petplanet

Super glue. Try it on your fingers first and you will appreciate how well it glues things together! Slightly dry the mushroom and new rock with a towel, put dot of glue on rock, add mushroom and hold in place till stuck. Doesn't take long. Then place the rock in an area where the current is not to strong.

If you are putting the filter outside, make sure it is within the maximum head height for the canister. If you have to greater height between the canister and the tank it will leak water around the top seal. The Eheim pump is a goog idea. Unlike a standard water pump, that has to run underwater, they can run inline. Tube goes into the pump one side then out another. I would go cannister (gravity fed), Eheim, chiller, tank.

Can't answer your question, but a cool fish. A bit shy. Get some glass shrimps and then you will really see it in action. Very impressive hunters. I would say one per tank would be best as they are territorial and like a good hidey hole. They look like a moray eel when they come out tail first trying to frighten intruders away.

Just had a sample 4 stage unit and a 5 stage unit with storage container arrive. Will have them installed and see how they go. If they work out we will order early in the new year.

We have sent all the 620 and 820 Seio pumps back. Apparently the problem does not seem to effect the larger 1100 and 1500 models. We have got one 1100 that came back so we will test it. One of the 620 pumps did not rattle but it did stop all the time.

Kills plenty of Russians.....

Made a rock yesterday. Will post picks Sunday if it comes out ok tomorrow.

Nice one Ira! Dare I say it, you could go skimmerless to start with. I think good lights are more important than a good skimmer. That can be overcome with more frequent/larger water changes and phosphate absorbers. Not everyone can afford to spend the big bucks. Sometimes the kids need shoes. I would put the skimmer where the water is going into the sump that way the main part of your sump will be free of bubbles. You could also place the heaters in between your baffles. That way they get maximum water flow past them and the water level will not drop where they are. The 3ft light will be fine. The edges will only be a little less bright.

Hmm, if you want the best then go with that stuff. Personally if I was buying all that stuff I would buy a bigger tank first. If this is your first tank you may not want to jump straight it to the deep end. Note, I have a small vested interest as I do sell a lot of this stuff but I also use most of it aswell. 1. Skimmer - Deltec AP600 - great skimmer but at a price. If $$$ count the Jebo 180 for $49.95 is a petty sweet deal. Not the best skimmer by far but not a massive investment. I am using one on my 430 litre tank. 2. Lighting - two 250 watt halides is serious overkill for a tank that size unless you are planning an SPS tank. A single 150 would be fine. T5 would be great and you could keep almost all types of coral. 3. Flow - Your return pump would supply enough of this for fish only. The pondmaster is relaible. We run our three shop tanks with them. If you can get a cheap eheim then go for that. They are a very good pump. Corals would need more. Any type of pump can add aditional flow but quality and price vary. Tunze would be considered the best but also the most expensive. Seio cheap and crappy - we are sending them all back (50% return rate). Aqua Clear powerheads are a moderately priced reliable powerhead. 4. Live rock - 10-20kg would probably be enough. The stores buy it in 25kg sacks so you could probably get a better price if you buy a sack (we do them for $200). 5. Sand - I prefer a finer grain or a mixture of the two finer grades. All down to personal preference. I fined the smaller stuff cleans better but can blow around more. There is marine substrate that is actually marble chip (about 2mm size) which is half the price of sand. 6. Test kits - Salifert are a top of the line test kit. Aquarium Pharmaceutical do a saltwater master test kit (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph) for around $60.00. 7. Refractometer - Again comes down to dollars. Range from $15 to $150.00. Quality and price are relative. 8. Sump size. I would co as big as possible. You don't have to fill it right up. It will give you more room for containing water splashing and salt creep. Leave a decent amount of room above the sump for getting things in and out .

Run mine uder T5's. Used to run under T8's. Have run the same livestock under both. Most have responded better to the T5 lighting. Hammer coral Pearl bubble (these are HUGE) Torch Coral Finger coral (This is big and I take cuttings) Anemone (massive) Mushrooms (reproducing like crazy) Leather coral (big) Sun polyps (don't need light) Zoanthids Yellow polyps The fish are unconcerned about the light.

