suphew

Keep us updated on how you go with two types of cardinal, I didn't think you could keep both togeather, it will be interesting to see if they last.

one of mine started hiding then disappeared, a couple of weeks later the second one did the same, both were healthy, eatting well and had been in the tank for a few months. I have heard of it happening to others as well. The other thing is I have heard they are jumpers, have you checked behind your sump etc?

Are you talking about the push fittings or the glue or screw? All of them are okay, but there is a risk with the push fittings that they will leak or worse yet come part. I have used push fitting and wouldn't reccomend using them, different of course if the plumbing is in the tank or sump where it doesn't matter if they leak.

And good stable water quality, suggest you wait a little while at least before you add one, you will have to upgrade you light anyway. You can add the clowns as soon as your ready you dont have to have an anemone for them.

Or upgrade!

Good point! But wouldn't that be water based paint, would oil based paint stick to PVC? I dont think I would use water based paint in a tank it doesn't seal itself that well

Any type of tang is likely to fight a bit when it gets in there, I guess it's just a matter of how bad/long it goes on. In the wild yellow tangs (and I guess other tangs) school together. I wonder if the tank size thing is more about giving them room to sort out the pecking order before they kill each other? I have found a mirror on the side of the tank works sometimes.

The amount of time my fluro's are on is based on when I want to be able to look at the tank, at the moment they come on round 9 (I like to be able to look at the tank in the dark in the morningand see all the critters) and off at 22:30. My first Mh comes on at 12:00, next at 13:00, last one at 14:00, first goes off at 20:00, then 21:00 then 22:00

Why not another type of tang? PBT are really nice

If you worried you should get coloured if you can I don't thing paint will stick for long. However coraline algae grows really fast on PVC pipes, they wil be pink in a couple of months.

Just needs to be an oil based paint (spray cans are) but any old oil based paint will work. Best if you do lots of light coats but if you cant see the outside of where your painting it doesn't matter, you wont see the runs.

I agree with Ira, thats what it looks like to me. Anyway to get to your problem, since you have just increased your lighting a whole heap I think you should just move it down in the tank, the extra light will have shocked it. What sort of Mh have you added, is double ended? if so does it have glass between the bulb and the tank? The DE bulbs give off heaps of bad UV light that will burn a coral to death in hours unless you have glass inbetween to filter it out

It's the same as my new kit, the old one was different.

My Mh light came from an office that was being upgraded. Ive seen a few at building recycler's they normally sell them for less than $20. you will have to replace the bulbs of course, they have come down heaps in the last few years but your still looking at $75+ per bulb.

How many halides do you have running of the timer? You might want to think about putting each on a seperate timer. two reasons, means you can run different time periods on the lights, and halides draw a ton of current when they start up, unless you have a super heavy duty timer it will cook itself before too long.

There was a guy who posted here a couple of years ago that that made one from a ssteel beer keg or some thing similar. I think its a great idea, not sure you would save much $ but could end up with a far bigger/better filter. There are plently of options for cheap filter media, you could just fill it with gravel if you wanted to.

I'll swap you your butterfly fish for a hammer coral! Have plently of food for it :lol:

Do you guys use temp controllers for you fans? I run two desk fans both pointed directly at the water, from about 6-8 inch above it, my system is around 800l and I top up 45 liters a week. Of course I do llive in Wellington........

I third that, if you only buy one marine book, thats the one to get

I used to use one of those old concrete wash tups for my pond fish. It worked well and has a flat bottom so just sits on the ground. BTW if anyone in Wellington is willing to come pick it up they can have it for free, just PM me, but word of warning it is very heavy takes a couple of people at least to pick it up.

It's tuff living just down the road from that tank, puts mine to shame. I'm car pooling with Pies at the moment so get to have a look every morning :lol:

Just took some quick pic's sorry the quality is pretty crap, and just under blue lights. From middle from lefthand end from right hand end

MAybe the mod's are trying to tell you your not welcome anymore :lol:

I saw some plans ages ago for a 'spider filter' basically it was a bunch of pvc pipes with lots of holes drilled all connected up to a pump and covered in gravel. The idea was the same as an under gravel filter, seemed like a pretty good idea to me. It was called a spider filter because all the pipes joined at the center like a starfish or spider, but theres no reason it would need to be setup like this.

I've known I had this guy in my tank for ages (was in the last tank as well) I have been blaming him for my lack of snails. Finally found his home a couple of days ago when one of my leathers got stung and died back, pulled the rock out today. He had a great home decorated inside with snail shells, the front door was made from bits of a plating monti, the back door a zoo covered rock that went missing a few weeks ago. He has a new home in the sump now. To give you an idea of his size the container he's in is a beer jug