JDM

over the last few weeks i have been gearing up to set up a new tank to house my anemone and maroon clown, after the anemone incident i felt it would make me less nervous if i removed the anemone from my display therefore removing the chance of it re offending. i was lucky enough to find a very good deal on a aquaone bow front tank and stand, i like the look of these tanks and i decided to go with this design over a custom cube that was my original idea. i will be keeping this tank simple, hob skimmer, canister filter with carbon and rowaphos, seio's for water movement, and i am currently undecided on the lighting, i have a 250w mh that is currently over my brother in laws tank, or i was thinking of trying a t5 set up but i'm not sure if this will provide enough light for the anemone as this tank is around 700 deep. i will be keeping softies only in this tank and they will be frags from my main reef tank, mushes, zoos, star polyps, etc.... i have spent the last few nights becoming creative with coral rock, the pictures will show my effort. i will be bare bottom ( :oops: ) in this setup, really just to see how it goes and i figure if i really hate the look i can add some sand later. here are the first pics, top down, my creative efforts, i will be filling this tank over the next few days and i will post some more pics when there is something else to see.

i like it chimera, :lol: :lol: :lol:

over the last week i have removed 4 crabs from my display and relocated them to my sump, i noticed the tips of a few of my acros looking damaged, each time i noticed this there was a crab near by so out they came. are there any crabs that we want to keep in the display for a reason other than looking cool and being interesting creatures? i have seen at least one more in my display but as yet i have not been able to get him. dose anyone have a referance site that has pictures of the crabs we dont want as well as those that we do want?

i will put some pics up once construction has got started. 8) just answered all my questions in my last post from melevsreef.com excellent site if you are thinking of setting up a new sump. the link is in the sticky.

not all company's market there products in a "best case" scenario, especially those that sell in countries that have strict laws on such marketing. if they say it has a margin of 0.05ppm this may be what there tests have shown as the worst case, not the standard reading or the bench mark. i work with products that are designed and engineered in USA, these products use a worse case reading, they are under normal conditions much better than the manufacturer claims, this way there is little chance of a law suit being lodged and the proceeding costs involved. just my opinion. i think there is many factors that would make the Hanna more useful for the hobbyist, the fact of not having to determine the color of the test sells me on the meter, ease of use in comparison the tests, etc etc. i would be interested to see what my water tests on with the Hanna compared to the (very good) salifert test.

i have my new sump! it is 4ft and 10ml glass, it has 2 holes one on each end. i will be constructing the stand for it to sit on this week, is there any reason why i shouldnt have the sump sitting on a stand that is say 1.5ft tall? it will be directly behind the display (through the wall) my display stand is approx 3ft tall. i am thinking of using the height of the sump to make water changes easy by giving me a gravity to drain the sump. i will also make a stand for the nsw drum to sit on to replace the water removed during a change. also, what is the best distance between the baffels? i will be adding my own baffels to the sump to remove micro bubbles as i will go back to the dorso once the new sump is up and running. i will have a set of baffels after my skimmer before the return pump to remove any micro bubbles that might come from my skimmer (i havnt noticed any micro bubbles from my skimmer but i have plenty of room so i figure why not have the baffels). would 5ply marine be suitable for the sump to sit on? with poly between the glass and timber of corse.

gutted dude, i know how this feels. a pic would be cool.

good work dude, are you using nsw or asw for the change?

i have this problem every time i test, which color is it? i often invite anyone at my house to have a look at the test and see what there perception of the color is. this sounds like a useful tool to me, defenatly something i will be looking into getting. thanks wasp.

i cant remember the name of the place but its at the far end of flinders st, if you go to flinders station and turn left at the main entry/exit, probably easyer to catch the tram but its not a long walk, defenatly worth the entry fee, they have a cool shark enclosure in a large pond like tank that you view from the top. see if you can find out what time feeding is, i went when it was feeding time (by pure luck) and it was very cool, divers feeding sharks (3 times the divers size) by hand. when i was there their reef wasnt much to be amazed by, but that was a while ago. take some picks and post them here if you have time, it would be cool to see how there getting on.

