si_sphinx

I have always used my sumps for more than just filtration. Freshwater sump I use to have a light over the center area and grow out plantlets from plants etc and keep picked on fish to heal etc. Marine sump I have small peppermint shrimp in there until they are big enough to not be eaten in the DT. Good for acclimatising fish too. (floating the bag and drip acclimating). I am actually thinking of adding a built-in chamber somehow that will be specifically for acclimation use and will slowly drip in water but still be separate from the main system. This will make it easier to keep the water temp stable. If I have spare space then I use it.

Thanks guys Yes the colours of the corals are amazing now.

Cleaned the glass today And noticed my starfish has stopped for a feed on a snail that didn't turn itself back over in time. :lar:

Light hung... Ignore the algae on the back wall :oops: I haven't had time to clean it and the cowrie snail and lawnmower blenny are on it all day and night. The cowrie snail cleans it completely in 2-3 days then it regrows.

The K4 don't have fans in the light units. I will keep an eye on the LEDs. Hopefully I don't get anything burning out.

Also ATO unit arrived. Now I need to get the reservoir sorted. The white float valve and pump goes in the reservoir and the Infrared sensor and chip sensor goes in the sump.

Package arrived today Old lights New K4 LED lights just sitting on top of the tank. Still need to hang them. A part was missing from the hanging kit so contacted the supplier and the part will be in the post tomorrow. There is amazing colors coming around the rocks and spilling onto the sand These lights are completely 100% silent compared to the noisy fans and high pitched ring of my only MH unit. I am going to sit there and watch the tank for an hour just to see the sunset feature on it.

no but I gotta go by chch to get there.

I will be going up to CHCH (hamner for a weeks holiday) on 22nd June. And will be bringing anything I can find in the fish shops I want back with me. If anyone needs anything I can try fit it in.

Nice one :thup: Looks like they could end up getting sorted.

I would think so. And it may or may not change as it gets bigger.

As far as I know, they are blue and always have been.

They have grown and look awesome. That one looks to have gotten even brighter than when I last seen it. It almost looks like a different variant.

I have had the skimmer running non stop since November last year (except for stopping for cleaning and feeding). Aquaworld seem to be very nice and easy enough to deal with.

My tank is 800ltrs and the BM curve 7 works well.

I havent kept track of the cost but at a guess I would say less than $1000 so far. Would have been even less if I could have sourced more things from NZ.

I have the BM curve 7 and it works awesome. I have only read good things about cone skimmers and them being better than traditional cylinder skimmers. BM seem to be built well and are very quiet.

Its not made to cut anything heavy. Just small things for hobbies etc. I still have to make the cutting bed which will be thicker and stronger than the thin bit of MDF sitting there at the moment.

Looking good. I hated when I had to refill the Co2 Bottle. I never did it straight away and the tank definitely paid for it :facepalm:

After calling soo many places around NZ I couldn't find anything available under $200. All quality NZ made transformers or imports with high mark ups. So I ended up importing my own. $24USD! :bggrn: $90NZD shipping. Still cheaper than buying here. All wired up. Very close to finishing this now. Gave it some leegs and feet today. :cofn:

A few updates today. Magnesium test kit arrived in the mail So while I tested for magnesium I thought I would test everything The line up Test Results using API saltwater, API marine and Salifert Magnesium test kits, Ammonia - 0ppm Nitrite - 0ppm Nitrate - 0ppm pH - 8.2 Calcium - 420ppm Carbonate Hardness - 12dKH / 200ppm Phosphate - 0.0-0.25ppm (will be looking into getting a better kit that can measure within 0.01ppm) Magnesium - 1260 (although this is fine I will add 250gr of Magnesium sulphate heptahydrate to my top up water to increase to 1300ppm) Salanity - 1.026 (measured using a refractometer) New 10,000k LED light added over sump MP40w Vortech wavemaker has replaced one of the 12,000lph wavemakers. These are cool pumps. I like how they alter their speed randomly to create the turbulence required for the corals and fish. However, they do seem to be quite noisy when they get up to full speed so I run it at about 80%. There is noticeably less water movement in the tank now. In the future I will replace the other 12,000lph wavemaker with another Vortech. A new ATO system should becoming in the post next week. I will squeeze in a 35x35x55cm (60ltr) reservior tank in the stand. I will use this for evapouration top ups and adding the required ingredients to keep my parameters in check. This water will be pumped through a Kalkwasser reactor before it enters the sump. ALSO in the next few weeks I should have a new lighting setup. The center MH on my unit seems to have stopped working, it flickers for a while when it comes on and then switches off. I haven't got around to finding the problem but it has pushed me into buying some LED units. SWMBO keeps telling me the lights and fans are too noisy. After complaining the return pump and water sounds were to noisy, I had moved the pump to a box outside and ironed out all the noise in the system, it is virtually silent now. But I can never win. So some silent lights should do the trick. It will just be, 'The Vortech pump sounds like a washing machine', complaint left. I will start the lights off up high and intensity turned down and slowly adjust my tank to the new lights over a month or so. The tank hasn't changed much since the last photos but I have ordered another heap of frags, yellow tang, banggai cardinal and cleaner shrimp. More photos to come as things arrive on my doorstep :thup:

I haven't seen anyone with this fish in NZ before. Comparing them with the cichlid forum profile it is similar but not exactly the same. Colors and baring seems to be different. TM pic shows more yellow and duller baring with more bars. Cichlid Forum pic shows more of a darker fish with less and wider baring. :dunno: So the TM fish could be different from breeding so much and not the best quality or theres the possibility of it being a hybrid. JMHO

When I had canisters I had noodles in every compartment. First had noodles with sponge on top, second had noodles with wool on top third was all noodles. And my fluvals were all noodles because they have a separate side bit that has the sponges. Anyone who has a fluval will understand what I'm on about

I think I have seen someone say there are others here or different variants, but not publicly shown off to everyone. 7 bars or 6 bars, I can't remember. I miss my fronts

If you got that tank off trademe then I hope you plan on bracing it. Because it looked as though it was designed as a turtle tank and not meant to be filled all the way up. Some euro bracing along the top would make it a lot safer. I always live by sumps because I find them easier to clean, add things to the water, keeps equipment out of the tank, more room for bio media, etc. And you can make them quieter than any canister IMO. But an FX5 or two smaller canisters (one each end) would be just fine for those who don't necessarily know how, or have the space, to setup a sump.