PENEJANE

Does the tanks in the garage count? I got my white cloud minnow tank unheated. Most of the time it doesn't even register on the temp strip on the side of the tank.

Ok I went and got a 500ltr/hr power head today and was wondering how much more filtration will I be needing for 60ltrs? I still have the HOB filter which is 200ltr/hr + the 500ltr/hr. Will I be needing another 500 or a 400? They have variable flow rates so I can lower them. Hoping to get lights sorted in a couple of months. Cheers.

Ok here is an update. I got some rock off njd (thanks again) and today we had some sun (finaly) and it was shining into the tank. Seeing all the pink/purple on the rock light up and dance under the ripples of the water looked totaly awesome but I was wondering why some of the coraline algae has died off? Is it the light being to bright or am I to expect some die off being a new tank and all again? Is there anything I can do to help it grow? I have read on some sites about adding backing soda (don't know how to spell it the other way). With being 60ltrs how much would I add or am I better off not to worry about it for now and leave it for a few more weeks? Cheers Also here is a pic of the only dude in the tank. He managed to survive the crash of my last one.

Cheers all I have had a big clean up out there now and it looks WAY better . I need to get the stand in for the 6ft and finish sealing it and then I can move some more fish around which will go in that tank that I want to keep. Then its wait till I come back from up north and ship in a big amount of fish and away we go I will post an update a bit later Cheers

:oops: :oops: :oops: hehe well what do you know. It scrapes off! haha Oh well at least thats out of the road then. I was thinking that I just got this one started and already something could be wrong!! haha. Cheers again guys.

I scraped the glass from last use. :-? I really don't know what it is. In the pic it look like the mouth end is on the left. It hasn't moved yet so I will see where it is tomorrow morning if no luck. If it is a flat worm should I remove it? Cheers

Ok I have set up the new tank. Put rock from other tank in there after a very good scrub and I have noticed this on the glass. I don't know what it is and hoping that someone here can tell me what it is and if its good or bad. Its only about 3-4mm long. Its on the front glass. Should I keep it or remove it? I would like to know asap so if I need to remove it I can do so while I still know where it is. Cheers

Evil I don't really know what went wrong. But it all came at the same time as I cut the mushrooms and added some cats eye snails and a glass shrimp from rock pools. Funny thing is is that the mushrooms died as did all the snails but the glass shrimp is still alive. He has shedded (sp) his shell twice now and is still doing fine. Everything went a very dark black/brown very quickly. I don't know what caused it as such but everything has had a scrub down and refulled with more salt water in hope to save any last critters that are in the rock. So what caused it I am not to sure if its the toxins that came from cutting the mushrooms, adding new snails or from one snail dying which I didn't know was dead at the time and was left there to long. But it all happened in the same week. This is why I am looking at the much bigger tank option as it will give me more space when things like this happen. But I can only try. Here is a pic of the tank that is now inside under the window with full sun on it. Apart from winter if the tank was to recieve light like this often would I still need to run fluros? Cheers

WoW!! I think I will stick with the 2 twin fluros at present. I just need to know what kelvin rating I need to get the blue colour from the tube for the marine tank. Cheers.

I know its a halogen light but could I change the bulb to a suitable one? Or are they totaly different fittings? http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storef ... View/M9473 Would this even work?

Land Lubber The power compacts that I was going to go with are the same as the energy saver bulbs that I was going to go with (well so I have been told). With the twin fluro holders I could probably make up a very nice hood with it and it would be pretty simple to (always better) instead of having to wire up a heap of PC bulbs. I will take a picture of it later today with the sunlight on it (no water or anything in it yet) and you can see how its going to sit and how much sunlight its going to get. My last quote for the twin tube holder it was going to cost me $20 each + bulbs, wire and plugs. So its not to bad Cheers again.

Well we don't go out to dinner and very rearly get kfc of fish and chips. What sort of bulbs are they? I might be able to get one local. Does that mean I still need to run the blue light also? I am wanting to do this one better than my nano which is why I am wanting to do it right. Anyone have a cheap MH for sale. No point me spending $30 on a bulb that is useless with out the unit and the recycling centre down here doesn't deal in lights of any sort. Went to a demo yard and they are wanting to charge me the earth, $150 for just the hanging unit. Also would sunlight (via a window) affect the tank badly? I would of thought that it would make the corals happy to get true sunlight in some degree. Cheers again.

OK I can get (cheap) two dbl T8 holders which I just have to add wire and plug to and bulbs. I thought that 2 white and 2 blue wouldn't be enough and was going for the 3 white and 1 blue. But if 2 of each is enough then I can use them on different timers or something. For the K rating. What number should I be aiming at for the blue tubes? I have read 10000k 14000k and 17000k. With running 2 blues what one would I need more? Cheers again. I think I will go with T8.

Hmmm well any other ideas then apart from LED's or Fluro? How about clipping a piece of blue perspex under one of the lights? I have also been looking on trademe and was wondering if these would be any good. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 237757.htm How would it go if I was to buy a light from Dr Foster & Smith? Is it worth it for the 50/50 bulb? Cheers

Yeah it is about 67 ltrs but I measured up to 1/2 a cm above the over flow. So it works out to be 58 ltrs but I rounded up to 60 to be safe The over flow is more for the surface of the water. To allow it to draw away so I don't get any scum on top. Will also allow me to do a sump later if I need to. I was thinking of a halide but I don't know if I can afford the power for that yet hehe and I don't think I have enough knowledge yet to look after the corals that require this light. One question on lighting though. With the budget energy saver bulbs that are the only ones that do 6400K how can I make one blue to work as the blue light? I have heard that it can be painted blue or put a blue covering over it. How would that work? Cheers.

