suphew

Arn't they the same thing? From the links above

And not being able to answer that is the problem with using it.

How wide are the gaps between your media baffles? I'd also be looking at putting the heater in the fry section. I've had and helped with a few sumps now, (althought mostly salt water) and found the simpler you can made it the better. My current sump has no baffles at all, just a sliding divider that can be pulled out, all the gear sits on one side refugium on the other.

Pumice itself is fine, trouble is knowing what other stuff got mixed in with is when it was 'created'

Really? That much?? :lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate_hardness http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9601/msg00121.html http://fish.mongabay.com/chemistry.htm

Did you tell the skipper he through away a fish worth more than all the other fish caught that day put together?

With that little water I wouldn't bother with a skimmer, you don't have room for big messy fish anyway and by the time you add rock a 20liter container of water is going to do you a 50% water change

I haven't kept them myself, but a quick google suggests an ideal range of 10-12

Quite possibly, the Kh levels (increased from baking soda) and calcium levels are closly related, but I don't know what is in red sea salt to know if it contains signicant amounts of calcium.

Through some complicated chemical process it increases the carbonate hardness or KH, it's really common to use in marine tanks but works just as well in fresh water, most pH buffers are sodium bicarb based. A google will give you the chemical process if you can understand it :lol: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/downloads/KH-GH-test-instructions.pdf According to the API test instructions online your Kh is 16dkh (1 drop per dkh) which is really high (your water is very hard), I'd first off suggest you test again to make sure it correct or ever better get some one else to check it using their kit to make sure yours is okay. If you find it is this high, get the rain water water changes going, regular small changes are the way to go. Once you get it down a bit you'll need to work out if is going to stay at the level you want or keep going up, if it keeps going up we'll need to work out whats doing it. Do you add any chemicals?

I've been, completely recommend going. But I'd suggest spending the start of your trip down south in the islands (either side depend on the time of year your going), once you have relaxed hit the shops in Bangkok for a few days on the way home. Your more likely to have problems from other tourists than you are from locals, they know the penalties, they pretty much start with losing body parts and go down hill from there. Assume everything is a fake, most likely it is, every thing is also very very very cheap you should be able to live off $20-$30 max a day, accom, eating, and getting round. Transport within Bangkok is really scary and often takes a lot of negotiation to be taken to where you want to go, they always have a 'relative' with a shop that is better that they want to take you too. But if you don't mind the tiki tours and just sit back and enjoy the fun it's great. Getting round the country is easy, the bus system is really good, and internal flights are cheap. Lastly bribes are just a way of life there, it goes against the grain for us, but is the norm for them.

I'm a bit confused, you say your water is very soft, but plan to add rain water (very soft) to try and help, wont this just make it softer? For a quick fix you can use baking soda to bring the hardness up, longer term you could add some shell grit to your filter or put some coral rock in the tank. The argonite gravel will be helping but you really need to have water flow over/round it

RCD's have only been fitted by regulation for the past 10-15 years, most older houses wont have them and will happily cook you if you get your 240v wrong

In Aus possiums stay in control because of the harsh environment, but kangaroo's are still manage to be a pest, can you imagine what they would do here

But do you know what happened to them?? I have a friend who works for RBNZ, the scrap was sold to a company that makes landmines (amoungst other things) but we did get a letter from them assuring the country that our particular scraps coins wouldn't be used for weapons so I guess thats alright then :roll:

Definitely worth trying the fan first, breaking a dehumidifier which will only do an average job at best when you could spend just a little more and get a second hand chiller seems a waste to me. A $10 warehouse desk fan blowing across the water surface will drop the temperature by 2-3 degrees

Water, and ideally a pump to give some water flow. Oh and heater is helpful particularly once you add some live rock to seed the rest. Any other equipment can be used if you have it but is pretty optional, it's not uncommon to cycle rock in tubs or rubbish bins

Thats a great looking fan Ira I could do with a couple of those, where abouts and how much?? (if you don't mind me asking)

Yep sure does, minimum time for dead rock is about 4-6 weeks, ideally a bit longer. There is also a far longer cycling period of 9 months to a year for the anaerobic bacteria deep the in rock to get going properly, during this time you will get a bunch of different algae stages. The more time and care you give your rock before you start adding fish and corals, the less painful the long algae cycle is

If you wanted to get started with some interesting stuff before you have all the gear you need, you could buy a pile of dead rock and start cycling it, or even cooking it (google cooking live rock). After a few weeks cycling you can add some a little live rock from another tank and then you get to watch all the critters and life start to take off. If you have some old fluro lights you can put over the tank you should start to get some Coraline algae started. The longer you can cycle the rock and get other life established the better of you will be once you are ready to go with your other gear.

I have a 5 1/2 foot marine + 4 foot sump on my wooden floor. It's next to a load bearing wall and running across the joists. Good to see you looking at it this way, too many people try and go cheap then either waste money throwing out the rubbish gear or just give up. But I'm sorry to say but unless you are good at DIY or manage to get a lot of second hand gear, you will be lucky to get a decent setup for 4k. Good quality pumps for water movement alone (tunze, vortec) will cost you the best part of 1.5k.

If you did have to borrow money to move it would be a very short term loan, with the money you would save you would soon pay it back. There are plenty of companies round that will give you short term loan's, instant finance, cash converters, or if that scares you too much just get a visa card. So long as you pay it off as soon as possible it wont cost you anything like what you will save. I find it hard to believe that you couldn't find a cheaper shared flat in the same area, but even if you have to move a suburb away the public transport in Wellington is cheap, and as I suggested before, you could always sell your car and buy a couple of mountain bikes to get round.

When I was a student I lived with 4 other guys in an old warehouse, most often with girlfriends bludging to, we had 1 TV and computer to share, from memory 2 of us had cars but we were lucky if we could afford to use them once a week. We ate a lot of sausages, bread, and 2 minute noodles. I'm not complaining, we had a ton of fun, but I think you need to accept that the pool, Wii, driving round instead of biking or public transport, eating out, hockey fee's, hobbies, etc etc are a thing of the past until you sort out your financial situation. I don't want to sound harsh but I'm not hearing reasons why you can't live more cheaply, I'm hearing reasons why you think you should be able to maintain the life style of the employed but also have the (future) benefits of being students. Why don't you move into a cheap 1 bedroom up lots of stairs, it will be cheap and and you can get rid of your wii and pool cause you'll get fit going up the stairs and riding the bike you'll buy to get to uni and your parents from the money you get when you sell your cars. Or move into the halls or residents. Or your parents... you have lots of options.

Will need to be a pretty solid desk to hold a 6x2x2, thats well over 1/2 a ton of water.