suphew

The electronic timers from dick smiths (there own branded ones) have a random funtion which just changes the on/off times by a few minutes, they are about $15 so more than the bunnings etc manual ones, but are one of the few that have lasted running my MH lights.

Make sure you leak test it outside before you set it up. Also have a good look at the old joints, I found that when removing old panels the movement and damage from slipping with the razor in the joins you aren't replacing can cause them to start to leak.

At $200 plus all the time it would take, why wouldn't you just buy or make a glass tank?

Unless they are actually a 'pair' you should keep more then two, unless you have a large (4 foot plus) tank in which case you might as well have more than two! The more aggresive (normaly larger) of the two will chase the smaller often killing it, or it might starve because it cant get at the food.

Have you tried turning off all your pumps light etc, one by one, incase they are making the noise?

Bunnings has heaps, lots of diffrent thinknesses too, about $10 a 1200x2400 sheet.

Trouble is it will work fine for ages then a bit of lime will build up or a snail will crawl in. of course this will always happen when your on hoilday.... I use a UPS on my tank, and have a couple of the lower power fluro lights running on it as well. I haven't tested to see how long it lasts with my marine tank, but running my whole freshwater tank (filters, heaters and all) with pretty old stuffed batteries (have replaced now) I got a couple of hours.

Are you going to put ANY fish in?? If it was me I would add a couple of mollies or bristlenose plecs, but not feed them at all, they will clean up any algae plus help fertilize the plants and keep your filter going (I seem to remember you saying you were going to add one?).

Just buy the cheapest you can, any heater with-in reason will heat it. If its smaller it will just run for longer (but uses less power while it is running so works out even in the end). Are you going to put in something like a power head for cirulation? If not then you might have problems with cold spots.

Gill flukes, maybe. Or they could have been damaged when transported, if there were in the bag too long the amonia may have burnt their gills. Thinking about the carbon, it is possible (but not very likely) that the carbon was absorbing something in your water supply, that is now killing the fish. Carbon obsorbs chemicals out of the water which is why you remove it when you are treating fish.

Taller tanks are better, once they become fully grown a standard hight tank will get a little cramped. I keep mine at around 30degree cent, the other fish are ok but I think it does shorten there lifes a little.

The gravel and filters are the important part to move to save the tank cycling. Moving the water just means you don't risk the water parameters changing too much for when you move the fish (there is very little bacteria in the water). It might also pay to do a few large water changes every second day or so for a week or two, because you will stir up alot of crud in the garvel when you move it.

For a while I used a 3liter juice bottle with kalk water, and a hospital drip to control the flow. IMHO any system like this is a pain in the butt, I would forget to fill it, forget to turn it on, forget to turn it off, had to refill it every second day, you get the point. Using floats to turn it on/off would be just as bad, with them sticking etc. Spend the $ and get a dosing pump and timer, it will pay for itself in no time with the hassles you'll save.

I have loads of these and the black ones to.

Ira, the guy in parm sells a 25k (?) box of red sea salt for $120. I'm no expert but isn't it more the minerals and trace elements in NSW that ASW can be missing that make the difference? Has anyone tested the calcium of ASW? I guessing a lot of small tanks wouldn't have calcium reactors or even kalk water topup.

Any chance of one of you importers posting the letter, or a quick summary? At the moment we are all a bit in the dark, would be nice to know what the time scale and likely impact etc is so I can stock up!

Just 7 in my tank, gota love the low bio load. Esp since I haven't been able to do a water change for weeks.

Be careful glueing acrylic to glass, as I understand it silicon doesn't actually stick to the acrylic so if there is any pressure on it, it might come loose. If you are just putting partitions in a sump then it would be ok since there would be equal pressure on each side, but if for example you were putting a new acrylic side in a glass tank it wouldn't work. Also if you scratch the acrylic with sandpaper it will help a little.

Any electrical wholesaler will have daylight tubes, there are ton of them about. With regards using high output red tubes and algae, this is more likely a ballance issue. If you increase the light you also need to increase the CO2 and nutriants, if any one of these is out of balance the plants will only grow as the limiting factor allows, algae will use what ever is left.

The most common (and cheapest) I have seen is box section about 75mm by 50mm. just needs to be painted with an etching primer like PA10. If your worried you can get it gav dipped, but no one ever spills water do they?

I did say, upto about 30 tons, but the point remains the same. MOving fright my ship is by far the most environmentally friendly way to do it.

Assume you know there is nothing special about closed loop pumps? They are just standard pumps just need to have screw in fittings not push fit so they are less likely to leak. I use a secondhand Ehiem 1060 that cost me round $100, pies uses Ehiem 1262's (or maybe 1062?).

Yep, if you going to put a filter in you might as well put media in it, it can do no harm and will give you a cycled filter to use when you set up your next tank. if your planning on buying a filter to do this, why not just buy a power head. My LFS sells little Jebo ones starting at about $15

OK when I stated "dumping with-in the harbour" I meant not dumping with-in the zone set by MAF. This changes by location depending on currents etc, for example I understand that because of the very high flow in the cook straight they are allowed to purge there. The reasons the fires are so high isn't a reflection of them having to enforce, but because of the amount of $ involved in the industry. For example a container ship sitting docked doing nothing (i.e. when there are strikes on or bad weather, or queues for cranes) costs (last time I asked) about $80,000 a day. Therefore there would be no point setting a fine at $1000. Container (and other large ships) get a bad rep because they stand out, but the fact is they are by the most environmentally friendly way to transport goods by a long shot. The ships coming into NZ can carry 4200Teu (standard 20 foot containers) at up to about 30 ton per teu, a plane would be lucky to carry the weight in freight of one container, so that means over 4000 flights to do the same job! Imaging what that would do to the environment, and our coast lines.

I'm free on friday big boy......