Control

Mine is varied by my controller to imatate the correct temp for the time of day and year. I used to run at 22. remember. the lower the temp the higher the O2.

Nice :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

When you consider the cost of the generator compared to the life in the tank it makes everyone including myself that doesn't have one look stupid. No offence intended. If they are that cheap now, I think it's time to buy a generator.

No you don't vent outside those units are cheap all in one things, that like saying a fridge is more efficiant if you leave the door open. The ones you are talking about use both outside are or the cooling if need be to save power. You don't leave your windows open if you are trying to cool down a room. If a heat pump keep a room at 20 degrees you will have no need to cool the tank. I know this because I have one.

http://www.coralplantations.com/pages/tanksetup.htm http://www.coralplantations.com/pages/filtration.htm

Wok That's great in theory but you will find it hard to find an installer that would be game enough to guaranty the installation on such a cheap unit let alone agree to install it in the first place. If you were a certified electrician and were able to gas it yourself it wouldn't be a problem, but if not the intallation would cost more than the unit and considering the life span that such a cheap heat pump would have it just wouldn't be worth it.

You can use a mercury switch on a float that can turn a small 12 volt pump on and off. Put a timer on it so you can limit the power supply to every 4 hours or so.

$20 dollars will give me a trip to sumner with my wife and kids with a trailer on the back with some barrels. If I had the other $100 I'd be putting it towards stock for my tank.

This is frustrating me, for some reason I remember something about a primer that you can use on the glass that lets you glue acylic to it.

Layton is right about the size of the tank however it is easy to do a skimmer if you can follow instructions. There is plenty of info out there and I can send you some that I have found as well Skimmers don't have to be the best for a basic setup, you need to decide what size tank you want to start with. The bigger the total capacity of the sump and the tank the better if you want to keep the more sensative inhabitants. But these are not for a beginner to keep. If you want to stick with the 80litre tank I suggest you do a search for "nano reef tanks" in google or similar and see what others that have done them have to say. Start here http://www.nano-reef.com/ I have done a few with many differant approaches in filtration and found that they were all easy to look after and very succesful as long as you keep the appropriate inhabitants in the tank and are realistic about your expectations for the tank.

DIY, now your talking. Most of my systems are DIY Go here for MH in NZ http://www.yellow.co.nz/site/radiumlighting/index.html deal direct with them. The link to the main site with the info is http://www.radium.de/

That is just not true because it depends on what he wants to keep and how much access he has to water for changes. There is nothing modern about this method it's decads old, but it can be very affective. creative Are you planning on using ASW or FSW, if FSW do you have easy access to the ocean so you can do regular water changes. I don't mean to be rude but what is your budget, it would be easier for us to reccomend things if we know what you have to spend. Sumps are easy. The advantages of a sump are increased water capacity which makes conditions more stable and more area to place more gear out of the tank and in the sump which keeps the tank for what you really want to look at. However for an 80 litre I would keep it simple if you plan to advance further. If we can work out the best system in your budget we can also advise on what can be kept in it and the difficulties related to it.

suphew wrote Who said anything about harbours Are you saying that stuff dumped further out to sea won't find it's way to our shores with the currents. It does't have to be dumped in the harbours to be a problem. If the rules state that they can dump along our coast line just not in our harbours which is what you seem to be saying then it just adds to my arguement of how stuppid maf really is.

To my knowledge Live Rock has to sit dry for three weeks to kill any hitch hickers. however I don't know if that is still current. My issue with the never ending [edit=cees]word removed[/edit] maf is the way they restrict and police our hobby yet don't police whether or not the ships dump there bilge water where they are suppose to that is the threat not our hobby. The other problem is that allot of thier rules are based on possibilaties and asumption without any proof in research, I seem to remember them either suggesting or setting it up so an importer could pay for things to be tested. The problem with that is one would pay and everyone else would benifit without paying anything towards the testing. Stopping things because they could cause a problem with our inviroment is not a problem to me as long as they show proof. Stopping things because they can be danderous to humans of which our medical system has no knowledge of, well I think this one could be debated for many reasons.

