ghostface

ok layton what would you suggest? the obvious option would be to remove the fuge / sandbed altogether, but i have no calcium reactor, and would rather not get one. doing 1/5th water change every 2 or 3 weeks. i want to keep the tank as nutrient-free as possible, but also as simple as possible. all other info i can find says that aragonite will keep PH stable. do you have links to any papers saying otherwise?

anyone running / ever run a fluidised sand bed? i am thinking of setting one up - i have gone BB, but refugium is still set up with about 4 inches of sand. still want to have the aragonite there for stable PH, but dont want to deal possible future DSB issues. current setup=200l display, 70l sump, deltec AP850. corals / fish / lotsa rock any suggestions?

alot of people use aragonite. it is pure white, and helps buffer the water, limiting PH fluctuations. LFS have it. http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/d_warren_090797.html http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/1097/1097_5.html

has anyone thought of trying to use natural light [skylight, etc] to suppliment their artificial lighting?

a bigger sump would allow more room for equipment [heater, skimmer, pump etc] you could look at getting a second-hand eheim return pump from a member here instead of the one you were looking at. prob. better quality. the more you spend on the skimmer, the better. if you get a good one it will allow you to keep more livestock in the tank. the clownfish are pretty easy to keep, however you may want to hold off on the anemone for a while. apparently they are a wee bit difficult to loook after. if you just want soft corals, then flouro lighting should be fine. metal halide lighting is what most people with reef tanks have, but these are quite expensive. the advantage with them is that they throw out enough light to keep hard corals etc. i think the live rock to litres of water ratio is about 1kg rock to 8litres of water. the more flow in the tank, the better. ideally you want no dead spots for gunk to collect and decay in. i have a few small powerheads in the tank as well as a couple of bigger ones. im sure that heaps of people will be able to help you here..

i have a BBC documentary [blue planet, coral episode] that has amongst other thinks, time lapse of acro growth. worth downloading *will swap copies for frags* heheh

dam dude thats over $8 a day.....

what did yours come to reef? got to be thousands...

$421 per year apparently anyone up for a street appeal? we can set up a nano on queen st and use our NSW buckets to collect cash

lol @ seio and swingarm package deal.

i have a couple of those exact buckets. theyre mint - the lids dont come off when they tip over in the boot and theyre light enough that you can carry them full without popping a vessel

i cant be bothered tearing my tank apart every month to get at them. i am trying to keep the tank healthy with as little intervention / labour as possible. [i want my weekends back] if there is an animal that will take care of this particular problem for me, i would rather take that route than periodically shell out for more potions from LFS. people keep copperbands successfully and swear by them, though my tank is a little too small for one i think. too bad the Ministry of Aversion to Fishkeeping have blocked most things that would be useful here.....

apart from chemical. i want a more permanent solution

does anyone have any suggestions for apstasia eating critters apart from copperband then?

cheers pie if anyone never has any i'd gladly not buy some from them i wonder if theyll make the list.....

does anyone have these? are they even allowed in NZ?

cleaning it must make some difference, the amount of filth that comes out when you do

use it to grow food for tank, and to let the caulerpa absorb nutrients. at the moment it doesnt have a dsb, its only about 1-2 inch deep. the plan was to take the sand from tank, and add it to the fuge, which would take it to 5-6 inch deep. anyone think that there is any point to this at all?

speaking of sand.... mine is coming out today. not having algae problems, but you can see the amount of crap that ends up trapped in it. i would prefer that out of the tank rather than rotting in the sand bed. what i am wondering though, is there any point having BB if you have a regfigium with a DSB? i figure that if the rocks in the display tank are not on sand, they can shed gunk and not leech it back up, and fish s**t can stay suspended long enough to get over the overflow and to the skimmer, rather than sticking in the sand like it does at the mo.

is wenderholm sweet? i would have thought the inlet there would murk up the sea.... gotta be better than dirty old takapuna boat ramp on the weekend though i guess.

just sent back my second seio. thats 2 out of two, wont be getting a third.. have to go with reef on this one, they are doorstops. maybe its just the new ones....

i wonder who their supplier is... somewhere in auckland there will be a warehouse with s*^tloads of them

i got some really good ones from plastics place (cant rem. name) in newmarket, accross from 277. the lids dont even come off when they tip over in the boot they were $20 though.

what was that movie? indecent proposal....

must just be bad luck / bad batch then