Aquatopia

That skimmate is proof that its a top skimmer TM - nice one. Does the Mrs know about the additional pump, lol ?

Also - i have three clownfish pics i want to put up - each is very small - how can i do that ? Cheers

I would welcome your opinions on the compatibility of yellow tailed damsels with a pair of clarkii clowns in a 36 x 18 x 18 tank set up fish only. My aim is to have a small group of one fish variety (say 3 yellow tailed damsels), the pair of clowns and one or two other small individual fish (maybe a pygmy angel and a hawkfish). Its a short term setup - Im currently living the life of a poor student in full time study (mad bugger at 38 !!! talk about mid life crisis) - and when im back earning proper money I will move on to a larger reef tank. I just think they are lovely looking fish - chromis can look washed out (although i have seen some stunning ones too). Great colour mix with the deep blue body and yellow tail. What do you think guys ? Im sure there are some of you who have had this sort of combination so do let me know.

Sure would control -

Definitely works with the variety of rock types - branch rock is hard to get it seems (?). Would be a bit of a prob for coral that would usually expect light from above, but if the tank was deep enough from front to back it could be overcome. Better still in my mind would be a part wall on the left with another wall on the right slightly forward of the first and overlapping - it would give a feeling of greater depth.

Thats cool loopy - i was thinking about duboisi's or moorii etc. Anyone got those ???

bump no-one ???

Hi Raeh1 I saw somewhere that you were looking for an anemone. Can i suggest that you dont put it into your tank until you sort this problem out? You will be wasting your money as it will not last long with water chemistry issues such as this. Good luck. Pies is right - definitely get rid of any bioballs and/or canister filters (if you are using them) as they are nitrate factories. Are you over-feeding ?

Prodibio? Expensive?

I would have thought the reason the tank water is not under pressure is the huge area at the top of the water column that has nothing holding it in to "be" under pressure. A calcium reactor is somewhat different in that it does not have that to provide a release of pressure. Am i missing something?

Hi I want to keep and breed (for my own pleasure, not commercial) black mollies - is anyone in the Chch area already doing this who can offer me some advice ? Interested in standard or sailfins. Also orange sailfins too. Feel free to reply on here or PM me. Cheers

Bloody hell, what sort of anemone was it? That seems pricey !

Lovely fish - i would love one of these myself - and its odd because i had heard that so long as they are eating they are one of the hardier angels. I wish this hobby had more absolutes, lol.

Anyone breeding cichlids in Chch ??

I like the idea of BLACK as a backing for the very same reason - extra depth. Steve Weast has black in his aquarium and it looks great. The problem of not seeing it when crap grows over it is to clean it off !! It all depends on what effect you want in your tank. If you are worried about seeing the back then you will be equally keen to keep it clean i expect.

Is a 100% water change wise ? You will be losing all the bacteria that are in the water column wont you ?

Have you got rid of your deltec skimmer now ?? Dude i thought u were happy with Deltec. Just on a simple note - if i had the choice of making my own that could turn out half as good as this one i would do. and to achieve that at this sort of price is great work in my mind. I can't understand the relevence of anyone commenting about this in terms of a commercial venture. Nice work TM

Skimmers 1 / Non-Skimmers 0 WTH is all that about? Is this a competition about who is right and who is wrong? There dont have to be absolutes in this hobby. As the more astute people on this thread have pointed out, whether or not to use a skimmer depends on a variety of things - not least what you intend to keep in the tank. I have a mate who kept a 2' tank with 2 clownfish and a scooter blenny and a few mushies and bits and pieces for 3 years with no skimmer until he decided to get a 6 footer. Everything boils down to balance. Ultimately we have to make our own decision. A skimmer will help in most instances in my opinion, but there are circumstances where they are extras.

Really ? They are still heavily advertised in the US magazines - does that mean they are just more used in freshwater nowadays then ?

These tired old things ! They were flogging this notion when i first started fishkeeping in the UK years ago - the ones i saw were a black box with two wires that you wrapped around (in opposing directions) the feed tube of a Seaclone skimmer (according to the store it worked best with Seaclone, making this a truly amazing skimmer for the price, lol - more like they ordered 100 instead of 1 and needed to get rid). The theory was that the machine's electrical output reacted to the aragonite substrate they also wanted you to use in combination with carbon filtration. Cant remember exactly but it sounded like aquatic witchcraft to me. Only the one on trade me is claimed to have cost £70 originally and the one i DIDNT buy was £125 - perhaps i was being offered the deluxe version which also eliminates cyano too.......

a. price b. i like mollies c. i like black fish d. i have (am setting up) a marine tank

Hi all, Having just watched another great episode of "Equator" on Animal Planet channel, I am keen to consider further the notion of acclimatising brackish fish to a marine environment. In this episode it detailed an area of reef called "Raja Amphad" (excuse the spelling Im writing that phonetically) which is close to the equator. Part of it showed an area where true marine fish such as the clownfish and cardinal fish lived alongside more brackish fish like the archer fish; where mangroves grew alongside corals. Truly interesting stuff and it begs the question "Could you easily and safely acclimatise a brackish fish from a LFS to a marine environment"? I have heard of black mollies being successfully acclimatised, and being a fan of black fish (and cheap fish), I have to admit to the appeal of a "harem" of say black sailfin mollies, for example. I also like the look of the archer fish, and again this is readily available (though not so cheap). Has anyone tried this, or got any input to the notion ?

What if he upgrades to something that requires MORE than a MCE600 ?? I reckon it would be better to get a good second hand one for now and make the "big committment" when you know what you want to do a bit better with regards to your larger tank. By that time, who knows - the current best might have been bettered or be cheaper !?

If its budget you want you could think about a Seaclone. People dis them but i had one on a 2' tank and it worked great. Its all related to the kind of load you will put on it though. A cheaper one will cope if its not pushed but if you intend to stock high then you need to consider a better one - especially in that small volume of water. Good luck with a 2 footer - thats a challenge to do it right, just keep on top of water quality and temperature control.

Feelers - you can !!! This is a zebra moray. It is one of the morays that has a cartilage 'beak' rather than teeth. thats not to say it couldnt give you a nasty bite, but i had one in a tank i had in the UK. I bought it from 10" long and as thick as my thumb. Over 2 years it grew to 30" and grew 3x in thickness. Within 2 weeks i had trained it to take cooked shrimp from my hand and you could handle it like a well tempered snake. It always came out to say hello when i was in the room and lived happily alongside a yellow tang, bicolor angel, longnose butterfly and a midas blenny. Given the fact a midas blenny looks a similar colour to cooked shrimp and similar size it is incredible that it never ended up as dinner. Truly beautiful fish and i would have one again if the opportunity arose. On another score - the Dragon Moray is probably one of the most beautiful of all but with teeth that put more fear than a great white into most people and a temper to match.