if the person on the end of the drill has experience with drilling glass there is very little chance of any damage, i had no experience with drilling glass, had one practice go that went well, then drilled my tank that i had at the time, all good, since then i have drilled 4 tanks all with no issue. key is to take it slow with very little pressure, and keep the glass cool and clean with running water. drill it, you will not regret it.

im running a deltec 1250, good skimmer really, i think reef is right that the tank is cleaner, just looking now my rocks are looking cleaner and not as dark as the have been. i just love upgrading :roll:

i will do a 50% change this weekend then another one next weekend. i think i might be best getting a bigger skimmer to keep the nitrate down, im not overly happy with my skimmer, it seemed to work better when i first got it compared to now and i cant see any reason why, i have checked the pump and fitted the new bushes, i have checked the air line, changed settings and still think its only working to 50%. will a bigger skimmer control the nitrates once i have them down with the water changes?

i have been doing 10% water changes every week for ages. my nitrate level is slowly dropping but still over 25 (was over 50!), so still way too high. 5 would be heaven! what size water change would you recommend for bringing the nitrate down? and i am not afraid of having to do a water change every night for a while so would rather do lots of smaller ones the a few huge ones, if that will work?

Layton, would you be able to explain the theory behind UV helping bacteria production please? or maybe a link to a site that we can read to learn how this occurs. I'm interested in the way this may help to reduce my nitrate's

i don't use one, didn't know about the increase of skimmer out put though. Layton, do you have a link to a article on the increased export created by using UV? do you think it will help in getting my nitrates down?

if you were doing large water changes it would be very important to make sure the water you are adding has the same parameters as the water you removed, more smaller changes would be less time consuiming and less stressfull on the sick fish. i have used a copper based treatment and after using it for 2 weeks i through the bottle out, it did work, but i did not like the effect it had on the fish and i beleve there are better safer ways to help a sick fish now. the rock will provide a bio filter, weather or not it is going to help with water quality will depend on many things, but if you have some spare peices then you could have them as part of the qt and leave them in there. having never seen an importers tank set up i am assuming they have a sump with bio filter media? i cant imangine an importer doing huge water changes on their fish only set ups due to waste from feeding, not to mention the extra costs and time involved. home qt tanks ive seen do not have a sump, and all have had at least a small peice of rock. i have lighting over my qt as it has corals in there as well.

GUTTED i have a qt set up and running, just a 2ft with some live rock and a cheepie skimmer, no sand, only 3 2ft fluros, although i have only used it once for qt a new fish. i did a 100% water change just prior to adding the fish. im sorry for your loss, but im not sure a qt would have helped him, would have been hard to treat him that quickly without the treatment itself causing harm. if you have a spare tank sitting around a qt can be set up in very quickly when a new fish is purchased, just add water and a rock from your display a heater and a small power head, done, now ready for the new guy. im not sure what the reccomended time for qt is but i did mine for 6 weeks.

take all the sand and rock out of the qt, use water from your main tank and throw in a rock or two from the main tank as well. why do you need a qt? is it for a fish you are about to purchase or a sick fish you already own?

looks god bro, have you got both the skimmers running yet?

OMG love the green acro close up. the color in that tank is amazing.

ill be there with bells on, well maybe not with bells on but you get the drift. :lol:

do you have the water parameters? sg temp ammonia nitrite ph no3 po4 where was the nsw from? any idea of its water params?

its real good, my house is that dry i can dry my washing inside overnight! i set my low temp at 10 and high at 25, but i will be bringing the high temp down to 22 ish to prevent my tank from getting too hot the house stays shut all day and lately ive been needing to leave the windows open for an hour or so when i get home from work to brigh the temp inside down. sounds like youve been shopping slappers?

looks great, the patches that look white in the photos, what are they?