suphew

Why not just use rock to hide the pumps and heater? Having that basically empty space is just going to reduce the space in your display

Have you considered going to an engineering firm? They should be able to supply the steel, and quite likely wont charge you much to cut and weld to up for you as well.

Both my L7's make a hum, they are big pump at a very good price so I reckon you have to expect a little bit of noise

I seem to remember last time offering to double the flow through my durso if you would do the same through your f/s and see who got wet first. :lol: I don't have a standpipe cover on my durso, and don't know many durso's that do, to me this just confirms the difference in safety factors Think we will just have to agree to disagree on this one, I don't want to rehash stuff that never went anywhere the first time round.

If your not planning on keeping corals then you sholdnt have two many problems fish and shrimps only need water a bit cleaner than your average fresh water setup, it's the corals and anenomies that need the really clean water and high amount of light, and even then there are some soft corals that do well in low light and will handle dirtier water. You want as much water movement as you can get with out blowing the water out of the tank, rule of thumb minimum is about 20X tank volume so your 500lph filter would only just do it, really you would want to add some power heads, maybe on timers so you get some more random movement. There are a few reasons for this, most corals require lots of water movement, the live rock needs water movement to do its job, and it stops rubbish settling on the rock and bottom so it can be removed (usually by a skimmer). Think about how much water movement there is in the sea to get an idea. It is possible to keep some creatures from rock pools, shrimps and snails are commonly kept, and someone was posting the other day that they had sucessfully kept rock pool anenomies. But they don't live as long, and its a bit hit and miss, for ten shrimps you collect 1 or 2 might last more than a few weeks, the longest I have had them last is about 6 months. Rock pool fish don't seem to last longer than a day or two.

Are you currently using the L7 for your return? I do on my tank, the sump is just below the tank so head hight is 1.5 meters or so, my sump is a standard 4 foot tank about 2/3 full so lets say 120+liters, the sump is too small for the pump, the water just rockets through. The pump would drain the sump in a minute or two. To save you a little research on full syphon vs stand pipe, its pretty simple really, full syphon if set up correctly will be silent and bubble free, but the down sides are you lose some safety factor (which is why full syphon users often have a back up pipe) and they may need to be adjusted as things change over time, ie algae build up in pipes, pump output changing etc. Durso's if setup correctly can be made very quiet (quiet enough that you can't hear it), have a very high safety factor, don't need adjusting (once they have been tuned), the down sides are bubbles in your sump, and they can sometimes be difficult to tune quiet enough if the sizing and setup isn't right. The reason for the diffference in safety factor is because by design the full syphon has to have an adjustable restriction (ie half turned off tap) so you can tune the water level in your over flow to stop it sucking in air, the durso doesn't need this. The cost difference between the two isn't huge, durso needs a little more plumping bits, F/S needs and extra hole/bulkhead/tap. Before commiting one way or the other you should note a couple of things, first the difference between durso and f/s is just the top end (if you have two overflow holes as you do) the extra plumbing to try a durso setup will only cost you $15-$20, if you don't like it you can just pull the top off and you have a f/s system. The other thing to consider is that the durso is by far the most common system to use, it could be that reefers are all sheep, but for me I'm happy to stick with the flock. I have tried to make this as un-biasd as possible but I'm sure there will be other comments. :lol:

Without a skimmer fish and shrimps could be a problem. But then again big water changes wouldn't be a problem. I just baby sit a pico tank for a local, had it about 6 weeks, there is an old post here somewhere for it. It's about 6-7liters, the owner tried to keep a shrimp in it but pulled it out after only a couple of weeks. But other than that the tank is stunning has a nice mix of softies and hard corals all doing really well. For lighting he has 2 9w power compact bulbs, and for water movement a HOB filter with carbon, and PO4 resin.

Just invest in a good mop instead :bounce:

I have smoked and eaten them a number of times. Hmmmmm good eating

I kept f/w cray in a cold water tank for a while, it didnt eat any of the fish etc (tank was mostly full of WCMM) I don't know how long the live, mine lasted about 6 months. Eels will live anywhere, ideally they want good clean fast moving water, but the biggest healthest I have even seen were in a farm drainage dig

yeah looks like a cool toy, but I wouldnt pay $ for one

are the tips staying blue?? lots of things can change the colour if its just the brown part going a different shade I wouldnt worry about it. It is unlikely to be the same shade as the tank it came from, flow, light, water parms, etc all change the colours from tank to tank. If its just adjusting to your tank it does happen slowly, its only when things change really fast you need to worry. Are you testing the levels for the stuff you are dosing? You shouldnt need to dose idoine or stotium, and shouldnt dose something unless you are testing it.

T5's have a higher wattage rating at the same (similar) length, they are also more efficient so you get a little more light per watt as well. The whole setup if different between T5 and T8, holders are different sizes, ballists are different.

You should compare notes with Chimera, he's having problems getting his to move!

Nothing dead lasts long in my tank, brissle worms, crabs and shrimps take care of that, arr the cycle of life..

Angels can carry parasites that dont harm them but will cause problems with discus. You need to do some water tests, and give us more information, tank size, filters, water changes, feeding details, etc.

IMO the numbers should be self limiting, if you are getting lot's then there must be food for them to eat. They wont be adding nutriants to the tank cause the tank only has as much as put into it, but they will be coverting the algae to pooh which can be skimmed out.

I second that he is the best, and he will deliver to most of the lower north island.

Yeah sure can, there are rock pools and bays where you can dive and colect round round the whole coast.

Silly question but have you tested all your parameters, gear, etc?? You seem it be having some problems lately. I discovered my CO2 feed to my reactor was leaking the other day, think it cause me a few problems, would have been leaking for a month or two before I found it.

Are they breeding in your tank??

If you have a LFS that sells marines near you they sometimes sell it in bulk cheaper cause marine tanks tend you use more.

You should use acid cure silicon not neutral cute. It the same stuff the tanks are made fron, just make sure the tube say for aquarium use, selleys make a good one. I assume you are just using the silicon to seal the gaskets on your bulkheads?? all your other plumping will ideally be pressure pipe and should be glued using the correct pressure pipe glue, which actually melts the plastic togeather, silicon wont hold joints in pressure pipe for very long. As for how long to leave it, if you can you should wait 24 hours or so, but I have drilled installed/glued bulkheads and refilled with water in less than a hour, I have also used silicon in my tank while it was full of water to glue over flows etc with no problems. The acid in the silicon is I believe bascially vinigar (could be wrong here) its safe for fish and will cure under water.

I rebuild a 3 foot (but large size) tank 3 times using neutral cute and it leaked every time as soon as I tested it. The first time I used acidic cute it worked. I also noticed when removing the silicon to redo the job that the neutral came off far easier. Maybe you can get away with using it on a small tank where there isn't much pressure.

couple of things, first unless your filter flow rate has dropped a lot don't clean it, they work far better full of gunk. second is it all different fish that are dieing or mainly the neons? Of the fish you have the neons would be the difficult ones to keep, plus in NZ for a last few years the neons coming in seem to be a really poor/weak strain maybe they are the same there, I was never able to keep neons alive for more than 6 months or so when all my other fish did fine.