chimera

stable water parameters (kH 7 - 12, Ca 380 - 450, Mg 1300) coralline also prefers low light

depends on what you're keeping are you asking what the difference is? Simply put, Watts is intensity, K(elvin) is colour

ouch, $3 - $5 a month for HRV supposedly

well, anyone willing to give/trade some let me know. want to dump some in my fuge and hopefully let them reproduce. the more life the better i reckon

i always seem to have very few pods, in both my display and fuge. the only animals in the fuge is a brittlestar and a lawnmower blenny, neither of which i'd imagine feed on pods. can you get "pod starter kits" here like you can in the US? or do i just have to ask puttputt politely for a sample of his delicatessens? :lol:

only if you live in waimauku interesting post cookie, may explain why cracker has got some good growth and colour - has strong lighting for photosynthesis, doses amino acids for protein for zoox, ca for coral skeleton then the usual kh and mg for stability (amonst other things) oh, and a fine sand bed producing, in theory, microplankton as yet another food source

yeah and i'd imagine the same thing will happen with the frag i gave him! which reminds me - cracker got any progress pic's of the nice blue tipped acro i gave ya? be good if you can take a pic each week for the next 2 months. main difference i see is consistant dosing = stable tank parameters plus amino acids etc may help! on the contrary, i still think the sand is causing the issues in my tank

hmmm, i think we get the point fay

...pm me your email address!!!

i have a good write up on comparison between different ventilation systems if anyones interested pm me

and they probably choose them because they look most "natural"

yup. thermo in house, thermo in ceiling. set temp on controller. pumps air from ceiling cavity into house if its warmer than the house. on really low otherwise. in terms of what its designed for, its really good and its only be half a day! in terms of cost and sales, not that good. heat, recirculation, ventilation - so in that regard it does what it says on the box! the heating not so much, but wouldnt be that difficult to put a heat pump in the ceiling which the HRV would then deliver to the house. more taking the chill off by reducing humidity. says 12 degrees in ceiling and 21 in house at the moment. but of course

HRV installed this morning. Got home tonight, very impressed - dont even need the fireplace on. Currently house is 22 degrees, ceiling is 15 degrees (was the other way around several hours ago) Whole house feels more comfortable already and outside is just as cold as it was last night. Will be interesting to see what its like in a weeks time once all areas of condensation are removed. My rating of it after half a day Does what it says on the box: 9/10 Web site information: 8/10 Presales in-home demo: 5/10 Presales service: 5/10 Installation service: 7/10 Price for what you get: 6/10 After sales service: unknown yet Now i'm just going to wait to see if and when I get my bottle of wine...

planning for next year. i figure its gonna take me 6 months of design

ha haa classic, i just found this post from november 2004 of us discussing the same thing... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/-vp43354.html

large portion of that cost would be the starfire sheet wouldnt it? have you compared getting it priced in 10mm? who quoted ya that? layton, reef has 12mm low iron on his tank

big jump in price going from 10mm to 12mm i thought. would probably get 12mm for base, 10mm for sides. 10mm is sufficient, only going 650mm deep.

hows he doing with the higher temperature?

thanks, going back to single overflow idea to keep it simple now one idea i had for flow is an integrated glass spray bar. this might be hard to explain so i'll chuck in a pic later Basically a glass box that ran along the back/bottom of the tank about 100mm high and 50mm deep and run along the length of the tank (between the overflow box and the other end of the tank) In the forward facing piece of the glass would be about a dozen or so 10mm holes, about 50mm above the top of the sand. At the back or at the bottom would be two 25mm inlets (water for the inlets would be taken from two other outlets under the rock work) Water would be fed into the glass box and push flow out the 10mm holes towards the front of the tank. the surface area of the 2 inlets is slightly larger than the surface area of the 10 outlets so the increase in pressure should be enough to cause a nice constant flow over the sand bed. the glass box would create a 'step' at the back of the tank, i would thinking of having that 50mm area as unusable and sliding a piece of perspex in there. that would allow me to put inlets into the back of the tank (as they are now) but have them stealthed by having the holes drilled in the perspex (dark perspex, dark coloured hansen plumbing). im throwing all sorts of ideas out there at the moment, just trying to get some feedback. constructive criticism more than welcome so long as you can justify it im taking the good points and bad points of my current closed loop and trying to advance on them.

Ten different test kits ten different tests?!

no one that i can see... the point being not that the pinpoint is correct and test kit could be wrong, but why there could be a difference in the first place. if the results are different, then i'll be questioning one or the other. if they're +/- 0.1, maybe 0.2 or so thats probably acceptable, but anything higher you have to find out why.

might as well start a new thread on this, i wanna start designing the new tank. i got some insane ideas for water flow, putting the theory to practice and whether it will work is another question and one i'll show via drawings later. i want to base this thread on designing the tank only - bear in mind that EVERYTHING will be designed around aquascaping. i have an idea in my head and have mocked up some drawings of how i want the aquascaping to look. i'll post this pic with how the closed loop will function later on. in the meantime, some questions... 1. what type of glass do you recommend for the front? (layton?) in priority, it needs to be scratch proof, clear and low distortion. low iron glass or something? 2. size im considering is either 1.8 or 2m long (need to measure up fish room), by 900 or 1m wide by 650mm height. the exact size will most likely be determined by the lighting configuration i used, but by initial thoughts are 4 x lumen arc reflectors in a square shape (either all 4 x 400W'ers or 2 x 400W'ers in front and 2 x 250W'ers near rear) then 4 x T5's down either side. like this (if it comes out!): || [ ] [ ] || || [ ] [ ] || | = T5 (2 x 3ft down each end) [ ] = reflector with halide 3. overflows - single or twin? im considering twin for redundancy. if single, back corner or middle? 4. i think i've definately decided on stainless steel across middle (like pies) combined euro-bracing (i think thats what its called, basically 4" piece of flat glass all the way around the edge)

same, i'll be similar, not as long, probably 1.8 or 2m but 1m width and 650 height. is that the scratch proof type of glass? something i'll be definately adding into the cost. puttputt - start a new thread when you want to start on the tank design, as i'll be throwing some ideas around too.

puttputt - i'd be curious to see how accurate it is, once i've fixed/recalibrated my pinpoint, compare the results on the same sample of water between the pinpoint and the salifert kit. i often wonder how much better some peoples tanks would be if they used different test kits - especially when you read them testing two different brands and getting completely different results :-?

:lol: interesting what appeals to different people. i seriously wish i had a heap of spare cash right now i so want to start setting up my new tank