Pies

Bourneman, Tullock & Fenner all discuss algal scrubbers, and Tullock has documented his findings about the Townsville aquairum. The most important things these 3 authors dicuss in relation to this thread is that a home reef using calurapa and other maco alge is different in the way of which an algal scrubber works. They go into detail, read it for you self if it interests you, just thought i'd mention it as I think its perpetuating bad advice to call a macroalgae pruning device an algal scrubber, because its not. Pieman

Since this time! Or if you read what I said, all 3 of my Xenia species are effected as is my clover coral and a few other similar types calvera etc. Now when I say 'issuse' I don't mean its out or wrong, but something must be different. I don't belive my tank is clean enough that its a case of too much of something removed, far to much algae and diatom for that. Its a water issue, maybee its waring SPS corals releasing something into the water retarding their growth? Maybee it is Iodine or strontium imballance? Maybee its a disolved o2 problem, ORP or somesuch? Buggered if I know. Its not too low phophate/nitrate levels (although both are 0 on the test kits), the reason I say this is the colour of my corals doesn't lend it self to that, although maybee I am being to harsh. Bah. Pie

Thanks RnB. I have some in the sump, and its doing exactly the same thing Definatly a water paramater issue. I am resigned to it dieing, just though it may be salvagable... Its soooo nice... Not sure if its iodine, doubt I can get a test kit and to be honest not sure if I want to test it anyway. Lots of problems with Iodine, I think I will just leave it for now and let nature take its course. Looking forward to the book, was thinking today I wounder if you had sent it! Cheers Piemania

Ive seen Xenia growing on the reefs happily along with all the acros and other hard corals, from shallows down to 40m (I have a photo of some silver pom pom at 43m in Vanuatu). My tank is clean and clear, however I think you are over-rating how good my tank is. I feed heavly on cyclopsezze so there should be food in the water...? Bah.

I don't have an Iodine test kit and don't dose Iodine. I have read that some think it needs iodine, but have read equally as much saying it does't. I have a bottle of Salifert Iodine in the garage but given the amount of water changes I do i'd be surprised? I'll see what information pops up before deciding if i'll add some. Steve doesn't add anything to his tank, and his tank is OVER SKIMED to the max, yet his tank is a Xenia machine. Bah, if it dies I will have a GREAT spot for a nice big acro though :> And it woiuld be good if that cover would die anyway! Bah bah

My xenia over the last 4-5 days has taken a serious turn for the worse. Its lost all inflation, and has gone limp, sad and sick looking. I started with a silver pom pom that I had, but now effects my 'jetskisteve' strain as well as other similar coral like clover coral. My water tests as follows: PH 8.05low - 8.3high KH 8.1 Nitrate 0 Amonia 0 Nirite 0 Phosphate 0 (undetectable) Magnesium 1280 Temprature 25 Salinity .025 Everything water wise has been VERY stable for ages. I cleaned out me CA reactor about 3 weeks ago, otherwise I have done nothing new chemical wise. I have added 3 fish and maybee 5 coral 4 weeks back (all which is doing great). I have whitespot on my blue tang and PBT but otherwise everything is looking GREAT. I've been doing lots of water changes - 5%10% fornightly. I know xenia is known to crash, anyone with thoughts or links please let me know, would love to save this stuff if possible. Cheers pieman

Yeah the ones I got came complete is a metal box with a 3 prong lead that goes back to the wall. Then it has a 3 pin female socket (3 pin with round ground) to run the lead to the bulb. I looked at Laytons setup and was going to do it, but still had concerns about bulb compatibility so decided it was better to use ballasts I knew would work with the bulbs I was going to use, and the fact they were pre-wired was the icing on the cake. Not expensive either. Piemania

