Pies

Good work Wasp, you should be on target. Good work Jansens, looks like you have a great product there. Can I ask how much a 25kg bag of this carbon would be? Ben PM me if you don't want to publish the price on here. Pie

Bruce - Marine green water is a pure strain of phyto plankton (an algae). It crashes because of contamination. Its quite different to the green water used in freshwater for daphina etc. Pie

Again I completely agree with Reef. Wet skimming is possible on DelTec skimmers (and probably many others) by simply adjusting the height of the water in the skimmer. The higher the water level, the wetter and 'thiner' the skimate. Not sure who started the whole 'wet vs. dry' phenonom, but its recent (12 months) and from what I can see completely meaningless. If your skimate is watery, tweak the skimmer, why pull out good water? NOTE: A few in Europe say to 'wet' skim as your skimmer doesn't get so messy and its easy to clean. I'd go along with that, seems reasonable. I could pull out 5L of skimate a day if I wanted, it would just be a light tan/tea colour not the thick gunk I get now. Not sure why some would think its better, almost certainly nonsence. Pie

Awesome size tank for a first try at marines. You will thank yourself down the track for the extra space and water. Good luck! Pie

Nah it will be fine. Get some polishing compound and get into it. Scratches on the outside are easy. As for strength of the glass, no idea but I doubt its a problem from my own experance. Pie

Hahaha Reef, you have Coraline Algae growing in the neck of your skimmer! Its way over due, time to twist the lid off and give the sucker a clean. Pie

I 100% completely agree. Pie

I would aim to have the middle of the T part about 1 inch lower than the combs on the overflow. Any more and the noise can be distracting. Pie

Man thats nasty. Makes me want to gag.

Mine looks the same as Reefs, but I don't get the green. I scrub mine every week though, maybee its just old skimate gone bad Pie

What about the rock sitting on top of other rock? Or the rock sitting on the plastic reef racks? Pie

I guess they would. As I understand it skimate production is related to the amount of DOC and organics in the water, which will increase as the bio-load increases. Feeding, NSW vs. ASW, refugium size, lighting, water change frequency would all have a baring on the result though I would think. I see no relation to what I feed compared to skimate production, but i've not looked at it with too much detail. Pie

Layton has special rock that sheds waste, where as my rock is the absorb bad waste rock. I also have the scarey sand bed which is storing lots of badness for another day, hence the reason my skimmer isn't pulling out 2L of skimate a day, its all going into the sandbed. Pie

Ask Chimera, he found an Auckland suplier of the 'snap loc' or 'flexi loc' or whatever ther are called, they make the spade end thingies you are looking for. Pie

4 large tangs, 4 clownfish, 1 large wrassee, 1 hawkfish, 2 mandarins, 1 blenny. I think thats it. Pie

I have 2500 litres of water, 2100 litres of that is lit, the other 400 in the sump/plumbing plunged into darkness. My fish load is low. Pie

1.5-2L per week, Deltec AP902. Its a thick-ish consistancy, required the neck of the skimmer to be scrubed clean as has a 2-3mm film of fatty/waxy brown grossness. Pie

You can raise Brine Shrimp on spiralina, either from the pet store or the horrid looking green stuff that people drink you get from the dairy or super market. Its what they use at NIWA for growing out their own brineshrimp. Pieman

