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Items by Tony

Marine Aquariums of South Africa

• 

  How to service a generator

  Posted: March 31st, 2012, 6:19pm CDT by Tony

  So, we all know about the power cut in SA and a lot of us buy gennies to save our tanks.
  
  I would like to know how one goes about servicing a generator? Is this something one can do at home or it there somewhere more specialised one can take the generator to like one would take a car for a service. I have a large 5 Kva gennie that takes a key to start it and it kicks in everytime and I dont want hassles during winter.
  
  I assume one has to change the oil. How do you do this and where can one dispose of the used oil in an enviromentally firendly manner? Is there a special oil one uses or can any engine oil work? Changing the spark plugs from time to time is easy enough. We also have to clean the filter sponge where the air is sucked in to prevent blockages and poor performance.
  
  Is there anything I am missing? Thanks in advance
• 

  [FS]: Aqua Medic T5 light pendant for sale: Johannesburg, Honeydew

  Posted: February 17th, 2012, 7:38am CST by Tony

  Hardware for saleThread title:

  Aqua Medic T5 light pendant for sale

  Location:

  Johannesburg, Honeydew

  Shipping or Collection only:

  Collection only

  All sales to be conducted on the thread.

  • I agree

  Photo's and description/list of items for sale:

  I have an Aqua Medic T5 pendant for sale. It takes 8 x 39 Watt T5's which are seperated into circuits of four bulbs for sunrise/sunset effects. Each group of 4 bulbs has a seperate plug so they can be put on seperate timers. It also has moonlight LED's on another plug should you want the moonlight effect.
  
  The pendant is 960mm long and I used it on a 1m x1m x 600D tank with good light penetration. The pendant is 6 months old
  
  It come with 8 Geisemann bulbs also 6 months old. The bulbs consist of 4 x aquablue +, 2 x aqua pink and 2 x actinic plus. It also has cooling fans to maintain optimal bulb output
  
  It has gear to suspend it from a ceiling or to attach it to the glass of the tank.
  
  
  Here you can see the little LED's running down the centre
  
  
  
  Asking R 3000-00 for everything. I am selling because I miss the MH glitter lines

  Notes:

  -

• 

  Keeping dwarf sea ponies

  Posted: October 26th, 2011, 9:02am CDT by Tony

  Hi guys
  
  How difficuilt are dwarf seahorses to keep?
  
  What's the minimum sized tank I can use?
  
  Are normal salinities fine for them?
  
  How long do they live?
  
  
  
  This is what I know so far and I want to learn more before taking the plunge, so any thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
  
  I know they dont like flow and need something to cling onto like macroalgae or artificial "plants". They only eat newly hatched brineshrimp as the food is small enough. No mechanical filtration is needed as you want to keep the brine shrimp circulating in the tank for them to feed the all the time. I will however do water changes with my main display daily to keep nutrients down. Lighting is not important but they do need a day night cycle. No other corals, aiptasia, hydroids or majano in the tank as these can sting and kill them. Three or four of them can be kept in the tank.
  
  Is there anything I have left out?
• 

  A strange refractometer request

  Posted: September 12th, 2011, 7:06am CDT by Tony

  Hi Hennie. I have a strange request. Can a salt refractometer be calibrated to read sugar concentration using a known sugar solution to calibrate it. Here's why!
  
  Being a chef by profession we use refractometers to make ice cream by measuring the amount of sugar in the mixture which will tell us if the ice cream will freeze to hard or too soft. One can buy sugar refractometers but they are double the price of salt meters. So, I would like to buy a salt meter and calibrate it to read sugar. Can this be done, and if so, how? I know it's not marine related but I would appreciate your help where possible
• 

  Pics of my mini anemones

  Posted: July 20th, 2011, 7:29pm CDT by Tony

  Hi all. I like these guys so much that I though I would share a few pics. They arent the greatest-taken with my i phone.
  
  
  
• 

  Nice visit to Dorry

  Posted: June 12th, 2011, 8:39am CDT by Tony

  I went to see the shop yesterday and was very impressed. Got myself a nice lime green mille and some of those lekker zoas. Very reasonably priced compared to some, nice clean tanks and good service. Well done
• 

  Thumbsucking prices

  Posted: June 7th, 2011, 6:59pm CDT by Tony

  I went to Lifestyle today as I heard they had some great zoanthids. In one tank they had colonies about the size of two fists put together with nice colours for R595-00. In another tank I saw some orange zoas I liked but this time it was the size of an old one rand coin for R295-00 . Half the price and not like it was some rarity as there were a lot of palys and other common zoas there for the same price. All of the items were lumped into one price bracket
  
  How the hell do these guys come up with these prices? I cannot understand how they come to such ridiculous prices. Needless to say I walked out as i was going to drop a few grand there. They wont be seeing me there anymore.
  