TM - If your just shopping for lighting gear a few tips to think on. First off you say your going to use 250SE. Why not use 400SE? Yes they will use more power, but the bulbs are cheaper! So it may work out about the same (when you consider bulb replacement costs). Also check Radium lighting in Auckland for Ballasts, I am using 5 of these, the ballats with the leads about $100, + the lamp holder $16 + the bulb. 20k Radium Blue for less than $130 and 14k Narva Blue for less than $150. Both work on the Radium ballasts no problem (I am using 20k and 14k). good luck Pie

All of the phosphate absorbing resins will last indefinatly (forever). The issue is one of the amount of phosphate present and being added. Many people replace theirs every 6 months or when their test kits show phosphates present (in any amount). I would like to use ROWAPHOS but from what i've read its only usefull in a liquidosed reactor, otherwise the other products may be a better options for the 'sock in the sump' system. Pie

I know someone who uses and likes the Ushino 400 watt single ends. 2 things I do know about the Ushinos, they are a little more expensive than the others, and they require special ballasts (Mercury Vapour or Sodium? someone here will know) which cuts down your options (you will need different ballasts to use different bulbs). I know that Ushinos will not work in my ballasts. They are very poular bulbs. Pie

My sump is under my tank but not sure if thats what you mean

I'd be surprised if there is anything. Personally wouldn't risk it. Depending on what it is, you could use some coloured perspecs and glue it over the offening area. Pie

Definatly a Majarno, a REAL pest. IMO worse the Aipstasia, far more stingy and breed quicker. KILL IT NOW. pie

Brown is just as common in the wild as it is in our tanks. When diving past about 5m there is no red light, so many colours seen in tanks are not visible without a torch in the wild. Then it comes into the kevin rating of the torch as to what the colour will look. For example many sea urchins are black/brown to the nakid eye but red under a 6000k torch or strobe. Corals in the wild (particulary SPS) often grow thicker and more robustly than they do in the wild. You will notice that its very rare that a coral you buy grows anything like the way it was when you purchased it. More pinks and blues in the wild than in our tanks, less greens and purples. Pies

Cheers, my Anemone is H.Magnifica, hard to keep and famous for its light and current requirements. It lives between 2x 400 watters and has 1 stream pointed directly at it, + one of the Sea Swirls passes accross it, + 1 stram of the other end of the tank pushes it accross. So it gets hammered with light and current. When I build the rock structure I wanted it exactly were it is, but its walked alot, keeping comming back to that same spot. Funny watching the clowfish as there is so much current its amaizing to think they can sleep in it, but somehow they do! Have had the anemone for about 18 months now. In the photos all the pumps are off and the return pump (sea swirl) is down to about 1/5 normal so I could get my hands in the tank today. Pie

Well lots new in tank land. Ripped all of the gib out today (thanks Suphew) getting ready to build the sump room in the garage. Am insulating the walls, laying in plumbing, overflows, extraction fans and electricity. Going to take some work and some planing. Also going to be awkward as being build in 2 pieces, so I can reuse my old reef as the sump for the new tank. Picture of the anemone standing up: Male mandarin looking good, nice and fat, always nice to see: White spot plagues my tank. I added a few bits and pieces recently including a small Sohal tang, which had whitespot. It and everything else in my tank, including the small PBT are doing fine, this guy however is looking BAD. Funny thing is its acting normal as could be, eating and swiming without a care, but DAMN look at him! Keeping a close eye, this fish has had whitespot many times before but its never been this bad: Corals are mostly doing well, looks like my white Xenia has crashed, otherwise everything is going great guns at the moment. Major exitement comes from looking foward to getting the collar on the tank (finish it off for upstairs) and getting the sump room done. Pie

I have a few different montis. Zeovit NZ has a nice one with purple polyps, i've seen orange in NZ (Reef imported). Lots of brown, some brown/purple and brown/red (could be the same?). I had this one in my tank, all gone now: Pies

Westy1, your tank looking absoulty stunning from where I am sitting. 10/10. Pies

Does look much bigger than a 50c piece to me. Nice colour, will look great when bigger. Pies

