suphew

Do a search on the net, there are lots of ways of doing it. I don't know the exact details on how they are done which is why you will need to look them up, but have seen people use expanding foam (you can buy it in can from hardware store) which is cut to shape then seal/paint. You can make your own 'rock' back ground, you make up a mold which is bacisally a hole in the ground the right size, then make a mixture which is like concrete but uses pumice, I think its call tufta(?). The other cool idea I read about was to hang black plastic sacking about an inch from the back of the tank, on the sacking attach plants like Java fern, anything that will grow with is root out of the substrate, after a while you will end up with a lush wall of plants. And the reason for it being out from the back... so you can put your heaters and filters tubes etc out of sight.

If you get your substrate right you shouldn't need to get fertilizer to add to the water. Most plants get their nutrients via their roots not via leafs so adding fertilizer often just feeds the algae and doesn't help the plant much. I just put togeather a CO2 system for my marine tank. I got an old CO2 fire extingisher from a metal re-cycler $10 (if you can get one the steel ones are more likely to pass certification), he put a new valve in it for $100, cert and filled $45. He also had a secondhand but unused regulator he sold me for $100 (normal price new is around $160), a needle valve $27, tubing I already had and DIY bubble counter. Total cost about $280 with about 10 times the capacity of the purchased systems.

I work for the largest shipping company in New Zealand, and have to say this is [edit=cees]word removed[/edit]. There are HUGE fines for doing this and dumping bilge water in harbours hasn't been done for years. Pleasure boats proberly dump more waste into the harbours as a lot vent there toilets directly into the water, plus spilling fuel and cleaning chemicals etc etc.

Also you should go deeper than 200mm, you will need to put in 100mm or so of substrate. The plants will grow fine out of the water (in fact a lot of commercial growers do this cause the plants grow faster and don't get algae on the leaves (and now you know why they always look so good in plant shops)) but the leafs of plants grown out of water are different (tend to be smaller and thicker) from under water, so when you put them in the tank the out of water leafs die off so they can be replaced with underwater style.

Unless your putting fish in you shouldn't need a filter cause the filters for cleaning the fish pooh and food from the water right? Also you could try putting it on a bench under a sunny window, you might find you get too much algae but it would be worth a try. You will need a heater but make sure it doesnt touch the plasitic side cause it will melt it. For your substrate try using aquadic clay, you can buy it from some plant shops, its used for lillies. Mix it 50/50 with gravel, it will make your water cloudy for a couple of days, and you might get an algae bloom but it will save you having to add fertiliser later on.

I haven't ever dealt with MAF but having seen first hand the underhand way local councils work in some situations I'm not sure if I completely agree with this. Unless interested members of the public start making submissions right from the start and keep pushing their case they will be ignored. All to often in this country the government thinks the majority is the guys who's shouting the loudest, the way to get what you want is to be that guy. Standing back and hoping they will "do right by us" wont work. My 2 cents....

Suggest you do a lot more reading before you invest. Going small doesn't really save you $ in the long run. The key to a succesful reef tank is getting the condisions right then keeping them as stable as possible doing this in a small tank is really hard and you will spend a lot of money on additives etc and possibly killing expensive stock. The concept of filtation in salt water is quite different to fresh, you want to avoid any fresh water biological type filter system (including if possible any sponges etc on powerhead's etc) because the end result of fresh water style bio filters is nitrate which is bad in reef tanks. What you want is a skimmer, which removes waste before it can break down and end up as nitrate, and as much live rock as you can fit/afford, which converts any nitrates that are created to nitrogen gas. This system is commonly call the berlin method, it isn't the only way to do it, but is by far the most common and eaziest.

There are lots of fish that lay when there is a drop in temp. My WCMM's used (they are out side in the pond now) to drop eggs every time I did a water change cause I added cold water. The reason is that in the natural environment they lay when it rains which of course quickly drops the water temperture.

Give it some time and you will be wanting to know how to stop them breeding! :lol:

I would say that the fact his amonia is off the scale would prove you wrong. If the bacteria is supplied as much food (amonia) as it can process adding more food wont increase the growth rate it will just make the water more toxic, which is why the amonia level so high. The ideal is to increase the fish numbers (and therefore the food for the bacteria) inline with the increase of bacteria.

I'd be very surprised if the Fluval could drive a SWCD, they are built as a closed loop so the motor isn't designed to have any back pressure. Try sticking your finger over the end of the outlet and see how much pressure youve got?

