GrahamC

That could be an issue. I might have to give up my existing 4 tanks for this one ....

Sure. i was planning on using polystyrene to insulate the bottom, and short sides. As for the TV position, I figure a water spill might mean a new TV every year. My current LCD lacks both a MHL port, and a network port. Of course insurance might object after a few consecutive claims :slfg: 6 tonnes of brick huh? I'll have to think if i can recycle that into some thermal mass somewhere.

Builder wants to rip out the chimney to the floor, and also remove the gas heater! Nicholson Glass does all his glass work, so he is asking them to come round to advise on the tank build. I'd imagine that water changes could be quite painful if my TV is going to be under the tank. So, thinking I need a reservoir of dechlorinated water in the basement hooked up to a pump so I can automate water changes. So, I'll need an overflow in the tank.

Since it seems to be so deadly, I guess no harm in rehousing in a hospital tank and treating with supplements and antibiotics.

Infection of the sensory pits?

Wonderworld has the Eheim compact+ 5000 for $407 But perhaps you ought to get 2 from overseas at that price to cover the possiblity of one breaking down!

got the builder coming round this evening to give me a quote ... wife doesn't know yet what is being planned! But I do see cracks in the mortar so that's a good enough reason for me to remove the chimney :slfg:

I used to do a bit of retailing, and the sad thing was that my wholesale price was more expensive than my parallel importing it from a retail outlet in the USA. I bought a Canon DSLR recently from a major chain, and the price they were selling it at was cheaper than my mate could get wholesale from one of the official distributor. So, basically it boils down to economies of scale, and the differential pricing that wholesalers get based on their volume. US internet retailers likely get it way cheaper than our distributors because they sell higher volumes. What can the retailer do about it? Not much ... except switch to running an online store, and importing themselves from an internet retailer in the USA. And then you have the issue where customers walk in and expect shop prices to be the same as the retailer's internet price. I expected that when I bought some hydroton from a garden shop. They said, no, the price on their website was only for internet sales!

I think it would be attractive to me to have access on both sides, and I was thinking of perhaps putting a window type frame around the bathroom side, except where the shower is, and the shower would be sealed off with aqua gib and shower panels etc. I could add some jack studs under the floor in this region supported by the concrete pad of the basement, or perhaps tie the aquarium to what's left of the chimney?

Is that retail or mail order pricing? Assuming the latter, and that NZ distros pay a similar price being small fry and all >> ( $60.32 + $45 ) * 1.05 * 1.40 == $154.82 where the $45 is shipping based on a 30x30x30 cm package weighing 2.2 kg on NZ Post economy ( cheapest parcel ) rate, 5% distro markup, and 40% for retailer including GST.

In the computer industry distributors work on tiny margins; as low as 1%, especially for commodity items. Perhaps things are different in the pet trades.

I took some images with my cell. The wall lining has been removed from the bath room, and the in wall piping has been done for the new corner shower. I don't have to remove all the chimney, just that part which is above waist height, and then I would gain a space which spans the bathroom, and is about 60 cm deep. On the other side of the wall is the living room, and fireplace so I would have to figure out what to do about the gas fire vent. I'm not sure people in the living room want to watch me having a shower or bath! I guess I could add some venetians. The walls are not load bearing, and this particular timber is riddled with borer ( presumably bathroom damp has softened the wood). Below the floor, the chimney is encased in concrete in the basement. So I already have to regib ( or glaze! ), no need for new floor if I do a partial tear down, and I could put a solar dome where the chimney penetrates the roof. With that degree of sun light maybe I could grow some corals?

