hazymranch

Amen. I tried to organize something like that down here but there are only a handful of us.

Time for propagation to be the self-sustaining method of supply. Anyone ever listen to Anthony Calfo's talk on coral farming? Pretty interesting.

Anthony Calfo reckons that if you are a coral farmer and you use artificial lighting at all then you are in a losing venture. He grows corals in a greenhouse in Pennsylvania (not the sunniest place in the world) proving that natural sunlight is the gold standard. If you can manage the additional algae growth and the heat caused by direct sunlight then the corals will love it. One of my tanks gets heaps of sunlight and my corals are in heaven. On really sunny days I don't even bother putting the lights on.

It seems to have been removed from Trademe

In a new/cycling tank, the high concentration of dissolved organics in the water column will also make the water acidic. Don't get too concerned about your water chemistry until after your tank has fully cycled as it will swing all over the place as the different spikes occur and bacterial and algae species bloom and recede. Give it a solid 2 months before you even measure the pH.

I have 2 overflow weirs and one has 2x15mm bulkheads (one unrestricted and one backup) and the other has one 25mm bulkhead. To quiet the single bulkhead weir I have to close the ball valve as Layton described. It completely silences the system because it raises the water level in the weir to the point where no vortex forms to suck air into. However, it also raises the water level in the tank to beyond where I like it. Also, if the return pump shuts off and then back on, as in a power outage, it takes the weir too long to equalize and the main tank overflows until the weir catches up and equalizes. So, I have placed the internal sponge from a return pump (I place the hole in the sponge directly over the hole in the bulkhead) over the bulkhead and it slows/diffuses the flow just enough to reduce the sound to a low gurgle without slowing it enough to overflow the tank in a restart. The double-bulkhead weir is perfect because I have one working full stop and one as a backup and the water level in the weir is enough to eliminate any air being sucked into the bulkhead but if the water level gets high enough to overflow the tank, the backup bulkhead kicks in and compensates. I have been thinking seriously about drilling another bulkhead in the 25mm weir. So, both lduncan and suphew are right. However, in my system, lduncan's solution, while completely silent, means a wet carpet in a power outage. It remains to be seen whether drilling another bulkhead in the 25mm weir will have the same effect as in the 15mm weir due to the size of the bulkhead. To be silent, there has to be a fine balance between the amount of water that gets drawn through the weir and the amount of water that the bulkhead allows through with the depth of the weir and the water level in the tank as variables in the equation. I hope this helps. I have been working through this same issue since I built the weirs almost 2 years ago.

I just bought a box of 100 from Shoof International

Hey Duke, What are those bits on the ends of the PVC returns?

Wow, totally awesome. I wish I had seen this before I butchered mine and had to build a new canopy from scratch. One question about the fans: Won't they circulate the ballast-heated air into the tank and then the moisture-laden air back up into the wiring?

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/podcast-episodes/693-goniopora-podcast-episode-45-a.html http://www.goniopora.org/ Ttry these. The first is an interview with the guy who runs goniopora.org. I don't have any goniopora, but I found the interview really informative so I reckon the website would be even more so. Good luck

This is almost exactly what I experienced as well. I just kept siphoning it out during small weekly changes and eventually the balance of good vs. evil turned my way and it has not been back since (touch wood). IMO you have to just siphon it out when it shows up and let the biosystem in the tank do the rest. Don't let it smother any corals and a bit of vodka won't hurt. Don't forget that if a bunch of algae dies all of a sudden, it prodcues a heap of decay products and will feed more algae so siphon it out whenever you can.

Believe it or not, it even gets warm enough down here to make tank temp an issue (certainly not today thoough). At the start of the summer I slowly rasied my temps to 27 so any increase would not be as drastic. That said, on hot days the temps get up to around 29.5 with all fans running. It's a 2.5 degree change but lagoons would experience this I would imagine. Nothing seems to be suffering for it anyway. yesterday my 200L evaporated 9L of water in 24 hours in cooling. I have frozen a few bottles of water to prepare for the next hot day and a large fan is in the works.

I found the same to be true. I bought one on Ebay and had my parents mule it here on their last visit. Cost me $130 NZD for a 6-stage 100GPD RODI without shippping. The hardest part was finding balloons large enough to fit the filters.