Not reefsafe, thats why none of us have one in our tanks. Pie

Didn't get a chance to visit anyone in Christchruch in the end. I was going out to see Redwood Aquatics, a place I have had some poor dealings with in the past. They don't open until 11am, so could't manage it in the end. When I was in Auckland I stopped at Jansens 3 Kings on my way to the airport and had a chance to meet Dogmatix breifly for a chat. Great to meet you again, thanks for the time. Janens store was looking as good as ever, lots of healthy stock, both coral and fish. 10/10 for clean, tidy and well presented. The display tank was looking heaps better than last time I was there. My only real dissapointment would be the number of Aipstasia in the tanks, dozens (maybee hundreds), and some BIG suckas too. KILL THEM! I didn't see Salifert product anywhere, but did see Seachem. A good but limited supply of dry goods, well laid out and clearly priced. Prices - the bit everyone wants to know. Fish starting at $40, coral starting at $69. So a little cheaper than my last visit. But the plus was that there was a reasonable selection, everything looked clean and well maintained, all stock was healthy, no signs of whitespot or anything else ugly. Also the plus having someone like Dogmatix working there who is a wealth of knowledge and takes a genuine interest in the hobby in general (hence the reason he is on this board). Over all Janesnes 3 Kings Marine Section 9/10. Pie

I had an AP850, it now belongs to NickS on this board. Great skimmer. I upgraded to the AP902, which is basically a larger 2 motor model of the 850. I get about 1.2 litres of dark stinkly skimmate a week. When I clean it on Sundays it has about 4mm of thick fatty gunk on the inside of the neck. yuck. Good luck with the skimmer Fay, I am sure you will be happy with it, everyone else who owns them has been. Steve - What are you doing about skimming on your tank? Pies

I have sold lots of frags, possibly as many as $1k worth over the last 2 years. It would be very rare for me to give livestock away. The reason for this is simply one of value. To me its important to know that the person who is taking the coral see's that it has value and doesn't just take it cause its free. I have met many of these people who will take it becaue its free, and don't care, hey they can always come back and get another piece right? Wrong. I am of course happy to swap coral, which doesn't always mean a 1 for 1 swap, I have swapped 7-8 pieces from my tank for 2 pieces from someone elses. I know they were going to look after them, and I knew they would have given me more if they had it (or more importantly I wanted it). Also I have purchased a lot of acros, maybee as many as 15, from between $45-90ea. So I do like the idea of recovering a minimal amount back. People say they are willing to pay more for aquacultured corals etc. So I try and get $25 for a frag. My frags come from well established corals and have colour (tri colour, monster purple/white polyp, green plating etc etc) so I think its a fair price, I would pay it. They are reasonably sized. I know I will never make any money from the fragging of my stuff, nor to I want to. I just want my hard grown stuff to go to a good home and be appreciated. My 10 cents. pie

My sump is remote and exists in the garge 1 floor below the tank itself. The sump/s are currently on the other side of the garage at the moment, and will be moved once I build a room to hold the sump/s. I am going to use my old tank as the primary sump/refugium. Then am having another sump build, which will be a six footer to replace the exisitng 3 footer, it will be for water/baffles/equipment only and not used for any rock/sand or life. It will not be lit, the refugium will be used to grow macro algae and grow frags with 2x 250watt MHs on reverse cycle. The current plumbing and area where the sump will finally end up: Connecting to this: NOTE: The tank on the left is no longer present and is now Suphews reef tank. Piemania

I've been all over the pacific and Asia. Its the same everywhere. None of these countries have respect for the reefs, nor to their governments. Its the problem with being 3rd world, they can barely take care of themselfs, the reefs just don't register. Your right about hard-corlals being more common, its like this is most places. The problem with removing the hard corals is that they form the reef, the softcorals just live on the reef. It can be a dishearting to see it, but we rape all parts of the planet, just be thankful that the ocean is so much larger than the land. Pies