steve-s

Yes it is, I spoke to Pies about it (who supplied me with the rock) and he assured me it is sawgrass calupera and shouldnt be too hard to get rid of. Cheers, Steve

stompa is spot on, its the black irrigation poly-pipe, the clips are great because they are 100% plastic and can be used inside the tank without contaminating the water and you can really tighten them down quite a bit with some pliers, you can also get elbows, t-pieces and all the usual joiners for it. All plastic, all available at Bunnings. The SCWD connects to 3 quarter inch pipe but I found I had to heat up the ends of the pipe with a cigarette lighter to get them on as the SCWD connections seem slightly oversized, after they had cooled they were a really firm fit. I didnt post any more pics because the tank pretty much looks the same as the last photo posted but you talked me into it. Cheers, Steve

Well, some 2 weeks on and something quite peculiar has happened. My ammonia read (0.25 not 0.5 in my prev post) appears to be a phantom read. After waiting for a cycle to start I added some raw chicken (pinched from dinner whilst my wife wasnt looking) to kick it along a bit. The chicken rotted, dissapeared, my ammonia read spiked at 1ppm the following day but the next day was back down to 0.25 (or zero). Zero nitrites, zero nitrates and some hair algae growth - no cycle. Since then I have removed the hair algae and done a water change too, to my suprise I now have a nitrate read. It would appear that because of the large quantity of rock in the tank (compared to water) and the fact that the rock came straight out of a stable tank that my tank has gone through a fairly undetectable cycle after the rock was added. My nitrate reads were being affected by the hair algae growth - remove the algae & nitrates return. I have now been feeding the tank a light daily feed of flake for a week and the current tank parameters are as follows: Temp 26.2 pH 8.1 Spec Grav 1.026 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 10ppm Phosphate 0 Alkaliinity 2.9 meq/L I am probably going to be in a position to add a mushroom or 2 next week if nothing changes. I am also thinking about 2 small fish: Gobiodon okinawae - Yellow Coral goby and Pseudochromis porphyreus - Magenta dottyback I have posted on the commercial forum to see if any shops can supply me with these but haven't had any response as yet but then I'm in no rush. My next step is to source a cleanup crew, I would prefer small striped leg hermit crabs as I have had good results with them in the past but like the fish, I am not sure where to get them from (any suggestions appreciated). Cheers, Steve

No, it's no tribble at all. Sorry couldnt help myself.

The rule of thumb is generally 4-6 weeks sometimes less, sometimes more, the longer the better really. This is a pretty good article on setting up a new tank: http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/tanksetup.html It's not the only way to do it but it does give a detailed process to follow. Dont worry about transporting the rock, wrapping it in wet newspaper can help if it is out of the water for a long period but generally it should be fine for a couple of hours unwrapped. The longer it is out of water then the greater the die-off will be. When I lived in Australia I was lucky and had live rock collectors within driving distance from home but there were people on the eastern coast of Australia who would get WA rock shipped over, thats 4 hours on a plane plus probably another couple of hours sitting at airports with no problems. The way I understand it is that live rock is made up of old coral skeletons, these skeletons are like a sponge and have holes running all the way through them, these holes give the rock a huge amount of porus surface area for the required bacteria and organisms to live. I wouldnt think that multiple smaller pieces of rock would give you any measurable advantage over 1 big piece for example. I would like to hear others opinions of this though. Cheers, Steve

Hi IOU1, You've done the right thing in asking the question, I'm not trying to put you off but I would think carefully about your decision. A few points from your post which raise concerns: I think it could be said that there is probably no such thing as a low maintenance marine tank. I'm not being funny but if you dont have time to read up on the requirements then you wont have the time to maintain the tank. Get rid of the book, 3-10 days before adding fish in a marine environment is really not a good idea, very stressful for the fish and that's if they survive. You may find this a good reference as a starting point: http://www.masa.asn.au/masawiki/index.php?title=Beginners_Guide Cheers, Steve

Hi Rogan, Doesn't matter what type of rock you buy you will need to cycle the tank, if the rock is cured (or has been stored out of water for sometime) then you may need to manually start the cycle (drop a raw prawn in the tank) where as if the rock is full of life (come from a stable reef tank or straight out of the ocean) then the cycle may start on it's own as a result of any die-off which has occured in the transfer from stable tank to new tank. Either way the cycle still needs to happen otherwise the bacteria required to break down detrius (uneaten food and poo) will not be present - as soon as you add livestock/food then a cycle will start anyway putting stress on your livestock and potentially killing them. In my experience you can take rock + water & substrate from an existing tank and transfer this into a new tank (essentially a tank move), this will cause a smaller cycle which is just to recorrect any imbalance from one system to the next but technically it is still a cycle, sometimes it's small enough so that it doesnt affect livestock too adversely. Cheers, Steve

I must admit, this is why mine is internal, living in a rental property the thought of salt water on someone elses carpet scares me. I used the plastic clips which come with the black poly pipe used for reticulation, they clip down really securely with a pair of pliers. I would think though if you were running it externally then you could use a steel jubilee clip which could be tightened to your hearts content, you may still get some salt creep but I wouldnt think enough to cause actual flow of water. In saying that, I would be game to try it in my house but not in someone elses. Cheers, Steve

