Feelers

While that's undoubtably what the tank was worth when you work it all out, at the end of the day its only worth what someone will pay for it, and I think that was way too much and was never going to happen. People dont like doing it but splitting up whole systems is the best way to go.

RTBS I would seriously recommend hunting trademe, the marine systems always go for really cheap but they generally dont have good skimmers on them. I recently bought a tank off TM, the guy had a potentially awesome setup but didn't have a skimmer. I found it weird he would go so far but not take the deciding step that would have turned a medeocre tank into an excellent setup. Have you thought about going fish only, or perhaps softies (ie without the anemone). If fish only your costs are much less and with softies you save lots on lighting and electricity, and you can even get clowns to host in them if your lucky. Sweet that you took the initative and bought the book, it will pay for itself time and again. You already off to a better start than most. Oh and be warned, I had a look round the Nelson pet store marine section and they had the highest price for clearner shrimps anyone on the board had seen. :lol:

I just got myself a camera, does anyone know of a good site that can give me a run down of all the things I need to know about F values and shutter speed times, ISO etc. Taking good photos is something I'm really keen on doing.

Where is Layton, I tried saying his name 3 times in the mirror but he didnt show. :lol: He's definitly very well up to date with the science of SPS. My philosophy is much the same is his, I would want to feed heaps, then extract what remains quickly. A problem with nitrates is showing you are putting too much in(or not taking enough out better be careful here!), so I would be careful about adding things. Then again if you try it out and it works for you; keep doing it. Now that's a politicians answer.

Definitly the latter, the sea is probably the most consistant environment of them all, and it's very much in ones interest to fit the chemical mold it makes. Remember that is for marine eco system stability, when you change certain aspects some things are able to make use of it, just like phospherous to algae and rather oddly nitrates; to crown of thorns starfish. Apparently there are waaay more crown-O-thorns stars around because high nitrate levels dramatically increase the survival rates of the free swimming paralarvae /or something. I cant remember where I heard that but it's serious because it turns out pollution not only hurts the corals it helps the starfish which eat loads of corals directly. Those star fish look incredibly sinister!

Haha that is supposed to read Without the smiley inserted for the part. Cool that he did this way back in 1934, thats pretty insane.

I think there was some research recently that concluded that the bacteria involved in aquariums was primarily from the Nitrosococcus genus. The conclusion was that while out in the "real world" nitrosomonas were responsible for the N cycle, but that in aquarium systems there was a rather dramatic shift, there were virtually no nitrosomonas at all. Nitrosococcus is thought to be filling the gap. http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/67/12/5791.pdf It doesnt help you out much with your problem sorry andrem, but it shows that we are are still very much in the dark about these matters. 8)

That thing looks awesome (well it looks ugly but its a cool idea). WOK recommended it, I personally would hate dealing with bbs all the time so that thing looks sweeet.

Good old wikipedia. I dont think there would be any huge shift for Nitrosococcus from phytoplankton.

But; if you get do down to pH 1 or less, you're in trouble. Its not about how many H+ ions you add, its the amount that you are taking out.

I wish I got to sell my anemone and sailfin etc on TM, its driving me nuts wondering what they would have gone for!

This fish^ is what I think you mean on the right, its a 6 line wrasse, Pseudocheilinus Hexataenia. They are pretty cool looing fish!

I got to kill aptasia on the liverock from the tank I just bought, its fun and nice to have an excuse for all those syringes lying around the house. :lol: There's something quite satisfing about gettin them, the problem is hitting them right at the base, they shrivel up and its hard to see where they go.

Just offloaded the livestock, it would have been nice to do a $1 reserve , at $220 for the lot Hazzard got a pretty sweet deal, at least they will be well looked after. I really liked that anemone, from what I've heard of anemones being a pain in the ass that one was sweet, even ate pelleted food(accidentally). Hazzard I think it was a purple tipped anemone, Heteractis crispa.

Here are some terrible photos, I literally took 100 pics to get these, the only camera I have access to ATM is my "Trust 350ft Powerc@m" camera. It looks like a disposable, but its digital, and boy does it suck. It was a joke gift from a friend, turns out they were giving away these cameras free at some event in Holland. I cant use the view finder (it doesnt have an LCD screen) because it doesnt photograph whats visible to you. Instead I have to guess where I'm aiming and take lots and lots of photos hoping to get one. :lol: Needless to say the one of the clown is by far the best photo this thing has ever taken. It really frustrates me, I'm a bit anal when it comes to posting quality photos (only on my behalf I dont mind other peoples) so this is really annoying. :evil: The anenome loved the reef additive stuff I threw in to the tank, and I've been having some fun killing aptasia with joes juice. I also witnessed the anenome being stung by aptasia, it curled up and bent away from it, aptaisa are pretty tough!

