scholesy

8 hrs

I could always use some of my wife's rum... I can't stand the stuff

It's about 395nm wavelength, but I'm sure there's a bit of give and take either side. Trust me - you don't want to look into these babies too long ;-)

Just a thought.... anyone tried cycling their new tank with a little vodka (plain I guess, as opposed to 42below flavoured!)

Thanks all. These 250Wers I have are pretty bright looking... even the bottom of the tank is getting lots of light. I'll try to create a few small overhangs here and there for some of the soft corals that like a bit less. Cheers for the feedback, much appreciated

I made a 4' bar to mount inside my hood consisting of UV LEDs, plus some very dimly lit blue and ocean green LEDs. They're controlled by 2 chips that subtly increase and decrease the brightness as necessary. The 30-minute sequence begins about 5 mins before the last t5 on the tank goes off, and the reverse at the start of the day. Yes... even though it's a soft light, you don't want to be starely into the UV LEDs... sunburned eyes aren't nice

Interested to hear how many cm or inches if you prefer you have your halides above the water surface? I'm thinking about 20 - 25cm for my new set-up. All replies appreciated.

Red Prizm Pro?!?! Bloody hell, I'd be reluctant to put that on my baby (<160 litres) tank!!

Note that crabs, like me, would be trerbbile typers. Above: "fan" = "van", "answet" = "answer", and so on

SteveA - I like your crab idea provided it could do the following: 1. be happy sitting in an unmarked fan reading the newspaper while the camera in the back clicked people doing 57 kmh in a 50 zone, 2. never both to answet 111 calls, or at least divert them as far away from the emergency as possible, 3. regularly surf the net for dodgy images and then accept a slap on the claw with a wet bus ticket, 4. "independently" investigate claims of police abusing the public by using a team of, uh, police. Now being a crab and therefore a decapod, I'm also assuming it could issue more than double the tickets, use two PCs to download simultaneously, and so on. You might be onto something by suggesting the crabs could be traffic officers or thereabouts... (sorry everyone, a colleague just informed me on a traffic officer sitting on 70 in a 100kmh zone, sitting in the rightmost lane, with everyone backing up behind him and unable to "under"take on the left............)

The pot bellies, on the offchance someone didn't know, are because those seahorses are male and either advertising for a partner, or carrying young.

Can't go past a good refrac. If you know someone coming back from the States, Marine Depot.com do a good one for US$70, ATC (Auto Temp Compensating)

bloody fantastic!!

Someone earlier this post mentioned "mussels dying off for some reason". This is most likely due to starvation - mussels are filter feeders, and need a near constant supply of diatoms and other food particles. A filtration system would deprive them of this quickly. The other possibility is that a starfish ate them?

Sounds cool. I built a very simple little device using 4 comparators, an LM35 temp sensor and an ADC all hooked up to a big PC fan. There are 4 thresholds: cold alarm, heater on, fan on, hot alarm. If the temp exceeds the fan on temp, the little fan is enough to drop the temp. If too hot or too cold, it (once wired) fires a loud alarm. The heater on signal (once wired) will switch a 240V heater on. So far so good. Looking forward to see your pics! Speaking on which, I am going to take the next step from components and invesitgate PICs this year

sounds pretty whizzy Layton. Are you programming it on a PIC controller or something like that?

I second the job well done to Pies, Jane, and the others. The kebabs were great! Scholesy

Hi Alan, I suspect the Napier aquarium would be in contact with the hatchery at Mahenga Bay in Wgtn that (among other things) has hatched snapper from time to time and grown them to about 2-3cm in size before releasing / distributing.

Getting snapper to breed isn't just a matter of putting a red light over the tank and slapping on a Barry White record There are many factors to get right (many of which are not fully understood) including: lengthening of photoperiod appropriate food source change in temperature mate competition suitable spawning location and depth chemical cues in the fish and water There aren't any guarantees in life, so even if you got this right it may not work or the 'chemistry' may not be there. Fish A has to be attracted to fish B. If a ton of lipstick and a tarty outfit on fish A, and lots of macho posturing by fish B doesn't cut it, you can't just force the issue. Also, you have to make sure fishes A and B are of the right type to mate. The Civil Union Bill doesn't apply to fish in this instance. Finally, hatching eggs and rearing fry is another ball game altogether. Best to leave the snapper breeding to the experts (the snapper), eh?

gidday Peter, would be interested to hear how you go as this is sort of something I'm looking to do with my old PC (have it monitoring temp etc, plus controlling a pump or two, also transmitting data to a 4x40 LCD screen I have). cheers

Snapper get pretty big. We have some 7 year old snapper at a facility I spend a lot of time at, they are over a foot long excluding the tail. A group of 10 live in a 3000 litre tank with water pumped in direct from the sea. The water is turned over about once per hour. Yes, there is the 10-inch rule to prevent baby snapper from being fished. You catch one under the limit, you have to throw it back. Throw it into a tank sounds somewhat similar, but its not the same thing. Yes, you will need special dispensation to keep one - even for educational purposes. Keeping one so you can "learn about what it tastes like in a few years time" doesn't count as education. You would need: 1. a big chiller. In Wgtn, our water hits about 18 on a nice day. Your house is going to be warmer than that. 2. a big skimmer. Snapper guzzle, and they crap. 3. big vessels and frequent water changes, if you don't pipe water in from the sea 4. big supply of mussels and other fresh fish tidbits to feed them. Flakes won't do. 5. a big wallet crammed full o' Rutherfords. ........... keep something else!!! LOL All the best

Wellington region only, one large (approx. dinner plate size) covered (easily more than 50) maroon-ish mushrooms that have a gentle soft blue glow under the actinics. Reply to this post with offers if you're interested. cheers.