neopole

sunset beach has a lot of fresh water in it, and also contaminates from the river. i remember draging home 100lt of water once that i got straight from the surf beach, when i got it home, i did a "taste test"....mmmmmmm fresh water! so depending on the tide, the salt content and fresh water contamination content will vary widely. after that episode, i only got my water from clarks beach. but the sealife around the rocks at the port is amazing! mmmmmmm might have to start up my tank again!

interesting topic. but to get back on track, i have been experimenting with foam cement. process. get some foam rubber, or sponge, and "wash" it in a cement water mix, shape it to your desired form. when set, take it to the beach for a while. this will cure the cement, and rot out the sponge/foam, leaving a very porous rock structure. good luck.

last year, and gave simple instructions on how to make it. it works great. and cost less than $100 i had a 5ft cold marine tank, sitting in a sunroom. the temp in the sun room hit 40deg in summer but the tank never went over 22 23 deg. find the thread....bathtub chiller in the marine section.

just like the song, i let all my marine animals free today. after a year of having a rock pool tank i decided to stop. and am quite sad. i split up with my partner about 3 months ago, and am running a lifestyle block and work commitments left me little time to maintain the tank. so today i took a day off work and let the little guys go. to my suprise i found lots of baby creatures in the tank. the starfish, the shrimp, and the crabs have all breed in the tank. also the usual snails and limpits and worms etc. when i took them all to the beach today(big job) i put them in a big rock pool, the big fish were that tame after a year that they still swam into my hands looking for food!!, that was real sad.haha how silly is that, being sad that a fish swims into your hand. anyway, the tank is now empty. i also think that a 5ft tank is not big enough for a proper cold marine tank. the fish and creatures seem to need a lot more room, and my tank was understocked i belive. i will have another marine tank in the future, when the house is extended, i will build a wooden tank with glass front that holds at least 3000 lt, as for now, i read a post on the fresh water side about native fresh water tanks. as i have a dam at the back of the farm and a big stream running through the forrest next door, i will give this a go. at least i wont have to spend hours driving to a boatramp to get water, i have a water-ram pumping water from the dam to the house now, so i could set up a trickle feed system that is virtually maintainance free. seen some great looking fish in the stream, sort of like zebra stripped and there is also the crayfish, and little guppy like fish, and and..... yes i think i can still have some fun!! to all of you who have rock pool tanks...enjoy, i'll be back into it soon again. i'll still be around here though, i love this site, i'm not a big poster, but am an avid reader, and have a lot of experience with rock pool tanks, this was my third. see ya around neopole.

that was me who said that. the mussles in my tank have died off. but the pipi's, cockles and oysters are all still alive, so i dont think it is starvation. i spoke to a guy at jansens last year and he said that no one can keep mussles alive in a tank for very long. mine lived for a max of 6 months. the pipi's and cockles are breeding in my tank, so i think anyway. found lots of tiny ones in the sandbed when shifting some rocks.

to my bathtub chiller on wednesday. the temp got to 22deg in the tank tuesday, so added sheets of aluminium to the bathtub, hooked up a 5watt powerhead to spray water on the sheets, and a small table fan to circulate the air. the tub is set up slightly under the house, so as to draw on the cool air there. tank is back to 19deg in the day time and 17deg at night. sunroom temp where tank is, is up to 40deg. total cost now $120. total power consumption of chiller 35watts. cheers

yeah i got a 5ft tank. sitting in a sun room that hits 40degs, the tank goes up to 20deg and cools of to 17deg at night with a bathtub chiller. there is a thread way back called "homemade chiller" there i describe how i made it. they are fantastic tanks i think, there is nothing like a beach in your home. even though the fish arent as colourful, the rest of the creatures are very colourful. and so are the different seaweeds. i collect my wildlife from the rockpools at port waikato. have/had a school of tiny sprats in the tank, awsome to watch but they are disappearing slowly, i think the cat is getting them. my tank is a year old now and is doing very well. just collecting water every couple months is a pain. hope you enjoy your tank as much as i enjoy mine. and dont put mussles in it, they will die. oysters and pipis do well, as do crabs and anenomies,

the chiller is homemade, there is a link further back with instructions. thread is "homemade chiller" i havent got a digital cam yet, but hope to get 1 soon.

hi all, i got a cold saltwater tank, been going 7 or so months now, and decided that i better find out what is happening in the tank. so i bought a saltwater master test kit from jensons last week. the results. PH 8.2 AMMONIA 0ppm NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm temp 17deg well, as you can see, perfect results. i am soo happy. the tank 5ft 270lt ( narrow tank) no sump, no skimmer, 1 homemade chiller, and 2 5ft fluro tubes. 1 fluval 403, 1 380lt and 1 700lt per hour powerheads, the 380 has a venturi pumping air into tank. the 700 runs the chiller. 4inch sand bed and lots of rocks with seaweed, the back and side glass has never been cleaned, and is "growing" nicely. inhabitants lots of cockles and pipes, a few oysters. many anenomes of different colours. lots of catseyes and turbo snails 30 odd crabs ranging from hermits to blue filter to orange grazers to yellow hunters. 3 starfish, a handfull of snapping shrimp 3 fish ...rockhopper thingamejigs that change colour. hundreds of worms and other weird things that i have never seen before. most of the above are breeding to. i have had trouble with mussles...they have all died. feeding 1 mussles and bits of frozen shrimp every 4 days. cleaning 100lt waterchange every month or so when i siffon the crap out. last time cleaned about 5 weeks ago. i think i might just recycle the water instead of putting in new seawater, because my parameters a good. budget $350 for tank, stand, lights, main filter. powerheads $ 60 chiller $60 testkit $72 power ..lights 100watts 12 hours, pumps 40watts 24hours = not much live stock and rocks and sand free. enjoyment priceless neopole

1 large mussle shredded, and bits from a mixed seafood pack. ie the stuff you find on a seafood pizza. bought at foodtown, once every 4 days

apreciate your thoughts, we live on a farm, and last summer i noticed that the troughs stayed cool as did our household water tank, obviously the volumes are much greater. but the cooling came from evapouration threw the concrete. as the tub is now, the only cooling effect is threw the base and cool nite air. once the ali cooling panels are on there will be several sqm of evaporation surface, this is what removes the heat. a simple experiement is to wrap the bulb of a thermometer with tissue and wet it and hold it outside in the shade on the hottest day, same principal applies. any way time will tell

do you understand what happens during evaporation?

hi all, been reading a few threads where chillers are mentioned. i made a chiller last week, and have been testing it this week. the results are great. i got the tank down to 14deg the other night by leaving it on too long!!!! fish tank is 5ft long and sits in a sun room, during the day the temp was getting well over 20deg. the chiller. old cast iron bath tub dug slightly into the ground behind my house, ( south side) in the tub is 20m of irrigation tubing and water. from the tank to the tub is another 20m of tubing running under the house. the water is pumped using a small 10watt power head. i run the chiller from 10am to 10pm same as my lights. with chiller running, max temp is now 17deg. i was going to add aluminium plates covered in sacks to the tub to get cooling via evaporation, but as yet no need, maybe next month i'll do that. cost tub free piping + fitting $35 pump $35 labour 4 hours ( 1 hour to move the tub on log rollers) anyone can do this.

hi, just bought some natural rock salt from woollies. it says it is evaporated from NZ sea water with no additives, or processing. is this the same as instant ocean? what is the mix ratio, salt to water? this bag of 500gms cost $1.50 what does IO cost? cheers

thanx a lot putt putt.