RnB

can you cut off the fragging stuff and put it into my fragging topic above

i have very little really tank is almost a FOWLR :-? a big empty 500L tank Most of my friends say they are mavuey blue, they are the matt type that produces a very uniform looking zoo...... in the middle they have a little spot that glows a bit under blue light, I tried to take photos last weekend , but had focus all wrong, will try again next weekend! I want a red mushroom........ or one of the really dark lush reen ones.... Nick I have read you need to include some stalk to get a new mushroom, but have also read that just hacking them up, then in the dish with small rocks and a net over works well too.... I have lots of the classic blue mushrooms to swap....... in fact happy to give a few of these away for free to anyone who has nothing to swap at the moment.... they are tough, you cannot kill em. I will frag off a lot more zoo's this weekend, the master colany started with about 160 polps..... so will recover fast IMHO. what brand of gel superglue people using? i am just runbber banding them at the moment.

at the moment i would rather swap, remenber i am colour blind... they could be pink zoo's!!!! what have you got to swap? You passing through AKL this weekend? Peter

If you want to frag me a small piece i could test with him/her..... swap for a blue zoo frag this weekend if you want.... but it would be freshly fragged, you have to give it tender loving care for a few weeks. would be about 10 polps (sp?) of course my CB is so busy eating (eaton) all the Aptasia that it might be full anyway 8) such a beautiful fish, I am glad it has settled into the tank and the others are now leaving it alone! barry gave me a tip re using fresh mussles..... it does eat these. Peter

once i get my electronic phosphate meter we will test chch / akl / wgtn etc tap water and see..... that will put it to bed for good!

the water at the poor knights be nice to use :roll: going diving this saturday , if pacific hideaway is going out. Peter

maybe pies, I suspect clean roof runoff be ok, but better to DI after collecting, bird crap is high in phosphate.....

Beginers Do not put tap water into your tank (unless i beleive you live in CHCH) In general NZ tap water is run off collected! The phosphates are HUGE! and its like adding a little bit more each week, with no way of getting it out...... as someone with an RO unit to make you some water up and pay a few $ for it, do our high service LFS's offer RO/DI water at a cost effective rate in NZ?

as reef said after a while these threads seem like groundhog day in that movie.... :lol: Changing business models was a given the day the internet was born. Its just that LFS in NZ have had a sheltered life for some time. Yes online retailers will hurt some LFS, get on, growup and change.... or shut marine section....... the same fish can only be sold one way at a time, closures of LFS marine sections will only be caused by the SUCCESS of online discount (and they will have to be discount otherwise just buy at the LFS) tough world capitalism, but better then central government issuing license to run protected LFS. We all know what thats called! (As National once said hehehheeh)

yes there are risks involved, and potentially benefits too. NSW seems to realy make corals open up after a change... is it just something out of balance in my tank.. probably.... but it does offer the benefit of being able to do realititly large water changes cheaply, if there is inbalance! Lately I have seen some really nice tanks that use NSW. I have not yet meet a person who has wiped out. But I guess its possible using NSW as it would be using ASW and polluted tapwater, though RO/DI should take out most things.... anyone know of anyone who has wiped out?

man what a stirrer!

real debate! now this is getting us somewhere. America has lots of mail order internet suppliers as I understand, LFS's are doing well, especially specialist stores that are truely run with passion! Just for the record, while the LFS charges 100%+ margin, after expenses there profits have got to be lower.... With all this talk of demand I might just waterproof the back of my garage :lol:

maybe i should sell everything now.. in anticipation.... http://www.fishsupply.com/cgi-bin/f2/common/store.cgi?dbname=f2&mode=item&path=top/X/XH/FTL00-11412 http://www.fishsupply.com/cgi-bin/f2/common/store.cgi?dbname=f2&path=top/X/XH

off reef central its already happened in the US and there are still lots of LFS..... as there will be here. but the glory days of $120 corals and $300 purple tangs are about to end IMHO,.

thought you might be 8) how well do you know Brendan? I have only meet him once... He may be happpy to show it running? he showed me the unit as i think i mentioned phosphates or may have just seen it at his place. Damn just closed a custom aquatics order off as well :roll:

you need to use special reagents that are specifically designed to work with the laser diode and produce the correct result. in general we are a very small hobby compared with commercial water testing etc, and not much has gone into the investm,ent of saltwater tests for these units, but i can see someone large going down this path in the future. I see test kits as a real weakness in our hobby, i am colour blind makes it 10 x harder, i also hate that none of the reef tests are graduated into anything usefull for most reefers, we want scientific results, repeatable with no element of interpretation.... The future is colorimeters! http://www.customaquatic.com/customaqua ... DI-HI93700 Layton, if you lived in AKL i would say lets just go 1/2's in this and then find others..... As I said Brendan has one of these in AKL already, said it was necessary for correct use of zeovit to know your phosphate levels ....

