Pies

Chris L. I have one 300 watt in my 450 ltr.

I agree with Ira. 300 Watts should heat the tank fine, but I would want a 2nd heater in there just to be 'safe'. Driftwood. If you can boil it, or something is best. And leave it soaking for as long as you can. I use the bath!

Firstly I think you should replace you tubes regulary. Every 6 months for T12 (the big ols style fluros) or VHO fluros, and every 9 months for T8s (the slimer fluros), every 4 years for the T5s. These are approximations of course. Not wanting to go into to much detail, but replacing bulbs is 'good', running old ones is 'bad'. People always look at my freshwater and say "how do you get your plants to grow that well". I rotate my bulbs is a large part. What type of bulbs to use? Here is me pleeding. When you buy a bulb, buy a useful one. So many people look at pet shop prices, and say 'no way', then straight down to Coreys (or any other electrical whosaler) and buy a cheap white light. This is not ideal. Some people get tricky and use a 'grolux' or 'grolight', this is worse. Now pet shop bulbs are just far to expensive. And I can understand why people don't rotate their bulbs at this cost. So what can you do? Go down to Coreys (or whereever) and say "Kelvin". They will know exactly what you mean. Most electrical whosalers stock different brands; phillips, sylvania, thompson etc. No-atter,just tell them you want a bulb in the 6000-6500 kelvin range, they will look at their chart and its all done. I buy a mixture of bulbs from Sylvania, $8 for the 6000k and about $12 for the 6500k from memory. The white lights used in offices, and the red or yellow lights used in hydroponics or for growing seeds are not ideal for fishtanks. Kelvin measures the lights 'color spectrum', it has little to do with the strength of the light, or its brightness, its more the frequency of light. 6000-6500k is IDEAL for growing plants and retarding algae. The lower the kalvin rating the yellower (then reder) the light, the higer the kelvin the bluer. My marine tank uses 6000k (natural daylight-ish), 10000k (blueish light, as seen deep under water). Also the higher the kelvin, the crisper looking the light, but the less intense e.g. a 10000k 250watt light puts out more lumens (brightness) than a 250watt 14000k light. My freshwater uses 6000k & 6500k mixtures. My plant life is outstanding, my algae nonexistant. There is some good advice here. GO FOT IT Pies

Everyone My new website is now up & live. www.homereef.co.nz documents my reef, with photos, information and a regular journal of events. Please take a look and give feedback. The feedback I got last time was very useful. As all web sites of its nature, its really work in progress, but if there is information missing that you think really should be there let me know what it is. Also if you know of people with marines please point them towards this site. I really would like to start to meet other marine fish keepers around the place. Pies

Sophisticated maybee, but i'm not the only one. Many people use RO/DI systems for their water. Its funny to be because the water is the single most important part of any fishtank, so I don't think it hurts to make sure its as good as you can make it. Good water = success. The cost of setting up and maintaing my tank. Well the setup was expensive, no doubt about that, infact I don't like to think about it to much so lets just move on. The maintenance however I think is cheap. The fresh water, if I had to hazard a guess would cost about $50.00 a year ish (6L a day). Other than that, its just electricity and a few other bits and bobs, got to be less than $200.00 a year including everything (excluding power). So thats not too bad. Would have to factor in wear and tear on pumps etc too, but who knows, I am hoping those Eheim pumops will be going for longer than me $1500.00 does not sound very expensive at all for a marine tank, but $1500.00 is still a lot of money. Although I don't advocate doing things on the cheap, there are ways to save money, and there are lots of people out their willing to help people out. Remeber most pet shops are aiming for 100% markup or more, so if you can find 2nd hand gear or buy from the internet you can chop it in half. I know a guy close to me. He has a 3 ft marine tank done on the cheap. he successfully keeps some coral, several fish including yellow tang and coral beauty angel. A great tank, a labour of love, and done on a shoe string budget. He has brought the nessessity gear, skimmer and good lighting (DIY), the rest he has made do with what he had from freshwater, what he could get for free or 2nd hand on T&E etc. Good tank. Keeping marines is expensive, no two ways about it. But if you want it to happen, one day it will. I had wanted a marine tank since I was 17 years old. Now I am almost 30 *gulp*. Ohh and new website and photos with lots of tank info etc. www.homereef.co.nz. This is the new design and final resting place for my reed site. Pies

