chimera

14k is definately my preference. 10k too yellow and feeds nuisance algae more than 14k do.

half that!

live and learn the next tank will be plumbed up beyond your imagination im buying shares in mico's next week :lol: lighting. its going to need more lighting than you could poke a stick at if it goes deeper anyway so would rather stick to more 150's as opposed to fewer 400's to get a better spread of light. could go 650 i guess. anyway will leave that one for another day cant go deeper (fr to bk) coz i've only got 1.6m in the room and need room behind for plumbing and walk space! I think it will have what I believe most tanks lack - the sense of depth. for that reason i may consider a black background. so much to ponder! good idea, food for thought. lots of research will need doing on rc. ah ha haaaa, not! planning will be key this time. will be spending quite a bit of time getting it PERFECT. i have some cool new ideas (plus some borrowed ideas) that will make it the best circulation a tank has ever seen it will eventually be THE best tank in NZL - oh wait, i need some corals first :lol: speaking of which, my pick of NZL's best tank for overall layout and colour would be westy1 (warick's) It's only a 4 footer (or was it 5?) but that tank is STUNNING. dont see him on this site anymore? will start up a new tank upgrade thread when i get seriously into the design

It works well Well I've already started to plan out a tank upgrade I know, crazy mofo. This will be a long term plan that Im code naming "project mini oregon" (as in steve weasts tank in the US, http://www.oregonreef.com/ I would be happy to have it half as nice as his by the time its finished!!!) It will be proportionally more wider (deeper?) than longer, going 1 foot wider (to 6ft) but 1 ft deeper (to 3 ft) Still 2 ft high, and from 540 litres to just under 1,000 litres. I have managed to retain a dedicated 'in-wall' room for the display tank at about 3.5m long by 1.6m back. This leaves 700mm at the back for piping (if any) and walk space. The 'hole' in the wall will remain at 5 ft so 6inches either side to hide streams. Closed loops will be more stealthed and no extra LR will be used (so more 'swim space' for the fishies!) As I say, it will be a long term (1 year) project due to costs and time. The entire stand, tank and lighting outfit will be designed and built in the garage first. I've already made sure I have room to 'walk' the tank into the tank room

feed your clown fish first

well cookie thats been the whole plan all along. slowly sneak in LARGE equipment then drop the hint about a larger tank. "it wouldnt cost that much honey because i already have the gear to run a larger tank" "oh, well maybe you should get a bigger tank then?" "hmmm, let me think about that for a mi... ok."

oh yeah, will send him a PM... cheers. after some acro's too

AHHH HAAAA HA HAAAAAAAA!!!! Legend!

there then, problem solved. see, we are all here to help jimmy :lol:

yeah well, fish are territorial and there aint a lotta room in there for much more. im surprised you didnt bang on the tank when they started to attack the shrimp then take it out. i would sell your clowns, get a shrimp (or two) in there then buy two smaller clowns. Either that or get a bigger tank I got some really good 'man-needs-bigger-tank' medicine if you gotta partner who is holding you back in your hobby :lol: Just tell her you have to sell the fish coz the tank is too small otherwise you will have to upgrade. If she is attached to the fish (which most woman are) you will be able to get a larger tank immediately works a treat!

you need to change your signature to 'I got psychotic shrimp eating devil clown fish'

now why would i give her that idea? strangely SHE is the one who was saying a bigger tank would be nice!!! i almost fell off my chair when she said that. nice understanding wife, keep taking your husband-needs-bigger-tank medicine Next job is to order those 4ft reflectors off Dr Evil... someone must be wanting to organise it surely! Then load the main tank up with acro frags. So, anyone with nice acro's for sale cheap gimme a holla

what you pay for the shrimp?

jeez! what sort of clowns you got!!! thats just evil. get a bigger shrimp or what about a coral banded shrimp? sounds like you need an anemone first to keep the clowns amused :lol:

Here ya go Joeblog, heres how I plumbed up my AP902. I think the trick is FAT AS pipe heading down then reduced to 25mm for the skimmer. No restriction on the outlet... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/here-vp117345.html

I finally got around to upgrading from the in-sump Deltec TS1060 (which I still think is an awesome skimmer) to an even better and bigger (and more expensive!) beast. Here are some shots of the plumbing and new Deltec AP902 which is already working brilliantly. Admitedly I did have a couple of blonde moments yesterday (brain saturated in beer from new years I think) first I turned the "water out" ball valve that empties water for a water change - then got distracted by the wife, came back a couple of minutes later to hear the return pump running dry Luckily had some NSW sitting there but that didnt quite fill the sump up enough. So, I turned on the freshwater topup perastaltic pump (only needed about 10 litres which shouldnt effect salinity that much) ... another distraction and I forgot about it until this morning :-? Interestingly the salinity is still at 1.025... bizzare. Anyway here are the shots. First, I T'd off the 40mm overflow drain pipe on a 45 degree angle then ran piping horizontally into the sump room. The pipe running to the back then 90 to the left goes to the refugium. Essentially this is water the skimmer doesnt need... Then a 90 degree down and another 90 across to the skimmer. It is then reduced to 25mm and into a 25mm ball valve. Then a 90 into the skimmer itself. You can see the 50mm skimmer outlet pipe running horizontally across in the background. This drops straight into the sump... And here is the skimmer in action. Still need to sit it in a plastic tank (incase it leaks) The BOC CO2 bottle is temporary until I sort out where that is going as well... I estimate about 2/3's of the water down goes to the skimmer and the other 1/3 goes through the refugium.

I think Brian you could have worded your comment a little differently - for example I personally dont like Alois' aquascaping/layout - its too much like mine - just a wall of rocks :lol: However in terms of effort put in, colour in corals and selection of fish its awesome. Just to say its "not impressive" is a generalisation that does not do it justice. I think its great to see exposure of reef keeping on TV to get more interested in the hobby. A short but worthy article. It would be awesome to see more like this in the future.

looking great! need more corals! (but dont we all)

oh shock me, with a comment like that it was bound to be you reef. go figure. nice linkia starfish on camera there too

if I harrass him a bit he might get it up and running again. if you can offer pies some free web disk space he'll get it going i've got to do a site for mine at some stage. for me its a bit like fnzas - it acts as a diary of events so i've got history on improvements and changes (plus it helps others learn from my mistakes!!! :lol: )

i plumbed up my ap902 today, works a treat. what a BEAST. i'll post up some pic's soon of the plumbing on my thread (specifically for joeblog and anyone else who was going to get one and got stuck on the gravity feed side of things) Cost me $80 on plumbing for it!!! crazy price when you look at what you get for it - a few 45 and 90 degree bends and some pvc piping - mind you $30 of that was a 25mm ball valve...

must be mine not. you mean his web site 'homereef'??? if so, that hasnt been available for ages!

i got plumbing for my new deltec ap902 skimmer today. i have a few ways i can plumb it up but thats not my worry - my biggest issue is lack of space!!! the ap902 is a BEAST. takes up so much room (1m high, half metre wide) now i wish i'd built my sump room larger

perhaps contributing factor, but not solely the cause of cyano.

no worries bro!