suphew

I wont buy anything that has "sony" on it, been burnt to many times.

Try para rubber if you have one near. some garden centers (and bunnings etc) sell the blocks but they are a stupid price (as are the LFS), $40-$50 a block from memory. I'd check out payless plastic's too they might sell something. Good luck and if you find a good cheap option post the details cause I've had half hearted looks before with out much luck.

no because you have to let the air out otherwise the crud wont go in.

And if he had done the same, he'd be in jail, go figure

Caused by bad plumbing and bad design. Fixed by good plumbing and good design. For example I use glued pressure plumbing for everything. Some people say push fit is fine, blar blar, good on them, I sleep well because I spent and extra $100 on my plumbing at the start and KNOW it will never come loose in the night or while I'm at work.

Wont it also increase the PH? I know builders lime (kalk, calcium hydroxide) does.

That does sound high, if my maths is correct that means your heater was on for round 107 hours, that seems a lot to me.

I fenced my back yard, and put in a gate about neck height (my dogs just a terrier X). I then added 1.5 feet to the gate. Then I turned the gate round (he was using the cross brace for leverage). Then I sloped the extra top bit inwards. Then I added another sticking out bit. My gate is now over 6 foot and slopes back on itself by at least a foot, I have trouble getting through it...... and he still gets out He also thinks he's a great duck hunter :roll:

You can get battery power air pumps, in a small tank with low bio load an air powered filter would be more than you would need. However IMO you don't need a light, if your office has enough light for you to work then it will have enough for a simple fishtank, those tiny filters that come with small fish tanks use 4-5watts about the same power your computer uses in two minutes, since your work is probably renting the office space and paying my the square meter the space it takes up on your desk probably costs more than the power it will use. I'd tell them to get a life it it came up.

Your aqua one pump is good a max head of about 2 meters, the Eheim is good for about 4 meters. I can't find the graphs for either after a quick look, but based on your 1 meter of vertical height, and probably about the same again for plumbing the aqua one wont cut it at all. The eheim might be okay.

Same pump, 1060 is the old version.

Not sure if I'm allowed to link to this RO/DI unit that is for sale but here goes. http://www.nzmas.co.nz/site/viewtopic.php?t=3636 There's no picture but I'm pretty sure this is the same unit as I use, works well.

What sort of pump is it??

Not an easy question to answer, it depends on the pump and how high it has to pump the water (head height) and the size of your sump/display. You should be able to work out the approximate head height, distance from the top of the water in your sump to the top of the water in your display, plus a bit extra for the plumbing (pipe friction, bends, etc), then find a graph for you pump, it will tell you how much water the pump will pump to what head height. You should pass about 5 times your display volume through your sump each hour. So will the pump do it? Actually do it the other way round, work out the pump volume required then find a big enough pump. Lastly the reason that sump size can also matter is because if you have a very small (or very large sump) compared to your display size you might have to re-think the 5 time per hour figure.

This has nothing to do with sand vs BB, maybe you should read the thread again.

What is your "pre-filter"

No it's not what most people do, because most people insist they have to have sand from day one. But it's one of those things you learn after you have setup a few tanks and wish that you had done. People complain that they have diatom algae, green algae, green hair algae, cyno, it's all part of the long tank cycle, not having sand for the fist few months makes it far easier to keep the tank clean and skip or minimise these algae stages.

Holes out the bottom mean holes in the stand and could be problems with braces etc, holes out the back mean you have to keep the tank further away from the wall, using up space that could have been tank space!

You could just use a desk fan to keep the air moving. I don't think a heat pump wouldn't be such a good idea, besides the huge expense of installing I think they also dehumidify, in a fish room it would suck the water right out of your tanks. Which raises another good point, don't forget to take the damp air into account when you build, paint, etc the room

if it was me I wouldn't worry about adding sand for 6 months or so. your rock etc will shed a lot of detritus for a few months and having no sand makes it a lot easier to remove.

Those water filter places over charge, when I first started look I was quoted over $1000 from one place, they aren't interested in dealing with small Job Public business. There a place in Auckland that sell them but I can't remember the name, do a search here and you should be able to find them. It's shouldn't cost you more than around $400

One of the Aussie importers is getting a modular unit approved at the moment, from memory they are 1 foot blocks and it works out to about $1500 for a 3 foot, which isn't too bad when you factor in power savings and no replacement bulbs.

You can buy pure filtered water from supermarkets, if you have a very small tank and are only topping up a few litre's per week it is cheaper to buy your water. There is nothing magical about Ro/Di water, it's just pure filter water no different to what you can buy.

A lot, maybe most people aren't comfortable approaching a shop manager (if it is even possible to find them) to complain, I know that I'm not, so I don't really see this as a valid option. Plus in shop situation they have probably been told it many times before and ignored it. I make my feeling felt about poor service in two way's, where I spend my money, and if I choose to recommend for or against a shop. Trademe is a public forum and even has a feed back process with smileys or sad-faces specifically so you can highlight poor service.

You do need to use filtered water, tap water will cause problems sooner or later. RO/DI units cost around $300-$400 you can by filtered water from supermarkets etc but if your tank is bigger than 50-100l it will soon cost more than buying the RO/DI filter.