lduncan

That's the idea Cracker. Layton

I remember a UK website which had a soda stream to regulator adaptor for sale, made for freshwater planted tanks. This may be a cheaper option? Layton

If your bioload is low enough, I'd try and get away without having a DSB. Pack it with live rock, and have access to the bottom for removing detritus build up. Layton

Really. People are not stupid (especially those on this board). Despite what you may think the internet is not as private as it may appear. Stop lying, It does nothing for your credibility, which has already been shot to pieces. No doubt you are under supervision by the moderators here? So by all means ask valid questions but no more stunts, or wasting other peoples time. Layton

The more flow the better, but I wouldn't think it would be too critical. Layton

If filled with live rock (no sand bed) a refugium would be great for added de-nitrification capacity, and be very little maintenance. This means you can support a higher bioload in your tank without having the "wall of rock" effect. This is the route i'll go down when I finally get to planning my new tank. Layton

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... uct=AQ3339 You can tell it's quinhydrone based from the tell tale green tint. Layton

At US$6 can't go wrong with marine depot. Chimera is organising an order now. You may be lucky to get in now if you want. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroomviewtop ... sc&start=0 Don't know what hazmat restrictions apply, if any, on shipping. Layton

No idea. Maybe diet related? I've seen pictures of a 14" still in juvenile colours, while one less than a foot was in full adult colouring.

That's the other place I would try. It's pretty nasty stuff, so may not be too available in NZ, you might have to approach the University chemistry department. Layton

I have a large blue tang, and a sohal. They now have a mutual respect for each other Layton

Total Lab Supplies maybe? http://www.totallab.co.nz/

Sometimes juveniles take much longer to morph to adult colours in tanks, sometimes it never happens. Don't know how long it generally takes for this particular fish. Maybe several years?

What size tank do you have? Keep in mind that these fish get large, and juveniles have a high metabolism, which means they need to be fed a lot, otherwise they will slowly starve to death over a period of a few months. Layton

I've been down the juvenile emperor angel in a reef road, I would never do it again. Picked at almost all my leathers constantly. Bangaiis tend to be difficult now for some reason. Late 90's they were bullet proof, damsel like fish. Now they seem to be affected by some disease now, it's really really strange. Powder Blue, great fish, bit shy at first, but can become aggressive when established, feed well and you'll have no problems. Like Pies said, they seem to be more susceptible to whitespot than other tangs, but nothing to be too worried about. I'd say go powder blue or majestic. both look impressive, and are reef safe. Layton

Orange Shoulder: Large fish. Juveniles are ugly, full adult colouration is very spectacular. Purple Tang: Solid fish, tend to be more expensive, coming from the Red Sea and transhipped. Good for smaller tank. Kole Tang: Nice looking detritus eater. doesn't get too big. Yellow Tang: Common. Good for smaller tanks. Picks a lot at rocks/algae. Clown Tang: Amazing fish, sometimes caught using cyanide through Indo. Gets large, and aggressive, requires plenty of food, and creates a lot of waste. Sohal: Great fish, similar to Clown Tang, gets large and aggressive. Needs lots of food. One of the hardiest tangs around. Again expensive coming from the Red Sea, and transhipped through LA or Asian countries. Blue Tang: Another common one. Powder Blue: Can be shy at first, but can get agressive once settled in. Good algae eater. Picks at rocks a lot. Naso: Big, don't tend to get as agressive as other large tangs. Archillies: Nice looking fish. Similar to power blues in behaviour. Generally people have less success with the larger tangs, I believe because of their need to be fed a LOT of green food and protein based foods. Also, they are more susceptible to disease when kept in smaller tanks. If you plan on getting any of these post your intention, and many here will be able to give advice on compatibility. Layton

I fired up my new ozone generator today : Might have to turn the power down a bit. It's starting to interfere with the tv. (it's a 5kW Tesla coil in case you were wondering. same principle as coronal discharge ozone generators, larger scale though ) Layton

Sand beds do a great job with nitrates no problem there. The problem is with phosphorus. Macro algae or no macro algae, sand beds store phosphorus. Once saturated, it leaches back into the water column. Live rock is fundamentally different to sand beds in this respect, in that bacterial turgor that the cyclic swings seen in sand beds does not occur. There are many many research papers which show this, and it is a natural phenomenon. My point was really that corals are carnivorous, they gain much of their trace nutrients through eating, not directly from dissolved compounds in the water. Carbon doesn't remove bacteria and zooplankton from the water. Carbon does not remove nutrients which are required by corals. But that is the interesting thing, this has been found to be the case. The exact same thing happens in tanks as in the ocean. Cyclic nutrient swings, driven by sand beds. That's similar to what I am currently doing. Setup a sand bed, primarily for nitrate reduction, then every few months dump it and start from scratch to avoid phosphorous leaching, which will occur in EVERY deep sand bed. However, I would MUCH rather be running an exclusively live rock system, as it avoids the inconvenience (and smell) of dumping a dsb every few months. (ie no maintenance), but I don't have room right now. My new tank will be planned with this in mind. Plenty of live rock to stocking ratio. Plus efficient skimming and mechanical filtration. Layton

Ozone and "negative ion generators" are for all intents an purposes the same thing. They use high electric fields to break molecular bonds to produce ozone (and other oxides) as well as potentially giving any free floating particles a static charge. Ozone has it's uses, but can be nasty. Compared with a lot of other oxidisers it has a short half life, which is good. Layton

That's what I thought. They are very different to xenia. Star polyps are like zooanthids and mushrooms, weeds which are damn impossible to kill :evil: Layton

yes and yes

What do you mean by "negative ions" do you mean like those air purifier type device sold as "negative ion" generators? If so, i think (not 100%) they are nothing more than a low powered choronal discharge ozone generator. It created a high electric field which produces ozone (and some other nasty stuff, like various nitrogen oxides)

Totally agree. But for a tank just starting to use ozone, there could well be a temporary spike in nitrate levels. Is it all dissolved in water? Is it removed by carbon? Much of the corals necessities are provided through zooxanthellae, and capture of prey (bacteria and zooplankton). The major dissolved substances required by corals (and symbiots) are carbonate/bicarbonate, calcium, magnesium, ammonia/nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus. All of which are in adequate supply, carbon or no carbon. Problems with carbon (i believe) are almost always secondary effects. ??? Explain? (it's an "L" not an "i" as well) That's the interesting thing, they have exhibited very similar properties in tank environments, as they do in natural environments. Nutrient flux occurs both in nature and in tanks, only on a different time scale. If only it was that simple. Sand beds are good for permanently removing nitrate, and absorbing phosphate (algae or no algae). They are by no means a permanent solution to a problem, the do leach phosphate once full (algae or no algae). I would say that mechanical filtration is the best. Better to remove as much crap as possible before it has the chance to decay (too much). Layton

The question is more what the zeolites are doing, rather than whether or not they work. But that's been done to death already. Also ozone can have the perceived effect of raising nitrates, as it provides an environment more conducive to the oxidative processes which convert ammonia, to nitrite to nitrate. It can lead to a temporary inbalance in production and usage rates of nitrate. Given time, they would settle back to normal. Comes down to the whole equilibrium thing, you make a change in your tank, but your tank takes time to settle back to a new equilibrium. Layton

Come to think of it, dosen't xenia have a relatively high demand for iodine? Hmmm. Layton