RUNAS

Never had a copper band but Ive had my fair share of fussy eaters. Ive found finely chopped shrimp(I use IQF tiger shrimp when on special at Pak and Save) soaked in garlic to be the first things that my new fish went for,it may work on the CB. I still use it a few times a week because I have a Canary Blenny that wont eat anything else and a baby Blue Tang(started eating spectrum pellet today, YUSSS!!) which is ok the other fish go CRAZY on it. Best of luck. RUNAS

Difference between 99% of the phospahte removers is the packaging. Commerically in waste water trade Bayoxide E33, Aquarium trade GFO same stuff. RUNAS

Yes correct, Seachem. RUNAS

No I didnt, but it had a head kinda like a garden slug. I did read that there is over two thousand possible critters so ID may be impossible. RUNAS

:slfg: Its been dispatched. I dip new corals too, surprised to see it. Hopefully my Xenia will recover as quick as it went down hill Still would'nt mind knowning what is was. ideas :dunno: RUNAS

Hi found this guy last night looks like its been having a go at my Xenia, I think. Wont pass judgement just yet, but its were I found it and it look like the Xenia has got tears at the base, I thought the Xenia was just getting top heavy and tearing under its own weight,until I got this critter. I tried doing a search but could find anything, seems like its a flat worm Thanks RUNAS

Awh really, What a shame, it would look fantastic. Just a side note. Ages ago I had a rock with sea lettuce in my tank when it was a coldie, that died off (DOH did I just answer my own question :facepalm: ) however six months after that I started running a algae scrubber I couldnt belive it that I got sea lettuce growing on the screen, long time after the original stuff had gone. may put a grow light over it,worked for sea lettuce. Thanks RUNASD

Hideho, just wondering how some of our seaweeds particually some of the red ones go/grow in a tropical marine tank? I read that some are fragile and grow in deep water, so im guessing cold and darkish conditions. so if they were placed in a balmy 25'C tank under a ledge would it grow or just die off ? Reason is I went to get glass shrimps to feed to my super fussy Male Anthia to see if he would go for them(big fat NO btw :an!gry still in a depressed state lying on the bottom, not sick just seems lazy, may try prozac next :slfg: ), anyway I got heaps and have them in a 2 footer in shed, small power head and airpump, feeding baby brine, with some t8 actics over it. While I was there I picked up some really cool red weed which had a root system on it and lots of little crawly critters just to put in tank for 1,initial food 2, some where for them to hide and crawl and do general glass shrimpy things in and on, so I got some little chips of rock and carefully shoved the root system down inside it, tied it on there not to damage it pretty much so it wont just float around but with the slim hope it will take hold. Its a super cool looking plant which got me to here,so what you reckon? :dunno: At the mo the holding tank is at 16C. RUNAS

If I had the room I would consider a "cooling tower" type of deal,as used in commercial air conditioning systems but on a smaller scale, they have been known to spawn legoinaries diesase and it will survive in saltwater but I think risk would be very very low,(just putting it out there) any way moving on. Deltec make them for aquariums very very expensive I think $700 POUNDS, but me thinks one could be made kiwi styles like an alage scrubber but instead of a light, use a fan, for much less. I started making a prototype from left over parts but fell short in bits so I stopped, But im sure a box with spraybar and coarse filter foam or screen and a fan drawing air through it, not blowing on it will work, it may take some tinkering with both water flow rates and airflow rates but im sure it would work. it has to. Have a think on it. http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/delt ... oler-small Runas

Not starting anything just saying, glass splashbacks have no depth of view, aquariums do. I have 12mm 900 mm wide low lead on the front of my tank and it pretty cool how you can look through it on the edge to the other side, other edges are normal glass and I cant even see my hand and they are only 300 mm wide. I know its only 10-15mm you look through but take reading glasses for example, Id rather look through ultra clear than some with a slight green hue to them, rose tinted on the other hand 8) :digH: About the drums under ground, I have a little experience when it comes to this, my sump is buried 3/4 of its depth into the ground, and it still gets warm, like it runs at 26 with no heaters, due to the fact that it runs a big ass pump to get water into my display tank,approx 2.5 head height(working out bends etc) it works hard and creates heat which is transfered into the water. My system runs a chiller left over from my local marine and a fan across the top of the sump, my chiller is working hard in this heat, my local marine my chiller ran pretty much 24/7 and dude they use power some thing cruel! The earth is a real good insulator, not so good at despersing heat,I dont know if you watch the "grand designs" program but more than once they have shown people burying pipes under the ground to pre heat the water for the home "harnessing the earths natural energy" I think is the line. So you may want to run an experiment first to see if it can keep a constant 16'-18'C, if it does all good, I'll have my humble pie with cream and a coffee,no sugar, thanks :slfg: I've always thought a 400 lt freezer filled with water maybe an idea for a unit this size, you could run a controller to sort out the on/off , not hard if you know the right people like a refridgeration engineer Not sure if they are that water tight,thats would be my only worry. All the best with it RUNAS PS Just seen your in Hamilton, PM me if you need a second pair of hands, more than happy to help out. Im not so smart..... but I can lift alot! !drool:

