suphew

The extra flow down your standpipe could be causing them, ulimate fix is baffles in your sump, otherwise you could try turning the tap on your overflow down just a little bit, not enough to lessen the flow but a little bit of back pressure might stop it dragging down so much air. Next option would be to put some filter wool over the end or under your overflow outlet giving the bubbles a chance to surface before they nit your return. The only other reason I can think of is that your return pump source is sucking in air but I assume you would be able to see this is it was the case. If its the plumbing to the pump, which if it had a leak would be under vacuum when the pump was running and therefore suck in air, you should be able to turn off the pump and see water leak out

If they aren't already I suggest you get a timer for your lights, they are cheap and your tank will run better if the lighting is regular and on for a good period (12+ hours). As far as getting fluros, if you dont mind what it looks like and have covers on your tank, go to an elecrical wholesaler and buy standard office type fluro fitting, it will be 1/4 of the price of a proper fish tank one, pick up some tubes at the same time they will be alot cheaper to. You will proberly have to get a power cord installed into the fitting, but if you buy it at the wholesalers and speak to them nicely they might do it for you.

There is an urchin that is a problem on the reefs, big, black, things about the size of a soccer ball (inc spines), in Thailand I helped the locals go out killing them a couple times, they just poke them with a stick and let the fish eat them. There are hundreds of them that arrive every few days, they eat/kill the staghorn corals and are poisonous if you are unlucky enough to stand on them.

Please let us know if you find anyone in NZ that has them, I know you can get them from over sea's but have never seen them here

Sounds like a great reason for a bigger tank to me. :lol:

I got mine via Ben in Akl, cant remember exact price but was round $100, IMHO for a smaller tank like mine, going to steams would be over OTT for thr cost.

I have a 3 inch piece of 20mm pressure pipe I'll let you have cheap if you pay for the postage?

I'm not really too worried, @ $100 if I get a year or two worth of random movement I'm happy. Far cheaper than a steam, which I would proberly only run at half power anyway. I have couple of very cheap Jebo powerheads that I ran the same way for around 9 months and still going fine, I have removed them now but only cause I changed tanks and there too small to be useful.

Mine is on a timer that has 15 minutes intervills, I randomly flicked them on and off, so my stops and starts 10-20 times a day with no problems.

Something to think about when getting your new powerboard setup, I talked to a few electrical suppliers about timers that would handle MH lights. It seems to be luck of the draw if you get a timer that will handle the load for long. I know Pies has had success with the pudney timers. But anyway you can get high current relays that fit to your power board they are the only thing the electrical wholesalers would guarentee could handle the start up current long term. Just some thing that might be worth looking at since you have the option unfortunately it wasn't an option for me.

Looking good Steve, bet you had a busy weekend aye! Was good helping you put the tank in, but looking forward to viewing it up and running. Time to set up the stereo and start enjoying yet??? Craig. P.S. if you need a home for some of those broken tip's, I'm sure I can find some space

Yeah, heaps better than the poky old shop, but a bit further for me to walk. He has the bulbs etc sorted and in stands so you can actually see what he has. He still hasn't put prices on anything but says it is comming.

I was in at "the lightbulb man" getting some new tubes and started talking about MH bulbs. I use DE 250W he told me he can sell Sylvania 10,000kelvin for $125 and 20,000kelvin for $190, but needs to order in a box (of ten). So I said I would ask how many people in Wlg use them. I guess the same applies to 400w SE's, I didn't get a price but will suggest he gets them if there are enough ppl interested. Also he can get in any brand etc if the Sylvania ones are crap, so if any experts have an opinion...... NB: I'm not asking for orders, or any commitment to buy them, he just wants to know if theres a enough people in Wlg that use them to make it worth his paying for a box. Also I have NO connection with this shop, I just like to support him because he gets marine tubes in for a pretty limited market at reasonable prices ($25 for 3foot 10,000k and blue T8 tubes).

What sort of media does your fluidised filter have in it. From memory its normally sand(?) there could be shell in this.

