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:oops: I think chimera is a little confussed. He may have stoped of at a site called cookie extream the Rastifari reefers club. Sorry Chimera this has nothing to do with tanks. :lol: :lol: Dave

:lol: :lol: :lol: DAM YOU CRACKER you had to start the third agument in this thread. Its not a rubber fetish its a general latex fetish how many times do i have to tell you. :lol: :lol: :lol: Dave

:lol: :lol: I think we have a winning thread Two simultaneous arguments going head too head Dave

By the sounds of things on the telly lastnight we may not be able to get a lot of things soon. Hope that DOC and MAF don't get too stupid when they revisit the allowable speicies list. Sounds like slider turtles will be banned though or this could just be scare tactics who knows untill the day they decide to ban them. :evil: Dave

:lol: :lol: I here black lights where very common in the late sixtys early seventys maybe you could ask an old acid rocker:lol: :lol: Dave

My refractometer arived yesterday and sorry to say Duke but i think you got stung i payed $85nz landed and is calabratable with ATC. Says in the instruction to leave sample in refractometer for at least 30seconds before taking reading so i think layton is right also states that it sould be calabrated at 20 dgrees c with RO water. Dave

Cheers Cees but i think Brianemone was thinking more along the line of a sticky that would sit at the top of this forum, and could be easaly seen by all without having to find it in the private buy sell forum. Well thats my understanding on how it should work. Dave

Sounds like a good idea to me Dave

Hi Bk After being warned by people that a three foot tank is too small i went ahead anyway (im a stubben SOB and that was all the room i had) now i am looking at a five foot tank after we shift into our own home. Listen to the addvise and go as big as you can. The other thing to consider is get the tank drilled while it is being made so you can hook up a sump, refuguim, closed loops and any other bits you may want. And if you can DIY is always a great way to go with things like stands and many other things that just add to the cost. Dave

Chimera keep me posted on these :roll: sorry duke for cutting in :roll: Dave

Ok just wanted to know how much (percent wise) water you change and how often. Currently i am changing 15% each week (every Wednesday night) Have a smaller system so feel it is important not to skip this. Please no debates about NSW and ASW as this has been done to death on this site :lol: Dave

Ditto. In winter you will probaly have to get your water from them anyway as the bay turns to crud when that southerly blows. Id look at going north a bit to get away from the Port and the rivers and lets face it Napier beach is not realy an option unless you want to try and drown yourself pulling 20liter containers out. JMO Dave

Well it could be a fetish or it could have to do with one of my other hobbys which has been neglected since starting a reef. But i will let you decide as it is always more fun that way. :lol:

From what i have read 14k seems to be a very subjective colour rating and can cover anything from 12k through to 20k but what the hay i run 14k bulbs and am very happy with the colour. Dave

Depending on the wattage of your return pump and your heater it wont last that long so i wouldn't put the skimmer on to the UPS as this will drain the battery even quicker. I looked at making one from an inverter and a marine deep cycle battery but even an 80amp hour battery would only last for about 4 hours with a 40watt return pump and a 200watt heater. The other thing to consider is that a lot of the inverters they use in these systems are not true wave current and this will not run a heater (To long since i was at electrical classes at tech but something to do with the SIN wave lenght). As most of our power cuts happen in the winter i would check up on this first. Remember that you have to work out you amp hours in 12volt for the UPS as this is what your battery will be

Yes would have to agree with Layton although that red finned bat fish is very impressive even more so when he was younger. its a bugger that they looses that impressive colour. Hope you make the transition to Salt as its alot more interesting than fresh water in my eyes or maybe im just crazy sitting there for hours looking at what is going to crawl out of the rock next.

Result from last nights tests. pH = 8.2 PO4 = 0ppm (salifert) NO3 = 0ppm kH = 8 (salifert) Ca = 440 Salinity = 1.025 (Need to get a refractometer as don't trust the swing arm hydrometer) Temp 26.5 (between 24.5 and 26.5 dpending on time of light period)

There are quite a few people that can do that for you byt the likes of DSR are probaly the easiest to find ( cost might be an issue though) Dave

No he came from organisims on a peice of rock abouy twice the size of him. Looks exactly the same as the one at Critter Kindom I saw that one just befor Christmas sitting on the bottom of the tank. Hay Tim i still have to catch up with you Called you on Sunday morning but no one was home so i started playing with the sump and before i knew it was time for us to go out for tee. Am a bit bussy this weekend but will try to catch up with you some time during the week any day suit you best ( not Wednesday as have the kids on my own all night) Dave

:lol: Dave

Thanks Cracker. At the moment im not feeding as no fish in tank have capular growing in my small refugum only thing that i can think of is that maybe the carbon i added last week is releasing it or its coming from the tank cycle that has not long setteled down. Yeh diatom bloom is starting to settle down getting less each time i look at the tank or it could be my imagination :-? Dave

Ok my water results have been looking all good for the last 18 days and my daitom bloom seems to be settling down. But when i did a full range of tests lastnight everything came back sweet apart from the Phosphate which is reading 0.5 ppm now i know that there will be a presance of Phosphates in the water in a new tank but if i run a Phosphate removal media will this stop me getting a hair algea outbreak or should i just let it run its course. I am still going to wait a week to add fish to my system even though i am getting hasseled by the wife and my friends to put something in the tank other than the few soft corals i have in there at the moment. Any advisse on this would be welcome and if i do add a phosphate remover which one would you all recomend / stay away from. Cheers Dave

You may have some probems with an RO unit as they require good water pressure to push the water trough the membrane or at the least the amount of water delivered from the unit would be well below the rated size of the unit. The other option is to get some 10-5 micron filter canesters and plumb these in before a Carbon filter then into a DI filter. The amount of desolved organics in the water will be high if you are getting algea build up on the bath every two to three days and this would be hard on the RO unit and filters but also means that there is proberly no to very little Chlorine in the water. Here is the Carbon filter you can make yourself and can also be used as a carbon filter in the sump if you change the inlet and outlet fittings to suit a powerhead. Dave

One more thing is that DI will not remove Chlorine or other Chloride products so you will need to run the water through a carbon filter first. I looked at this before buying a RO/Di unit. This will also help to remove some of the Organic meterial from the water and help to prolong the life of the DI filter. A Carbon filter can be easaliy made with some pvc pipe fittings and a couple of small bags of Activated Carbon. Pm me if you want a plan and i will do a quick drawing of one and PDF it for you. Dave

I was up there yesterday and those pic do it no justace at all. Is looking very nice steve