The water in Christchurch was crystal clear last week when I got some. There was a truck there from the airport collecting water for the subzero tanks at the International Antartic Centre.

Thats why I have a large amount cycling as backup. It just make things so much easier.

Pies wrote Are you actaully saying that ASW has everything in it that corals would get in the reef. Surely your not suggesting that to be so. Our NSW in NZ is nowhere near what they get either but its allot closer than ASW. Pies wrote Yes it is, and I do that as well. But that method isan't much help if you have a couple of months of bad weather and need to do a water change. Pies wrote My cheap kids microscope says otherwize. Pies wrote There is plenty of info on natural ecosystems on the net that state and show that they work and why they are more successfull. I have already put some links up in this forum on that subject writen by people who do it themselves and are well respected. This is the last one I put up and I don't think that you will find any people that know about his tanks that would argue with him. It has 7 pages. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/eb/index.htm My storage tank is connected to my sump and my Aquacontroller does water changes automatically or when I tell it to. I'm getting another storage tank soon, the same size and I'm thinking of filling it with live rock or something similar and running a slow feed to and from the tanks sump.

Sea water is a living thing in itself so if you store it it has to be kept alive for it to be benificial. There are two reasons for using NSW. It can be cheaper than salts depending on how far you have to travel but the most important is the natural foods that it contains that the salts don't have. There is alot of life in sea water and O2 must be put in the water to keep the microscopic life alive. Depending on the time of year that you collect it, it can be a good idea to lightly filter it mainly spring when the plantonic algae and everything else goes mad. I have a small amount of live rock (supported by an acylic rack that I made) at the top of my storage tank just below the lid, the waterpump is at the bottom of the tank and sprays over the rock. I don't need air because the oxigenation of the splashing water as it returns keeps the O2 level high. I only use air if the level gets closer than a foot from the rock, if I remember to turn it on. When I add water to the storage tank I don't use water from it for 2-3 weeks depending on how good the water that I last added was. if the water that was just added is/was crystal clear I don't worry about waiting. My storage tank is 1000 litres so I can easily go to colleck water and decide against it when I get there if it isan't up to my standard. If you choose not to keep it alive you will lose allot of the natural foods that are in that water because they will die and decay which is another problem in itself. You must wait along time before you use it or must use it straight away, the later makes having a storge tank pointless. If your main tanks system is good you want notice any problems by not keeping it alive. Any problems in the water from storing it will be very quickly taken care of by your system. Cycled storage systems are far more conveniant and can be used whenever you need it (unless you had to use bad water in it). You will also be providing the inhabitants of your tank with seasonal water changes which is very benificial as the life in the water changes from season to season and this is one of the key factors in triggering spawning.

No need plenty of scientist already have done. Heres an interesting 7 pages of reading. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/eb/index.htm

What is it about a reef that makes you all think that the water and conditions in it are always perfect.

How deep is the sandbed How much is topped off in the time you stated If there is allot of evaporation being replaced and they are using a supplement which probably have buffer in it (not sure if it has I haven't used that one) it is possible. As for the splitting there has always been allot of debate about the cause of this, as in most cases the conclusions that are made, even by the best and most respected people in the world are based on assumption or a slight varyation on some other persons research. So noone should be saying that the tank is not healthy. There are allot of people running tanks in the world that don't get any water changes at all because they don't need to with the type of systems they are running. minchton Can you put some picture of the tank up so we can see what could be happening.

Missed it but that may have been the BBC living planet one that i have on DVD it has similer footage to what your discribing. I hope they make it a reserve of some kind and stop public access until it has been thouroghly studdied. Not an easy thing to enforce.

what gets me is what forms of life could be on it that we don't know about yet.

Has anyone else seen this. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20050418/newreef.html Aaron

Ira No we just need to cut the Cock Straight cable and leave you people in the north to get you own power supply and stop taking our. People said it would cause problems with the inviroment of the lakes and glaciers if they took to much and they were obviously right. Aaron