reeftec

chimera i love how you put it ""joe public" this hobby is so political ,doesnot matter where you from,you have to know your lfs guy or spend alot of moneyor both mostlikely where do you import livestock from reef (if you don't mind me asking) any corals from the surronding regin or is it all import? what is average price for a decent sps colony in nzl,here in canada small aquaculture colonies go for 60 $can(52$us) i find it that ,both livestock & drygoods are the cheapest here compare to any country i ever visited (germany,japan,us,dubai,...),i think because wholesale is quiet cheap here(north america)but in states there is a bigger market for it so its alot more expensive(retail price) there,but overall the quality of livestock is better in us than canada,whith japan being the best i ever seen (amazing corals,but very expensive)

it's not an anemone its a short tentacle plate(fungia)it gets pretty big after feeding

:bounce:

very nice tank reef ,acouple of things i have not seen here any links to sites or places you buy livestock in nz

i am personaly a fan of bomer myself he has abeautiful tank,what he says makes sense,however again we are talking about reefkeeping in a glass tank not the ocean if you look at my previous post you see i made arefrence about simmilar situation with katrina however i asked you 2 queations that you didnot answer 1-do you agree with me that as far as sand bed is alive & working the fauna &the planktonic life comming from the dsb & its nutrient reduction is beneficial to your system& also how quick the dsb will crash has a lot to do with what you do in that tank 2- what is your personal experience with this

no offence taken layton as i said i am no advocate for anymethod,i find advocating closes possible future advancement because of closemindedness , so believe me i did read your post ,also that there is quiet a bit that dr shimek has said in the past that i don't agree with nevertheless he is a pioneer in the field & has contributed a fair bit whether his theories are going to be disaproved tommorow or not he deserves more respect now i have to ask you something would you be kind enough to explain to me howcome you are so certain of dsb effects ,it is just that i find you have a very strong front on this issue is that based on personal experiements & trail or what is your experience in this,did you have a dsb crash on you ,howmany have you seen crash(i have seen a few)& what was the tank specs,etc... please share your experiences with us

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/sps-tank-vt10198.html

i tried to post some pix from tank & equipment i was only allowed 3 pix how can i post more pix for you guys? layton i have to say i agree with you when you say if someone pushing a certain method too much they might be selling something also i have read all those thread also many other experiements with the saturation of phosphate 7 sulfor base compounds in sand beds,heck there was even that worry after the hurricane katrina in the middle of neworlean city that flood water not moving going anerobic & what is gonna happen pummping the stuff back inthe ocean,etc...... there has been many research in florida about this but then again many problems there since 50s poluting the nature,death of algae ,algal bloom,the scientist there seen it all now they are observing reefswide bleaching,rtn,stn,etc,etc something new everyday however noone has not set up 10 different tanks with the same bioload same para,same condition ,aquaescape,etc,etc,trying different things in there,with & without sandbeds to see what are THE LONG TERM EFFECTS IN A MANMADE GLASS SYSTEM NOT COMPARABLE TO OCEAN IN ANY WAY in your defense layton ,yes if you have a dsb poor husbandry,not enough light or flow feeding,etc,etc,your tank is gonna crash & that sand bed will start to become a problem also keep in mind no system wether manmade or natural is not 100% selfsustainable,100% they all have a natural life expextancy ,i do,so does the fish earth & my dsb bottom lline you can booze up every day with lowered lifeexpec. or exercise & eat right,etc etc same thing goes if you don't have anyother way of nutrient export,no w/c,heavy bioload,not properly set dsb will crash sooner than one with those means yes all dsbs will eventualy crash depending on the circumstances,so will all the bb tanks if you take an old rock out of your tank break it it is quiet nasty in the middle & eventualy starts putting stuff back in water again timeframe is a factor of the envoirment you created in that tank nothing is for ever now getting that out of the way maybe you agree with me that as far as dsb is alive & tank is alive & taken care of, the funa &planktonic life,etc comming from dsb is benefitial to your creatures ( again if treated properly)

