GrahamC

Do you have any figures on how much chloramine is created in our water supply then? And I note a reference to the US considering the use of Chloramine-T in fish hatcheries to control bacterial gill diseases.

Fortunately we have no evidence it does any such thing. It does however pass thru gills and combine with haemoglobin forming small amounts of methaemoglobin.

I'm not aware that chloramine does anything to fish gills, even if our water supply has any measurable amounts. What is the issue that we need to be concerned with?

Activated charcoal is a one shot product ... though some people say you can wash it and crush it to try and expose new surface areas for use. Sitting there for 6 months it was more likely acting as a biological filter.

I would deduce that the amount of organic chloramines that do form when chlorine reacts with proteins and amino acids are not significant enough to disturb the biological filter.

Water varies around the country and even in the same district with some plants adding chlorine and others not. It is said that if you add 10% water, then even if chlorinated, it doesn't matter. What you are trying to avoid is to knock off your biological filter. In Wgton the water stinks of chlorine where I am. I leave it for 24 hours until the chlorine smell goes and then use it. If I don't have the luxury of leaving it, I use a dechlorinator.

Friend came back from Singapore last week and brought back a small bag of K1 for me to experiment with. It's about the volume of 1.5 cereal boxes. The $1 is there so that you can see the comparative size of the media. Didn't realise it was so small. Price sticker on the bag says S$19. I'm surprised he found it as I read you had to buy it in 50L quantities, but he knew of a few LFSs and rang around.

are they re Aquascaping?

@Phantom, who is your Internet/VOIP provider? I'm thinking of getting fibre connected The major drawback is that fibre ( unlimited traffic ) is $500/month!

I asked the same question recently http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=56934 The essentials of what you need is some type of robust material that is buoyant, and has cavities that allow bacteria and other organisms to grow in a protected environment. These small aquatic organisms are able to do consume tiny material that other filters miss. And there's the outside of the media where bacteria also reside, and these are being constantly renewed by the collisions that occur in the fluidising process. The Kaldnes media can be purchased in Singapore in 50L quantities, and I think on ebay they sell clones made in China. Now Lego floats .. so anyone game to try a Lego fluidized filter? Lego pieces might be too big though, and too expensive.

Those pond filters also rely on a huge water surface area for oxygenation, and substantial biological filtration occurring on all the rocks and other surfaces.

Install a new glass shower?

If your night time temperature is much cooler, then a larger tank might be the answer as it will have a larger thermal mass, and might stay more closely to the mean of the day and night temperatures. I take it no lights are on over the tank, and the tank is placed in the coolest part of the house?

What's your room temperature? What's the target temperature and volume of water that you're trying to cool?

Sure, higher levels of melanin in human skin further reduce the synthesis of D3 in the low UVB months of the year.

There was a vet specialising in reptiles who posted here recently, so maybe she can provide the definitive answer. However, on first principles I'd be worried about relying on outside UVB for adequate D3 synthesis all year round. It would be okay where this reptile evolved, but being further south, the levels of UVB are lower, and I would estimate that perhaps 4 months of the year we lack enough energetic UVB photons to be able to synthesize D3 at my latitude. It is likely to be a shorter period in Auckland.

If your reptile is getting maximum D3 from your tubes, then there is no need for additional supplementation.

Dunno about reptile skin but I would think it's similar to mammalian skin and other vertebrates. You can not simply get too much vitamin D from the sun as a steady state condition is reached where vitamin D synthesis is matched by destruction. The only way you can cause toxicity is to feed excessive supplements containing vitamin D. Of course your reptile will need a space to crawl into away from the UVB.

That would definitely mark you as a tourist! Try some Mandarin instead :slfg:

The "inane" article you refer to was authored by James R. Layton, a chemist working for Aquarium Pharmaceuticals.

Personal opinion is nothing unless you can back it up. My interest in this was because I was looking at the possibility of regenerating activated charcoal and basically you can't do it unless you have access to 900 deg C chambers, or another substance that binds more strongly than activated charcoal. For people to say that it releases the toxins back into your system goes against the evidence, and is needlessly scaring people and wasting their money. Now I could say that it doesn't release toxins back, and not provide a link but an explanation of the reasons why is quite useful to understand how this all works. This science is so old I doubt that there are any peer reviewed papers available online.

Of course much better to get a local to do the haggling for you ..they will always do better than a tourist.

Maybe we can do a group purchase of satellite phones for those using VOIP worried about earthquakes?

Me too but just looked like the colour of yours were different to mine which are more red.

You need to get an ISP that is prepared to prioritize VOIP packets in their system. I suspect this is the issue.