Its this comments like this that infurate me, stated like its a fact, when its complete nosense. How do I know its nonsence? My own tank is one of hundreds/thousands that disprove it. Opnions are fine, opnions stated as fact are misleading to readers who assume, by Laytons 'matter of fact' statements thats he's right, when in this case its completely wrong. As for riducle, I give as good as I get. I don't think Layton takes too much offence to it, like I don't take offence when he says things like 'thats rubbish'. Now to clear the air, just so people can understand where I am at. First off the bomber fanboy tank system. There is no doubt, from what i've read and seen that this system works. Without going into details the big problem is that it looks (note this is my opnion, not a fact) horrid. Now if you like the BB look, follow bombers system, its a recepe for success. Now here is the tricky bit, the bit I think Layton (and maybee Joeblog) has missed. Just because the bomber system works, doesn't mean other systems don't work. DSB. Bomber and his fanboys fear the DSB will crash and mass death will follow. This is disclaimed by the fact you won't know when it happens, just that if you tank ever shows some algae, RTN or any other problems its the DSB thats doing it. As for hundreds of scientiests proving it, I think thats a bit of a stretch. Vernon, Jaubert have done studies on DSBs with and without plenums. Showing that the nutrients, p04 etc change over time, but no evidence of complete saturation buildup over time. As for metal eating bacterria, I have no idea or opnion. DSB part 2. About 18 months ago people tried putting taps under their plenums to drain out all the evils. Note this didn't hit the mainstream. Why? Not as much evil stuff in the sandbed as some would leave you to belive. The RISKS of DSB. The risks exist, a DSB can crash. The theory that I perscribe too is a common one, use a hybrid. The DSB doesn't do all the work in my tank, just some of it. The rock does some, the skimmer does some, water changes do some, phosphate resun does some, heavy lighting does some, macro algae does some and aggressive water movement does some. Much like comments last week about my plumbing wearing out because of insufficient calculations in water flow, there is a time for theoritical principles and their actual application in the real world. Would I reccomend someone use a DSB? Probably not, you need to understand them before you use them. Does it work for me? Honestly I don't know, I certainly hope it does more good then bad. Gezzz what was my point? Ohhh yeah, BB bomber tank system will work, but its not the only system for SPS dominated tanks. A DSB is not a timebomb, or no more of a timebomb than anything else if you understand the husbandry required to effectly use one. Should you use one? Up to you. Should you continuously bombard people with why its wrong because it different to the way your going to setup your own tank? I think not. Pieman

Hahahahha got crabs?

Joeblog - I am not missing the point, this time or any other time thank you. The statement was made about keeping coral/fish or sandbed critters, that is an OR. I was responding to this. Now you tell me, what point did I miss? JoeBlog - I understand your theory behind the sandbed, eventually filling and causing problems. Personally I don't perscribe to it, but thats a whole other area for debate. Yip lots of noticable algae in my tank. I don't however seen it as a warning indicator of things to come. Algae is ever present. Kind of looks like it does in nature. Still I could be wrong, and you could be right, but if you are there are a LOT of us in trouble of our tanks crashing... Now I never said this, but the point I was trying to make was 'put up or shut up'. Having a theory is fine, but if you are going to push it every chance, I say 'show me'. Laytons tank/s have been setup for longer than mine, and everytime someone mentions DSBs Layton is all over it, so I don't think its unreasonable to say 'compare yours to mine'. Obviously it was unreasonable 0_0 Crude? Jezzz is this one of those places where you can only say nice things but not bad things. Perhapps you would prefur that I lie "Wow that tank is stunning, if only I could one day have something that nice in my own home". The picture was posted for a purpose, and I was responding to it in context of the point I was putting foward. Its not a nice looking tank, in that nothing about it would inspire me to imitate its setup. Its a matter of taste, but as reef said its not likley to ever make an RC top 10. As for my own tank, I like it, but if you or anyone else doesn't I encourage you to say so, I promise to never accuse anyone of being crude. If you don't want the feedback -good or bad- then either don't post your pics or say something in advance. Pieman

Blah, blah, what a dumb ass statement. Sand beds and fish/corals are not mutually exclusive, nor are sand beds and coloured corals. Layton - Your tank is BB, lets do a coral comparison for growth and/or colour measured against my dirty time bomb tank full of sand crap and other associated critters. Show my the error of my ways, no excuses lets see it. When was the last time you posted a pic of your tank? Where is an update of the terquoise stag coral you brought? Come on lets see it, after all the noise you've been making lately you must have something stunning to show us? Change the record or show my why your right. Pie BTW: That BB tank above doesn't look good to me, I wouldn't have it for my own. And I only see 2 fish.

I use 2 sumps. My tank is almost 1500 litres, sump/fuge is 740 + sump is another 400. I find the big empty sump very handy. Its got no light on it so stays clean, and its nice to have space for equipment/resin/carbon etc. Just one thing to keep in mind, as Chimera said. More things can go wrong. I am stillstweaking my system out after almost a year, and there are things that need adjusting. Also remember that more water volume does has serious disadvantages. What to use carbon? Well start buying by the 25kg sack. Zeovit, win lotto. PH stability over night? Going to take a lot of ligts to reverse light the whole system. etc. So just things to keep in mind. I just think mine is on the verge of overkill is why. Regards Pieman

Does matter, what does matter is now that we have a photo of it, its legal, right? Pie

Linkia Starfish. Pie