I use filtered water for my top off (replacing evap). I run the water through a 5 Micron sediment filter, then a carbon filter than an RO membrane and finally through Ion Exchange resins. Phosphate, nitrate and anything else is well gone by then. Caryl, a new web site & domain name is comming. Tommorow... Pies

Chris L. Please remember that top-up needs to be done with freshwater not saltwater. Salt doesn't evaporate away, so when evap happens you need to use fresh. Pies

Most pet shops aim to make no less than 100% on fish. Many others (Jansens) make no less than 100% + GST. Hence the reason it pays to shop around. Ohhh and my power bill is over $300 a month now, and I don't got no fish room...

BrianK my tank is 700ltr + a 160ltr sump + plumbing. Over 150kg of live rock. The mandarin is awesome. I have a web site for my tank, will be revealed very soon (tommorow or tonight). Get Ready

BrianK They blenny you had that died, is that the 'tripple fin'. If so it will only eat micro inverts. All is not lost, there are some things you can do to keep them (or fish like them). Keep as much rock as you can, and have a sand bed (less than 1 inch). Then leave the tank for quite some time to get breeding populations started. Load the tank with snails and shrimp, as these breed easy and provide spawn into the tank (skimmer makes sure nothing survives). Then after the tank is mature, add the fish. It should survive in the tank on the food living in there. Don't get disheartened if it doesn't eat food you prepare, many fish won't. I keep a manderin and a scooter blenny, these only live on the little critters in the tank and nothing else. My mandarin is so fat now (compared to when I got it) that I assume it means there is lots of food in there Pies

I am interested in the sea sworls. 04 973 2713 ask for mark. Are they new, if not how much use they had? What size plumbing are they? Ay other info like model numbers etc. Pies

Maybee its a clown nudibranch? http://www.enderby.co.nz/pages/gallery.html Great work on the tank! Would love to see more pics! What was the URL of your website again? Remember with Nudibranch they have very short lifespans (months not years), and they typically only eat one thing e.g. a particualr spounge, coral or zooanthid or anomne. So don't be to surprised if it does die, there captive lifespans and eating habbits makes them a real challenge. Chris.L keep at it, it will happen. Start getting all the other bits you need first, then as soon as a tank turns up you will be ready to go! Pies

Wave makers are VERY COMMON amounst reefkeepers. Its very hard to keep SPS coral alive without some form of random water current in the tank. Looks like you need to be fairly serious to make one though! DAMN! Traditional wavemakers are becomming out-moded by the new electronic wavemaker/pump combos that never actually turn the pump off (the one in the article basically switches the powerhead on or off), but change its power between 90% and 10%, creating pulses and never straining the pumps too much be turning of and on too often. Many powerheads die very quickly when this happens to them. I have just purchased (am waiting for it to arrive) a TUNZE wavemaker using the new electronic TERBELLE STREAM pumps. These pumps don't have an impeller, but have a 'propellor' and each pump (I brought 2) moves 12000 ltr/hr, and has a wavemaker, with a light sensitive diode that knows when the lights are off and turns the pumps down to simulate 'night time' weather in the tank. Go the waves.

There are plenty of Tropical Sea Horses being brought in. Janesnes on MT Eden Rd has/had some last week. Aquanet have imported some, and assuming they survive, will be in shops after clearing quarantine in a few weeks time. I could find out what store would be recieving them, but they don't sell direct to the public. They are yellow ones, definitaly tropical and some say 'reef safe' although others claim they can get algae growing on them because of bright lights on reef setups. Pies

For freshwater i've tried several different types of filter including Ehiem and Fluval (only 404s). There is no doubt in my mind that the Ehiems are 'better', but they sure are expensive... For saltwater I am ONLY using Ehiem. Bugger the cost, reliability is more important than anything else, and I know of a guy in Wellington, that has about 7 Ehiem filters running his reef, 4 of which are submerged in saltwater for the last 7 years and still going. Can't beat that.

