DiverJohn

Hi Chikan, There are too many variables to give a deifinatlve answer. keep an eye on your pH tho. Especially in the morning before your lights come on. I turn my CO2 off when the lights go off, and run it at about 1 bubble per 3-4 seconds. But it really is a matter of trial and error unless you want to spend $$ on a pH controller. John

Hi Lowndsie Hey check out this thread on freshwest's tank it quite impressive.... then you see it in real life! And FYI dimensions are 90x30x30 inches (courtesy of google .com) John

Thats one of the problems with MH... heaps of light but very concentrated. There are too many different combinations to list if you are DIYing it, trust me i have looked!!! Off the top of my head...what about a single 150W MH + a 55W power compact at each end? 3x70W MH? 3x 80 W T5's? 4x58W T8's? I could go on... and there are pro's and cons to each way of doing it. MH would be great if you had a 2ftx2ftx2ft tank, but that just my opinion. Even then you could still get 300W (if not more ) of power compacts or T5's above the tank if you were inclined. With the added benefit of being able to turn tubes on and off to give different photo-periods... if you were inclined. :-? But again... $$$ IMO there is really no guarnteed right or wrong way to do it. ( other than everything must be balanced) Although there are probably some wrong things to do... But if you want a slighty more definative opinion... & dont quote me... the electronics side of it looks cheap, I'd bin the bulb tho and buy a new one. But you still run the risk of the electronics giving up End of the day it depends on what you want to acomplish and the $$ you want to spend. I'd like to say "HTH" but it probably hasnt... John

There are two bulbs in the range. the hint on the product is in the code... 730 "7" indicates the CRI range, in this case <= 79 "30" is the colour temp, in this case 3000K. This tube Is different, Its hotter (4200K) but no CRI listed, but look @ the code... its '840' indicating it is in the next CRI bracket up. Ie: Ra <= 89 Also remember these temps and Ra's are under idea conditions. Biggest factor is the age... Temp cools off and spectum shifts. If these lights have been in a shop you have no idea how long they have been going for. HTH John

According to this.... 3000K or "Warm White". Quite a low CRI (Ra) only 79. HTH

Hi Quark :-) I would have to say no. I did a bit of hunting about for info, becasue I am currently doing my bathroom in "HardieGlaze Tile' a similar product. The spec sheet for Hardiglaze says it is not suitable for Doubt it woudl be OK for an aquarium. Might be OK on a stand but you have to use a good primer on the back to stop water damaging it. HTH John

Great news seasider! Just remember it removes Nitrates as well which is what your plants grow on. for that reason i'd run it for a week and get your PO4 tested again. Suphew FYI Green Ex is a resin in a bag type product.

I woudl suggest that you spend some bucks and get a range of tests done on your tank... all teh standard ones and phosphate, maybe iron for completness. The fish shop should be able to do them for you, if not for free then for a small fee which will be cheaper than buying all the kits. (Oh and to make life easy take in about 500mls of tank water ) Post the results. The only time i have had algae problems I bought a phosphate test kit and it went off the chart!!! ( ok i exagerate, it was at the top end of the scale tho ) I used JBL phosEx and everything came good with in a week. The age of the tube could be contributing factor. If its been running for more than 10 hours a day and is older than 9-12 months, personally i'd bin it . HTH John

Ryan is right... by the time you put the water in a bucket you will have plenty of room for you fish. Plants will be fine out of the water for an hour - just put them in a shoping bag and they will survive. Then just change the gravel, put back the old water, and top up with clean water, easy peasy...

For sure!! Even he wore a mask fopr some parts of the instal!!! :lol: But it was the technique for cleaning up sillicon i thought could be useful

HI Guys & girls, dunno if this is relevant, and i have never tried to make a tank myself, but... Guy was installing my new shower today and sprayed the silicon with a weak solution of dishwashing liquid + water, before wiping with a rag to clean off the excess silicon. Have absolutly NO idea if this would work on tanks, but the silicon on my shower looks very tidy!!! Oh and wipes of the fingers easy too. HTH

And dont forget Daltons Propogating sand thats been mentioned... about $7 per 20 odd Kg bag...Wash well, works a treat. :-? Does anybody buy stones from the LFS anymore??? :-?