Spoke to a guy at Stevensons today. He said the only difference between normal (grey) portland cement and white portland cement is the colour. The white is imported from Denmark and that is why it costs so much more.

Blue line clarki clown 10+. Only brought him because he was in an anemone I wanted. Wish the anemone had lasted that long.....

Isn't that exactly what we are all doing? Even normal T8 fluros will do. You will just need more of them. My tank looks better with two T5 tube than it did with 4 T8's. Most soft corals are very tolerant with the lower light levels. A lot of LPS will do well. With the anemone you really need to be sure about which type you are getting as they have very different light, feeding and substrate requirements.

I have never broken one. I would go the swing arm type. We sell the Red Sea one for $29.95. Refractor would be $100+. If you feel like spending the extra go dor it.

Haaa...what are the odds of that happening! Poor pod, cruzing along, minding its own business...

What equipment do you have at the moment? You may just be able to reuse most or all of it. The best sand to use is not the local stuff. Go for coral or marble chip. Your local store will be able to order it in. Comes in different grades. Comes down to what look you like. Marble chip is the cheapest by far. They can order it from Kong's and it is called marine substrate. Comes in a 25kg sack so they may cut you a deal if you take the whole sack. Comes in 1 or 2mm sizes. Same applies to rock. You are best using coral rock. If you have no joy, I can send to you but the freight is pretty steep from the north island to the south.

That would be normal portland cement which is cheap. The white stuff is expensive. Interesting idea on that site regarding adding noodles etc. I take it they mean pasta noodles. These would create cavites and during the water curing process they would disolve creating the small cavities. Will try it and see.

This is a photo of my old tank in November last year. Tank measured 140x45x45 280 litres. Looking very uncrowded. We have now moved to our new house and moved the contents of the old tank into a 120x60x60 430 litre tank. I half filled the new tank with ASW and ran it for two days then began moving everything else. It took five and a half hours to empty the other tank and I was old moving 2 minutes down the road. This tank will eventually become one of my sump tanks in my sump room. The house has an old deck that has been built into the house and the space underneath will be a perfect sump room. The room is about 5 metres long and just over 1.2 metres wide. Has concrete walls on two sides, a drain just outside and a water conection. The plan so far is to remove the windows and line two walls with insulation and put gib aqualine panels up. The new tanks inside will be directly above the far end of the sump room.

Any LFS could but they are not cheap. What about reflective perspex?

Has anyone had a problem with these tanks? Especially leaking water.

We have found that there is a problem with some AR380 tanks leaking water. This happens when water backs up in the filter and overflows at the far side from the pump. At the back of the filter, on the opposite side to the pump, there is a hole for putting an airline or similiar through. The overflowing water can lip over to this hole and run out of the tank. This water will not always run down the back of the tank and may travel around the plastic rim and leak out at some other point. To avoid this problem it is important that: 1 - You do not overfill the filter with media or the wrong tipe of media 2 - The filter is not allowed to get clogged due to waste 3 - The tank is not overfilled. The tank can be filled to the plastic ridge at the top inside of the tank, while the pump is off. When the pump starts, the water level will drop creating sufficient space for water leaving the filter. You should not see a water line. Do not overfill the tank while the pump is running.

Spoke with the Rep, who sell us the Seio pumps, regarding the rattle problem. Apparently the pumps take 3-5 days to bed in. I have used a lot of different pumps and have never heard of a pump having to bed in. I have three that have been returned so will test this theory.

Never seen a price list that has Streams on it. Would like to see one....

As the seller of the said skimmer, the 800 litres is taken off the box. I put one on my tank which was skimmerless for 5-6 months and it pulled out more crap than the Red Sea that was on it. Not that they are a good skimmer either. I am sure a $50 skimmer is better than no skimmer at all. At least, worst case, you get a powerhead with bonus skimming!

Found some white portland cement at Stevensons. $54 a bag.