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Thanks Ira Glad to hear it's not one of your nasty algaes!

I haven't posted an image here so not sure it will work. Tank is full of these bubbles. If I clean them away they reappear worse. They're all over my plants and on the glass. They seem affected by light as the bottom of the tank is free of them. If someone could tell me what it is I'd sure be grateful!

Hi Suphew. Keeping cold water marine. 300 litres. 4 Pots and a clean up crew. What have you got? Do you collect NSW?

Thanks for that link Feelers. I'll use their data next time. The site I was using had Taranaki as the nearest high tide location, then you had to add approx 20 mins on. I arrived there just before 11 so wasn't too far from high tide. I guess it was just a low high tide. Hopefully it'll be better next time as I didn't feel I was getting the cleanest water possible.

Hi. Went down to Pukerua Bay to collect NSW for the first time. Was there at around 11.00 am today (Sat 14th). I'd worked this out to be about high tide. But I found that the water was quite low. It only came up the wall about a foot (that's the wall at the main car park there). Is this usual? I was expecting it to be half way up the wall (don't know why I expected it to be half way up the wall - just did!). Anyone else collect from there? Was I there at the wrong time? Are some high tides better than others? Or is it always so low at high tide? Cheers.

Any of you guys know where I can buy Salifert test kits in NZ? Having trouble finding them.

Hi Brianemone Thanks for your reply. I've tried switching it off and on. I even left it off for ten minutes. No joy. I can't work out how a loss of power could make it suddenly so noisey! It's beyond me. Any recommendations for a quiet pump?

I recently bought an AquaC Remora Pro skimmer. It came with an Aqua One 105 Maxi Power Head. It wasn't a quiet pump to start with, but we had a brief power out last night and now it sounds like a small helicopter. Anyone got a clue how to quieten it down again? Anyone recommend a quiet power head/ water pump (2200 l/hr)? Maxi Jet 1200 & Mag Drive 3 are the pumps recommended with the Remora Pro, and are meant to be pretty quiet, but I haven't been able to source either here in New Zealand Cheers

Hi all, I have a 300 litre coldwater marine setup with pot bellied seahorses. I am just about to introduce some rock pool creatures for the first time. Amongst the creatures are some small fish (no idea what they are) and an anemone. Should I quarantine the fish before introducing them to the tank? Are anemone a potential hazard for the horses? (the one we got is about 2 inches in diameter) Also we have brought back a clump of seaweed attached to some rock which we want to place in the tank. Is it okay to do so? Cheers for now

I'm looking for a way of reducing nitrates (other than constant water changes) I have no sump and don't want a deep sand bed. Anyone in New Zealand bought a denitrifying filter or anything else that has actually worked If so where did you get it Cheers

Thanks for all the replies so far. It sounds like running the chiller at a reduced flow rate shouldn't do it any harm. That's very good to know! What about turning it off at night for an hour or two and back on again? I should think the temperature in the tank should only rise by about 2 -3 degrees, so it wouldn't take much for the chiller to bring it down again. So I can't see any reason why turning it off for short periods of time should do any harm - just thought I'd ask people with more experience I'd like to move it out of the room but it's not feasible You are right, Ben, about it turning off and on in short periods of time. The room temperature is about 25C and I'm bringing the temp down to 17C. At the moment it's coming on for 2 minutes, then stays off for 8 minutes. I think this is partially happening because of the low flow rate. The chiller is actually working 3 degrees below the real temp. It takes it down to 14 (real temp 17). Then activates again at 16 (real temp about 17.5). I think if I passed water through more quickly it would be able to work closer to the real tank temperature. But I REALLY don't want to see any more pipes, leads or equipment! How long do other user's chillers come on for and stay off for? Is anyone else trying to get their temperature down to 17C? Thanks again for your quick responses and help.

Thanks for your reply Chimera. I am struggling to find information, but the following website has some stats: http://www.aquarium-supply.biz/ordering ... llers.html It states that the minimum flow rate is 500gph (which is about 2000 litres per hour) The chiller is much bigger than my tank needs, so the flow rate it is running on works okay. I'm just concerned that it might damage the chiller. I have read on one site that running the chiller at a rate lower than recommended could damage it.

Hello All Two days ago I got myself a Resun C0500 chiller for my 300 litre seahorse tank. It's very good (if a bit noisy!!!). but the instructions were completely in Chinese and there are a couple of issues I'm hoping you folks might be able to help me with. The first concerns 'Flow Rate'. The minimum recommended flow rate for this model (as far as I can make out!) is 2000 l/h. The pump I am using only generates 400 l/h. The machine is working perfectly fine. It has taken the temp down to 17C and maintains it there. But I'm a bit worried that I might be doing the machine some harm by running it a flow rate much less than recommended - Any thoughts? Also - I'd like to be able to turn it off for a couple of hours at night (so that we can watch telly without it blasting in the background!). Again I'm worried that switching it off and on every day might harm it? Anyone know if they need to run continuously or not? I asked the same questions of the petshop that sold it to me and they had no idea. Hope someone can help - It was too expensive to break!!!