Hi Guys and gals, been a while that I’ve updated anything on my 300 litre Local marine, so with a little time on my hands these days I thought I had better. Well it hasn’t all been good I’m afraid, but it ends well, promise. For some time I have not been happy with my sump or skimmer, so I updated my skimmer to a Bubble Magnus Curve 7 from Deep Blue Aquarium and while that was on its way I um’d and er’d over sump design, as we do, I like the KISS attitude “keep it simple stupid” I did just that ,My design as follows , my 3 ft glass tank (my original FW tank) was divided down the middle with a piece of 6mm acrylic, That’s it two sections. First section holds protein skimmer and the two pumps for chillier unit and algae scrubber and some live rock Section two, in the divider bottom corner is a 90mm hole to hold a filter sock, it does two things, first off it filters the water before it gets to the main return pump and two, acts as a brilliant bubble trap, in there too is a big bit of live rock and the return pump. Sitting on top is my algae scrubber which is growing sea lettuce. So I set to and got it done I reckoned it would work, just in time for the skimmer to turn up. About now I should tell you my sump is under my deck, so to man handle a 3 ft glass tank which has been insulated in poly and then covered in ply was no mean feat! but I got there. The new sump doubles the size of the old one so in went another 60 litres of water and flicked the switch! WOW! the skimmer instantly starting producing skimate, it shouldn’t have but I think the water was in that bad shape it had no choice, how was the filter sock working , I could see shumts being sucked into filter sock, oh yes!!GENIUS it was working perfectly, zero micro bubbles in display tank. Job done! aaah no, this is where things go BAD! to sum it up quick, I didn’t get my spray bar for my algae scrubber right so it flooded in to light section ruining my LEDs and blowing fuses in my house GRRR ! the down side of that was it damaged the power strip which ran the chiller, scrubber and skimmer so some time on Christmas Eve the strip failed without me noticing and with being a busy time I never checked anything until I noticed a blenny upside down on the bottom, Awh bugger was my first reaction then the whole story unfolded! Everything was dead, everything . It was a NZ coldwater tank, no skimmer =Bad, no chillier in summer =27 degrees= DEAD! I was gutted really really gutted! I stood staring at the tank for a bit looking at the temperature desplay 27 degrees TWENTY SEVEN DEGREES!!! with no heater, not to sounds heartless but dam, I could go tropical marine. I set to removing and flushing my little friends not feeling too great about it and quite dejected. I went and got a new power board and started it all back up again empty. I was still feeling real bad about it, wiping out all my little mates but I couldn’t get that temp out of my head, so after a few days made the decision to go tropical marine. I got the RO unit cranking and set to making up 300 litres of new salt water, I had enough containers to make and store 200 litres of water, so when I got that amount I drained the main tank empty and filled it with the new water, then drained the sump and filled the sump as I got the water made up. I ran it for a week with no stock, checking parameters it all looked good, time for fish, JUST ONE, hate to say it but I was a little worried so I didn’t want to throw in a heap for it to go bad so I got one tiny clown from my LFS and in he went, I watched it like a hawk for a week, and he was doing sweet, so off to get him a mate, in it went and still watched them like a hawk but they were doing sweet as. I noticed I was having a algae bloom, hmmm nice and warm!!!! time for snails, do you think I could get any !nup, nobody had any, so in desperation I called a guy, who turned out to be RAH1 off this forum! he’s the best fella. he sorted me out with snails and whole heap of advise. Thanks RAH1. So it’s been a three week wait but finally the wholesalers got in fish and we stocked the new tank. So now we have 2 sleeper gobys paired up 2 Clowns (ocelaris) 2 Anthias paired up 1 Lawnmower blenny 1 Powder Brown Tang 2 Boxer shrimp 1 red hairy legged lobster 10 snails 2 Brown torch coral (stunning) Various Zoo frags Male Anthia Female Anthia Torch Coral Best mates Lawnmower Bleny Chiller unit on deck outside. It may seem a lot at once but the tank was well cycled with a good skimmer, a week in now water parameters are great, with the biggies Nitrates sitting around 3 ppm and phosphates 0.5 ppm. So it’s been a rollercoaster but so far so good, really enjoying the new stock.

After tooing and frowing on this I got a Bubble Magnus curve 7 for my system, seems to work well, very quiet. As soon as I turned it on it just heaved out shumits,apparently it shouldnt needs a week or two to slime up but it was an indication of how much it was needed . I know its not "the best" brand but its working well,I emptyed the cup after a week and for the first time I dry reached on the smell :sick: And I got a strong stomach. Instructions are a good laugh too Chinglish at its finest :slfg: Brought it from Ben at deepblue had a wait, but came when he said it would. RUNAS

Seems ok. Good service, seems dodgy but is 100% legit. Got here in about 10 days with no gst :thup: RUNAS

Mag Chloride prill is about $13 for 25 kg same for mag sulphate and unsure of lime flour a mate is a farmer so he just gave me some, it certainly isn't as refined as commercial aquarium stuff but it doesn't include magnesium and strontium like the sea chem brand which may give it a finer texture.