well as i said before i am no expert neither i am an advocate for any method of reefkeeping,i like dsb,bb ,etc,... they all have thier pros & cons what i did i tried to combine asmany different methods of nutrient export that i could come up with ,I ALSO LIKE TO CLARIFY THIS THAT I AM NOT USING ZEOVIT,i have had very good growth & reasonable color as you can see all those pix were taken under 10k lighting however i just recieved my zeo package i am going to try it to see the difference for myself i am not looking forward to 100%improvement overnight,10% in 6 months is amazing as far as it comes to living ocean creatures. i have tried different methods before for example dosing vodka,to feed the bacteria(in some ways similliar to zeovit i think),it worked great for me,i was dosing on & off for 6 months,meanwhile a few other people i know had a crash dosing vodka & were blaming it on sand bed & the fact that does not work with this method,personaly i think difference was that i started dosing @.1 ml/100 gal & went up .1 /day ,but they started @ 3ml for the same volume not realizing what a bacteria bloom of that magnitude can do i tried heavy feeding for a while up to 10 cc of oyster eggs/3ml of cyclo/selcon per night /every night you be amazed how much feeding our tanks can take i posted a few pix on erics forum on rc when i was trying to keep dendrophyllia,diodogorgia nodulifera & also acalycigorgia in AN SPS TANK THAT IS of course 20% weekly w/c & other task envolved but i had them growing for 3 months before donating them to our local aquarium i never vacume the sand bed i think the key is to export as much as you can ,no dead spots in the tank,alot of sand critters like 100= nassarious snails,etc they do the job also covering most of the sand surface with rock not a good thing, personaly i didnot pile up i used big pieces of rock to use as a wall & false roof effect result of that is one big cave across the tank with a few opening & maximum sand surface rather than pilling 100lb all the way to back glass

thanx wasp dsb has been in there since day1 fish & inverts blue tang/yellow tang/ green coris wrasse/cardinal bangai/male madarin/2x high fin banded gobie with shrimp 2x fireshrimps,3x peppermint/2 emrald crabs/100+ nassarius/20 cerith/50astrea/50 redbanded margarita/3 lipstick conch& 1 zebra conch 6 clams 3x small maximas ,2 corceas & 1 squamosa also some coco worms featherdusters,etc corals 90% sps alveopora(has been growing well for the past year0 hellofungia short tenacle orange fungia allien eye chalice pink with green eyes chalice blue w yellow eye chalice red/green w green eyes leptoseris explanata (rare plating sps) 4 tube anemone pink green purple red sun coral plating blue photosynthetic sponge my most favorite open brain a few bright color zoo colonies pseudopterogrgia bipinnata as far as sps those photos are a few weeks old i have taken some colonies out since to frag & trade & maybe start a couple of other colonies however various montiporas,scrolcup,stags,pocillopora,seriatopora,stylo,various acros vallidia,gomezi,tort,tables,milliopora,nanna,etc

ph 8.2 alk 9 dkh ca 430 ppm mg 1350 ppm sg 1.025 temp 78-79 f orp 380 mv po4 p03 amo,nitrate,etc not detectable with salifert these are my parameters now however i had my alk @ 12 dkh for 6 months with no sideeffects that i could detect waterchange 15% weekly carbon changed @ 1l/week rowaphos 130 g/month kent salt

hello everyone first i want to thank you all for your interest in my tank,i am very humbled to be invited to this discussion. before anything i have to say i am no expert or marine biologist,i am engineer from vancouver canada with no background in aquarium hobby or caring for any live animals(bigcity boy). i used to live in germany till i was 10 ,i still go back a couple of times a year to see fam & firends so i always seen reeftanks around,big tanks that were running on a plenum for 15 years(high maintanance) i was always mesmorized however it was too much biology than technology for me so i always stayed away,afew years back i saw some tanks that were all automated & they could actualy test for the parameters they are trying to maintain,it was not all guessing there are actually different ways of maintaing marine biotopes today(as much as we do not know much about them),mechanicly &electronicly with acceptable level of success. so i started my reeftank 2 years ago with 3 things in mind maximum automation,no visible manmade equipment in sight&most natural (parameters,lighting,positionning,etc)envoirment for animals tank & equipment 72 gal bowfront/10gal sump /10gal refugium/40 gal prop tank(was just added to system last month) about 145 gal whole system with plummimg 2x 400 w xm 10k (7 hrs) ,2x 54w t5 (1x10k&1x actinic 9 hrsk) 2x96w pc actinic (12 hrs) ( 1100 w total on 4' long tank) 65w on refuge calcium(cr 422) rx on pinpoint ph controller & second chamber auto topoff(ro/di water) circulation 1x tunze 6100 on controller(3175 gal/hr) & 4x maxijets(4x300 gal/hr) return from sump 900 gal/hr euroreefskimmer for 110 gal ozone 200 mg/hr on controller injected into skimmer rowaphos reactor ,18 w uv on return from sump 1/4 horse power chiller,heaters 70lb of mixed rock & dsb 3" front to 6" in back area ,dsb in refugium with grape caulerpa lights on 24/7 no bioload in prop tank no rock just 40 gal extra water with478 w of light &lots of flow