With a slight modification to the endcaps/bulb holders you can make it possible to use 20W bulbs, which are far more common and available at places like Redpaths. It's only a matter of moving one of the endcaps out 1/2 inch or something similar.

Thanks Heli. Already read just about everything I could find on it, including that one.

Wow, what a beautiful fish

So far so good. They are growing steadily on the baby brine shrimp and on the BBS off days they get a granular fry food that the LFS gave me. Surprisingly, they eat it so I have hope of weaning them off of live food in a few weeks. One is a fair bit larger than the other so I am getting a little concerned about the runt's chances of survival. The glass in the 'fuge is filthy, but I will try to get a pic or two.

It can be tricky, especially with young ones. Craig at Redwood Aquatics did his best to pick me one of each and I got lucky that he was spot on. When they get older you can tell by the "banner" fin and the jawline. The male will have a longer banner fin and a bulldog-like jaw. If you want to do some reading, Google "Frank Marini" and A. A. Vagelli.

My two just had their first lot of fry. They were my first "must have" fish and are still my faves...especially after watching the male brood the fry in his mouth. It was so cool. :bounce: Good luck with it Heli.

Agreed Rossco, and thanks for the clarification. Barring the problem being something that looks a lot like white spot, it seems that the fact remains that his fish actually do have whitespot. Based on what you said, I would assume that the breakout was on the verge of occurring and only being held in check by the health of his fish. The stress of the "incident" having depressed their immune systems seems to have done just enough to allow the lesions to appear "suddenly". Either way, it is just a shame that it happens and I sympathize. That kid should spend the next 5 years in "time out"...or a good solid smack if that is his parents' style.

I was under the impression that this was actually the case. I thought that the parasites were endemic but kept in check in a healthy fish. However, the depressed immune system of a stressed fish could allow a momentary and sudden imbalance and allow the parasites to flourish, seen as a "sudden" outbreak. It happens pretty commonly in mammalian immunology. For a fish, 3 hours could be a pretty long time and for some parasites it is literally several hundred or even thousand lifetimes.

Ditto. Same kit and dKH is 9. Right where you want to be if your Ca is nice and high.

I did pretty much as evil suggested you do and just did away with the hood altogether. I figured that it was as much work to build a new hood to include T5 and Metal Halides (that are not all that expensive at around $80 for a whole kit available at just about any electrical trade outlet) as it would be to modify the existing hood to fit new lighting. Also, I found the hood to be a massive waste of space as half of it is simply the lid used for feeding. It also prevented me from using any hang-on-back appliances. Frankly if I ever start another tank again (ie. when I eventually upgrade as it seems is inevitable in this hobby) I will have one built and pre-drilled to spec for less than what the Aqua One tanks cost. Is there any way that you can return the tank and look into having one built? It is only my opinion, but one based on my experience and frustration at having to constantly modify a setup that is not really designed for reef tank use. If you are interested, PM me and I can shoot you links to the mods I made to my tank to ready it for reef use. cheers

Hi Mike, I modified an Aqua One tank like the one you have and found a few things: 1) Drilling an assembled tank was such a risky proposition that even professional glaziers wouldn't do it for me. An overflow weir could be a good option for you and you could have your brother send one with the skimmer...check on ebay or on sites like Marine Depot; 2) The lighting hood with the enclosed T8 lighting will not support much coral life and to modify it for T5 lighting wasn't that hard but you basically have to rip the whole existing lighting system out and replace it with a T5 retro-fit kit; 3) A hang-on-back skimmer will not fit with the hood in place so additional modification would be necessary. If you can get a Deltec MC500 for $475 then you should get it without hesitation as they are far more expensive here. Overskimming only becomes a problem if you have organisms in your tank that require some amount of dissolved organics present and a skimmer is so efficient that it completely strips the water clean. I wouldn't worry about that...it doesn't happen to people like you and I.

I'm beyond keen to give my pair of clowns a home if anyone who suddenly has extra anemone is willing to part with one or a fraction thereof 'tis the season you know. I have had a place for it staked out for a while, it is just impossible to get them down here.