Pies

I am under the impression that corals as a general rule onlu derive less than 2% of their food from the water, the rest is photosysthosised sugars. I am also under the impression that polyp extension is a good sign. Sps only secerete their limestone skeleltons at night when the polyos are out. I notice that if polyp extension is good (at night time I am talking about) growth is better (faster). I feed Salifert and Cyclopsezze and a few other home-brew things to the tank for feeding. For me it defininatly invlolks a feeding responce (mega polyp extension). However I have no evidence as to if this has a postive impact of the corals or not, other than my beliefs that it does. Pie

Looks good, lots of potential there. As JetSkiSteve said, Amonia and Nitrite should be zero, and their presence shows that the tank is still in the very imature cycle period. I would have thought it was too early to add live-stock, still no point in worrying about that now. Ohhh and carpet Anemones are Evil, and I mean that. I would strongly reccomend removing it from the tank, anything they touch, they kill, regardless of size. Personal experance talking here. Good luck, looking foward to seeing the tank grow. PieMan

Awesome! JoeBlog how long have you had them? What live food are you feeding? What do you think my changes are of successfully keeping them? Pie

I've seen lots of Idols in the wild, but only in pairs, never seen them as a school. My perfect shoal would be Purple Queen Anthias, but not sure about their survivablity. Or maybee 50 bangaii Pie

Tel - Beware you don't want to have the inlets (from the sump) on the bottom. If you do and the power cuts, the system will drain out through it (this is not a syphon just draining) out. I would reccomend either having the inlets drilled very close to the top of the waterline (say the same level as the bottom of the overflow comb) or not drilling and going over the top (sea swirl later on perhaps?). Good luck, can't wait to see it setup. Pie

It would annoy me if the Latan name was mis-represented. But if they called it a Blue tang, it brought it thinking it was a Blue tang and it turned out to be a Regal tang, I don't see that as anyones fault but that of the purchaser. Pie

Strontium is a poison for corals and may inhibit their growth and colour. For coraline growth, hi calcium, medium lighting and time. Pie

Ozone is used by some in their tanks. The thing with RO/DI is its used to prevent any impurities entering the filtered water, not just killing it. Removes any metals etc as well as anything alive. Ozone would just kill it, leaving all those dead bugs in the water, as well as allowing any metals and minerals to stay. Does't sound ideal to me. Pie

I personally don't feed anything terestrial to my fish, because it doesn't seem natural. Fenner says that vitium C is Vitum C, does't matter if its from an orange or from an ocean plant. FYI. Lots of different algaes from the ocean that the kole will love. Remember its a Tang, so its a grazer. That means its stomach is designed to eat lots of low nutrition food all day (2% in Nori for example), not just one or 2 feeds per day. Great fish, good luck with whatever you decide to feed it. Pie

Awesome. Can't wait to see what your planing. Pie

Nice fish. Don't want to lecture you on 'tank cycle' or anything but it looks pretty imatture to be housing fish. Still I hope it all works out. good luck, more pics? Pie

Never tried. I have a Blue Eye Tang (same as kole but different colour), mine eats Nori (red and green) and Spirilina Flake no problem. However most of the time he is happy just hovering the rocks of algae. Good luck with it, how about some pics? Pieman

About as productive as that statement, or this one for that matter. I was just aknowledging that i'd seen the tank before, filed in the 'how to do something poorly' pile. Read about how well its all going now. Muppet. Monaro1 - Absoulty not, all I can think is that he is over compensating for something Pie

Just checked my own skimmer (Deltec AP902), no sign of said washers. Pies

chimera - I don't think your plumbings bad, I think its funny I've seen that tank before, what a dick head. Pie

The formula is around on RC. But if you have 100ppm Nitrate you have to do something like 19 50% water changes to get it below 10ppm, assuming its not going up over that time and you not adding more with the water change. So a single water change won't help. Assuming the tanks cycled and not over stocked etc then you should do the following: 1. Keep up water changes 10% minimum every week. 2. Reduce feeding. 3. Check to make sure you skimmer is working, buy a larger skimmer. 4. Increase water circulation in the tank. 5. Remove all the bio ball, filter wool and filter sponges from the tank. If you insist on using them clean or replace ever 2-3 days. There are other things that can be done too, but thats a healty start. Tested my Nitrates yesterday 0.0. Pie

Just in case anyone reading has got the wrong idea, we are just fooling. Its kind off like having an arguement over painting a wall 'white' or 'spanish white'. There's nothing in it. I have complete confidence I could do it better Joeblog - comone lets see it! We've shown you ours... Pie

Heya buzy No I don't think I have taken any pics of it, although their are some hand drawn pics at the start of this thread. Was it hard to get made? No. I friend and member of our local fish club kindly made it for me. Its basically just a 2m long U shaped piece of steel, with 5 400 watter mounted under it. Very soon i'm going to be fitting some custom reflectors, i'll be sure to post em up. The best tank ever? *blush*. Not sure about that, there are some great tanks around, but I am happy with it. You will have to come down and visit and check it out for real. I just hope your not dissapointed. Pie

I know they are popular in the USA. But I think that the needle wheel skimmers are the skimmers of choice for most of us as they are quieter and require less electricity to run. I really don't think one is any better than the other. I do know that to go large (MEGA) are all beckets, but I guess thats more because of the impracticality of using needle wheel in large situations. Still I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time Pie

I saw Reefs DIY Becket skimmer. The real downside to them is the MEGA pumps needed from what I could tell. I think his was driven by an IWAKI 100! Pie

I tell you what, if any of my plumbing wears out, you can tell me 'i told you so'. Pie

Plumbing advice brought to you by the guy who produced this: Lots of elbows in there, hope they don't wear out too quick! Pie

Hahahahaha wear and tear on plumbing. Hahahaha elbows wearing thin. Hahahahahaaha how silly. Pie

reverse/24 lighting is an excellent way to hold the PH up. If it stays above 8 overnight your on the right track. Pics? Pie

A baby girl resivour Pie