kinnadian

Well I ended up going out and getting a 10.0 tube, incandescent bulb, dimmer switch and a cool white coiled energy savings bulb. Spent about $150 including a fluoro reflector, but I guess that is my fault for buying an oversized MVB bulb The setup isn't as tidy as I had intended (with just an MVB and a night-time ceramic heater) but will do for now. There is a pet store in New Plymouth that sells 100W Trixie MVB as well, they are $130 though and I got my Powersun MVBs for $55 each ($75 each incl postage) from USA, would be cheaper if I got more at once. Unfortunately I've never heard of this "Trixie" brand and some googling hasn't returned any results of their reliability either. I don't really want to chance the health of my reptile on an unknown brand, it would be like putting "Home Basics" brand engine oil into your $50,000 car I've thought about it in the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure if the NZ Reptile community is really very aware of them. If I was going to do it, I'd go for a reputable brand like MegaRay or Powersun, not bother with some random unproven brand. I have an unused 160W Powersun now that I will attempt to sell on TradeMe and see if there is much interest in them.

I mounted the light on to a piece of steel and used pieces of wood to make a nice sized gap between the steel and the top of the enclosure. Made the gap quite big and the top of the enclosure (ie external) is still ~60 degC after 3 hours running. If I made the gap less I was approaching 80-90 degC which is pretty near the bubble point of melamine. Or used on a dimmer switch. Unfortunately they don't work unless supplied the specific wattage required. Why does no one sell MVB in NZ? Seems a fortune could be made. People willingly pay $100 for a UVB bulb that cost $30 in the states, they could make similar profits from importing MVB.

It made a big improvement on the temperature of the roof definitely! The issue is now that it's 4 inches closer and my black slate tile is now at a blistering 50 degrees... Uhg. Will probably have to buy a 100/120w MVB.

You think just that could be enough to lower the heat given off significantly?

I have a 160W powersun MVB bulb in my beardie enclosure, which is made of melamine. I have the bulb attached the roof, and due to the heat it is causing the melamine coating to bubble (which is really bad). I need 160W rather than 100W due to the height of the enclosure (800mm) and wanted to keep all lights out of view (tucked up behind a lip), but this is causing heat problems on the melamine. The heat and distance to the beardie basking spot is perfect though. Just wondering if anyone has successfully used an MVB in a similar enclosure? As I see it my only options are to attempt to make a vent above the bulb, buy a reflecter lamp shroud (don't see this reducing the temperature, though) or buy a new 100W bulb (many weeks waiting for overseas shipping...) and lower the bulb a lot. Before it is suggested, a tube bulb won't work because of the height and I don't wish for the tube bulb to be in view (specifically made the enclosure this way to hide the lights).

I give them as much bran/oat mix as they want, and fresh grass every day. You can keep the grass from going dry by putting them in a jar with water in the bottom. Makes the grass last significantly longer.

You could try some frogs/toads, newts, skinks or tortoises. Quite a few tortoises sold on TradeMe recently, I would keep an eye out for them. Some painted terrapins are around NZ, couldn't say where though. If money is literally no concern then you could get an olympic sized swimming pool and find yourself a sea turtle!

I guess YMMV. I've had all of those for extended periods of time in a 185L and the only aggression I ever had with african cichlids was spawning red jewels or demasoni's.

Again, you have NO IDEA what chemicals are going to leech into the water, and you would have to seal it pretty damn well. Aragonite raises the pH on its own, so you are only making the pH higher with cement.

Probably mostly the same, I wouldn't worry about it. The Aqua One sack costs more because it is branded. And I quite like the look of crushed coral and coral sand together, with rocks ofc.

I would look into: Kadangos, Powder Blues, Bumblebees, or Ice Blues. Also electric blues in auckland: http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish/tropical-fish/auction-652488643.htm

You can buy a product called something like "water conditioner" from your LFS, and believe it or not it works really well. It certainly won't solve all your issues for a 530L tank (unless you bought litres of the stuff), but it re-introduces all the helpful bacteria. I've done it to 200L tanks and able to get my tank cycled within a week, as opposed to the normal 4 weeks. How old is your RES? Ours started noticing that fish could be food after about 18 months, just be sure not to put any fish in there you don't mind losing.

Cement will definitely alter the pH. It is highly discouraged to use this, as not only will the pH change but who knows what other chemicals are in the cement which will leech out into the water. I would really advise against putting that in your tank. If you want to use anything, use clear silicone from the hardware store (use the ones which say aquarium safe, eg no anti-mold or anti-fungal ingredients). It's very easy to work with and can get surprisingly good results, and any excess can just be cut off after it has dried. If using silicone, make sure to give it a full week to cure as it still leeches chemicals while curing.

I kept cichlids for a long time. Most people recommend a really high pH, personally I never buffered my water very much. I maintained 7.5 just by having heaps of crushed coral in the substrate and the external filter. Some may crucify me for it but I found no issues nor any sick fish after around 2 years of keeping them at 7.5. Fish are surprisingly hardy, some people will bandy around figures that relate to their natural habitat, but the most important thing about keeping any fish, be it cold, tropical or marine, is consistency. In my opinion, keeping a consistent pH of 8.0 - 8.2 can be quite hard, and swings in pH is far worse for them than having a consistent low pH due to permanent additions like crushed coral. Similarly with temperature, ammonia, etc; they need good consistency more than any "magic" parameter. As per your fish choice, Peacocks are reasonably placid and will fit in to most community cichlid tanks. Electric blues are also quite placid, and they need a lot of caves to hide in (same as electric yellows). I've got no experience with blue malawi dolphin. Demasoni I found to be very aggressive if they start spawning, and if you have numerous Demasoni they will no doubt start spawning. YMMV but I would recommend maybe only getting one, unless you can be guarenteed the gender. Synodontis such as http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish/tropical-fish/auction-651574258.htm are really neat guys, very active and are able to hold their own vs cichlids.