  I've imported stuff before and I know the costs involved and I just think we as reefers are being ripped off a lot of the time by pet shops. If this post gets me thrown off the forum then so be it.
• 

  Zeo reactor and halide pendant for sale for sale: Honeydew Johannesburg

  Posted: May 21st, 2011, 2:49pm CDT by Tony

  Hardware for saleThread title:

  Zeo reactor and halide pendant for sale
  

  Location:

  Honeydew Johannesburg
  

  Shipping or Collection only:

  Collection only
  

  Photo's and description/list of items for sale:

  I've got a reef octopus zeolite reactor for sale with a 500lph RO pump which is the perfect flow for zeolites. Asking for R800-00
  
  
  I aslo have a 250W SE metal halide pendant with w geisemann 250W 14000K metal halide. I've had the unit for two months and I am selling because I have gone the T5 route. It has all the controller gear and suspension cables and is a plug and play unit. Asking R3500-00
  
  
  
  

  Notes:

  -
  

• 

  Making your own p.H meter calibration liquids

  Posted: May 18th, 2011, 10:44am CDT by Tony

  I found this link a while agfo but wanted to share it with the guys on making your own calibration solutions. Let the chemists out there let me know what they think
  
  http://web.archive.org/web/200210150...io/default.asp
• 

  Acro goby ID needed

  Posted: May 17th, 2011, 5:43pm CDT by Tony

  I found this guy in my filter stocking today. Thankfully he survived and is back in the millepora I bought him in. Does anyone know what it is? Unfortunately my yellow clown goby and him are fighting for the real estate space in the coral
  
  
• 

  Do Vortech MP40 and MP10 sync together

  Posted: May 16th, 2011, 11:09am CDT by Tony

  Does anyone know if I can add/sync a MP10 to my system of 2 MP40W. I need a bit of extra flow but I dont want another MP40W as it would be too much but I want to sync up a MP10. I asked Scott and he doesnt know
  
  Thanks
• 

  Brilliant Hanna testers for multiple parameters

  Posted: May 12th, 2011, 8:20am CDT by Tony

  Check out this phosphate tester from Hanna. They will ship to SA and there are a lot of different test kits
  
  Hanna Aquarium Testers | Aquarium Specialty
• 

  Reeftek pendants and geisemann bulbs

  Posted: May 10th, 2011, 12:17pm CDT by Tony

  I just want to know if the spectral output as well as the light output will be affected if I use a reeftek pendant with geisemann bulbs. The pendant comes with cooling fans but I dont know if the ballast is electronic or magnetic. Can anyone help in this matter
• 

  Nudibranch ID

  Posted: May 8th, 2011, 4:11pm CDT by Tony

  Can anyone tell me if this guy is safe or not? Not too sure how he got in the tank but probably as a hitchiker.
  
• 

  ATI vs Geisemann

  Posted: April 28th, 2011, 8:09am CDT by Tony

  I would just like to get your opinions on the ATI powermodule vs the Geisemann Matrix? A lot of guys on international forums seem to think that the ATI is better because of the cooling fans prolonging the life of the bulbs and maintaining high par readings opposed to the Geisemann but I would just like to hear your opinions and experiences. The ATI is slightly cheaper than the Geisemann. Both will have 8 T5's with varying colours. Also how do you rate the bulbs of each brand?
• 

  Acro ID needed

  Posted: April 16th, 2011, 5:19pm CDT by Tony

  I bought a pink Acropora millepora yesterday and I noticed that there was a pinky/salmon coloured fish with goby like mouth and eyes within the coral branches. It is quiet flat with a high dorsal fin. Unfortunately, I cannot take a pic of the guy because he wont leave the coral branches. Does anyone know what the fish is or can point me in the right direction for an ID? Much appreciated
• 

  How accurate are Sailifert test kits

  Posted: April 13th, 2011, 5:09pm CDT by Tony

  They are way cheaper than most kits out there and the cynic in me wonders how accurate they are bec ause sometimes cheaper is rubbish. I'm not expecting them to match up to a photometer but do they square up to most test kits in accuracy?
• 

  Help with this

  Posted: March 31st, 2011, 10:54am CDT by Tony

  Hi Hennie. Could you give some insight into this thread? Thank
  
  Making Lugol's Solution - Marine Aquariums of South Africa
• 

  Making Lugol's Solution

  Posted: March 31st, 2011, 9:57am CDT by Tony

  I'm thinking about making Lugol's. The formula is simple enough. Take 5g iodine crystals and 10g potassium iodide and mix it with enough distilled water to make 100ml of fluid which will give me a solution strength of 150mg/ml. I can get the chemicals and water no problem and I have the scale that works in 1g increments so the accurate measurement isn't a problem. All in all it will cost me about R14-00 rand to produce 100ml which is a million times cheaper than what we pay for it in the fish shops.
  
  What I need are some pointers or possible problems.
  
  What is the strenght of Lugol's we buy in the pet shops? I can assume that it's pretty much the same considering it's a standard recipe.
  
  Thanks
• 

  Who would be interested in live phytoplancton

  Posted: March 16th, 2011, 7:54am CDT by Tony

  Hi All
  
  I am not trying to hawk anything here but I have a friend who is culturing live plancton. He has nannochloropsis occulata and isochrysis galbana, which are used to raise fish fry and crustaceans and I would like to know if there is a market for these products in marine aquaria before he goes ahead on a mass production sale?
  
  I am only asking to get a feel of the demand if any.