beachy

me too

What are the most acurate types of thermometers? Im sure this was posted here not that long ago, but i cant find it. Is there any really acurate aquarium thermometers? i have an aquaone digital, and im sure it reads just over 1 deg to high. What do most people here use, mercury or digi?

Sharn, good post , i was going to say weekly water changes. I always done weekly changes when i was keeping oscars, and other various big fish,and still my nitrates would be around 30-40 ppm. Good thing they are hardy fish, never had any real probs though.

Good call, i have not used sera nitrate test kits, only aquarium pharm, and they are hard enough to read on f/water sometimes.

Hmm sounds weird that you have to dilute, how would that give correct readings? Anyways how often do you do filter cleans, oscars are pretty messy.

Thanks wasp, i will be beefing up the flow, cant wait to get some nice corals. Thanks Mason, and yea my old tank would have been perfect :lol: youl have to put up some pics when its up and running:D

Hmm, well it was a while ago, maybe they were white at first.

my old fluval 404 had orange filter foam.

I have an aquaclear 20 400ish ltrs an hour which runs the surface skimmer, and an aquaclear 301 600ish ltrs an hour, still need more though. Bought a couple of nova sicce pumps from mitre 10 the other day($5.50 each), 800 ltrs hr, thought i would put them in, but they are too noisy. Just have to use them for turning over ASW, in the garage.

Ha ha, you beat me to it, i was just gonna post- now all i need is a bigger tank. :lol: Uh oh got the bug :lol:

Its an Aquamedic Ocean 150, 150 watt 14000k bulb. It was sitting quite close to the water but i moved it up(to much heat), and it still lights up the tank great. I can see into all the nooks and crannies, that i couldnt see before.

Just a quick update, got a Metal halide fixture today :bounce: , thanks Jetskisteve So i thought i would be a noter, and post a pic. I have wanted to get a metal halide since i first started keeping fish, and never have. I wish i did now, what a major improvment, not just in light, but overall look of the tank to. Im gonna go to bed with arc eye tonite from looking at it to much :lol: What would be good hours to run the light at? its on 12hrs now, but i have a feeling thats to much, especially since i dont have corals yet.

No, because the aquaminder is a thermometer already, it just has a few extras. You could just buy a cheap thermometer which would give you temp, then keep a record of when to change water, clean filters, so on. Up tp you

Its a thermometer with a few extra bells and whistles http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/acatalog/AQUAMINDER.html bit of info here, the high low temp alarm is nice to have. I had a basic didital therm with this feature.

Looking at the design on the first page, i find it hard to see how the syphon will break if the pump is turned off, wouldnt the water just keep draining to the bottom of the intake? Would it be a good idea to use the same setup, but build an overflow box around it, so water can be taken from the surface(no film), and the added securety knowing that if a pump fails it will only drain to the overflow level? i guess then you will still get a gurgle though.

whooa

I used a laguna pond filter pad for my via aqua 2600(and that had rubber feet), i think its like a pre filter it comes in quite a big square. It worked really well.

Hmmm, just had a read of this thread, got me thinking. What about adding one to my AR620T marine an extra 30 ltrs and the added flow would be great wouldnt have any media though, prob be like a spa in there :lol: i like the duel output too.

Cool thanks guys will get in contact with yas soon.

Heres an idea for all durso users, i came up with it as a way of reducing some of the gurgling noise. Instead of having a small hole to break the syphon in the top of the stand pipe, drill a bigger hole and push some plastic hose into it. I used some old filter fittings and some eheim hose, i think the hose was about 60ish cm long. You may have to play around with the hose size and length a little, depending on the flow, but it works a trick, it acts as a muffler. I prob cut the noise down by half, even though the durso wasnt to bad anyway, dont know if anyone has tried this but i would recommend giving it a go. Here is a pic

Cool thanks Fay, i have some of those small starfish, they came on some live rock, i dont see them to much anymore though.

Are snails good/bad for reef tanks? Are they good for keeping live rock clean? or are they not really needed? Are they available in NZ?

What about glueing a couple of braces along the top of the front and back, say about 2"wide. This might eliminate any splashing down the front or back, just a thought.