Hey guys - I have my new tank, I went and picked it up and now the inhabitants all seem relativly happy in their new temporary home. They are - 1 nemo, one fan-tabulous anemone who opened right after the move, one quite large sailfin tang, one really cool green brittle star and about 5 soft corals. All the softies show polyp extension, one of them didnt but I moved him and now he's fine. This is my 1000th post, I would like to thank everyone who has created my interest in this often challenging, bizzare and halarious hobby. Its cool that my 1000th post is made on the first time I have ever dealt with livestock. I'm quite up on the theory by now! Its hard to belive I can make 999 posts without actually ever owning a fish or coral before. :lol: I think the people are a very important part, the few people I've met in real life have been really upfront and friendly. "Big ups" in particular to Wasp, Chim, Tm, Pies, Reef, Jetski and Layton who were particularly influential in my understanding of things. I still plan on owning the best darned coldwater reef tank in NZ, with a pet octopus as the main feature. I have enjoyed posting here, I was really worried about my first post after seeing all the arguments, haha! So if anyone else is in that position throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Cheers everyone, its been a lark! 8) Now to the business end of my post - I'm in a dilly of a pickle; I had planned to sell these fish/corals at $1 reserve before I went back to Hawkes Bay for the holidays; I can now get a ride home with my flatmate on Monday, but I obviously have to sort out the fish. Would anyone in Christchurch be able to keep them from monday until they sell on TM(I'll run a 1 week $1 reserve auction)? I realise it would be a bit of a hassel, I can give you some live rock or perhaps we can work out a deal of somekind, it would be much appreciated If I can offload the livestock I wont have to fly home (I'll be sneaking onto the ferry) Thanks guys - just give me a pm or ring me on 03 3511454 and ask for Alastair. I'll try to get some pics for y'all to see.

From what I've heard adding a UV makes the skimmer go nuts. Taken fom just that you'd expect it to be removing more from the water column. I think it definately sounds like JDM should give it a try, I'll be very interested in how it pans out.

Joe I'll soon have an eheim you can borrow as a return if you need to while your waiting for your replacement. edit: is this a normal pump or a topup? I'll have a 1262 tomorrow.

Do your 4 green unknown anemones look like this? If it does that means you have aiptasia, which is one of the pest organisms, it can kill fish and corals with its sting. There are a number of threads on how to deal with this - perhaps someone can link to one of the good ones?

Tom_Shannon if you remove the forward slash at the front of your tags they will work. eg. not www.picturelocaitonhere.jpeg

I'd sort out getting a filter for it first! There isnt much point in treating the symptoms if shes just gonna keep adding algae fix to make it "work". Doesnt need to be expensive, a $40 pump, some pumice/scorica/bioballs and an old $10 brewing barrel would make an excellent filter. I bet there'd be some old ones on trademe?

I will be getting my tank on Wednesday, I'll put up some pictures of the fish and corals. Its a bit of a mystery, I dont know what's in there. Kinda freaky, I've only seen 2 peoples reef tanks in real life, so while I know the theory I'm a little behind on practical experience. :lol: In the photobucket page there will be each photo listed and underneath there will be three bars - Url , Tag, and IMG. Copy-paste the IMG part into your message here and it will post the photo.

Can it be??? An argument in a Zeovit thread and it's nothing to do with Layton! :lol: 8)

The tank looks awesome. Its funny that you have nitrate problems while everything looks to be doing really well. Theres no algae either. Cool!

While that does have a pump its only really usable as a filter - thats the speed it pushes water through the filter compartment, so its not really a pump in the normal sence of the word. You need a standalone pump, depending on what you want to pay many people use eheims for return. You have a pretty small tank and sump, I dont really know what flow you'd be wanting. Trademe tends to be filled with pond pumps, something like this is what your after, but it might be too nuts (remember the height you're pumping detracts from the rating) http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 679144.htm You could always get something like this then split the return with a SQUID, so you could get some wave action going. There are a variety of eheims all doing different rates at different head heights... http://store.petplanet.co.nz/?page=shop ... 1e0c8bb867