Ah interesting that this should come up again, and under the exact same circumstances, as what happended to me a couple of weeks ago. Without wanting to incur the wrath of the mods who i think have had a pretty hard time of late i would just like to put my $0.10 in. Firstly, by posting Greg agreed to the rules as do we all, specifically... Secondly, Greg has posted his phone number in the commercial trade and exchange section. I feel this is not "personal information" its "business information" as he is advertising a business and accepted the rules above. IMO Posting his phone number is no different to posting the phone number of any other business that has advertised in any public medium such as yellow pages or trademe. Just my $.10.... carry on.

Luke... what bulbs are you running??

Yes it is interesting. Really goes to show that there are a few variables to consider, like Warren said depth is a consideration... but not the only one. You need to consider intensity, colour of light, duration, tank volume, depth, mix of plants, fish and lastly.... what you want! If you were trying really hard to mimic nature then maybe an hour or two a day with a 150W MH and 100W worth of flouro's might help. But over all you need to SIBKIS (See it big, Keep it Simple). You cant really beat flouro's for ease of use, the availablity of replacement parts, different colours, and over all cost. Particularly when you are looking at less than 250watts total. DJ

Did a google Search using. "Amano aquarium how much light" Came up with this... something else to ponder eh?

Strewth!! IMO On a tank that small a 150W MH is overkill. For a planted tank you will have difficulty finding a bulb the right colour - they are available tho... But the biggest issue you will find is balance, you have to do everything together. If you go to 1 WPL ( with a 150W) you will still need CO2, ferts etc... There is no 1 single 'pill' that will make you plants grow better. Increase your lights a bit, by adding another tube or two, make sure all the tubes are up to spec ( less than 6 months old). Add some DIY CO2. Get some good liquid fertilizer and do everything in balance HTH DJ

FYI everyone... http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=214 Very Cool!

HI BK, When i first saw the pic i thought to myself.."thats the same as mine". It was a while ago but i think it was sold to me from the LFS as "mini sag" - but might have been "dwarf sag" What ever it is BK mine seems to like having the substate gentle 'tilled' every now and then, I think it helps the roots spread out.

OK, might be a really stupid suggestion but why dont you put a "normal" alarm on your house, with a dailer. Rig up the sensors (theres the DIY part for you )so that if any one of your really important parameters is out it sends a signal to the alarm, the alarm company rings you to say "There is a problem on circuit 4"... you know thats your tank. You go home and check everything. Usually the phone call is free too. We do this for our shop alarms to add in monitoring for over temp alarms on chillers etc. You (should?) get cheaper insurance to!!

Hi Antwan, Thought you might like to know thats not actually the "flower'. Over the next couple of weeks the stalk is going to continue to grow but each of those "flowery bits" will seperate as the stalk grows. You will get little buds at each junction. My understanding is that if you can fertislse the buds and keep them above the water they will flower, otherwise they will develop plantlets. (this happend accidently for me) I was very interested in Alans commets about carefully removing the plantles as they mature, you will find teh plantlet closer to teh maion plant mature faster, so i muight have a go at trying to prise the bigger ones off before cutting the stalk. HTH John

Hi guys, I have had another stalk shoot off the orisi that is in the plant survey... At the moment i dont need them, and i also havent got room for any trades. If anybody wants them send me a PM, I think they should be good in about another week or so as roots have started to develop. There are about 5. DJ

As well as all the sealing problems you would face you may find that the pump isnt big enough. HOB or HOT filters are designed to work with very little head. If budget is a concern... trademe is your friend. I find HOT's useful as a backup or for running carbon or other chemical filtration. HTH John

Dunno, give it a go, it might, if it doesnt then a bit of solder will fix it.

Spot on TM - it took me ages to figure it out :oops: If you are using (or been forced to use) fine "multi strand wire" you could do what they did on my aqua one light and put some solder on the bare wire