JackJackJack

why?

those holes shown are for re-circ plumbing. co2 goes into the re-circ plumbing. the effluent line and a second re-circ line to eliminate any unused co2 at the top of the reactore arent on there as i am drilling those myself and those drawings were for the person obtaining the acrylic for me, so he could grab scrap pieces if there were any close to size.

its DJ88's design from reefcentral. pics are mine tho water goes up one chamber and down the other. means you can have an upflow reactor but still take the effluent from the bottom meaning no large co2 bubbles go in your tank.

i dont agree that DIY is the wrong way to go. i built my own calc reactor as im enjoying learning to work with acrylic and also the design i used is not commercially available, and judging from other tanks who have used both it is more efficient than most commercially available units. plus some people dont have the money to spend hundreds of dollars on something they can make for 1/4 of the price.

reefonline.com.au sells salifert test kits in sets. a few different ones depending on what kind of tank you have (fish only, reef). dont know what the postage is like to NZ, but they are the best prices ive seen for salifert.

for a person new to marine they are pretty important, as without some kind of nutrient export a tank can be hard to keep stable at first and a skimmer is the easiest of the techniques for a newb.

research, ask questions and go look at as many established tanks as you can. it will save you soooooo much money ($1000's) lots of people buy the wrong or cheap equipment and it costs them alot in dead stock and replacement equipment. reefing costs alot and takes alot of time but it is worth it in the end!

he said/she said... everyone has an opinion, thats why these kind of boards are good, and pies post may have been slightly (very slightly) off topic, but its hard to find any threads without an offtopic post. everyone has an opinion, and i dont think there was too much slander in there. i dont know who's right or whos wrong in this one, but if they want to express an opinion then they should feel free to.

alot of the aussie guys succesfully use hypo-salinity, which is the only treatment ive seen so far with any kind of science behind it. http://www.masa.asn.au/rtaw/ubbthreads.php has alot of info about it.

nothing like dealing in beer.

thats a big budget reef. actually now that i think about it my tank is only a 5x2x18 and cost me $3000 with all second hand equipment. add in the exchange-rate and high cost of gear in NZ its nearly the same. buy the gear slowly, it wont hurt the hip-pocket as bad, i bought a piece of equipment a month, just waited for real good deals. (managed to get a 400W MH minus globe for $20 plus $50 for an electrician to check it out, was nothing wrong with it either). its good training in patience too.

the creatures in my reef at night scare me, i dont think id want a light on in the tank all night. last night i got up to get a drink and had a look at the tank as i walked past, a worm at least 20cm long "swam" up from the sandbed into a rock. so many freaky things come out after lights out

a few softies

reefonline.com.au will very soon be selling zimm reactors. heres a link: http://www.zinn-aquatech.com/ they look real good, im gonna be gettin one, i have talked to the owner of the store and she says they will be about $100, you have to supply your own 2' tank and a light, or have it in sunlight to grow algae to feed the cultures. whether you make your own or buy one cultures can be bought from michael at reefculture ([email protected]). from him: 1000ml live rotifier culture with min cell count of 100/ml - $15 100ml frozen nano concentrate (1ml makes 3.6L nano) - $30 they are only over in QLD so shipping should be easier to you guys than to me in WA!

anenomes are very well known for taking advantage of sick and injured fish for an easy dinner. very sad, such a beautiful fish. hope a miracle occurs and he is just hiding.

heres one of my big snails, i have about 20 of this species in my tank and they clean up about 4 times as much algae compared to the other species of snails in the tank. theres a saying i saw in a signature on a messageboard (cant remember which, could even be this one!) "if you can count how many snails you have, you havent got enough!"

i think nearly everyone uses the natural (berlin) method. 5x2x1.5 i just have live-rock (~70kg) and water circulation, no filters. i have a protein skimmer aswell, but rely more on regular (once or twice a week) small water-changes to keep nutrients down. my fish stocks are low as it is a new tank, but will stay quite low as im more interested in the corals. coral stock will mostly be softies and LPS as i dont have the $$ to spend on a calcium reactor, and with SPS i dont think i'll be able to keep my Ca levels high enough with just kalk dosing. lighting is 1x400w MH and 3x NO fluoros

the free server i use to host my site is reallll dodgy and is probably down at the moment. anyone have any ideas as to somewhere i can sign up for free hosting?? also whatever it was on the rock, i got home today just in time to see a hermit eating the last crumb of it

no, hasnt moved since i spotted it 2 weeks back. i think it may just be a sponge, just wanted to check it wasnt some devil-spawn that crashes your tank

just spotted this on a piece of rock, i think it may be a sponge or something of that sort. anyone have any ideas? sorry if the photo isnt great, only borrowing this one from a mate and am not used to it. http://jacksreef.t35.com/sponge.jpg it is about an 3cm by 1cm

well i am picking up my camera today (thank god for the warranty!) so there will be more photos soon!!!

i've had a tropheus moorii jump behind the tank and had to rescue him, he was covered in fur and dirt, and he made a full recovery after the incident. although he's a tanganyikan cichlid, u couldnt kill em with a hammer. hope all turns out ok!

check this out: http://www.masa.asn.au/rtaw/showflat.ph ... o=&fpart=1 an interesting post about the vodka method being same as the zeovit system alot of people pay alot for. also a note, it points out your refugium may crash if using the vodka method... although it gives no reasons. interesting to see the origional reef central post.

wow! thats an amazing tank! any problems of fighting between the tangs?

thanks interfectus, english was always my worst subject at school. what a silly mistake though... Yeah, i must admit, buying the hammer coral was probably not the best move, as my book listed it as more an intermediate and not a beginners coral, but it was just such an interesting looking coral. seems to me to be the type with a U shaped shell, but is hard to tell. and yes it was in a flow area that was too low for it, and after noticing that myself earlier it has been moved to a higher flow area of the tank, have to wait to see whether it is less sloppy tomorow as lights were out when i moved it. if the clowns adopt it as their home what action can i take, keep in mind i have no 'fuge (.....yet) hehe sorry about the bad photo of the moon coral, had the tank longer than my camera, so im a newbie at both. my favia is different to yours, the skeletal walls of the polyps (is that what they are called still on stoney corals?) are merged, where as they seem seperate on yours. ive got about 30 of the mushroom corals through the tank, all different types and colours, been keeping me interested while the tank cycles! hope my waiting has paid off and my clowns are nice and happy this time next week haha and sorry for my site being so similiar to yours, i am hoping you took it more as a compliment than anything else. thanks jack