Kermit

Sorry to hear, that really sucks. Best of luck with the future. regards Kermit

I've got a question, I gave my son some brine shrimp eggs Five days ago they hatched the next day and we put them under the microscope, i noticed that there was another organism swimming around in the water??, does anyone know what it is?, is it food for the brine shrimp?, and if so can you use it as food for hatched fry (clown fish, etc...)? The reason i ask if it a food source for brine shrimp is that four days after hatching they're still alive and i can't find a trace of the other organism now. Regards Kermit

Pies, thought a diagram might help as it is hard to explain. If you have a nut behind the bracket were you adjust the tension it won't pivit as bad but still will put stress on the bracket. Regards Kermit

Hi Wasp Hows the circus going , have they fry hatched yet? How did you get on for tracking down some food for the fry? regards Kermit

Hi Pies Yesturday i went over to Steve's place to pick up some sand and to look at his tank with the new Tunze (looking awsome dude, my opinion of the Tunze may change after all) and the mounting bracket for Tunze use a push/pull adjustment on them, which helps keep the bracket straight and prevents it from twisting, I thought that the same method would work for your centre brace and would stop it from wanting to pivit on the adjustment rods. You'd need to lenghten the vertical adjustment part of the brace were you adjust the tention to accomodate for the rods that will push the top of the brace out to keep the brace straight that way the brace can't pivit on the tension rods and will remain straight with out putting pressure on your glass bracing. What ya think?, is it an idea. Regards Kermit

Hi Pies, tanks looking good can't wait till fully stocked. I've been thinking about your brace for sometime now and have wondered since the metal brace is an "L" shape and adjusted at the top point, wouldn't the "L" braces pivit on the rod and if so the top section of the "L" braces push down on the glass bracing that goes around the perimeter of the tank?, since there would be pressure pushing the side of "L" brace out the brace will pivit on the rod causing the top of the "L" brace to push down hence if there is enough pressure the "L" brace could break the galss bracing, no? You mentioned that you'd need some kind of industrial tool to undo the nuts, which means there must be a lot of pressure on the braces. Is the "L" braces siliconed to the glass or was the silicon cured before the "L" braces were placed?, if so the "L" braces could slip off due to the pressure. Just thought it was something to mention, i could be totally wrong. Regards Kermit

Hi ya, i've got to agree with pies on this, as my purple tang gets white spot every time i'm unable to feed the fish (out all night) i first use to panic and do rapid water changes or catch the fish to isolate it from the rest. What would happen is i'd stress the fish more and the water levels would start to do weird things and i'd spend a lot of time chasing my mistakes it would get worse no surprising realy, so i decided after a week of panic thats it!, i'l leave every thing alone and just do the normal water changes, feeding, and stop panicing, to my surprise it worked, the white spot went away. After awhile i noticed that the white spot comes the day after i didn't feed them and as long as i feed them that night the white spot would be gone by the next day, so now i don't panic and just relax. I've got to say it's a fine line, when to do something and when not to do something, it's hard especially when it happens for the first time you panic and do rash things and people on the forums always have different opinions on what to do and how to do it, and all that happens is you panic more and stress. I learnt the best thing is to check water quality, adjust it if needed, maybe do a 10-20% water change (depending on how bad a case) and give it a couple of days check it again, hopefully things have got better and relax. If it's a realy bad case then seek help, but try not to panic as you end up doing some realy stupid things. Regards Kermit

They sell the cured rock thats safe to put straight into mature tank for about $16-17/Kg. There's no critters in the rock so it aint live rock just cured, Redwoods rock may have some critters i'm not 100% sure but i'd say very little life if any. The uncured rock sells for $10/Kg in which you have to cycle first.

There's a couple of LFS here in Christchurch that sell cured rock, Organisms and Redwood. How about in Australia, do they have much in the way of cured or live rock in LFS?

Probably a stupid question but have you asked your lfs? One of our lfs get the odd crab come in during an import, i wouldn't be suprised if your lfs gets the same. As for the local crabs, been there done that, they slowly died over a period of three weeks i think they dont like the warm water as other people found simular trend with their's. But lately i've been getting the local shrimps out of the rock pools, they're pretty cool and they don't die.

Ok, It sounds more like what else mine does. At night and when he feels thrieghtened, he shows light spots and lines on his body and around his mouth it looks like he has sabre teeth.

My bi-colour blennies is the same he gets debri court on his fins from the rock worms, some times it's obvious as its more like a white string and sometimes it looks like white spot.

Pies you got me thinking on this "Blues", "Actinic" subject, and the book i have staits that "Blues" have a lightwave range between 420-450nm, and the "Actinics" have a lightwave range between 300-500nm. Staiting this when i first was looking for my Actinic lamps 6 months ago we looked at the lightwave chart for the Actinic and it covered a good range of lightwaves and peaked very high on the 420-430nm lightwave. I dought very much that us human's would notice the difference but it may effect the corals in some way, such as intensity of colours. Does anyone have any more information on this subject, as i think this is a good subject and my help others including ourselfs to fully understand the importants of lighting in our aquariums.

Oops maybe i should read things a bit closer. Philips 03 Actinic's dir.

Just after the Actinic's in T5, whites as you say are easier enough. You mentioned Philips, is this actinic? if so is there any other info on the lamp? i.e my T8 actinics have "Sylvania","Coralstar", "Actinic" writen on the lamp it self. If i could get more info that would steer us in the right direction. Thanks With the blues, whats the go on these are they any good? do they add any benifit that the Actinic's don't?

Hi guy's, I'm just trying to track down a T5 actinic lamp with the wholesalers, and we are having difficulty. Can someone please tell me what make and any other info that is on the actinic T5 lamps they are running. Thanks Kermit

Ok sounds like more of a hassel then anything, i think i'll just add the extra sand and rock after i've cycled it in another tank and let it naturally settle, in theiry there should be enough of a bacteria collonie on the rock and sand to not course any major problems if any at all.

O yeah my rock love the old Bj with the power head about ounce a fourtnight, may do it more regular from now on tho. Thinking of putting a spray bar in there to blow the crap out to. I'll look into this "CYCLE" product to, is it the same as "PRIME" or "AMOLOCK"? If so i've used these products when my tank levels first started to rise, did work well. Cheers Kermit

Yippy, my water quality is coming back to normal Last reading were Ph 8.0 Ammonia 0.0mg nitrite 0.0mg Nitrate 5.0mg Phosphate 0.0mg Yippy, thank you to everyone for your help. building sand bed this weekend.

All three stores i go to here in chch Critter kingdom (stanmore), ganisms, and Redwood tell me up front if it'l go well in my system or not and if they're a hard species to keep. Luckily touch wood it's all been good advice.

So phosphate tests do vairy. well thats good to know

It's mainly hard corals isn't it? Bubbles, brains? Is there any acro's? Maybe next time dude, as they ordered this shipment months ago.

Very nice dude.

I'd say there'l be a huige que at rewood when there corals are released, i think i'll be setting up my tent, when word or release comes. Man i've got to get my new tank asap i'm missing out on so much, so many nice fishes.