Yep carbon will help. Storing water wil only help if you put something in it to lower PH, again peat is proberly the best natural option. Have you considered collecting rain water. It is very soft due to lack of minerals.

Not sure about the size but if you can afford it suggest you buy higher quality air pumps, they all tend to be noisy but the better ones are quiter, and stay quiter plus the diaphams dont ware out as fast (plus are normally replacable)

Gez why didnt you just ask! I have a lee's air driven and a queenturbo that needs pump, your 1060 would do the trick. Yours for long term borrow, if you want, swap me something.

Discus have become alot easier in the last few years with a number of people breeding them and so making them more suited to 'normal' water parameters. I keep 3 in a tank similar in size to yours, I have had up to 5 and could proberly have had a couple more if half the tank wasn't full with a huge log. I do about 30% water change each week mixing rain and tap water to soften the water. I use no additives, and dont warm or age the water. I have to agree with making sure your subtrate is good if you want to go planted, I see so many people online spending $30+ a month on suppliments etc, when they could have just added a bit of clay and peat to their gravel to start with and never had to worry about it again.

Learnt to dive in Raro, a couple of years ago. Want to try diving in our local waters but dont like the cold! Go bath water warm diving!!!

Any temp between 20 and 30 degrees cent is ok, as long as it doesnt change too quickly, and doesn't stay at the extreams for too long. I stongly suggest that you try out a few plants for two reasons, firsly because they look nice and secondly because they will help with the water. There are lots of really easy to keep plants that will do fine with your low light, Indian and Java ferns would be a good place to start. Most plants are easier than fish to keep, and best of all..... You dont have to remember to water them! As long as you make sure you get low light plants I garrentee in a few months you will be trimming and removing plants because they are doing so well and your fish will be so much happier.

I "THINK" they only thing you have to worry about is the 'resistance' in the system (i.e. the media, pipes etc), you don't really have any head as such because gravity is pushing the water down to your filter adding energy to it, then gravity is resisting the water going back up taking the energy away. Therefore they cancel each other out. This is why closed loops are so good.

I like the idea of being able to see a product before I buy it, but what gets me with LFS's is they don't even match other retails prices. For example the light bulb man in wlg city sells marine (blue) fluro tubes for about $25, this is his RETAIL price, including all the overheads of CBD shop, and he keeps a stock of these for to the 20-30 people in the whole region that might want them. LFS sell the same tubes (brand and everything) for $50+?????? Pond pumps are another good example, hydroponic and garden centers typically RETAIL these for 20-30% cheaper than LFS yet they have the same over heads etc. I will admit that not all LFS should be painted with the same brush, the Hutt pet center always seems to charge lower prices (that compare with other non-pet retail supplies), it seems to be the supermarket type pet stores that offer supermarket style poor service, bad advise, and little choice, but for some reason dont offer supermarket style lower prices. I think they are being short sighted, it hasn't been that long (in Wlg anyway) that we have had these large well layed out, one stop (as long as you dont want anything even remotely unusual) super pet shops. I think they are riding the wave of general public who don't want to go into the oldschool clutered pets shops. When I comes to pets I dont think it is unreasonable to expect the owners of these shops to have some social responsibilty to not over charge just because they can and to train their staff to at least a basic level.

Dont get nervous about moving the tank, it's easy really, if you worried about doing such a big water change (which souldn't be a problem anyway as long as the parameters and temp are about the same) take out as much water as you would normally for a water change, then fill the containers again from your tank and store that water to put back in once you have lifted it. The type of material you put under doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't colapse after long periods with weight on it. You can trim it, just use a sharp craft knife, and watch you dont damage the silicon hoding your tank together.

ants your welcome to come round for a look. pies and my setup are similar give or take 2000liters. lol, but the plumbing is basically the same. we can arrange it next time we IM

same type as pies and jetskisteve use, sorry mine is buried behind my cabinet now so I cant even see the brand name. Set and forget!