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darcy

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  1. Probably a good idea Caryl... Are there any enthusiasts out in Waitakere that you know of? What is the best way to go about re-homing the fish? I would think it needs to be someone fairly local. After that, I can sell the tank on TM along with all the bits...
  2. Hi Shilo, Thanks, the euro-style brace (if I've understood what it is) is just on the ends of the tank - and is probably the reason I don't have 150L of water on the floor But, I can definitely see the advantages of having it along the long side... Unfortunately, due to the custom hood design, and very little forward thinking at the time, it wouldn't be compatible with the hood. To be fair... it's lasted 20 odd years so far, and been shipped between a couple of cities. After a bit more thought, I'm thinking now might be the time to pack it up... I have too many other hobbies as it is!
  3. After turning out the light the other night I heard a loud "pop"... got up, and figured the dog was doing stupid stuff outside... Fine. I went to feed the fish last night and couldn't work out why my glass cover plates were sitting lower than the edge of the glass rim... wtf is going on... And then I noticed the centre brace had given out! (sorry - no photo). In short, the 2x 8mm pieces that were glued to the top and inside face of the front of the tank had detached, and the glass had bowed so much that the brace had sagged in to the water. ah crap... In other words, the front and rear faces had bowed out a combined 9-10mm over 90cm of width. I'd really rather prefer *not* to have 140-150 litres of water on the floor! I'm trying to work out what my options are. The tank was professionally made nearly 20 years ago. The stand and hood are all custom - so I'd probably need to get the tank custom made again. The kids haven't really been interested in the tank much over the last couple of years so we'd actually floated the idea of decommissioning it. This may well have kick started that process... The tank isn't heavily stocked at the moment - thankfully, but does have a couple of Pictus Cat's and a couple of 4-5 year old Bristlenose's. The Black line foxes are 3-4 years old... My old Fluval pump/filter from around 1999 is still going strong. The biggest pain is going to be the hood with custom light controller. It's got a PIC processor which switches the T5 tubes off in sequence etc... and really isn't suitable to give to someone else (it's something I made when making the stand) So, what on earth should I do? I've put pressure on the front and back faces using a tie-down strap and a couple blocks of wood. I'm pretty happy that i could leave it like that for weeks if I really needed to. So for now, I think disaster is averted. Although I'm very grateful the guy that made the tank (the original owner of the Fish Bowl in Hamilton) did such a good job! Should I try to repair the tank or is now the time to sell or give away all the tank bits (my wife would certainly like the space back)... I'm open to suggestions! Thanks
  4. A few more good suggestions... I was thinking of waterblasting it just before it goes in the tank, but was probably going to wait until it was waterlogged. I like the idea of glueing to a piece of acrylic or stone... except my tank is already set up... damn... should have thought of that first! As for the sinkers, the idea was to use fishing sinkers, not those teeny weeny plant weights It might be possible to attach the sinkers in such a way that while they look a bit fugly for a month, I could easily remove them once the piece is sufficiently water logged. Something like a fat and stubby Puka sinker would probably do the trick... well, a few of them anyway I've had the two pieces weighted down for nearly a week now and they're still very buoyant... there are signs of improvement, but I think this is definitely a waiting game. I'll give it another week before trying lead fishing sinkers Thanks everyone
  5. I like the idea of using sinkers... I was trying to avoid having lead in the tank but the reality is that it's probably okay so long as you're doing water changes. I should be able to tie a few large sinkers underneath the pieces of wood and hide them quite well. I think this will make it much easier than finding a large enough rock that will just use up more of my already limited space. Are there any real issues with using lead in tanks these days?
  6. Given the number of complete amateurs (although i'm not far from that either) purchasing from somewhere like HFF I'm a little surprised they don't stock a denser wood that has less difficulty in becoming water logged... I guess the other option is a water filled vacuum chamber... Anyone got one of those lying around in the auckland area? Still curious to know about the boiling method... wondering if it's worth the effort.
  7. Hi guys, Has anyone had experience trying to water log pieces of Spider Wood root? I picked mine up from Hollywood FF and after a few days it's showing no sign of any change after full weighted submersion (in a 60L plastic bin). Does boiling it actually speed up this process? I'm wondering about hiring a 30L catering stock pot for about $15 and putting it on the boil for a whole day... Curious if this actually speeds up the process though. Because the pieces are quite large, putting them in the tank and then taking up even more space with large weights of some kind isn't really feasible. Equally, I won't be able to fit the entire piece in the stock pot, but I could fit the vast majority of hte piece which is probably enough. Thanks D.
  8. Hi guys, years back I put a 15cm blue CCFL or neon tube under the tank hood and use to turn that on for 2-3 hours either side of the main 2x 36" tubes turning on off. This is on a tropical freshwater... Now that the tank is up and going again I'm questioning whether this is still a wise idea... The idea was that this way we could see the tank inhabitants (just), enough to still make it a little bit interesting in the evenings and dark mornings. The tank is pitch black for about 10 hours a day, with the main tubes on for about 10 hours as well. The little blue neon/ccfl (long forgotten what it was), was turned on for about three hours in the morning, and about an hour in the evening. The tank itself gets zero direct sunlight, and very little ambient light. Have people experimented with these minimal light sources much? Do they cause algae problems? Does the long period of light stress out the fish? My general thinking was that the fish would be happy enough as their natural habitat is for the most part on the equator anyway... So my bigger concern comes back to algae growth... Is there a particular light spectrum that can be used that is of minimal use to algae, but provides enough light for us to see by? Thanks D. The tank was still a bit cloudy after moving a few plants... Water logging the driftwood is a work in progress - At which point everything will get moved around again.
  9. Thanks guys... It sounds like I probably didn't need to get the buffer then, but it can't hurt to have around. The reassurance is appreciated!
  10. Thanks... I've got 50+ cuttings turning up tomorrow, and a few larger established plants. I'll pick up a small school of tetra's on the weekend... My wife is very keen on something that'll keep the wee boy entertained.
  11. Hey thanks guys... Really appreciated. I popped out at lunch and grabbed a KH test kit, and some acidity buffer. Sounds like tap water where I am has about 0-1 dKH. Thanks for the suggestions about driftwood and peatmoss. I was definitely planning to add a large piece in there once I found something I liked. Peat moss could be a good idea as well... I could put some below the filter wool. Cheers guys, feeling a lot better about the situation now!
  12. That's reassuring... I'm still presented with a bit of a problem when doing 20% water changes though aren't I? If the tank pH is sitting at the high end of 6.5-7.0 (for community fish), and I'm adding 20% volume at 7.5 pH, unless I have something to buffer the water the pH is slowly (over multiple water changes) creep back up to 7.5(ish) - isn't it?. Actually, basic math... with each 20% water change it'll creep up to 7.1, from 7.0 pH. I guess that's not tooooo much of a change so long as it dropped back down to 7.0 before the next water change. Not having kept fish for so long I'm just not sure how much of an effect pH will have on tank occupants... or quite how to deal with it practically. Thanks D.
  13. Okay, so I'm just in the process of (trying to) establish a new tank after not having had an aquarium for about 10 years... I have the new tank in place and have been making sure that all the equipment still works. I'm using a Fluval 204 with bio-noods, and 300W heater... The substrate is about 30% Flourite, 70% grit (0.6mm-2.0mm). Water volume is around the 160L mark (890 x 390 footprint) I did my first water check last night - something I should have done a couple days ago... and found that the pH was sitting around 7.5. For general community fish, by my current understanding, that's a bit high... I believe it should be more like 6.8. Hmm... maybe something in substrate or the rocks is making the water more alkaline? Time for a water change. Just for kicks I tested the tap-water... 7.5. Rats! Well at least it wasn't what I'd put in the tank. What is a cost effective way of treating tap-water before adding to the tank when doing water changes? I have a 20L bucket for water changes, but in hind-sight it's near impossible to lift it up to the tank top... What options do I have? I'm not looking forward to having to treat 3-4 buckets of water with every change! I'd certainly appreciate any advice in this area please! Thanks Darcy PS: Photo of current setup attached... just because More plants tomorrow and a few starter fish next week once I'm happy with the conditions
  14. Hiya, if you haven't already bought one, Hollywood have them on special at the moment. I just picked one up yesterday for $59.
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