blueether

I would just replace the hose, they do just go when they get older. Patching is likely not to work as the heat and pressure in a hot radiator are quite high

What I meant was that the doors are very long and swing a long way into the room, I would be tempted to cut them in half and hinge them in the middle of the door as well a la French doors

Have you had much of an issue with condensation this week with he high humidity? I have found even at 17 deg that I get a lot of condensation on the warm/humid days

I would be tempted to hinge the doors in the middle

cool, now all you have to do is get rid of the noxious redear slider and plant the tank out... :digH: It does look like its going to be good once it clears

I beleave that their lethal temp is about 27deg, and need for the young to have salt water. I have seen one person on trademe claiming to have breed them in aquarium, but I would doubt that. They can be very common in some lowland waterways and I have seen them at ~150 km inland from the sea both last year and this year.

There is even an english one on this site: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=48031

Just another plot by staff at ZSL London Zoo's Aquarium to get free Amazonian tropical fish

I would want at least 800-900mm length for smelt or inanga, both are very fast swimmers and can spook very easily.

see that Stella now recommends up to 7g salt / litre

Stella, I see that the in this 'paper' you say 7ppt for quarantine, but in the book you say 3g/l. Any reason for the higher amounts?

On my 1200*600*600 native tank I have two 5000 l/h wavemakers plus a 3200 l/h running the filtration and there is not too much flow so I would think that for a salt tank it would be about right?

Cool, looks like everything has settled in well. The kokopu that you caught after our trip looks to be a giant not a banded, is it eating well yet (non live foods)?

Just an update on the 400 l tank's issues: Mostly normal again, but there was a slight ammonia spike when I went back to the fishes normal feeding - to be expected I guess. Oh I found some references to the pH of the streams that the fish came out of 7.53 to 7.67, so somewhat higher than my tank has been running at. It is sitting at about a pH of 6.8 to 7.0 atm. tests5 by nzbeeman, on Flickr

Speaking of fish landing on the floor, this morning there was a smelt on the floor

Works fine here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/3064708

Surely an impeller an a Fx5 should last more than a year or so?

What did you feed the tank with to start the process? What filter and media are using?

meh, some people are sensitive :digH:

The air that your tank "breaths" is enough to contaminate it :sage:

bullies, shrimp and the like shouldn't be a problem with escaping. Koura, koaro, smelt and inanga could climb/jump out though.

Welcome to the native hobby. Yes Stella's book is a good read, as are these forums. A tank that small should be easy to keep to 20 or 21 deg even in nelson, I have two similar sized tanks as well as the 400 l main tank. The small native tank (~50l) is at 21 deg atm and we have just had three hot days and today the humidity is sky-high, this tank is only cooled with a desk fan, this tank has two powerheads - one about 200l/h on the built-in filter and a 500l/h for flow across the bottom. The other ~60 l tank has WCM in it and sits at about 23-24 with no cooling, this is in the same room but only has a sponge filter. You are not allowed to release fish back into the wild, so once you set up your tank keep it setup. Your tank might be on the small side for a rifle aquarium, but could be worth a try. you will need lots of flow, and that comes with a lot of heat To give you an idea of flow needed my 400 l has about 13000 l/h flow and is by no means swift but the torrent fish seem to be ok. As for hardy fish: bullies I have two redfin and two common bullies as well as 3 small torrentfish in the small tank and is about right for it I feel. Male bullies can be a bit pushy, but not too bad unless they are guarding a nest, and even then it is mostly show and puff. I have had many shrimp in my two native tanks in the last year and a half, they all slowly got eaten If the bullies aren't too much bigger than the shrimp it might work. The shrimp just eat algae and bacteria biofilms etc About the lid, my 400 l normally runs without the centre lid installed - mostly so the kokopu have free food in the evenings when the lights are on and moths etc are about. The 50 l has the lid open as I'm using a fan for cooling. I can only remember 1 inanga that has got out onto the floor.

Welcome to the right side of the ditch :digH:, and the fishroom

Not from up that way but you could try some of the west coast beaches for driftwood