Stephen

In short locally no

I think your wires are crossed coral chips are alkaline, and will increase ph. As for the advice of 3 50% water changes baz just had a crash due to reducing his biological capacity to process ammonia and the tanks just settled out. exchanging out large volumes like that could put him back at square one, and whilst i see your point in a domestic setting its all abit previous, if parasites are introduced now they can spread quite happily within the substrate etc without being reduced suffiecently by water changes, a simple product such as protozin or melafix would be a better route at a half dosage, as theres no visable issue. I really dont recommend the corse action of exachanging large volumes because of this. If your particularly worried about the introduction of parasites then quarentine is the way forward, and the only way to esure that deseases arnt transferred. as for adding a mild salt soloution again for a comercial stand point this is a good tip esp when dealing with coldwater species such as carp, however in a domestic setting it will cause issues with plant life, over dosing can be fatal, and the changing permaters and water chemistry atm is illadvised stability is far better even than improvent in most cases(unless things are madly out of kilter) improving conditions gradulaly is far more effective. dont change your regime baz, keep a close eye on your stock if things, esp your ammonia and nitrite levels as your system is now rebuilding itself to deal with your waste loads, should things go sideways you only have one problem to contend with rather than several potential variables, this is a majour part to fishkeeping not cahnging to many things at once, a bit like cleaning all your connectors in your engine bay at once you wont know which one made the difference. my main piece of advice to you now baz is to let the system recover dont add any more fish for a month or so, and buy your own test kit, a basic kit wont cost the earth and regular checks even once a month will help you know if things are about to go a bit off. it will also get you more use dto the idea of testing and help you to understand water chemistry in greater detail for when you decide to progess with your fishkeeping, we all do it. tanks get bigger and fish get more and more delicate over the years as you want to push yourself to different things. i had a simular set up to yourself about 15 years ago, now ive caused myself a right headache, by well.... youve seen my tank pics haha. * just to make you feel better my friends brother just called me and ive just spent a fair while explaining to him how he has contarcted whitespot and how to deal with it. ive killed my fair share of fish in the early years, unfortuntly its part of learning. touch wood none recently, a few of my fish are over ten years old now:)

that r34 at the end is awesome, and the yella z32 its a beast anyone else think it might need more traction though?

I like that!

yeah i think your right, the swb has a differnmt spring damper/rate because of the weight distribution

we actualy have one of the footman james lot on here im sure he will be along shortly to help but as saifd they do insure imports as they have offered me a very very cheap policy im your asge.

its probally a mitsubishi...... :/

i know the ones from azoo are cheap however they arent the quietest. ive got two 4" computer fans that are near silent. dont buy the tunze aquawind thing its merly two laptop style fans and wayyyyyy over priced(not recommended) you can buy the azoo ones from a company called fish-street for cheaper than on the bay.

Ah didnt appricate they where that size, I dont if your aware but water looses its ability the hold onto oxygen the warmmer it gets, so when it got warm it was probally due to lack of oxgyen that they died than the psychical tempreture. Try raising your pump returns to increase surface movent, its th ed best way to increase disolved oxygen content

i want a real one!

you get condensation build up becaus eof the lack of vntilation etc etc, so the warm air rises in the hood then settlesthere as there is no where else to go. if you mount the fan on top the flap rather than below this will also help, but it shouldnt build up condensation as the moist warm air is being ventilated away. if in doubt you could mod the design slightly and use them the other way up to blow cool air in so they are only passing the dry air from the room, and run them constantly rtaher than using the atc to kick them in. i would run a rcd for them individually aswel just in case. you can buy them on brackets premade with a adapator from the likes of azoo which would give you further options. it may sound silly but have you tried turning the heater right down before you go down this route? it may be unnecessary, my marine tank historically has always has the heater turned off once the weather gets warm as even set at 22 it still warms the tank to 30 and the tankl naturally sits at 26-28 without any heating in summer. on a side note silver sharks do get mahoosive im sure your aware? we had a trio at one point ranging from 9" to about 12" maybe more apprantly it took 18 months to reach those sizes, i dont know what he had been feeding them radiation maybe? mine never got over 6" and eventually was eaten by my arrowanna because it didnt grow fast enough. random stuff but be warned. eyelash barbs are a much better smaller more colourfull simular alternatives.

rio is perfect for fans bud you just cut a swaure whole into the covers at the rear. use dto have a rio 400 but it got too small.

yeah tahts it the carbon(charcoal) should be changed regularly for best effect but i doubt you really need it. the floss should be changed or cleaned regulalry an dthe coarser sponge should only be changed when it doesnt spring back to its orginal shape and is too dirty to be rinsed clean. becasue ypou have no bio media it would be sensible to as recommend wash them un a bucket of tank water. if you ever get a bigger tank buy an external filter will make your filtration far superior no point atm tanks not really big enough to benifit. :)

change half the elements at a time. leave it a month or so between each swap. it is acceptable to wash filter sponges under tap water, but only if you have biological media. if you have a simple internal filter you wont have any, just sponges.

as vs said depends on your stock, however i would look at some things, if your running t5s im assuming theres a reason and thats reason is high lighting requirements? if its a closed hood install some 12v computer fans to pull and push the cool air in and warm air out. if its an open hood a 6 inch computer fan hooked up blowing over the surface can work wonders. something else which many many people dont realise, your heater doesnt know water tempreture your water is, it doesnt turn on warm up then turn off when the water is warm enough, it simply comes on and off for set periods. so installing a tempreture controller such as an atc 800 will allow you FAR better control, you can also use it to turn the fan/fans on when it hits a set temp, where talking between £10 and £20 quid for the controller. hth if you need help on finding the temp contoller just ask.

Time is your best friend now with small water changes with dechlorinated water. Dont be tempted to rushit. Find a better shop than pets at home. :)

Spot on vs, the substate change has ruined the aquariums biological holding capacity. Bacteria has bloomed with a surge of ammonia and pushed forth to create, niriite and nitrate. Ammonia is the most harmfull

No time to reply now baz but call me if your stuck.

try looking up hybrid zed aswel

seems to be the best prices are gained in good weather so hold off till then if you can

shoulda let us know you were coming down to my county woulda put the flags out.

do you need a working autobox? ive got one in my can atm running which will be comming out soon.

in that case would you not be better off dropping in a vh45 v8 or something along those lines? naturally aspirated power, and plenty of it. uprating the na engine to that sorta spec seems a bit unnecessary imo. some of the us guys have put over 300k on standard na blocks there pretty strong standard!

its about 15 miles from bournemouth, the when is in the air atm because of the patchy weather. but expect it to be very very soon

yummmmmm is that ford midnight blue x2? thats the exact colour my capri was :)