kinnadian

Closing down my mbuna cichlid tank in New Plymouth. Taking expressions of interest more than anything, as I expect to have to ship these and don't want to ship unless there is enough fish to warrant sending. I tried to count them while they were out but I'm sure there are a few more of each of these hiding in the rocks, probably a lot more yellow labs and demasoni than I could count. Selling these at a discount to try to get them to a good home. Trewavasae red top 5 - $20/ea Rusty 6 - $20/ea Blue exasperatus male 2 - $20/ea orange zebra (with egg spots) 3 - $20/ea Yellow (some peach/yellow crossbreed) 20+ adult (plus many young) - $10/ea synodontis multipunctatus (cuckoo) 4+ adult (suspect some more young but they are hiding) - $40/ea Demasonsi 10+ adult (plus many young) - $10/ea Mottled females (don't know what genus these are, can anyone help?) 7 - $15/ea There are some crossbreeds of demasoni/yellow lab and yellow lab/orange zebra which I can throw in if you want. Fed only on NLS, had these for about 3 years. Let me know if anyone is interested

How long is your lighting period? If you're getting algae blooms I'd reduce it to <8. If you're unwilling/unable to buy a bigger filter, in my experience using an algaecide will help clear up the water along with more frequent water changes.

Those cheap led drivers fail really easily, I tried experimenting with them before and they were pretty bad. Get a more reliable one or you might come home one day to a fire... Also with those really cheap LEDs you get what you paid for, they have very weak output and lumens are nowhere near 1W from a decent LED manufacturer. They are quite inefficient. Plus soldering in all those LEDs will take forever. You are better off with a smaller amount of decent Cree LEDs from Ebay, they cost about $2/ea shipped from Ebay and are well worth it. Also you need to consider cooling, LEDs generate a hell of a lot of heat. At the very least you will need a large aluminium heatsink, if you are doing 100W you will probably need a cooling fan.

Is it the light, very pale kind of driftwood? That stuff never gets water logged.

Jeez how much is this all costing!?

Wowie that's expensive, $5k. You can make a really nice setup for under $3k and be able to get everything top of the range.

Really cheap and reliable ATO that my flatmate and I use: http://www.nzmas.co.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14428 Only change I'd recommend to that is using two float switches in series, one slightly above the other. The top will always be open but the bottom will open/close as necessary. This prevents floods if the bottom float switch fails or has a snail on it or something. That 12V dosing pump has a really low flow though, so depending on the amount of evaporation you have you may need to upgrade to a bigger 12V pump.

Brittle star and pods come with established live rock if you can get someone to sell you some.

I buy 5+ at a time from ebay ($1 each), test them all at once along with a good thermometer (infrared gun) and if any are incorrect I just remove the wire and keep it for spare, and throw away the rest. Maybe 1 in 10 is out. Just get in a habit of checking them every month or 2 as they can drift as resistance in the tip or cable changes over time due to material degradation.

They do indeed, but you can make the basking area out of anything (wood on top of a PVC pipe frame, perspex siliconed to inside of the tank walls, something resting on top with a long ramp down into the water, etc). Water level shouldn't limit your options. Above the basking area you'll need a UVB 5.0 bulb (fluorescent is best but spiral can be ok too) with NOTHING (plastic or otherwise) between the turtle and the bulb, and a heat bulb (I personally use 60W incandescent bulbs, the big wide ones generate a lot of heat) to heat the area up to around 32 degC. Usually the main cause of turtle illness is no UVB or no basking heat by inexperienced owners.

Those dimensions give a 375L tank? It's quite deep, might start to get dim at the sandbed. I have the 300W 44" version and it is pretty good but maybe my expectations were too high, it wasn't as good as I thought it might be. FYI, if you open the power supply of the unit there is a switch to change between 110V and 240V so you can import from the USA without needing a new power supply. Also if you have any problems with the unit you won't be covered by warranty unless you send it back to the USA. Otherwise they are widely considered one of the best LED manufacturers.

Love the intentional gaps on the bottom of the stand. Looks great man, jealous.

A piece of shrimp + nutrafin cycle works well! Don't bother with bottled ammonia, no point, food will break down in a couple days and give you more ammonia than your tank can handle!

Unless you are severely financially limited I would recommend against a 20L tank. The cost of getting, for example, a 60L tank vs a 20L tank is usually very little difference. You will likely be using similar (if not the same) pumps, at lower flow settings. Lighting will only be the biggest factor, if you go for a skimmer (not entirely necessary at these small volumes with regular water changes) they will almost always be oversized at 20L and even still at 60L. Tank itself (assuming second hand) will be practically the same. A 20L tank will allow you to have 1 fish. A goby or dartfish would be OK for it's entire life, however a clown would quickly outgrow that tank (particularly because it is square and hence as very small linear swimming distance). Corals will be severely limited as most corals will be sensitive to changes in parameters (keeping salinity stable is more difficult in a smaller tank). Softies will quickly outgrow a 20L tank. Also with a tiny tank like this, if you have any parameter swings you have much less water to buffer the changes. Also as well as the FNZAS link you should look online at other resources eg any of these.

He hasn't updated this post but did his NZMAS post http://www.nzmas.co.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14867. He tried a fresh water dip and the next day the fish died.