suphew

This guy will courier them to you. http://www.bb.net.nz/barrels_plastic_steel.htm

I got one on Friday, $32 from Hammer hardware in Carterton. Bit far for you to travel though

Yeah I've done it, just make sure you don't have the heater resting against the plastic, I worried that it would melt it.

Growing plants is all about balance, you can only have too much light if you have too little of either nutrients (which is very unlikely) or CO2. The kelvin rating of your lights is a bit higher than you would normally use in a planted tank, they are more marine, they will have a very blue/white look compared to the yellower look you would normally have in a fresh water tank.

Heat doesn't need to be a problem, and with only a 150w is easy to get the heat out. I have 2x400w on my tank I have a bathroom extractor fan sucking the air outside. I think you'll find those lighting units have fans at the end(s) to remove the heat so long as you have air flow out the sides or top of your hood it will be fine. If you get worried about the glass, just buy some toughened glass, it's what they use right in front of the bulbs in the light unit.

You might want to ask her first, but yes that sounds like the stuff. I would just try one magnet first, and it will only needs a thin covering, no point wasting your Mum's art supplies.

Covering them with epoxy resin would be a good idea. 5 Minute Araldite is the easiest way to get it.

Don't panic too much about he sand, sometimes depending on the live stock you have to use it. If your keeping it syphoned it should be okay. You can usually tell if it is full of dirt by giving it a quick stir (just not too much!) you will see the cloud of dirt come up if there is much in there. My sump is full of coral rock. It gives you similar surface area to that your trickle filter media does, plus will have the denitrifying bacteria deep inside that will reduce your nitrates. Sounds like you have it under control, but if your trickle filter media does get dirt in it, it will start to produce nitrate. Do a bit of research on "the Berlin method" it is the most common way by far of keeping a marine tank now days and simply involves live rock, skimmer and lots of water movement. Try posting a wanted to buy add. I would sent you some but am getting very little growth from mine now and just removed what I could get at to give to some one else.

Wow, thats a bunch of questions. refugium :lol: Caulerpa, there should be some one local with some, but if not it can be posted to you. The only miracle is that people still buy it, apparently it's been analyzed and it is just garden dirt, even had decaying plant matter in it. So long as it is clean just put it in the sump, it will get seeded from your other rock. It would only cause changes to your water if it has lots of 'stuff' on it that starts breaking down. If it is dirty do a google search on "cooking live rock" basically involves putting it in a dark barrel of salt water and letting it stu for a few months. The trickle filter is at least one of the causes of your nitrate problems, best thing to do is remove it slowly, maybe 1/4 per month to let the balance of the tank adjust. I guessing you have sand in the tank as well, more than 1cm and less than 15cm? If so its highly likely this is full of rotting detritus. Have a look at this. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2406

Clown loaches are very sensitive to water quality, some large water changes might help.

You can get them in NZ for about or not much more than that. Try Prestons (I think) in Auckland.

If the room temperature is more stable it will make the tank more stable. But unless you are having extreme temperature changes (either very high or very low) the normal calculation (think it is 1watt per liter) for a heater should keep your tank temperature stable enough. If for some reason you need a very stable temperature you could look at getting either a temperature controller, or a chiller.

So there is about 10-15% difference, I think you would be lucky to be able to see any difference, and beyond a doubt the quality of the reflector would make a far bigger difference. IMHO for the purpose of calculating light in a tank take them as being the same.

He is the lightbulb man http://yellow.co.nz/companies/Lighting/Lightbulb-Man/100246967_1079.html

If you don't mind the cost two filters is always better than one. You can't over filter, plus it give's you redundancy, a pre-cycled filter if you have to setup a new tank in a hurry, you can clean one filter at a time without worrying about killing off all your bacterial filtration and causing a new cycle.

Try "the light bulb man"

STOP CLEANING YOUR FILTER :lol: Sorry for shouting, your problem is you love your fish too much and are trying to keep things too clean, the filter needs to build up bacteria, this is what converts the ammonia to less harmful nitrogen compounds. Doing water changes and vacuuming the gravel each week is great. But the filter should only been cleaned when the flow out of it drops because it is getting blocked up. And as others have said, when you do clean, just a very quick rinse in some old fish tank water, the chlorine in tap water will kill the bacteria and you'll have ammonia problems again.

Not sure if its the same for salt water fishes, but pop eye in fresh water can be cause by either a bacterial or fungal infection behind the eye. Your fist line of defense is to improve your water quality, get some water changes going and go from there.

It will be something wrong with the ballast or ignitor, you'll need to get it serviced or replaced to fix the problem. All electrical item's sold in NZ have to comply with electrical standards, part of this is not generating electrical interference, therefore if it's doing it, it must be broken.

In normal circumstances that's proberly more than enough. But with the extra heat strange things can happen, and it could just be the sudden change rather than a complete lack of oxygen. Even aside from the direct affect on the fish, the bacteria in your filter would have suddenly been getting less oxygen, as well as the change in temperature, it's possible you triggered a mini cycle in your tank. Which might be what affected the fish so drastically. But really this information is now just useful knowledge for the future (if your ever unlucky enough that this happens again). Your temperature should be back to normal now, so all you can really do is a water change in case your ammonia etc levels have gone up.

It's more likely a problem with lack of oxygen, 30 degrees isn't that high but as temp goes up the oxygen level will drop. Add some water movement, some air stones and/or power heads.

Have you started using a gas heater in your house recently?

Google is your friend http://www.google.co.nz/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIT_en-GBNZ291NZ291&q=silver+sharks

Anything with copper into will kill them, you can get copper based medication. If you want to try an old school method connect some copper wire to each terminal of a 9 volt battery and have each wire bare and hanging in the tank, just make sure the wires aren't touching or they will short out. I've never tried it myself but have heard it works.

No sand will soften water. Water is soft because of a lack of minerals, sand will either be inert or will release minerals. Peat is a good idea but will stain your water, have you considered collecting rain water and using that?? It is very soft, I used to mix about 50/50 rain and tap water to get a good softness.