suphew

Where abouts do you get the 'glassware' and regulator from? The prices seem really good.

Have you seen what water does on glass? It will bead and look ugly. You need to use an oil based paint, the best way is to just by a spray can, you wont need more than one can, get the glass very clean before you start, do it inside or on a day with no wind, do a few very light coats, use masking tape and paper to cover the parts you don't want painted.

No you don't need a moon light, but it does look nice. You can leave the main light (white) for as little as about 8 hours or up to 12 or so hours, the days are long near the equator The blue light is mostly for looks only, I like to have my blues come on before I go to work so I can look at the tank, my main lights don't come on till hours later, I also have the blues on after so I can see the tank late in the evening

At the standard Chlorination rates in NZ I think you can change about 18% water before the levels get high enough to start killing the bacteria in your filter, of course it's not an all or nothing thing either so you may well 'get away' with not using it but could be causing problems you can't immediately see. Also the water ager's do a lot more than just age water (remove chlorine), they bind heavy metals which will otherwise slowly build up in your tank, reduce stress of fish whilst water changes are happening (yes it has been scientifically tested in a lab), and also removed chlorimines which don't naturally disapate like chlorine

I wouldn't use an old heater at all anyway. Most heaters fail sooner or later, one that has already been used for years then knocked about being moved is an accident waiting to happen. A cheap 100w heater will cost you $30, why risk a tank full of fish for so little cash.

The can be ordered from any LFS and should only take a few days to arrive.

the 20 X minimum still applies but the higher end isn't so important. The movement keeps waste and partials suspended in the water so the skimmer can remove them.

Rule of thumb for intank turn over is minimum of 20 x the display tank volume. So a 2 foot tank would usually be about the 60l mark, which give's you a MINIMUM 1200lph. Really you want to aim for more like 50 x (or more) if you plan on keeping corals so a 2000lph pump or two would be fine

I'd call it clear, but without testing it you can't call it clean. 'Clean' is also a relative term that water might well be fine for BBS but rubbish for a reef tank.

Didn't we already have this discussion in another thread about media order etc in filters? Suggest you google Heterotropic bacteria, there's plenty of information out there. Here's a link to get you started http://www.bioconlabs.com/autoheterobac.html

Waste control contains Heterotrophic bacteria, similar to the bacteria in Cycle but a couple of stronger more aggressive strains. It's not for combating ammonia and nitrate spikes, or for cloudy tanks, it's job is to break down solid wastes so your filter can process them into nitrates. It's a good product for tanks were you end up with solids on the bottom, big pleco poohs, messy turtles, Goldfish, planted tanks.

Don't confuse these products, Nutrifin plant grow is micro-nutirents, mostly Iron, your plant fertiliser is really Nitrate (from the filter) although most Micro-nutirent bottles are labled "fert". Excel is organic carbon, you would use this instead of your DIY CO2.

Apple snails will monster your plants, the best bet are mystery snails. In New Zealand I have seen brown and blue ones they get to about the size of a golf ball don't eat plants and you have to have one of each sex for them to breed, unlike most other snails so they normally don't take over your tank.

You are alway best to collect clear water, sediment round NZ is most likely to be seaweed in the process of breaking down. Sitting in your water collection continers it's just down to keep breaking down and turn into Nitrate

All filters are rated this way, ie with zero head and load. If you compare the FX5 with the Eheim rated to filter to similar volume of tank (the Pro3 2080), the FX5 is rated at 3500lph and the Ehiem only 1700lph. Loaded with media and setup (ie real world) the FX5 flows almost twice what the Ehiem does.

Why do I need to read the manual, isn't this what I said? The water starts outside the mechanical filter media, on the outside of the bucket, goes through the mechanical media to the inside (biological media) of the bucket?

Spring water is likely to be hard to start with and also quite likely the concrete isn't coated. As per this months Aquarium world, concrete sets better under water so the guys that made it might have just filled it up to set it. Even if it has been emptied and refilled a couple of times it will still slowly leach out the lime.

There's some ponds in Aotea block that were teaming with them, I haven't been in there for a few weeks so not sure they still are but it's worth going for a look. Just go past Aotea College into the new land development

Interested to know why you think fish food would cause columnaris or saprolegnia? And assuming it did cause either of these wouldn't it do it just as well when you were feeding fish?

No FX5's work from the outside to the inside. The dirty water goes round the outside of the bucket, through the foam to get to the biomedia in the middle of the bucket. This is a great system because you get a huge mechanical filter area so it need cleaning far less often.

Frontline isn't controlled or any better than a lot of other flea products, it's just a marketing exercise.

Only happen's in anaerobic conditions which is very unlikely in filter with all that oxygenated water flow. But this is the reason why filters should be cleaned when there is a power outage. For those that are interested here is some easy to understand reading on Heterotrphic bacteria. http://www.bioconlabs.com/autoheterobac.html

Eheims, flow direction is from the bottom up. If you look at the classic's in particular the input fed is on the bottom and the motor on the top.

Have you guys actually looked at the link? The first product used is Eheim Mech which disburses the water. It doesn't say it but I'd assume it also houses heterotrophic bacteria which is the one that breaks solid waste down into Ammonia. In most of the filters this is then followed by mechanical sponges and then the biological media.

It's more likely they have stopped doing something they used to do, councils adjust water to keep it neutral cause it saves other problems. I'd think this would be well down in the priority list at the moment