If you go to RD1or the similar to get bulk mag chloride and sulphate oh and lime flour aka calcium just not as fine but same stuff have a look for or ask about rock salt. It's huge great lumps of pink Himalayan rock salt comes in 50kg sacks. It's only for cattle to lick so it's pretty crude and not for use in a fish tank at all but quite impressive stuff if you've never seen it before. I went in and asked for a bag of rock salt , the dude came back with literal rocks of salt, moral of story be careful of what you ask for in life . :sage: RUNAS

I'm not using table salt . Gees. Sea salt ,not mined salt either that's rock salt literaly rocks that stuff ,some pieces are up up to 10 kgs. I really would love to see exactly what there companies do put in the're mixes, I'd bet there would be tonnes and tonnes of standard sea salt for 99% of it. As for salinity testing I give up. I've kept it about the same since I've set up the tank I'm not saying it is 1.022 it could infact be higher.

I only use a cheap dail type guage . Before I get laughed at ,when I have gone to the beach to collect stuff I take it with me and NSW on the gauge always goes to 1.022, my thinking is even if the guage is right or wrong it gives me a stable measurement. Most of the elements listed iron etc are very minor elements in NSW eg 0.0002 ppm in some cases, I'm not saying insignificant and not needed they are but surely these elements will still be present in normal salt. How do they make most salt, evaporation of NSW, Do these minor elements remain behind with the salt, I'd suggest they do. I get very miffed buying "specialality" goods when it turns out to be common house hold goods like sea chem magnesium at $50 ish for 1.25 kgs and it turns out to be common Epsom salts which costs about $4 a kilo ! Not cool. I'm thinking the "salt mix" is the same have honestly, sadly the companies that manufacturer the stuff know that most hobbyists won't risk their tanks inhabitants to test it. Anyway the mag chloride is to keep the sulphate level lower while increasing Magnesium levels. There are very good articles with recipes to make it. Have a Google on it. RUNAS

No corals NZ coldy. NSW is not an option, adding trace elements is hardly a big deal imho. I have to add mag and calcium anyway I haven't gone down the path of adding other stuff yet but , it's mostly available cheap too. The cheapest salt mix I can buy is $90 for 20 kgs, for $90 I can buy 150kgs of Salt, 25kgs of Mag chloride $13, 25kgs of Mag Sulphate $13 calcium etc is just as cheap. What I'm getting at is one can make a shed load of mix for under $200. If could get a recipe I could make my own. RUNAS

Ive done a little google search on this and found a couple of recipes, but I was wondering if anyone on here mixes up their own. Ive had a 25 kg bag of salt(non iodised) in my shed for ages which Ive been adding to my commercial salt mix(CSM),I use one kilo of mix a week so I do 800 grams CSM and 200 grams of "salt" sometimes a 50/50 and now Im using 100% salt just to use it up,Ive actually run out of CSM. I add my mag mix to it as well(mag chloride and sulphate another diy) and 24 hours after water change I test my Ca which remains around 400,I know there will be more trace elements in NSW and CSM which we generally add anyway. I keep the salinity around 1.022 which only requires 900 grams os "salt" as opposed to 1kg of CSM to reach the same salinity,I use RODI water and have tested it for nitrates,phosphates etc before adding it to tanks all have come back zero. No doubt I"ll be hung drawn and quarterd for such blaspheny for this but all my livestock is doing well as are my anenomes which apparently need good water quality are magnificent,nitrates are hovering around 5 really all things are doing great! So anyone else out there got input? RUNAS

Hi, Have you replaced the starters? normally located by the ballast, but if they are the newer T5 tubes (about as thick as your lil pinky) then they will be on eletronic balasts with no starters. If it does has starters its just a half turn and they come out, easy peasy. go to a local electrial wholesaler and get some more, couple bucks each. Hope this helps RUNAS

Sorry protein skimmers again ! Still not 100 % on a new PS closer though either a Bubble Magnus or Reef Octopus. I see people say "go plus one" which I get, however is there a point where it's too big for the system and it may lose its effectiveness ? My system total volume is 350 litres local FOWLR, should I be going for a PS which is rated for up to 500 lt or spend $80 more and go for the one which is rated for up to 900 lt. :nilly: Thanks RUNAS

Ive been looking at upgrading my skimmer, so I watch this with interest, seeing what experienced people would have to say on what brands should be considered, surprised that really nothing has been suggested. Bubble Magnus, Aqua One, Deltec :dunno: Come on, loosen up the information belts people :thup: RUNAS

puttputt, would you mind telling me what plants etc you have in your tank ? If its a NZ coldie that is. And if it is how does one go about getting them to start growing on the rock? Courious. Thanks RUNAS

Hey Phantom. I was just thinking of ya on Sun, I was going to PM you to see how things were going but seems things are going great. Great growth you have there, after a week ! I'm leaving mine alone now, having a peek a week to make sure no blockages and pretty much letting stuff grow. To bad we don't have a "nice algae" smiley. Nitrate levels ? RUNAS

I have a white one too, its a beast! loves mussel bits and has accounted for 3 speckled triple fins for being stupid/greedy. :slfg: it would be 10cm across the base, it would have doubled in size since Ive had it, 5 months RUNAS