no one wants to see shops close..... and no one wants to pay retail..... yeah right. until now maybe there have not been people in the hobby who have had either the capital, or the desire to invest the $$ to get a facility up to scratch and start up. Alois being the exception. there will soon be more approved transitional facilities then retail outlets hehehehe There will have to be a shakeout here, its not sustainable. I think that alois and steve will be around longer then some store outlets, massey pets will probably go, shame i like them but just do not see enough support for them long term. Steve and alois are hobby businesses with low cash burn! I am sure that steve and nick are busy promoting this as a business, they have to IRD does not let you depreciate hobby capital goods :lol: but none of us here believe that alois or steve or nick or anyone else is making enough out of marines to support a familly.... come on these are smart guys who like an above average income...... If these guys coupled high end tropicals like discus into the mix then maybe just maybe there is a real business! I think steve and nick are doing this so they personally can turn an expensive hobby into at worst a breakeven venture... and hopefully see other hobbists get cheaper corals/fish. and becasue they can import corals for personal use cheaper then others will sell to them on any "special deal" I am going to watch and see how the prices move and what deals Nick and Steve and others will cut in the brave new competitive world we are all going to embrace..... But I personally think the answer to all our price demands is a co-operative model, not more wholesalers. Like a yacht club or golf club or any other organised well run club, where costs are shared and enough operating margin is generated to more forward and develope.

it will be interesting to see how this pans out a) Wholesalers drop prices.... shops drop prices, volumes go up, more price reductions........ we can dream b) Wholesalers drop prices, shops drop prices, but not by much..... everyone gets annoyed nothing happens ... same same with 20% less then now, and a few people getting stuff under the table from wholesalers c) Wholesalers enter market, existing shops refuse to deal with them, wholesalers have to sell direct to get a return, do so via internet removing need for lots of overheads...... very possible business model here.... . . . z) Hobbist starts small transitional facility for personal use with say 5 others and just does this because he/she loves corals and seeing more people involved in the hobby. Shops still win as the hobbist does not want a parade of people through there house/display tank/s... so does not advertise widely.... beginers go to shops, larger hobbists go direct..... Hobby grows! could go any of these ways and several permeatations..... I think we will see Z happen because for the small co-operative that does option Z, there hobby will become cheap , sustainable and have a new dimension... Sounds quite like where we are at the moment really....... for the avergae punter that does not know an importer I don't think much will change, that would satisfy Layton, chimera, pies, me.... but not the stores as it will not take long for everyone to want special deals too..... human nature really... ideas here....

I , pies and others want to discuss it....... I would like those who think this topic should be banned to post saying so... so far everyone says go ahead and discuss, but keep personal things out! but the moderator has locked the thread, In my opinion they have lost touch with the community here.

ppppsssssstttttt wanna buy some cheap corals........

you could afford to start your own with the savings possible pies import setup i mean! 1400L is a lot of corals 8)

hanna can't because the saltwater interferes with the formulated test.... other manufactureres may be able to... I am still looking see my questions on reefcentral http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=441133&goto=newpost will post link to the device when i find it.... its not the c200, its a single purpose kit, c200 seems to have limited use..... as i said, i am still looking for a multipurpose kit.....

these devices use a test tube and you drip in reactants and scoops of stuff (highly scientific descprition 8) then you put test tube into the device, it fires a laser diode through it and reads out on LCD, no more what type of yellow is that? I Really think if we can get a decent test device club owned we would all save some dosh longer term on test kits.... now watch this thread get loced / baned / etc :roll:

I wich to contribute further to this topic. I do not want the thread to become MORE disjointed, and some people do not wish to be constantly bombarded by discussions of price...... it looks like we will not let things lie if you keep killing the thread! Rather its deep resentment /opinion driving this thread Its better to ring fence us in one thread, after all there will be less effort required to delete that later :evil: I have never seen a locked thread on the saltwater forum before.... Now is not a good time to start.

Thats what pies advised me to do, and thats what i did.... Added about 3kg per week for quite some time, washed the sand for A LONG time in straifght tap water to flush out dust etc.... then RO then just scooped it in, had fish in tank and corals, no ill effect noticed.......