Nothing that great to look at but its a start. I am standing next to the wall that my husband has put up to divide it off from the rest of the garage. It will have a roof lining put up and will paint the rest later. Its still messy as hell but we have only just moved here and are still sorting things out. Sale tanks on work bench and under. Display tanks down left wall and the divider wall will house all the products and food for sale. As mentioned earlier its a total mess and isn't much to look at but I thought I would share Hoping to have it up and running in April this year.

So now I am using this chance for an upgrade. Going from 27ltrs to 60 ltrs. Hopefully this will work better than the first one which was still neat to have but this one allows me to have fish Thanks to njd who is helping me through out this process and has helped me out soo much already I am hoping to have it up and running shortly. The tank is 2.5ft long 1ft x 1ft. I have added a piece of glass in one corner to allow for the over flow. I will take more pictures as things progress. Not to sure about lighting as of yet as to go with fluros or the budget saver bulbs which I am currently using. Cheers PeneJane

Glad to hear that everything is going fine for you. I to noticed that after I sent you the swords that I to have fry in the tank and they are turning orange so I am guessing that they are baby swords! I thought I had sent you all of them lol. Hope things keep going well for you. Merry christmas and have a safe new year.

Don't worry evil. They also forgot me but as I am about to show you would probably all wished you never saw it hehe. I have had my first go at cutting mushrooms and so far so good. They are in the floating trap as you can see as it was the only way I could keep a good eye on them and let them attach with out to much water flow to the coral rubble. Only have a few things in there which are snails (cats eyes snails are doing a wonderful job at cleaning one spot ($#&$#^^@) of the rock and I hope they will move out soon and do the rest of the rock. Two hermit crabs, glass shrimp and an oyster which has a yellow sponge attached to it. I don't know how long it will last in there but it seems to be opening and closing when ever something touches it. Well here is my horrit shot :roll: :oops: See Ira I am the one that should be packing up and selling lol.

I agree with going to the store and actualy holding it and taking a few shots. This is what I did and this is what helped me decide between the sony h5 and the olympus sp500uz. I didn't like the flash function on the olympus and the fact that the new h5 had the features we wanted from the olympus plus image stabilizing. Go into camera house or the likes and ask to see a line up of the cameras on the counter. That way you can go through and actualy see them for yourself as to what you think would suit you best. Cheers

I started with 4 normal minnows and now have over 20. My tank is unheated and I have found that they are almost seasonal breeders but can be tricked. When we have a very hot day and the temp rises to about 22-25*C the males start displaying and getting frisky with the girls. I don't remove fry and its the only tank that is fully loaded with duck weed (floating and very good for this) and java moss. I did have some in a heated tank but found that they didn't seem that interested to breed in there. I wonder if they breed with a temp change? As that is how it has been for me so far. Due to the minnows having very small mouths as it is they always get feed a combo of crushed and super fine crushed flake to make sure that if any babies are in there that they are able to get something. Often fed microworms. Good luck and I to would love to see a pic of the "sunset" minnows. Cheers

I have just brought the Sony H5 and WOW the options that are available on here is just awesome. The macro is so good you can take images of your own finger print. Extra large screen so you can always make sure you got your subject in the picture. Many people who have seen the camera say that its built around a tv screen :lol: You can find out all the specs at good old www.dpreview.com At the moment at noel leeming if you buy this camera you also have the choice of a 256 card and bag, 512 card or a photo printing station. We got the 512 card and it allows us to record 20 mins of streaming video with sound and you can zoom in and out while recording. Cheers

yes a 100wtt bulb will be way to hot. Try a frosted 25wtt if possible. Thats what I have in my setup which I will show you. This holds two coke bottles upside down with a bulb in the middle. Having a low watt bulb keeps the water warm and being inside the box it works even better. They need heat in order to hatch. If you over cooked them with the 100wt bulb then I suggest you start another batch (someone correct me if wrong) as they might be stuffed now. As for the fish. I order in what ever you want if its available on my list. I know that east rd's is your only option and I am hoping to change that next year in april/may. So if you are ever after anything just let me know and as I said I am happy to ship at your expence/risk. Could also get same day courier sorted for being so close. Cheers

My Goodness! Thats a lot to say in one breath. I don't think I could even say all that. If you are ever after more fish drop me a line as I do ship NZ wide. One thing I have to ask is.... is the shrimp hatchery heated?I know that if its heated you will have movement with in 24 hrs in the right conditions. With this many people popping up in the south I might have to look at setting up an anual bbq for the fnzas members of the greater south. Sorry I can't help you with the bbs area but you could try trademe and get the decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. I know it cost a bit more but you will only be needing a small amount at a time. Cheers

Nope I beat yous all with my nano. It has nothing in it apart from snails who are laying everywhere, 2 mushrooms and lots and lots of brown stuff everywhere. I have to say that the best thing for cleaning that off is the cats eye snails from the beach. I would really love to get some more stuff in there and some form of fish/shrimp to help eat up all the pods on the glass and these other creepy crawly things. :lol: :lol: :evil: :bounce: