RnB

blue / purple / yellow, all very happy..... and fat.

I really suggest a vist to Anthony Preston Ltd 167 Moore St Howick Auckland 09-534 5127 They have everything in this RO/DI including the DI resin by the kg. It may be cheaper to buy a cannister rather then try and make one. The other option is to buy from US mailorder everything you need. Anthony Preston can sell you membranes, flow restricters etc as replacements later if you wish. I was looking online recently and there are some good deals out there in mail order land. Trademe has RO systems for sale sometimes as well you will have trouble making RO work through tank pressure only. Try and borrow a pressure guage from a local farmer etc to test what you have now. There are lots of downloadadble pdf files from the RO membrane guys regarding required pressure rates etc. In my experience getting the correct flow restricter is also important. Happy to show you my installation if you are interest, live central AKL.

wetwebmedia got a lot more signal to noise then most sites. And as I go on I guess I have learnt not to look for 1 definitive answer to most questions, rather 2-3 resonably well answered explanations.

what was the cost of the pumps? jetski - who was the other manufactuer u hinted might be bringing out a stream type pump? I imagine ehiem would want a slice of this action....

It would be fine, but you would use a lot of DI resin/gel/thingies thus may be more expensive in the long term if you are making a lot of water. The RO purifies the H2O and thus the DI resin lasts a long time. RO membranes last a long time if looked after (correct pressure used, some say backflush them, others disagree, commercial guys say backflush but also said that at my 50L per week rate the membrance not clog that much anyway) I seem to get about 1 year out of $60 of DI resin and make at least 2500L per year. the RO membrance cost about $120 from AI and should last for years. If you are running a nano then probaby no problems

use the epoxy stuff between the rocks, sets like a rock compared with silicone and is reef safe. Also coraline grows on it. not sure about attaching it to the bottom though you could build a pvc pipe "base" which is somewhat wider then the lowest rock, and attach that to the bottom rock, covered in sand the support would be invisable.

each rack of tanks was 4 high, the bottom tank at almost ground level has only live (man made version) rock in it, and is slightly deeper, say 30cm of water. A single pump then rises water to the 3 tanks above via a T-ing off system, and each tank returns to the lowest one. There may have been a fish or two in each tank, but they where scavenger type, especially small algae eaters. No need for skimming or phosphate removal or zeostuff or anything else. They followed the same routine on these tanks, 1/3 water change each month, iodine and strontium. They had kalc drippers that attached to the top tank (low tech but cheap as chips...). I am begining to suspect that many of the reef supplements available are actually just combinations of single trace elements. the aquaculture was very http://www.garf.org/ based, right down to home made little plugs for the frags. It was really cool to see hundreds of little coral frags in a single tank. The whole shop/room was air conditioned, rather then cooling individual tanks. Its located in an industrial area to keep the rent down I guess. Oh and on the tanks they install for people the do DSB. I got to say from the shop tanks they are getting really good results. I think the quality/look of a shop tank says a whole lot about the result. They have pictures of the last 12 months of each show tank on the wall to prove i guess they are not replacing losses but are rather getting growth and results. This operation is very professional, and IMHO will eventually pull custom from the other shops on the coast.

yeah the layout of the tank systems, there depth, everything is just different to what you normally see in a retail shop, yet it all seems to make perfect sense and is explained on there website and if you visit. There are no pictures of there fish system, which is about 2000L, has 1 massive skimmer, a ReefGuard UV system and live roock filter system. the fish system They also have daily test results of the water quaility of the system on a whiteboard and also have there organiser charts on the wall showing days for additives, levels of additives etc etc. Interestingly they have very little metal halide lighting, almost everything apart from acros are under normal flouro tubes, owner said even at trade the cost of replacing lights are a major factor, hence tubes and shallow tanks! WASP - the tanks are all plywood with a replaceable glass section in the front, they are all 4ft by 2ft by about 20cm deep, racking all wooden as well. I think you would be really interested in this place..... no skimming on the prop tanks 8) just snails and live man-made rock

