suphew

The shops have never held decent book's, the internet and direct ordering didn't cause this. Maybe it's because a good book will tell you that you dont have to buy all the rubish chemicals and additives that they love to sell??

Looks good to me chim, the copy I have borrowed is a softcover, the one at M/D hardcover, maybe that explains the price differences? Either way I'm still keen, I'll trust your judgement, just let me know how much once you have put the order in.

I have Pies copy on loan at the moment (but don't tell him, I'm hopeing he will forget ). If you decide to buy a copy, I'm would like to get my own too, will split the shiiping costs with you?

They aren't too bright but the kevin rating is all wrong (i.e. too yellow) so you would end up growing lots of algae.

Eels are really easy to keep, the two biggest problems are 1) keeping them in the tank, they will get out the smallest hole and can walk a long way. In the 'wild' crossing whole fields to change drainage ditches 2) being nocturnal it takes a while before they are friendly enough that you can see them during the day. So don't put in too many hiding places. For just keeping them for a couple of weeks, I wouldn't worry too much about doing anything for them, just put them in some water. Because of what they eat (meat etc) feeding will pollute the water quickly so don't feed them unless you have to for your display, if you do feed then change some water every few days. Remember that in the wild they might not eat for weeks at a time so it wont hurt them. Theres no point running a filter unless you have one already to go because it wont cycle in two weeks

When working out the clearance dont forget to allow for the lever going up to block off the water and also allow room to pull the pipe/tap out of the cannister. I didn't allow enough room with mine (204) and had to tilt it to remove it for cleaning, more often than not spilling water.

Two main problems with covers on tanks, firstly you block some of the light that your paying so much for (not really a big problem on the sump), and secondly overheating. There is no problem with O2 transfer, just keep a close eye on the temp (and more importantly the changes in temp over the day).

If you know a sparky check out the building recyclers, I stopped in at my local one today and they had 150w MH bulb holders/reflectors for $5 and about 10 remote ballists, no price on them but have asked in the past and they were around $20. They might not be any cheaper by the time to buy beer for the sparky and a bulb but I think you would want to replace the bulb that came with the lights on trademe anyway.

Was just reading today about the "borneman flush device", basically it's just a toilet with a float attached to the release flappy thing. Would be purfect for what you want to do, plus they have a built-in over flow so also safe. If the outlet is below the water line you dont get any bubbles either. Of course the downside is you have a toilet mounted over your tank, I'm sure there a very funny joke there somewhere. hahahahaha :lol:

IMO, wouldn't panic (or do any think crazy just yet) just keep doing the water changes and try adding some more plants. 6 weeks is still pretty new and from what I have seen bigger tanks can take longer to settle down and find that ballance, maybe he should cut right back on the feeding to, maybe only feed every second day for a while, lower the waste going into the tank and give the filters a chance to catch up sooner.

I tried this but found they broke up and spread, maybe I just gave them too much. However I have had 100% success with covering the whole thing hole and all. Turning all the pumps off helps to, stops the kalk 'blowing' off them.

When I first started using Kalk I had similar problems, I found the key is to totally cover them and the hole they are in, if any of it isn't covered it will break off and grow somewhere else. When you pull the tank down is a good time to do it, but you will need to know where they all are before you start taking the rocks out, once they are out of the water or even moved they will disappear and you will miss some.

You would need some cover on the substrate (gravel), WCMM's are egg scatters so will just randomly drop the eggs all over the bottom of the tank, they and your other fish will eat them if they can see them. Sorry Shiuh no at the moment mine are out in the pond now, they breed fast there but only in the summer. I'll post when the weather improves and I see them swimming again (they are like cockroaches, if I can see 1 I know I have 100).

White cloud mountain minnows (WCMM's) are great for kids because they are so hardy and are very easy to breed. I would suggest getting just a few (4-5) so you can have fun breeding a school of them. All that is required to breed them is some plant cover (Java moss, Java fern, Indian fern, etc) for the eggs. To start the actual breeding put in some water that is colder than the tank, about 10 liters for you and just a few degrees colder than the tank (I use rain water). This fools the fish into thinking it has rained.

It will be written on the ballast, if you want to run double ended 250w (which is the most common) just look for HQI (I'll check this when I get home) on the ballast.

Does any one know anyone who has blue 39w T5's in stock? Have had a quick look in Wellies with no luck, can order in but could be a 12 week wait

I think mine are philips, they seem to work fine. They are old office light ballasts and fittings. If you can do I bit of DIY check out the local building and office furiture recyclers, the ones in Wellington often have them and because they dont really know what they are they can be as low as $5 if they look rough but normally around $25. Just make sure you put in new bulbs, I used the old bulbs to test them then replaced.

Damn I hate it when I sell stuff and it ends up looking far better in someones elses tank! Well done Faran, I look forward to coming to have a look for real in a couple of weeks when thinks calm down at work.

I have done similar, but feed the CO2 into the start of the water OUTlet hose. This worked really well, but you need to have a one way valve so that when your bottle runs out it doesn't fill with water.

No, it takes X amount of energy to heat X amount of water, makes no difference what the size of the heater (unless of course it is too small to ever heat the wtaer to required temp). However there are many advantages to having two heaters, mainly better spread of heat and redundancy if 1 heater fails.

You need a far larger pump to run your berlin, they require 2000 odd liters at 3 meters head, not at zero head. The pump I'm using is rated at something like 5000lph at zero head, I get about 300-500ml of stinky black skim mate a week, from my total water volume of a little under 400liters and 7 fish. I'm not sure how this compares to what I would get from a 'better' skimmer, if anyone would like to give me a euro-reef or ASM I'm happy to test it for them, hay I'll even take a deltec, in the name of science?!?

I top up about 10 liters a day in my marine tank and about 10 liter a week in my 4 foot fresh water, it is normal

The light makes no long term difference to the colour of the fish, just like light doesn't change the colour of you hair. Fish will change colour (usually go paler, althrough some like my Discus go darker or get black stripes) if they are stressed but this is only temperary, and is more likely to occur if there is too much light rather than not enough.

Gives them a reason to replace them every few weeks? (the clothes not not the fish)

You should remove the plant from its basket, it might restrict the root but more importantly the brown/tan stuff they usually use in them is made from fiberglass (like pink bats) and can get into the fish gills and irritate them. Cut the basket off and remove as much of the tan stuff as possible (washing under the tap helps with this), trim the root to a couple of inches long and then just push it into the gravel, it should hold itself in there. For tanks that are too deep to reach you can buy grabber things, they can be a bit expensive but it is worth paying for a better one cause the cheaper ones can be a pain, sticking etc.