I was in Hollywood Fish Farm on Friday, and they were $69.00 ea, and these are the Ocellarus (sp?) or false percula. Nothing rong with them, just not a match for mine... Man marine stuff is expensive sometimes...

What about em? Mussles are fine, but they do contain a lot of nitrates, so don't over do it. I've made up some 'home made' stuff. Chopped mussles, shrimp, scollops, some dried plankton, nori, different flakes, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and some spirilina flakes. Mixed it all up, then froze it. Feed it twice a week. Everything loves it. On a side note its SCAREY to see how big a piece of food some corals can take. Ive got a Fungia coral that is about hand sized that eats pieces of food about the size of a 50c coin no problem. SCAREY stuff considering its only go a mouth about 1cm long when not in feeding mode. Photos comming... Pies

Have a read of some of the saltwater beginner guides at reefcentral or ultimatereef etc for explinations about filters vs skimming etc. I personally don't belive a filter is going to do what you want it do to, and is going to do a lot that you don't want it to do. That being said, if you want you can always try it and see how you go, but a protien skimmer really is the 'business' for saltwater, its also a lot lower maintenance than the filter, and doesn't upset the biological ballance of the tank when it needs cleaning. Also filters will produce nitrates in saltwater, hence if you see designs using 'filter wool' it is changed every 2-3 days. Any longer it starts to go biological and becomes a hinderance. And yeah you could use an air pump for circulation, but bubbles are a REAL pain in salt water, 'salt creep' will drive you nuts Find a tank first. You won't need to have the skimmer on from day 1 anway so there is no made rush.

Carbon... You don't need it, but it is 'good'. Once the tank as cycled and looking good, running carbon really polishes the water, gives it a clean sparkle. It runs out pretty quickly, but everyone has different opinions on how long it is YMMV.

2 different tyes of skimmer 'mechinisims'. The 1st is an airstone driven skimmer, that requires an air pump to create bubbles in the water. The 2nd uses a venturi type of system. The skimmer is driven by a pump or power head, which swishes around the water and this drags air through the venturi, so you don't require an air pump. The 2nd type of skimmer are far better. You will prolly need 2 pumps depending on their design, 1 to run the skimmer, and 1 to get water from the tank/sump to the skimmer and back out. I use gravity to feed my skimmer, then an ehiem pump to swirl around the air and drive the venturi, water gets dumped into my sump, which is returned from the sump to another pump. Have I made sense?

Well I have a good home for a perc clown, so if anyone finds one in need of 700ltrs of prime reef estate let me know. Pies

I've seen Perc clowns in stores for as little as $29.00 this year, so don't pay $80!

Dunno what the difference is between lagoon and and coral sand, sounds like 'marketing guff' to me. I am sure either is fine, coral sand it normall about 2mm or smaller in grain size and white/gold but mostly white. Ad for depth i would go for sub 1inch, just for asthetics (remeber many people do not use ANY sand in there tank for many reasons and have the sadn bed in the sump insted. Good luck

I just spoke to my 'fish guy' who hs already spoken to him. The guys rock is dry (therefore not live) but still the price is good, and has a few leather corals and a 'Royal Gramma' which is a pretty yet agressive fish. He also still has the skimmer, which I think would be a good option for you, however if it doesn't come with a pump you would need one to drive it. Most leather corals grow very well, and many people are happy to just give cuttings of them away or for trade. Thanks for the number though. Good luck on the tank! In response the the iron inthe sand. This is normal, and its not rust, its just iron sand (which is not the best for fish tanks but is quite dark and attractive). I am not sure how much sand is sold for, but I buy 15kg sacks of it for about $50.00 in Wellington.

Smaller tanks are quite a lot of work, but generally speaking marine tanks require much less maintenance than freshwater. Thats the best thing about my tank, lower maintenance