While I was on holiday on the gold coast I was recommended to visit Coral Plantations http://www.coralplantations.com/pages/factory.htm In all I visited about 5 shops on the coast but they all paled in comparison with CR. The main difference I guess was the evidence that these guys really did know what they where on about. They are currently propagating quite a few coral varieties and you can purchase frags from $10 - $20, as well as having tanks full of standard harvested corals $30 upwards. I was told that corals cannot be imported or exported from Australia??? trying to verify this but interesting if true. Fish can be imported/exported, and i was told varying stories regarding where most of the fish are from. I sortof believe that about 70-80% of fish are imported and the rest are local caught, the imported ones have to be quarantineed just like here in NZ. Fish are much cheaper in Aussie in general then here (about 50-60% of NZ prices even when NZD/AUD corrected). There are exceptions, yellow and purple tangs are not 50% cheapper in Aussie, but def less then AKL. What was very interesting is the philosophy of coral Plantations.... They recommend changing 30% of the water each month with natural seawater (they will deliver seawater to your door for a fee.) Add Iodine and strontium during the week. Use Kalk for calcium. no skimming, but they sell/recommend using a cannister type system filled with manmade rock, through which tank water is pumped using high flow. yes thats no protien skimmers on any of there tanks, but LOTS of man made rock in the tanks. There tanks look REALY good, I saw a lot of tanks in aussie shops where the mushrooms where in a separate tank to all other corals and they looked awesome........ It was interesting to see a full scale coral propagation business in operation, it will be interesting to see how they go long term. They seemed a level above anything I have seen in the retail business for a long time.

Sailing shops will sell you a reel of 2 or 3mm "spectra" cord in a variety of nice colours, its very strong, 3mm has a 70kg shock breaking strain and quite cheap, about $17 for a 20m reel in AKL. I agree with Fay that Arcadia lights look the trick, but I would rather spend that type of dosh on livestock.... glad to see it all moving along Mark. I cleaned under the house and measured up etc last week, (took 3 loads of rubbish to the dump!) I am in Surfers this week with Alex on holiday. Finishing MAF application this week and hope to get feedback next month. Once the C2C is finished I will throw myself at concreting and jibbing the space... I have just on 16 sq m over two rooms so more space then I expected to have. And I will put in a sump room for my tank while I am under there! Peter

these are cool i may buy one with the profit from my imports....

my lighting hood effectvely gives 6 inchs for protection around the top of the tank...... Sorry to hear about the fish....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Trucks/auction-19103487.htm

thats my point, all of New Zealand was once like these marine reserves... I dive Leigh and Poor knights several times each year, I also dive gulf locations. Marine reserves do work, its just they are a very small part of the overall picture. But wehen you consider it ALL used to have this density of life...... There are so many dive sites around NZ that are much less dense in fishlife now, I remember catching snapper in the harbour at Tauranga as a kid.......

personally, I think its just another thing in our hobby designed to take good money off gullible people........ I would submit a theory that the tidal effect is what triggers mass spawnings, not the light effect, it is sometimes cloudy in the tropics

As a diver i notice the rich abundance of life in the NZ marine reserves.... I do not agree with how well we have actually done in preserving original numbers, or indeed increasing them! But yes we are trying...... to find a balance between commercial reality and conservation.... .... and we have some very cool fisheries boats and orions to help police the zone!

now that is funny! Lads at work are much ammused. I always thought that freshwater was instant death, but after reading all the freshwater dip stuff online, seems like they can handle it ok for a little while.... one lucky fish though.........

Also said, supported by a marine biologist, was that there really was no solid scientific research into the short/long term impact to the reefs of the collection activity. When you imagine how big the commercial fishing industry is in Vanuatu world (read tuna etc) and the fact that they had no operational gov fisheries boats what so ever! it is not hard to imagine how ornamental fish/coral business will probably continue to go unmonitored until it starts to impact the diving/tourism business, and I also imagine the operaters are smart enough to probably not collect right on the main diving sites..... It would be interesting to dive some of the locations where they have/have not been collecting to see the results 1st hand........

I saw the doco with a few friends who do not keep fish They saw two things in the program A) THe locals are getting ripped as they pay peanuts or use filipino divers. B) Locals do not police quotas thus the country is short changing itself, bad reefs = no tourists. C) the collection company looks real shonky and they are convinced that bribery payments are changing hands higher at gov level..... Interestingly, They did not see it as a fish keepers issue, more a local country issue to protect their own resource. I however felt at the end of the day though, we as hobbist cause the problem, even unintenially. Millions of hobbists each with a tank of 10 fisk/20 corals = a lot of corals! We always want new, cheap etc The argument that all our friends see our tanks and thus become more aware of reef's promoting conservation is a little of a cop out. more like bs IMHO. I think we need more regulation covering fish collection, (CITES usefull for corals) if we are not to be banned totally in 15 years time....... While we may be able to culture corals, I doubt that the wide variety of fish we like to keep will be available via this option....

u tease!

u got fish huh

I just use a 100L plastic box for my main tank sump..... I got a 20 x 25L ones for $4 each from building depot when they shut down. a 25L plastic bin be fine for your nano smaller ehiem for a return pump... look on trademe..... drill the hole in the side/bottom of your existing tank $10 maybe less pies has a contact...... small piece of glass for overflow and if desparate use an actual plastic comb as a comb! sump $5-10 holes $10 glass $5 comb $2 shop done mate

ok lets do it over a beer or two, central city, friday the 3rd December XMAS theme......

I would never joke about something so serious........

how are you going to cool the nano?