I'm having some renovations done at present, and after removing the gib from the bathroom wall, have discovered a 60 cm wall space right next to the chimney stack which leads directly to the roof. It's 1m long but could be 2m if i removed the chimney ( which is being used to vent the gas fire ). There are some cracks in the mortar holding the bricks so perhaps I should think of removing it, but that is a long more work than I had planned. Oddly the chimney is not tied to the house. Maybe that allows the house to move independently of the chimney when there is a quake. If I put an in wall 1m x 55 cm x 60 cm tank, will I be causing myself too much grief lacking access to the back? I would regib the bathroom side as shower is going there, and open it up on the other side over and next to the fire place. I could plumb in waste to go to the bathroom plumbing, or just perhaps put a tap in so I can reuse the water for the household plants, or perhaps plumb it to a large container outside where the fish water can be collected. Another possibility is to put a sola tube in directly above so I can have an inside, in wall aquaponics setup. I have a cupboard below this in wall space where I am growing borer, and I could put the pumps and a sump if needed.

Sites now seem to say a 3 month memory, and that link above says 1 year but they also said they released the goldfish into the sea, and they came back :slfg:

If the purpose is for nitrate reduction then I would suppose so. What do the guys who actually run DSBs do? Another way to do nitrate reduction is to put the water thru a hydroponics bed ie. run an aquaponics system. From what I've read they don't do as many PWCs. But they also eat their fish!

You'll still need to replace the minerals consumed by the fish and other things.

Ah, ok. I found this link which goes into depth ( 3 inches! ) on the subject http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_7/volume_7_1/dsb.html so I might give this a go too. Just need another couple of more inches of sand .. I hope the Placemaker's sand I am using is the right particle size.

Hard to imagine the mechanism if there is no way for the water to pass thru the DSB without any critters to aid it. Have you repeated the testing? Some people recommend shaking the nitrate tube for 2 mins instead of 1 min. And others make up calibration solutions since this particular test can be off on occasion.

Our local expert, Xena the warrior princess, and currently a Greenpeace activist, favours the use of the name Poseidon. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751565/ though of course the series was set in Greecian times.

Interesting. I might try that the next time I drive by a fresh water stream.

I read of one owner who lost their goldfish this way to gravel impacting in their mouth. In PFK there was an x-ray of some other type of fish with a plastic sucker stuck in their mouth too.

Well, you can do a fishless cycle it seems and get nitrifying bacteria that way, but ultimately in a freshwater aquarium it now seems we want archaea and not bacteria. I wonder if adding some infusoria to the ammonia in a fishless cycle might work and encourage archaea to multiply.

http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/goldfish-do-not-have-a-3-second-memory/ I'm actually surprised at how responsive they are. I've got some WCMM in the same tank, but it's only the goldfish who swarm to greet me when I approach as they suspect it's feeding time. If my wife goes near to try and kill them by turning off their filter which is too noisy for her while she cooks, they just ignore her. My other tropical fish don't seem to respond in anyway to my presence near their tanks, except the BN's which skitter under a log, or try find some cavity in which to suffocate themselves. Goldfish are smart, have good taste, and look pretty. Perhaps a 1000 years of selective breeding has put pressure on those other attributes we attribute to intelligence when breeders thought they were only breeding for body shape, colour and tails.

They got to be smarter then bristlenoses ... they seem to get themselves trapped into any nook or cavity and peg it there! And I've yet to see a bristlenose push a soccer ball between goal posts as goldies can be taught :slfg: (Nope, I will not buy a goldfish training DVD and kit)

You have to be careful with ornaments. I learnt the hard way. I had a castle which i got on TM. Little did I realise that my fat Oranda was going to get trapped inside, whereupon one of the other goldies nibbled ( or whatever they do) on his caudal tail. That was months ago and there's still a black streak where it is healing. So, for fancy goldfish, the advice I've read is no ornaments, no wrong size gravel that they can get stuck in their mouths, and no fake plants. I did have one of those floating plastic boxes used for breeding, and I had some plants in it that I didn't want the goldfish to eat. It has been there for months, and today I found a comet inside! It must have jumped over the side to get in. So, looks like no floating plastic boxes either! I've found that those stick on plastic thermometers stop working after a while. I've got several tanks second hand where they no longer register the temperature. They are said to measure the outside glass temperature, or even room temperature, and I've noticed discrepancies between in tank electronic probes and the stick on ones with the latter taking a long time to catch up. But they are cheap.