suphew

try pointing the outlet at the back wall or a piece of wood etc. If the doesn't help you should be able to buy or make a spray bar. I wouldn't turn the pump down (most do have a way of doing this), it will make the pump ware out faster and the filter wont work as well. Wether the strong current is a problem for the fish depends on the type of fish, some like the strong currents, maybe you just need to fix your plants down a bit more firmly.

Check out www.dursostandpips.com Its not uncommon or difficult to do what you are wanting but you need to plan it well. have a look in the salt water area, there is lots of information there about running sumps since most saltwater tanks have them.

If you were thinking of buying another I would do it anyway, far safer to have two heaters in a larger tank incase one fails, plus helps spread the heating out a bit if you don't have a lot of water movement.

I just went to wrightsons because I needed a tap for my topoff barrel and found that they sold some hansen fittings. I got a 20mm bulkhead for $9 which I think was a pretty good price. they also stock the larger sizes up to 50mm. Go the farmers.

I loooked into make my own discus food a few years ago, what I found is that commercial frozen foods have added vitamins that are difficult to get hold of. Since it is diffficult (if not impossible) to make up your own food based on what they would be normally eat in the wild I was worried that a vitamin or mineral would be missing. Also because I only had a small number of discus (3) I just didn't think it was worth the hassle.

Wait 3 or mores day with no rain. if water looks clear, its all go. There's not really anything thats going to be a problem in NSW that can be tested for.

Make sure you consider what happens if the power goes out, somehow you will need to have siphons holes in your returns. Depends what type of standpipe you have, the 'cracker pipe' as I understand will need to be accessed so you can keep adjusting it so your flow etc changes. A durso will need to be accessed for the first couple of weeks while you tune it then shouldn't need to be accessed again. I have coral growing up the sides of my overflow box now, hope I dont have to access it again!

the important thing with stands is not so much the upright bits, but the braceing to stop it twisting. My stand is holding up 700+ liters, I have just a 4x2 in each corner, but one end is screwed to the wall the other has a cross brace. The tank is also make from 12mm glass so there is no chance it will bend in the middle, in fact because the top of my stand has a slight sag in it I can actually move the poly under the midddle of the tank.

the hassle of putting glass under the DE bulbs puts me off using them for these reflectors.

Looks like it is sitting on top of the sand? Looks more like cyno to me. Siphon it out. Why aren't you using the other pump? As long as the water stays in the tank you can't have to much water movement, this will help remove the cyno plus keep the crap in the water so your skimmer can pull it out. If you not sure about the water movement go and hop in the sea and see how much there is!

Leave you water overnight with an air stone running in it to drive out the CO2 before you test the PH, a lot of NZ tap water is rain water which has a low PH

Just went and got y tin out, Cyclop-eeze, freeze dried micro-crustaceans. Not sure where you can get it, Pies ordered in a box full and I got mine off him. But plently of people use it, someone up there must sell it.

You could try cyclopseasy, most new fish I get seem to eat it early on.

Remove all the rock and 90% of the water from your tank?? :lol:

Pies were made out of the same thin ally as the ones steve is selling, theres not any need for them to be stronger. the sheets used are a lot different from the ones on trademe. it is mirror polished and has the highest reflective index of any metal sheets. I think they cost $60 a sheet, which was enough to make 2.5 fittings. It is the drilling and riveting that takes the time once you have the pattern worked out. Each hole and rivet takes a couple of minutes. 3 holes per joint, 20+ joints depending on how you do the pattern, so at least a 2-3 hours of solid hard work.

there is also a lot of fish (or at least there were) in the outdoor pond just up the road from the begonia house, near where they used to do the outdoor concerts. Gold fish are fine outside in Wlg, if fact when I was more interested in my pond a read about a number of people in the UK who's ponds used to freeze over during the winter and the fish would be fine. Gold fish will just slow down and not eat for months when the temp get too cold.

the other option for a tank that size would be to run a sump under it with a trickel filter. As an added bonus you can also put all your heaters etc out of your main tank. If you want to know how to setup a sump have a look in the saltwater section, we just about all do this but without the trickel filter. Also have a look at www.dursostandpipes.com

Anyone been able to run this on an XP system? The spec is pretty old, and I get a 16bit error when I try running the install. But the software looks really good, and the online that hooks in looks ok to. Think they had 58 different monti's listed :lol: . But a few were missing pictures.

Arent HM and high pressure sodium two different type of ballasts etc? They look a bit like Mh bulbs but I don't know what Sodium bulbs look like. Also can't find the model listed on the web anywhere to check.

After being involved in making 4 of these for Pies, I think they are a bargin. I agree they dont look like much but we spent many many hours just doing 4. I assume these ones would be made using some sort of automated machine, but still they are quite a complicated shape and have a lot of joints. Plus the volume would be pretty low.

A lot of fresh water fish keepers have them, or if you have compost heap you might find some in there. They are about a centimeter long, thin, and either white or very light tan colored. If you do find some dont feed them too often because I think they are high in fat.

What would you use it for? Heating? Light? or power? I dont think heating would be any good because of the power you would use to pump the water into solar panels, plus you would have to use some sort of heat converter because the pipes in solar panels are usually copper. I have seen it used for light, mostly on either plant propergation tanks or salt water tanks, where there is very high light requirements. Power could be an option, but I dont think solar power is used very much in general because the cost of the panels is so high and the power output so low the payback period takes years.

You could try mosquito larve, they shouldn't be too hard to find and will live in salt water long enough to be eaten (they will actually live for days in salt water). The down side to them is they tend to say on the surface and most wild fish don't natually look there for food. Or whiteworms, these dont live for long in water but will sink to the bottom where the CB might be more interested in looking. Might also be worth thinking putting it in your sump. If you have live rock or refuge in there then there should be alot more food for it, you will just need to watch that you don't have pumps etc that it could get sucked into if its weak.

I have considered this, bunnings is in a different suburb, plus there are other places that sell the in the hutt etc. My main worry with power is very local, there are lots of trees and a stream at my place, in the big storm a couple of years ago, the house on one side lost their power for a day and phone for a couple. The house on the other lost their power for almost a week. Both on them because of trees coming down. I was fine in the middle!

I would guess that it depend on the coral, I dont thing temp changes much in deeper water, but in shallow water or lagoons it might change more. Then again there are different temp levels in deep water too, you can feel them when your diving.