F15hguy

black dust??, did you add new carbon??? and why did it chuck it out?, did you turn off the filter or change it round??, best tip I learnt was to leave the filter alone as much as possible untill it starts to slow down.

my HOB is only noisy if the water level drops, quite useful really, I fill it to a set level and it takes exactly 1 week to evaporate enough water to make it noisy, which annoys my missus, which means water change time the fish in that tank are always very happy and healthy

well new additions today are 14 x shrimp (all males, we released the females) and a couple of caddis fly larvae, driftwood and mayfly larvae (all destined to be eaten im assuming) btw BEST ever shrimping spot on public land found today, just sweep a net through the vegetation under the Ruahihi bridge on the Tauranga/Hamilton road (very popular swimming hole during summer, damn feezing atm), got hundreds. the biggest was easily 6cm (yes seriously, I have 20 witnesses)

ummm..... air pumps don't have head heights they have pumping depths. both stella and Eheim are very quiet. Don't bother with the cheap ones. they are only quiet till the silicone lubricant starts to dry out.

never had a problem with noisy filters power useage is next to nothing don't understand why you would bother, more effort, more risk.

got told today that it is estimated that only 10% of NZ spider species have been ID'd

the rough measurements I took were 1.7m x 45cm x 60cm oh and btw found a picture in a book today that shows the shrimp as being black. here it is (copyright image) http://www.rodmorris.co.nz/New-Zealand-Invertebrates/New-Zealand-Invertebrates/13888831_wkTcGr/1429716469_vJZzxJ5#!i=1429716469&k=vJZzxJ5

i didn't even know it existed, how do you turn it off???

I'll do a bit of work soon, doing MCI sampling tomorrow, i'll take the camera. can't do too much atm, exam season.

ever thought of moving up here, less shakey, less wet and less frozen.....

what about some of the smaller rainbows, the dwarf neons are really nice atm, and the featherfins and pseudomugils are gorgeous as well.

post it, ID'ing things is fun. I'll see what pics I can get from my new tank now that im a photography expert :lol:

nah its all good, we are very iffy on here about people doing this sort of thing as there is a lot of people with the "ooh thats pretty, lets keep it" attitude. You seem knowledgeable and committed so we are all keen to see you have a go :spop: is there any interesting nudi's down there? might be a good idea to have a natural supply of food if there is any equipment failures etc.... p.s. is there any laws regarding the transport of marine animals across the islands like there is in freshwater???

huh how the hell did you know????? you freaking me out dude

tbh you are trying for something that is EXTREMELY advanced, I would consider it unrealistic unless you have a huge tank with a huge refugium and the time to provide daily target feeding to each part of the sponges. sorry to be a downer and I fully hope you do have a go and succeed. but some things are not done for a reason.

Is this going to be just fish??, I know a bit about the shrimp and im sure pplz would be interested in Koura

thank you LA, saved me a silly answer. atm its got stones water, 2 bitsa driftwood and 5 young leopard fish to cycle the filter, I don't think its going to be the prettiest tank, but hopefully very interesting scientifically. I am happy to take any donations of lighting equipment to have a go at some native plants as well. BTW the native snails that came with some wild glosso are freaky looking (but small) spikes everywhere btw anyone else encountered a native shrimp that is black???, My inverts tutor thinks its the Nerve tissue that is taking on the colour from BBA it is eating, if anyone is interested its in the display tank at Carine Garden Center.

YAY :happy1: finally got my head around the camera, here's one of my Leopard fish male, he's only 6 months old. the key is lotsa patience, lotsa pics and finding the SUPER macro button (the macro button doesn't do much except make fuzzy pictures :facepalm: I'll have to work that one out next, damn technology )

Got bored one day, and a off hand comment to one of my tutors Has ended up with me being given a 450L tank (long tall thing) and a filter and free run of what I want to do. So im setting up a Native Freshwater tank Just to raise awareness of the lack of Conservation going on in the Native side of things (25 people who will be working as Environment Scientists is probably a good place to start) also is an invaluable teaching tool (will be doing a class on Surber sampling and MCI's next week that wasn't on our syllabus) So current stage is it has gravel and is filled and Filter is running, since I had no fish available I ran a small fishless cycle untill I can get something in there (will chuck in a couple of Leopard fish to really kick it off Tomorrow) Next week we will be going out and looking at inverts, so I will be taking a couple of containers for fishies as well :nilly: :happy2: Will update with pics once I get a bit more decoration in there. unless you all want to look at a tank with gravel in it. Its going to be a VERY low stocked tank, hopefully with a few Kokopu , bullies and shrimp and if I can get a Torry I will create a high current zone for it.

Also if its on the list it don't mean you can get it. I'd be more inclined to go begging the big name fish shops like Hollywood, or asking Wonderworld to import it (good luck) (or your Southern equivalents if your from that dark wet place) :spop: Theres a thing about big hungry catfish that no-one can resist

:sml1:

why is this under coldwater???

try building your own, check out camtang's one with all the ledges.

awesome, cheers mate.

6.5 seems a bit low though, are you on a Town supply or a tank water supply??? I normally add a cup or 2 of Crushed limestone to my filter baskets in african tanks, seems to keep it in the high 7's to low 8's correct me if im wrong, but I have always been told that having a higher pH and Hardness will make the blue colour's brighter. (something to do with the chemicals involved)