GrahamC

What brand of sinking pellets are you using?

If it's sourced from Northland, North Auckland and Canterbury it should be the smooth stuff ( see http://www.collaborativelandscape.org/wiki/In-situ_concrete ) as it should be naturally created by water on rock erosion. Manufactured silica sand is the sharper stuff. Having said that my goldfish regularly suck up the Placemaker's sand and spit it out again with no issues.

Setting up a ground source heat pump to cool is generally done when you build your house! You'd have to setup a heat exchanger ( don't want to circulate tank water under ground ), and you'd have to know also what the temperature of the ground is at your location. Do you need a new hot water cylinder? There are heat pump driven HWC, and they dump the cold air outside so perhaps loop through there?

I wasn't running anything else so didn't bother setting up QoS ( not sure the DSL modem even supports it ). I've had the same issue with different sites .. so maybe Slingshot gives a better service? I am using ATAs and also a 3com VOIP phone ...

Check your local Placemakers etc for silica sand.

What's the VOIP like? On mine I used to get people say they called but I heard no rings, or, they would call and I couldn't hear them speak. And I'm paying $11.50 a month, with no free calling minutes except for local.

I have WorldXChange at one site with naked DSL, and a VOIP phone. No static IP which is an extra cost. Never looked at a forum though there is geekzone if you need it.

Hz is what happens when you put your finger into a live socket! :slfg: Both Sg and NZ have the same ie. 230V and 50Hz. In the past I had an bedside clock that used the line frequency of the alternating current to get the timing. Switch it to 60Hz and the time went well off. Also turntables used the line frequency of the lights so you could determine if the speed were out .. it stroboscoped at 50hz so that the pattern became stationary. I guess other things use the mains frequency for timing too.

Most of the DIY projects for aquaponics I have seen are for outside yards, and generally seem to consign your fish to a black plastic covered box never to be seen again, or somewhere on the floor; hardly ideal for someone who wants to look at their fish. This one isn't too bad http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=961 though the tank is on the floor, and the discus didn't produce enough waste to feed the plants, so he changed to crustaceans. Anyone got any better links? I'm not wanting to feed the family, just reuse some of the nitrate laden water and thereby reduce the need for manual water changes.

Not in the same way. An alveolus is a dead end, a sac, but gill membranes project into the water stream to perform gas exchange and so should not trap fine silicates.

Silicosis is a condition whereby very fine silica dust enters the lungs reaching the alveoli bypassing the mucus lung defences. I doubt that there is any way one could get it from silicates in water. It is reported in coal miners and others who work with silica.

You can target colours better using LEDs. The blue lights will encourage plant and so presumably algae growth so you could turn off the blues if that happened.

Silicate leaching is said to be an urban legend.

You could just take the wart to the local lighting shop and ask them if they have a NZ replacement. After all, all you want is 12V AC rated for 30VA going to the light.

You've already got a 11W lamp, so dropping to a 3.5W lamp sounds like less light than you've got now. LEDs are more efficient than fluorescents so will produce more light for the same wattage. But keep in mind that lamp is designed for a 12L aquarium, and yours is larger?

Something like this, with a new wall plug, should work http://www.lightingplus.co.nz/lighting/recessed-lights/ceiling-halogen-12-volt/star-tx-st60-electronic-transformer.html

BTW, if you put it into your tank and it still leaches tannins turning your water brown, you can use that for an Amazonian acidic biotope. If you don't like tannins, remove them with a carbon pad in your filter.

One of the points of a fishless cycle is that the tank should be ready to accept all your stock at once .. after first doing a 90% water change.

I just left mine in a tub doing regular water changes until the tannins stopped leaching. I think it was a few weeks.

Other's have recently posted pictures of their GBAs with "black" eyes .... so a similar variation.

There's a guy on TM selling used IBCs. Looks like a lot of work.

Hence the term "familiars"

Some images can be found in the public domain if one needs them ...

It looks like the Berrysmith foundation contracted Massey to design a home aquaponics system for indoor use. The report and plans are here http://210.48.94.12/~admin176/pdf/2009Mini-AquaponicsSystemforHomeUse.pdf and the design is not copyrighted. So, presumably an open source design.

They used grass carp ( somehow ) in this report from Nelson http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/features/3397569/Fish-used-to-grow-veges and the status of grass carp http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-science/freshwater/tools/fishatlas/species/grass_carp