Yep, but I'm still waiting for mine to get the little crowns etc :lol:

9 fish even if small is still a lot to cycle a tank with, any how it sounds pretty normal otherwise, just do daily water changes (10-20%) to keep the amonia under control and it should be fine.

Cut much do you cut off? I have a large one (and a number of small) about 6 inches or more when fully out but would like to get it to branch I guess it will do it by itself sooner or later but if I can hurry it up....

I have seen some cheaper ones from E-bay and they would be okay for a few holes but I recon they would ware out pretty quick. It's a bit like buying trade quality tools verse home handyman, IMHO to do 150 tanks you should spend the money (about $300 I think) and get a decent drill bit. Any trade supply or glass supply should be able to get you one, most tile layers and some plumbers use them so they can't be too hard to find.

Only way to find out is to try it, there are too many varibles (number fish, type fish, ditto plants, temp, water parameters, etc etc) for anyone to give a proper answer. I would say you shouldn't need to but to just keep an eye of the fish, if they start going to the surface or acting stangely then move your return or add an air pump for a few days to see you it is the lack of surface disruption.

Raeh1, just a word of warning that you need to be careful collecting water too soon after its been raining, not sure if its been raining out your way but has been p!@#ing down here. When it rains all the stuff farmers stray onto there land washes into the sea, or if your in the city all the streams and storm water pipes get a clean out which all ends up in the sea also. Also the cloudy water is likely to be, organics and sediment that has been stirred up, again risky to add to the tank.

All heaters are submersible, but most manufactures don't recommend you put the very top under because as the temperature inside the heater changes it can cause the air inside to expand and contract, if the heater top is under water it is possible that when the air contracts (if the tank gets colder, e.g. if theres a power cut) the heater will try and suck water in.

Sorry Shae this isn't true, it takes X amount of energy to heat X amount of water. If you have a bigger heater it will just heat the water faster, so bigger heater = more power but shorter time, smaller heater = less power but longer time. It works out the same in the end. I would recommend buying two smaller heaters, that way if one fails (which they almost all do after a while) there is another in the tank to keep the temp up while you replace the broken one.

Yep and give it a good clean with meths or if you can get it isopropanol. The scraper you can buy for a couple of $ to clean paint off glass works really well and as a bonus you can use it to clean algae off the glass (but guess you know this already, just got out of the begginers forum, sorry)

I wouldn't worry about using the mesh, as you said if they are sick enough to get sucked in it's proberly too late anyway. Over here we tend to measure nitrite in part per million (PPM) so the number you gave is a little confusing. I don't think that level is too bad, but if your tank is completely cycled you should really have 0 nitrite, maybe you should consider reducing your feeding for a week or two. It is supprising how little fish eat and most people over feed when they start out, just remember that fish will happily go for a week without being fed (I not suggesting that you do this normally but every once in a while is fine, like if your on holiday). Temp of 78 is fine, I run my tank warmer than this all the time, if it starts to get to the low/mid 80's think about blowing a fan over the tank to help cool it a bit. If you don't have any plants the lights are only there for you, so yes you can leave them off.

The prefilter is a machanical filter rather than biological, the idea is to stop large particals of stuff getting to the biological media and clogging the pores, it also lowers the number of large particals getting to the machanical (sponge) put inside your filter saving you from having to pull the filter apart as often to clean it. So what you are looking for is away of setting it up so that it is very easy to get into and clean, otherwise you might as well just pull the filter apart and clean that. So in it needs be sponge, floss, or a pleated filter cartridge. By far the simplist way for you to do this would be to buy one of those round sponges that are used in some small internal filters and stick it over the end of your filter intake, it would only cost a couple of $ and be very easy to get to and clean. If you find it makes a huge difference but looks too ugly then do something more complicated later.

I wouldn't be too worried about the tank it would be fine for a couple of days or more without the filter going (assuming it isn't too newly setup), to help your filter give it a quick clean (sounds like you have already) and put the media (trays) into the tank to keep the water on them and warm etc, they will be fine. You would proberly be okay just leaving the media in the filter with tank water, then dumping the water before you plug it back in, but if you put the media into the tank you KNOW it will okay.

Yep pretty common problem, try asking a tiler to do it for you thats how I got mine done, he was a fish keeper to which helped.

The water level is set by how high you place the skimmer in the water. How often you clean depends on how quickly it gets dirty. But I would aim for a weekly clean of the collection cup, and monthly clean of the whole unit, don't forget you need to replace the wooden air stone every couple of months