suphew

I have just completed completely enclosing my tank and have a vent outside with an extractor fan.

Do people feed many different types of food? I feed 4 different frozen, and 5-6 different dry foods. (not all at once, :lol: )

My feeding changes week by week, depending longer term on how the fish are looking, and shorter term whats been happening in the tank. If have just added a fish (s) I might feed frozen 2-3 times a day for a while, normally I wouldn't free frozen more than twice a week, unless fattening up fish. dry food, flake, shimp, granuals, cylpos-ezy, feed every day or two.

I have a friend who uses them in his bath room, the ones he has plug into the same setup as a common 12v halogen spot light bulb. These are often for sale at building recyclers or are pretty cheap from bunnings or the like.

Okay, sounds like you are after hufa's?? You can get cultures in NZ but very difficult, you really need to know some one 'in the know'. And before you ask, sorry I have no idea where you can get them. But I have seen them. Check this out http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/srac/702fs.pdf

Aren't rotifers microsocpic? How small do you need? I have heard of putting seaweed into a bucket of sea water and stiring every one in a while, and using the water from this for very fine critters

Replacing the starter might help as well (little round white cannister thing), once you have found it you turn it about 1/8 of a turn then it should just come out.

I'm currently using the aquamedic phos sorb stuff, seems to work and is half the price of Rowaphos

You could add a TDS probe as well, you can buy units from the states with 2 probes for testing RO/DI filters for about $50, so the probes can be too hard to make or cost too much. Also what about water level? Rather than just a monitor have you considered building controller? Temp probes could turn on heaters, fans, chiller, auto top up or even water changes, lights, etc.

it's almost impossible to have too much light , I would put in as much as you can. Since your just starting off you should just go for soft corals, leathers mushies etc. Its very hard to keep the water stable in a small tank (the reason most people reccomend a 4 foot tank as your first) you can get away with alot more keeping soft corals.

Jarcar has some waterproof led setup, but they aren't cheap. link Hope that link works, if not goto www.jarcar.co.nz and search on "led waterproof"

Hi Plankt, your right there isn't much in Wellington, most of us down here buy stuff off the net. or from other member of FNZAS theres a guy in Auckland that runs an onlline store, deepblue or something, if you have a look around in the commercial section you will find his website, he sells cheap low end gear. Jetskisteve is the agent for aquamedic which is good mid priced gear, or reef who is the agent for deltec which is the high end stuff. Are you planning to have a sump? all skimmers outputs need to drain into something (sump or back into tank) you can't run them as a closed loop like say a canister filter, so the output has be above either your tank or your sump. If you have to much back pressure on the output the water will rise in the neck of the skimmer at very least stopping the skimmer working properly and at worse causing a flood. BTW I'm in Tawa drop me a PM if you want to come look at my tank and see how things work

17cm sounds like just enough room for a 75wMH :lol:

Dont you have to keep the fish out of the main tank for 8 week or more? I had an idea the WS can stay dormant in the tank for quite a while without hosts.

Sharn, you could be right, I have never seen any worm bodies after treating but aways treated as soon as I saw a problem so maybe they hadn't gotten big enouogh to see. I just assumed they were broken down in the fish before being passed.

loads of questions..... no wont harm anything else in the tank (including bio filter, plants, etc etc) mixing with some defrosted frozen food is a good idea, just make sure all the fish get some only treat when you can see a problem or as part of QT'ing a new fish (again no harm treating the whole tank when you add a fish if you dont QT) yes treat all you tanks, the worms can transfer on nets etc you wont be able to see anything to clean up, but would be a good idea to do a water change the following day

To worm just get a dog worming tablet grind up a 1/4 or 1/8 of it and mix with fish food. suggest you treat the whole tank all the fish probably have them now and it wont harm anything else in the tank to treat them all.

I've seen it done recently, hides the plumbing nicely, makes access a bit easier (ie. not having to feed plumbing up and down back of tank to clean pipes), 100% first time priming of filter :lol: if dont properly I dont see that it is any more risky than a closed loop in a salt water tank, that basically what it is.

Think you should check out the light again, if you are sure you want to go T8's try and use the the arcadia water proof one, salt water kills most office type batton fittings. (as I have found out). remember to that the wattage (which is what your interested in to see how bright the light is) changes alot bewteen T8 (lowest) T5, and then MHeg a 3 foot T5 is 39watt, a 3 foot T8 is about 20w(?), so to get the same brightness as a 150Wmh you will need 4 x 3 foot T5. Its possible to get the kevin or colour bulbs in any of the 3 type of lights. Power compact are differnet again, seem to be very difficult to get bulbs for. Also as the kevin ratiing goes up the brightness of the bulb is less for a given wattage (just to confuse you more). I would suggest you start with a 10,000K (In any of the light fittings) and if you use multiple fluros then add 1 actinic. FYI most of end up with a mix of MH and T5 in the long run.

I never really used anything with fresh water, also had an amazon (ish) tank. I would just go with the PH test kit, the others you only need if you have a problem and to check that your cycle is going ok (if you feel you really need to know, I know its going happen and dont mind sittng back for a couple of weeks to be sure). The other tests you can get done at the LFS usually for $5 or less, and if you buy them you wont bother using them long

T5's can cost a bit, and will only be OK, if you shopped round you could prob get a 150wMH for the same or less, which would be awsome on your little tank. If you into DYI check out building recyclers they often have MH lights removed from office buildings, you just have to know what your looking for cause normally they have no idea what they are.

DE (double ended) bulbs need glass because they put out tons of UV, SE (single ended) bulbs have there own glass (hence the larger size) so dont need glass. If yours are SE and 1meter away from the water I reackon all the glass is doing its blocking light.

aquakneedit isn't a glue, more like a filler or putty, salties use it for holding corals to rocks but not so often for sticking rocks together, usually just cable ties, drill and peg, or good stacking!

I do if doing very large water changes but otherwise no. cant get my head around the maths at the moment but if your doing a 10% water change and the temp is say 25% different isn't that only a 4% change in temp, plus thats not taking into account the gravel glass etc in the tank that is also holding heat and offsetting the change. Dont forget that in the wild it rains and there are cold days so the temp is changing all the time, alot of fish will spawn when the temp suddenly drop a degree or two.

boths aniamtes are the same as every other animates, worth a look if you dont have one locally but otherwise dont bother. hutt pet is good (address above). also have a look at the pet house in coastlands on the way down IMO the best shop in the area. its round the back of the mall next to the plant shop., dont confuse it with the other pet shop near costlands which is away from the mall and no good for fish.