Hi Reuben, you can really do whatever your space and money allows. The more enclosures you have, the easier your workload will be in the long run. We have just 2 enclosures, 1 150L glass breeding tank for the adults (insulated with lights and a vent lid), and a little ~80L home made MDF box with lights/heater and a vent lid. The incubator box has both the jars with eggs in and babies everywhere. We suck the babies out (with a pooter) every so often and put them into 1L sistema containers (with pantyhose over top) and back into the 150L until they are ready to be used. I am thinking about adding another couple boxes to make things easier, but this will increase the costs a lot (for making the boxes and also running the lights 24/7). Here's my setup: in the 150L I have a 60W incandescent and a 25w house bulb, this gives good temps (for now, will probably lower the 60W to a 40W in summer), between 31-35 degC. I've just got 2 cheap $10 lamps from the warehouse for these bulbs, then sticks and strips of egg carton all over the place. For food, we put grass into a jar with water in the bottom (the water allows the grass to remain not dried out for longer), and another shallow dish with bran/oats in. We refill the jar with grass every day, and go out and fill a big bucket with grass every 4 days or so (with water in as well). For laying containers we bought a bunch of large jars (need to be at least 6" high, and probably 3" across minimum), and then fill them with 30% builders sand and 70% soil (eg potting mix). We tried various mixes of sand, soil, vermiculite, fertilizer, etc, and this mixture seems to be the best. While making the mixture make it moist (not soaking though) and then re-spray once or twice a day with a spray gun. Swap the jars into the incubator every 3-4 days and have a numbering system so the oldest jar goes back in (with new soil). I couldn't get the incubator temps right with the bulbs I had (and imo the incubation temperature is more sensitive than adult temps) so I use a 45W bulb and a thermostat with a ceramic heating element, maintained at 31 degC. The babies get the same food as the adults, with a smaller grass jar and only bran (oats are too big). The incubator DEFINITELY needs to be heated. In my first iteration I made an MDF false floor in the incubator, so that the jar tops were level with the bottom of the incubator. This meant that the heat wasn't getting through the false floor and underneath, so the jar soil temperature was actually quite low and so we weren't getting hatchlings. I took the false floor out and within a few days we had hoppers everywhere. If I did this again, I would make the adult tank out of MDF as well, and make a mesh floor with a drawer underneath so that the locust poop would fall through and could be cleaned out easier, and I would probably go with 2 incubators. Good luck!

Snakes? Was this in NZ?

Yeah I can vouch for these thermostats, they are really good. If you can afford to wait you can get it from ebay for $17 shipped from ebay, but will take 2-3 weeks to get to NZ.

I would be getting it via Pet bus I would imagine, as there are no breeders in New Plymouth that I'm aware of.

That's fair enough. I've asked around and no one can really commit to being around for the whole time, and I don't know any beardie keepers in new plymouth. I understand it's a bit of effort, I'd be willing to pay $. I would only get a beardie this year if I could be sure I had someone who could take it for those 2 weeks. Do you know of any "pet motels" between new plymouth and wellington that would take it in? @dragonz1833, thanks for the offer mate and will keep it in mind. Unfortunately it is quite the journey to Auckland and back!

We could actually drive right through since we're going to nelson via the ferry anyways. It would be really appreciated. What would you charge per week for that?

I'd be interested as well if anyone was able to find some.

Hi, I'm wanting to get back into Bearded Dragons and have all the necessary stuff (equipment, live food, etc) but we've got a holiday scheduled for 2 weeks over Xmas/new years, so unless I find someone to keep the dragon for those 2 weeks I can't get one. I can't rely on people I know to adequately take care of an animal with such specific needs (and dealing with "yucky" bugs), or relying on someone specifically to not have any out-of-town plans. Does anyone know of a suitable pet motel for reptiles near Taranaki? IE 2-3 hours away max (eg up to Hamilton) from New Plymouth? At acceptable rates as well?

I've started breeding locusts for live food. I've got two enclosures set up, one a 200L tank made into the adult breeding area, and the other a small mdf box for incubating the babies. Problem is that the incubator is now chockered full of babies, so I was planning on collecting them into those blue 1L snap-on containers. I made a pooter but was unimpressed with the amount of suction required, so we used a vacuum but it seems to have either killed or stunned nearly all of the baby locusts. Does anyone have an idea for an inbetween cheap option for suction?

This is what I was alluding to in my reasoning. Currently overseas exporters have to deal with the 20 or 30 NZ marine shops sending individual orders and dealing with MAF for each one, and this is a complete hassle; most wouldn't bother I'd say and so you're extremely limited in both price and range. If there were one or two distribution companies for all of NZ, suddenly you're dealing with 10-20x the normal NZ order and this would be far more appealing to overseas exporters. While I acknowledge there is a tremendous cost associated with the setup for housing hundreds of fish plus quarantine setups, surely the beneficial nature of the setup could be recouperated by the sheer volume of fish going through the place.

No, I was just wondering why no one does a centralized, national distribution chain. The reasons I listed were there to rationalize the idea of national distribution, I don't understand why no one's done it up until now I guess. If a really large portion of the marine stores around NZ started using them because they could get whatever fish they wanted, when they wanted, then it would make great business sense. Unless you're actually referring to overseas exporters, and not national importers, in which case it entirely depends on what the overseas exporter wants. Exporting to a single (or 2) companies rather than trying to deal with the 30 or so current NZ marine stores makes things a lot easier.