DiverJohn

Shuush!!!! Trade me!! I have purchased several eheims off trade me all have worked fine.

If you dont have any luck at those two places... Jansens Botany had them for $1 each i think....

LBB, Couple of Posts on here regarding the "risks" associated with wiring. Agree completely, unless you know what you are doing, dont do it! If the connections are clearly marked on the casing of the fixture, and you know the colours of Phase, neutral and earth, then it can be a "realtivly simple job. But to give you an idea, when i do mine... Take 1 minute to wire up, 2 minutes with a multimeter, checking as much as i can, then walk away, come back, check it again, then plug it in and switch it on. Some might say "over kill" but i aint dead yet! If the connections arent marked then you need advise on what to connect to where, as the wiring of flouro's is tricky. Is There 1 ballast or two? And i aint trying to be a awkward.. but because you asked... I dont really think you know... just trying to cover your butt !

from: http://www.osram.com/pdf/service_corner/white_light.pdf (this file is 2.5Mb) Light colour The light colour of a lamp depends on its spectral power distribution in the visible range. However, it is difficult to compare different lamps on the basis of their spectral power distribution. It is much easier to use their colour temperatures and colour rendering properties. Colour temperature The colour temperature of a light source is defined as the light colour that corresponds to the temperature of a standard radiator (black body radiator). It is expressed in kelvin (K). The colour temperature of a lamp gives us an idea of its light colour. The light colours or colour temperatures of fluorescent lamps are determined by the composition of the phosphor coating on the inside of the tubes. It is possible to produce white light with very different colour nuances: HTH

Nicely put Dubbie, dont think you missed a thing I managed to get another brand "Tunze" works well, threads are the same as the bottles you can hire ( or buy ) in NZ.

Inclined to agree with B&K although i set mine up for a bit less than 280. With a tank your size (mine is 250l) the yeast+sugar+baking soda is a bit of a PITA. Dont get me wrong... DIY will still work tho. I did my fiirst DIY set up for about $20 and most of that was buying some "Bioballs" the rest was made up of plastic containers, old sippa bottles, and air tube..

Nice try Chim...No, it $50 to scrape the powder coating off, then polish!! :lol: :lol: They are completly different design, and also the prices are a reflection (pardon the pun!) of commercial reality... I am guessing they are not used as much, there is less demand , they are not produced in quantities approaching the powder coated version. Also powder coat hides alot so you could probably get away with lower quality steel. NB: 'trade' on this item is $100+GST

Here you go..... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/here-vp105116.html#105116 Please email as per request in Comm' T&E. Thanks.

Bugger, theres that damned machine gun again !! :lol: But thats exactly how i did it too 8)

Bored, had a crack... about 140l ? Did a bit of rounding for convenience like 91.5 became 91, 30.5 became 30 etc..

If your interested there may be something similar in NZ... will check tomorrow Wotch this space...

Would sometiing like this do?? (the reflector come seperate to the batten fitting) I had a couple of those "arcadia remote units". T o mount the tubes i simply got a couple of 'flouro clips' and pop-rivited them on to the reflector.. on one either side, if you really needed to you could probably rivet another set of clips up the middle and add a 3rd tube!! These are the cheap reflectors (PM me to find out exactly how cheap!!) powder coated white, there is a more expensive version if you are into "shiney things" :lol: PM me if interested. Keep an eye on the commercial T&E over the next couple of days 8)

HI Snowman... I can get you Osram 865 - 6500K CRI 80+ Osram 965 - 6500K CRI 90+ PM for details. Its what i use on my tank. John

There is an acrylic supply place we use, just off Harris Rd in East Tamaki... Post Form Plastics 22 Birmingham Rd East Tamaki Auckland 0-9-271 2228

Hey #2 thought - ok so i am bored! And i am in the process of making a stand for my 5 footer ( wish i had a pic would make explaining much easier!!) Alan correctly metioned the back acting as a brace to stop diagonal movement of the stand. You questioned if you needed to so anything about 15mm extra width... Is the back made of quite flimsy material? Hard board? If so you could replace it with a backing board of 16mm material which will add strenght and give you your extra 15mm width!

the only thing i would suggest woud be extra supports in the middle. The span between each end and the single support in the middle is about 85cm. IMO that is too too wide... If you took out the center support, replaced it with two (or 3) supports at about 50cm centers (or 43cm if you go for 3 supports) you might be better off... use the doors and put one at each end. Shelves (or drawers) in the middle and your all done! And add the cleats as suggested.

Hi Pol', I think snowman is on the right track. However i did have an issue with BBA and if its got a strong hold you may need to be a bit more proactive to get it knocked back. Then the plants can establish themselves a bit better. Heres a few things i did... 1) reduce lights to 8 hours a day for up to a week. 2) Double dose with "SeaChem Excel" the one with carbon in it. 3) Potentially the most drastic! I made up a solution of Aluminium Sulphate in a 10 litre bucket. Remove plants and soak them in the solution for between 15 minutes and 2 hours. Remove from the solution wash plants in tap water, then wash again, the wash in a bucket of tank water. Then your plants are ready to stick back in the tank. In my tank BBA was history! !!! Aluminium Sulphate is available at garden Centers about $5 a 500g bag

Yeah, nice one mate! Good to see your keen and keep those questions flying in , were all happy to help. Unfortunatly the one thing you really need, but cant buy, is patience. :lol:

Dont rush in Marty.... Whats the ammonia reading? It should be zero. Do you have the Nitrite test kit too?? It should be zero as well

Never got this working.... the idea was to use a 12 volt halogen transformer (about $10 from hardware strore)

HI Plant man... Heres that recipie... Initially i was very kindly supplied the following ingredients scaled off... 9g of trace mix 14g K2SO4 - Potasium Sulphate 6g KNO3 - Potassium Nitrate 33g MgSO4 - Magnesuim Sulphate This was mixed with 300ml of water. And the dosing rate I calculated out was 1/12th of a ml (2 drops) per / 10gal Or 0.08 ml / 38 litres However, this is difficult to measure and could easily cause over dosing. So The 300ml of solution I keep as "stock" in the refridgerator. In the latest batch of diluted solution I am using 75ml of stock + 125ml water, and dosing at 5 mls per day. HTH John

Hi Marty, OK, i will have a go... An indication of the tank size would help. It sounds like you have been a little bit enthusiastic with putting the fish into the tank. I am guessing that yo have read on the forums already about "cycling". This allows the bacteria that convert ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate to colonize the water, filter, and gravel. It simply sounds like you have very little bacteria and plenty of fish producing waste... Unfortunatly through your losses, the system may stabalize and the bacteria that are present will be able to handle the wastes of the lower number of fish. Keep up the water changes - but you may like to increase to 10% daily until the ammonia is under control - I am assumeing you have a test kit? You could also help us out by letting us know the chemicals you are using. Hope that helps JOhn

Thought some of you might be interested in this ( I know Plant man will be!! ) Here is a pic of the E. Orisis back in May.... And here is one I took today. From the glass on the right hand side to the tip of the leaf on the left its 58cm or near enough 23 inches

Ah ok, sweet, that what i wanted to know. The green buds need to be fertilized, I should have paid more attention in those lectures! Any idea what the little nodes are??? Having difficulty finding info on the net...

Are you pimping my plant Alan!! :lol: :lol: :lol: Any idea when the flower will come out??