I got mine in Aust but you can usually find a few on Trademe. I think Wasp mentioned somewhere he had one for sale too, try sending him a PM. Mine seems to be providing good flow in the nano, quite pleased with it actually. The biggest problem is the space they take up if you run them internally. If you set them up externally though then you can avoid this issue. Cheers, Steve

Fay, there is more of it in the middle of the tank. Can I get a positive ID if possible? Should I be getting rid of this? Cheers, Steve

Thanks guys for the comments. Coming from Western Australia I am well aware of the issues of heat in nano's - you try keeping any sized tank under 30deg after 3 weeks of constant temperatures of 38deg outside, my 4ft used to get up to 29 and need fans & ice applied quite regularly. My nano back in Perth had a pedalstool fan positioned in front of it and on a timer on the danger days, really increases your evap rate but does the job. The SCWD is supported at the bottom by it's join to the pump and at the top the outlet pipes are the exact length as the internal tank size so they fit snugly, securing the top. I was orginally going to support them via the pvc reef frame but when it came down to it, it just wasnt needed. Still no sign of a cycle yet, ammonia reads 0.5 but I'm not convinced it's not a false test read, it hasnt increased in the last few days. Cheers, Steve

Well, pH 8.0, ammonia 0.5, nitrites 0...........waiting Here are the photos as promised: Tank with SCWD & pump set up PVC Reef stand First water test Rock & substrate added The wall of rock, I tried to give it some depth by setting back some rock creating the channel left of centre. Just enough room behind the rock to access equipment, OK so I may have to move one or two of the smaller surface rocks. Room to get to the heater Star polyps, I think this may be a type of encrusting gorgonian. Cheers, Steve

I think we are on a similar wavelength, I really want to be quite picky as to what goes in there as space is so valuable. Now I've got it all set up it is even more so because of the 'wall of rock' required to cover all the crap at the back. I probably could have looked at a closed loop without drilling (as per the closed loop on Melev's reef) and even used one of the inline hydor heaters (seen them in Aust, dont know if you can get them here), this would then make the Pump, SCWD and heater all external, this would have solved some of my space problem but the pump I have is not capable of running externally. Maybe something for the future - what would we do with our time if it wasnt for adjustments and modifications Cheers, Steve

Well, I could only resist for so long. After breaking down all my tanks before leaving Australia back in April I initially swore I would not be setting up a tank over here, as I am only on a 3 year work contract I really didn’t want to re-live the heartbreak of getting rid of my much-loved livestock. This changed pretty quickly and not long after arriving I started making plans for a 50cm cube, I was going to get the tank custom built and make the stand myself, I ordered all the pumps, bulkhead fittings and other equipment I needed and stashed them in the garage until I had finalised my design. Time passed and I never managed to come up with a design I was happy with, the whole idea was shelved and I went back to my original plan of not setting up over here (I don’t think I’ve ever seen my wife so happy). Well, I just couldn’t help myself. I have opted for a small nano, all self contained in one tank (30L), no overflow, durso, sump or skimmer, just keeping it simple. I had already sourced a SCWD and a 1500lph pump so I was eager to utilise these for the project, just the other day I went out and got the tank, light and the usual assorted plumbing fittings associated with a tank setup and went to work. I painted the back of the tank (although not sure why as you don't see much of it) and I have set up the SCWD and the pump at the rear of the tank along with the heater. Because the tank is so small this takes up some valuable real estate (not to mention looks bloody ugly) but I have also put together a PVC pipe stand which is designed to support my reef formation, conceal all the nasties and at the same time keep the rock off the back wall of the tank leaving a little bit of room to allow me to remove the SCWD, pump and heater for cleaning/servicing. Filled the tank with NSW, tested and all was working well. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get some fantastic rock with coralline growth and some sand from Pies, there should be enough life in that rock to kick me into a cycle hopefully, I have now added the rock & sand to the tank and all is up & running. I will post some pics when the dust settles. I currently have a 24W Power Compact running over the tank and I have another identical unit on order so when that comes in I’ll have 48W running. In such a small tank it should be quite sufficient for the few softies I am interested in keeping. My flow rate is good, even assuming the SCWD strips me of 50% of my flow that still leaves me running at about 25x tank volume. My pump is adjustable so if I need to reduce flow at some stage I have the option but I would prefer to maintain the higher flow if I can. I plan on housing corallimorphs primarily but may add some other softies or even LPS depending on what’s available (and what will thrive under my conditions), I may or may not add a clown fish at some stage or even some shrimp instead, again, depends on what’s available and what the tank can comfortably accomodate. I would love to get my hands on some Ricordea as they are very rare in Oz due to import restrictions, not sure how hard they are to come by here but they can be found in some fantastic colour variations around the world from what I have seen. Tank Specs: 30L (45cm x 30cm x 30cm) 50W Jager Heater 1500lph Otto Pump SCWD 10kg Live rock (give or take) ½ Bucket of sand 1 x 24W Power Compact (1 more to come) So it’s test kits at the ready, lets get cycling. Pics to follow. Cheers, Steve

