lduncan

From what i have read on reefcentral they seem to be more reliable than the usual rios, but people have been extreemely disappointed with the amount of flow they actual put out. Many people opting to replace them after only a few weeks with tunze streams. Layton

Mushrooms will kill most things. They are nasty. Layton

you're really trying to get rid of that thread aren't you Steve. Layton

yip. I'll pm you later with it after i find it. Layton

Nope, just a parallel port and a few resistors. Layton

Nooo... Dirty, dirty, PIC's, one of the most hated micro's around. Atmel produce a much better, less expensive micros with more features. The mega series is quite nice for an 8-bit. Layton

the flickering comes from the water movement not the light itself.

It a seriatopora. The pics have come out quite red, i didn't bother trying to correct the colour on them. It's more of a golden brown than an orange in real life. Layton

Thanks. Steve, the acro in the background of the last pic is the one which is starting to turn purple. That pic was from a week ago, (the others were all taken today). You can kind of see the very tips with a bit of purple in that pic, but the colour has moved further down the tips now. It's hard to get a good photo of it though. Hopefully the whole coral colours up, it should look great then. Layton

Finally got round to taking some more pics of my tank. Layton

the site posted previously is the cheapest price i have ever seen for blue LED's. The ones i mentioned are around $3 but are surface mount and very small. DS is a rip off. Layton

yeah moonlight. 3000mcd per LED is not that bright. You can get 1mmx2mm blue LED which put out around 4500mcd. Layton

at 3000mcd I'd say around 8 every two foot minimum. Layton

I feed mysis and spirilina daily. Also got a culture of phytoplankton (nannochloropsis salina) going, but havn't added any to my tank yet. I want to give the aspartic acid another month or two to see how it goes. Layton

no really major changes. The water is still crystal clear. Skimmer isn't producing as much as before. One seriatopora is sprouting lots of little white growth tips, this is a definate change. One acro I have had for over a year appear to be turning from brown to purple (still early days though) Nitrates are still around 5 and don't appear to be dropping yet. Layton

You could always get a couple of boxes of salt Layton

Welcome. Here are some threads with some photos of peoples tanks around here. Most of the regulars (Pies, JetskiSteve, Reef, chimera, Nicks, and myself) have pics here. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=1958 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=2911 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=1948 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=2044 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=2237 Layton

Hey Pies, How's the new tank coming along?

I'm telling you sodium hydroxide is the way to go for 100% kill rate. Thats kill, not just maim and deform! Layton

Here is a bit more about amino acids in general. They are the building block molecules to proteins. Proteins are a polymer of amino acids (linked via a peptide bond). They are chiral comounds, which means that the have two possible three dimensional structures. L- aminos are the biologically useful ones, D- not so useful. This is why you may see suppliments labled as L-Tyrosine, or similar. Some can be synthisised by animals. Corals can not synthisise aspartic acid. Aspartic acid, it is a small hydrophillic molecule (having two carboxyl groups and an amine group) this means it is difficult for a skimmer to pull it out of the water. Skimmmers rely on large hydrophobic molecule to be attracted to the surface of the bubble, and remove it. So aspartic acid in not an easy to skim molecule. Carbohydrates are just sugars. Glucose, Fructose, Maltose etc, are all carbohydrates, and are not related to amino acids chemically. The effects of dosing it are increased skimmate production, clearer water, and increased polyp extension.

Here is a two year old thread from reefcentral: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115863 Layton

To put it bluntly this thread was never intended to be about zeovit. So lets drop the zeovit topic all together an look at the topic at hand. Amino acids. Layton

I don't think things are really quite this simple. I think you should have as full an understanding of what you are doing to your tank as possible. This way you are in a better position to determine whether something you are going to do is going to be for the long term benifit of your tank. Or if it may have any side effects. It really is all about sharing information. If it doesn't interest you fine, but I found it interesting and thought that others might too. Maybe it gives some furthur insight into how zeovit may work... or would Brendon be as helpful as to explain how it works in detail (not how to use it)? Here are some links for anyone interested: Randy's Article on calcification which promted my inital investigations: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/apr2002/chem.htm Another article which mentions aspartic acid in passing: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/media.htm A paper which is referenced by the two previous articles: http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/201/13/2001?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&titleabstract=pistillata&searchid=1020695985689_585&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&journalcode=jexbio In emailing Randy on this topic he mentioned that he is going to put togeather an article on the roles effects of various amino acids on corals. Layton

I understand an eco aqualiser as essentially a pipe with a magnetic field around it. It apparently achieves similar results as ozone, in that from what they explain, it ionizes O2 molecues in the water to produce O3. Along with breaking h-bonds between water molecules which trap nutriets. The way they describe it, the difference between the eco aqualiser and a uv steraliser is the same as the difference between a coronal discharge ozone generator, and a uv bulb ozone generator. Two different methods achieve the same result. I don't believe ozone is benificial for a reef tank. And I would never use it. I would however consider it for a fish only tank. There are a couple of problems i have with their theory. First, the magnetic field required to achieve the energies required to break h-bonds (about 40kJ/mol) would exceed the capability of any permanent magnet, even rear earth magnets (around 1 Tesla). In addition to this, only high frequency alternating magnetic or electric fields are known to cause ionisation. Also the explaination itself is dubious at best. Water is a small molecule, relative to the organic molecules it is claimed to trap. This means that a large number of water molecules would have to be involved in trapping these other molecules. Which means more polar bonds to break, probably in a three dimensional lattice structure. Meaning even more energy is require to split it. I do agree however that if these h-bonds make the trapped molecule less "skimmable". This is because a hydrogen bond makes a polar molecule less polar. All this points to a prouct which may have the best intentions, but I believe can not work, not by theory, but rather by design.