Asphyx

Yep, I've still got him in quarantine with stream water so I think I will be okay if I return him. Agreed. I'm thinking such a magnificent fish deserves to be in the wild.

I took the kids to the local stream last night and we spotted a few giant Kokopu. We caught one and it wasn't until we got him home that I really realised how big he was. He makes everything else in the tank look like breakfast. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's going to be a problem as he is big enough to eat everything else in the tank if he feels like it? So depending on your feedback I'm thinking I might release him back? I'll post a pic later this morning if I can. I have the tank covered at the moment to help him settle in.

No I can't say I have noticed any at all. Possibly because the house has been mostly open during the day and perhaps the warm air from the dehumidifier keeps it at bay at night? Agreed, that would be the next improvement. I have no trouble with the humidstat switching me off as I just leave the knob in the always on setting.

You have no idea how long I searched my post for the words little and swimming before I realised what you were referring to! Yes, I am yet to give the tank its final paint job but in the meantime the kids thought it would be amusing to decorate it for me. And no spelling is not their best subject. &c:ry

I'll post more detail on this in my tank build blog at a later date but just wanted to share. Having endured tank water temperatures in the low 20's over much of the summer I have been very keen to get myself a chiller. With commercial aquarium chillers out of my budget and a bit of a DIY streak I thought I might be able to build my own. As usual Google proved to be very helpful in this regard and after much research I decided to give a chiller based on a dehumidifier a go. I found myself an old Ebac dehumidifier on Trademe for $20. If you find the right kind of dehumidifier the evaporator coils in the rear (the bits you need) will be plain aluminium tubing without any attached fins (as opposed to one with copper tubing encased in aluminium fins). My internet research revealed all sorts of relatively straight forward methods of using the dehumidifier to chill the water. Mostly these revolved around building a container of some sort around the evaporator coils and pumping the water over them. i.e. http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/eng_diy/chiller/chiller.html This is all well and fine if you have the time and inclination and space but I figured I could go for something much simpler. After removing all the extraneous bits from the dehumidifier I figured if I could just immerse the evaporator coils in the water it should work just fine. The aluminium coils are very soft and easily bent so all I did was extend them sufficiently so that a decent length of them was under water. I appreciate that this is not the most aesthetically pleasing solution but it was really only intended as a feasibility test to see if sufficient cooling could be generated. I turned the dehumidifier on at bedtime at a temp of 21.7 and woke up the next morning at 16.4 - success! Hopefully not too rapid a drop for the fish but I was not quite expecting it to work so well. Over the last week I have fine tuned the system to be on for one hour then off for an hour for a period of ten hours a day (the limit of my programmable timer) and am maintaining an average temp of around 16 degrees. (Not very good) pics here https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=b59aa470e3a65a17&resid=B59AA470E3A65A17!818&parid=B59AA470E3A65A17!155&authkey=!ABzdVnLVaR2W0YU Again, the coils hanging down in the water aren't the best look but for emergency relief over summer I'm prepared to live with it. Eventually I will modify the piping to suit my needs or find some nice driftwood to disguise it all. The only question remaining regards the toxicity of the aluminium. I would appreciate any feedback but my understanding is that within the pH range we use and in conjunction with the oxide layer on the tubing this should not be a problem in a fresh water aquarium. If need be I will epoxy coat the tubing or isolate it from contact with the water. I know it's not rocket science but I am pretty pleased with myself. Appreciate your thoughts/ideas.

When I do a partial water change I know how much water I have removed and make sure to dose the top up with the required amount of salt.

Agreed. The spook every time we walk past the tank - not to mention when the kids run past every five minutes. Mine is 2m long so not a problem, but in a smaller tank they will apparently run into the ends and hurt themselves.

lol 7g = over 4kg for me! Every week! 3g/l seems to be doing the trick. With the ich under control and the chiller everyone is looking very active.

Those are some very nice fish and great photos - jealous!

I don't use a lid at the moment, although I do have a 100mm wide shelf around the perimeter and have had no trouble to date. I'm guessing only a stunt fish will get past that. Assuming you can get them to your tank alive (although I have had no trouble in that department), smelt are great fun. They school, which is really nice visually and they tend to hang about mid depth which also gives you something to look at when everyone else is hanging about on the bottom. They are fantastic at feeding time and after a while will eat out of your hand.

Giant - that's cool. I wasn't sure. I think he has had the odd nibble of ox heart but just like the white worms (and pretty much anything else I put in there) here is too slow to compete for food with the voracious smelt and even the bullies and even when I lure them down one end and try and get some to him at the other he doesn't show much interest. He has been eating a wide variety of insects though (when I can find/catch them) and seems happy as he spends much less time hiding these days. p.s. the DIY chiller is working a treat. I'll try and post some pics over the weekend. p.p.s the dreaded ich breakout is all but under control. Most everyone is spot free but I'll do at least another week or twos worth of salting.

I finally got around to taking some photos of the catch. https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=b59aa470e3a65a17&resid=B59AA470E3A65A17!801&parid=B59AA470E3A65A17!790&authkey=!AAqeFYMclqr9V1U

Very cool. Awesome fish.

Sounds like a date :slfg:

For the record, the screams were from the children - not me :slfg: And yes, I think I'm hooked already. Once the tank is populated it will have to be some catch and release to keep me going.