minchton Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Talking to a local today who is running a coldwater marine tank. He has had a visit from the sea police who have told him get rid of the crays and all other undersize fish or face a judge. Alternative is buy a licence takes at least 10 weeks to process, costs $100's dollars and must be renewed each year at similar cost. Be warned and keep your tank to yourself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted April 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Im still thinking whether to go coldwater marine or not. I really want to, but dont know if i have the time to set it up, like going to kaikoura and back etc Definatly going to think harder though, Might save for a chiller in the mean time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 In my experience you would struggle in Christchurch without a chiller in the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted April 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 Well i spose im lucky that summers over. Its gonna be a while before i get the tank setup, probly just run it through winter and see what happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted April 3, 2007 Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 I kept a set up for nearly 2 years but it was the second summer that cooked it. Good luck, they are worth the effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2007 Cheers, will keep you updated once i start it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native_Tanks Posted April 4, 2007 Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 Hi all, I just set up my 140lt NSW Native tank here are some photos. Sorry about the quality but the phone's camera is not very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted April 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2007 wow thats awesome! What equipment u useing? A chiller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native_Tanks Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Yes, I bit the bullet and invested in a chiller, I got sick of the frozen bottle trick. Other than that I'm using my old Fluval 204 canister filter with a 4,200lt/h pump. I originally planed to have have the pump in-line but it leaked so had to put it into the tank and make it submersible. It goes in this order so as to keep the crap out of the chiller. Pump - Filter - chiller - tank I recently got a Skimmer and I'm currently playing around with it but I think the filter is doing such a good job that the skimmer is not working properly. I shifted everything over from my 60lt tank to the new 140lt tank (the one the photos are of) so the plan for the old 60lt tank is to set up a room temperature NSW tank based on a sand beach and stock it with things that will tolerate higher temps, like shrimp, hermit-crabs, cockles etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 What kind of skimmer is it? A good skimmer would be taking a fair bit of gunk out of that tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native_Tanks Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 The skimmer is a hang on the outside Jobo that I got from "evilknieval69", who I would like to thank very much. ek69 has given me some advise on setting it up and I have done some research on the net and I understand that it takes some time for the skimmer to settle down and to work properly so that it produces 'dry foam'. However after several nights of a lot of white wet foam and having to empty the collection container every 10-15 minutes I still cant get it to work properly. I will persevere. One interesting thing that I have noticed is that If I deliberately create a lot of micro-bubbles, by blocking off the cone into the colection cup and allow everything to discharge back into the tank, then the tank comes alive! The fish and shrimp become more active. I'm thinking that this is reproducing the conditions of a tidal surge. Also it appears that this is a good time to feed them because they show a lot more interest in food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Jebos are cheap, but not as effective as most other skimmers. My first skimmer was a jebo, which I modified & put an airstone in to get better performance, but eventually I bit the bullet, spent a lot of money, and got a high quality needlewheel skimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Cool tanks guys! It is so good seeing other people doing native thanks. I am rather obsessed with native freshwater fish (see the photos in the link in my signature). Native rockpool would be so cool. Damnit..... I shouldn't have read this thread.... I really DON'T need to get into native marine!! Thankfully the sea is very very far away and I don't have a car. (BTW: with chilling I note only ice and chillers have been mentioned. Something against using a fan? I have used a fan on my 220litre tank all summer with great success, just left it on all the time. I gave up on the chiller, not enough grunt and the fan was coping. Admittedly temps were 20-22 degrees without supplementary occasional ice, but I am impressed with the fan.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native_Tanks Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 Fantastic Freshwater tank! I have had the opportunity to visit the Minister of Conservation (Chris Carter) office in the beehive and he has a Freshwater Native tank. It is very impressive and even has a small eel. I tried using a fan for about 3 months and I think the fish and stuff that I had collected preferred a colder temperature as they came from the south coast of Wellington and were used to the cold. I have just set up my second NSW Native tank and this one is sand based and has no chiller it is just at room temperature. All the animals, cockles, shrimp, hermit crabs, horse mussel, anemones, and the stargazer fish have all come from the Pioura estuary. So far (2 weeks) they have survived except for the time the air pump went off for about 6 hours and I had catastrophic losses in the shrimp department and the 3 triple-fins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted April 14, 2007 Report Share Posted April 14, 2007 I had a native saltwater tank for a while years back. Like the folks have said, stick to the rockpool species, they are a pretty hardy bunch. Hermit crabs, cushion stars etc are easy to keep. But my favourite was a little sucker fish. They look a bit like a large slug, 50-75mm long and with a big suction pad on their belly. They got really tame and would suck onto the glass at the surface and take food from your hand. I would just feed mine bits of meat or fish and an occasional insect. Water changes were done with a couple of 10l plastic jerry cans filled from the beach every few weeks, top-ups to replace evaporation are just fresh water, and just a normal filter / airstone setup. As long as you dont overstock it's easy to run. Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionOfZion Posted April 16, 2007 Report Share Posted April 16, 2007 Has anyone had a problem with brown'fuzz' algae, and if so how do did you get it under control? I'm busy trying to get pink and green algae established for the critters to live in, but the brown algae is apparently poisonous to alot of creatures, and is rather mor resilent than the green or pink stuff. Thanks Roy EDIT: since posting this snails have demolished most of the brown algae. The new halide lamp I purchased has sarted growing green algae everywhere, and spots of pink are starting to form near the top. So essentially nature has solved my problem for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasmine Posted September 8, 2007 Report Share Posted September 8, 2007 So my brother caught a fish from the beach, which I since discovered is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acanthoclinus_fuscus I've put him in with some shrimp with the puffers, I stumbled across this thread because I was wondering if this was allowed, or illegal or something. He's doing quite well, at first he hid a lot but we see him out often now. He's only a littlie at the moment. Would he not be able to stay with my puffers (ie would the temperature kill him)? The shrimp which haven't been eaten (the bigger ones) seem to be doing fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted September 8, 2007 Report Share Posted September 8, 2007 that's the rockfish, which are quite legal to keep. Rockpool fish are hardy in terms of temperature extremes but he won't do well in a tropical tank long-term, so move him to an unheated one as soon as you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasmine Posted September 9, 2007 Report Share Posted September 9, 2007 Ok thanks. I might need to set up a tank just for rockpool creatures What about the shrimp? Are they ok in the tank for now? I was more catching shrimp for the puffers to eat, but there's three big ones still buzzing around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted September 9, 2007 Report Share Posted September 9, 2007 the shrimp actually seem to do all right in tropical tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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