Hi Skippy, The book 'Clownfishes' by Wilkerson is somewhat of a bible of Clownfish breeding. I got my copy from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890087041/sr=8-1/qid=1149938303/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3262136-1745704?%5Fencoding=UTF8 I would certainly recomend it, as it contains a lot of information on different species, my experience has been limited to ocellaris and whilst the general process is the same in most cases, things like larval periods etc varies by species. My experiences were documeted at the time in a reefing forum I used to frequent back in Aust and can be found here: http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=156692 A thread which I never got around to updating very often ( especially after finding out we would be moving to NZ) so it's not quite the full story but you'll get the idea. I still need to spend some time on the half-finished article I have promised before but I have been very busy lately at work (new job,new country etc) but I'll get there eventually. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Ira, I might try Titahi bay, that's probably closer for me. Might take a drive there tommorow and see if I can find a good spot. Need to pop into bunnings first though and pick up some buckets Cheers, Steve

Hi Guys, Well it's been a slow road but I finally got my overflow fittings today for my new tank (been very busy the last few weeks and had trouble getting my act together) and hopefully I can get the tank builder started on Mon. I figure it could take a cpl of weeks for the tank to be built so I need to start collecting sea water. Any suggestions from the Wellington reefers as to a good location to collect from, I am new to the area so I have no idea so any suggestions would be appreciated? Cheers, Steve

In my opinion I would be suprised if this was just a cover-up of a personal error, from what I know about Mr Bourneman (anecdotaly of course, having never had the pleasure of meeting the man) and whilst I admit the circumstances surrounding it do make it sound unlikely that foul play was involved after reading the entire thread Eric just seems at a complete loss as to what has caused it. His original posting is a little accusing and reads like he is pulling out of the hobby almost in retalliation but let's be honest, who amongst us would not be filled with rage and depression if this happened to our labour of love. Those of us who have gone through the experience of nurturing a marine environment all understand how it wrenches your heart just to lose a prize specimen, let alone a whole tank. After reading the entire thread though I think it's fairly clear that he only implies foul play at the complete lack of any other explanation. Most of the questions being raised here have also been covered within the marine depot thread and he has answered these questions with clarity explaining why he believes it not to be the cause. Personally I feel for him and although I do not know him directly his reputation and love for the hobby speaks for itself, I would certainly atthe very least give him the benefit of the doubt as I have no reason not to believe him. My 2c on the subject. Cheers, Steve

Ah, fantastic. I work in Petone so that's perfect. Thanks very much. Cheers, Steve

I would be very suprised if it was either of the tangs, maybe a rogue crab or some other unwanted hitchhiker (the dreaded mantis). I only mentioned the flame hawk as I has read of someone spending a couple of hundred dollars on 2 redline cleaners back in Australia only to watch their flame hawk decimate them within about 20 mins of them being added to the tank. A very expensive lesson. Hope you get to the bottom of it. Cheers, Steve

Do you have a flame hawk? Popular community fish but notorious shrimp eaters. Cheers, Steve

Ah, tricky. I had very limited success with just naupili, I found I could get some larvae onto them around day 5, the stronger of the larvae could make it to day 5 without any nourishment apart from their original egg sac. This could only be achieved in very limited numbers though, ie 2 or 3 survivors to metamorphasis out of a hatch of 200-300. I also tried rotifer-sized golden pearls but due to their lack of movement the larvae show little interest in them. I found generally universities were a good place to look for rotifers back in Aust, have you tried this option? Cheers, Steve

Hi guys, Can anyone recomend a custom tank builder in the Wellington region? I am looking at 2 tanks, 45cm cubes (or 18 inch cubes), probably either 6mm or 8mm glass. One tank needs to be drilled with 2 holes to allow 2x25mm fittings to be added to it as overflows. I am new to the area so I have no idea where to start, would prefer to use someone with tank-building experience. Cheers, Steve

Hi Caryl, I would love to share the article with you when it is completed, I'd have to check it out with my fellow reefpedia editors first though as the reefpedia uses something called copyleft and I have to admit to not being sure of the implications of reproducing any of it's material (even if I was the original author). Unfortunately the draft is on the hard drive of my desktop pc buried in the middle of a 40ft sea container which is somewhere between Western Australia and New Zealand currently. As I was about 70% completed I am somewhat reluctant to start again (and really regretting not loading it onto the laptop before everything got packed) but I will be straight into it when it gets here (probably another 4 weeks yet). I'll keep you posted (no pun intended). Cheers, Steve

Thanks guys for the warm welcome. Yes Eve, that's the mummy clown as my avatar nuzzling down in it's host anemone (stychodactyla gigantea). I am on a 3 year contract over here with work so I have some friends babysitting them for me, hopefully if/when I return I will get them back. I am in the process of writing an article on clownfish breeding for the reefpedia which is a wikipedia based reefing resource affiliated with the forum I frequented back in Australia called Reefing The Australian Way so I would be more than happy to share my experiences with anyone keen to breed clowns (not that I would consider myself an expert by any stretch). Cheers, Steve