. I got away with it this time but will be changing my ways; lesson learned. In 40 years of fishkeeping I've never had this happen but... Please be careful. - Rory Dunedin

Dang Still scandalous though :an!gry

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11364683 Somebody got screwed badly here and it seems to be the childrens' ward at the hospital. Bravo Otago Uni, bravo :-?

JBL Proflora CO2 Vario

I'll get pics up, it is bright 8) ... but I don't think massively more intense than the 3 x 55W power compacts I was already running. Hard to say really. Here's two of six lamps lit, I went for a 50:50 mix of their 'tropical' bulb and 10000k reef white tubes. The tropical bulbs are supposed to be about 7500k but have a distinctly pink hue. Together the colour rendition is quite nice.

Thought I’d update this thread now that I’ve arrived at a decision (forced by the failure of one of my existing ballasts which knocked out two of my compact flouros, leaving just one 55w bulb; plant performance quickly suffered). I wanted to replace the failed ballast with something a little more aesthetic than what I had been using but still baulked at the exaggerated prices of overtank luminaries such as the Arcadia or Giesseman units. There are cheap(er) T5 luminaires available from the far east but quality (safety?) can be an issue. I didn’t want to go MH as I need a stout cover glass to prevent the cat from treating the tank as a buffet. Then I stumbled across the iQuatics site recently http://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/; these seem to be relatively new players and by comparison are quite competitively priced - the AquaLumi ticked all the right boxes… Heavy duty anodised aluminium luminaire, 6 x 24W T5HO bulbs (with 2 or 4 independently switched), cool running with fan assisted cooling of the electronics etc… Nice. So I enquired about international shipping and, as it happens, yesterday I received their first overseas consignment ;-) It’s a very solidly put together unit and I’m really pleased with it… Here are some preliminary pics, I’ll update when I have it in situ.

Hmmm, I do have some calcium issues in that tank (can't seem to keep ramshorn snails alive or grow them out to any size). Our water is extremely soft and I have to supplement bicarbonate to even get a kH reading. GH is effectively zero. It's a techie-planted tank maintained at about pH6.8 with CO2. I occasionally supplement with CaCO3 just to try and introduce some mineral calcium in some form. I definitely don't think it's water quality or space. Was thinking of introducing some cuttlebone in there for the sake of the snails, maybe it'll help the cories bulk up a bit. So, they're just C. aeneus then?

I picked up a bunch of these little guys some years ago believing they were plain' ol' C. aeneus (which I still believe they are). The thing is, none of them have ever gotten any bigger than 2-2.5cm in the years they've been puttering around my tank and I thought bronze cories got quite a bit bigger than that. I really like these mini-cories and would like to try and get some more; have I got some kind of pygmy or dwarf variety here or is this quite normal for these guys?

Mesh I used is wireform modelers' #8 mesh; came from Gordon Harris http://www.gordonharris.co.nz/amaco-c-56_58.html (next day delivery ex Christchurch too!). The 1/8" mesh size works pretty well and is easy to work, the 1/4" mesh size might work too but the wire is quite coarse and would be harder to hide. There's a stainless steel product also but the mesh size is I think too fine at 1/16". The ali mesh seems to be working very well. It comes in flat sheets so using it to create a lawn effect would be pretty straightforward Was thinking of listing these on a popular online auction site..., I think they might go well

Hi Matt, Rory here. Very sorry to hear that your Ricca got stomped upon on its way to you. Those pottles are ordinarily pretty strong and I've not had this happen before that I know of. The Riccia itself will be just fine, it's a tough little plant. Hopefully it will grow well for you. Here's something you could consider for your nano tank. I've been growing Riccia Rocks under aluminium mesh. The mesh is particularly handy as it naturally sinks and you can bend it into whatever shape takes your fancy (Riccia really is quite buoyant so I tend to weight them down with a fishing sinker also). The Ricca grows through the mesh pretty quickly under good light and I think they look quite neat and you can make them any size you like.

So, I’ve been maintaining a 24” cube planted tank for several years in the corner of the living room. It’s been good and plant growth has been lush. The lighting system I went with when I initially set it up was 3x55W CF lamps under AH Supply reflectors and these have been really good for punching light down through the extra depth. But this lighting arrangement isn’t particularly aesthetically pleasing and was only ever meant to be temporary. I’d like to consider an alternative lighting arrangement, like either a hanging pendant or an overtank luminaire setup and I’d welcome any advice. I thinking along the lines of a 6x24” T5s or a 150W MH, both of which seem to be unfathomably expensive for what they are! Because it’s in the living room, I’m a bit concerned a MH lamp might be too bright/glarey as it would have to be suspended further from the glass due to heat? In that sense, the 6x24” T5 HO pendant style might be the best bet. Ideas, options, experiences and sources would be appreciated. I expect it would have to come from overseas as the minute anything like this enters NZ the price immediately triples. Some pics of the corner cube in some of its incarnations -

Needle Leaf; starting to take over

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3224&utm_source=PFK_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=September_17_2010_a&utm_term=Hero_rescues_aquarium_fish_after_earthquake&utm_content=html That man deserves a DB