lduncan

I assume it's a magnetic ballast. Vibration / humm is fairly common in poorly constructed cores. Sometimes the steel can delimitate a little, and cause quite loud vibration humm with the mains frequency going through it. The fix is to get a new ballast. Layton

I think he's talking about tiger cowrie: About the only "snail" actually on the MAF permitted list (at the moment). Layton

:lol:

I have one lonely one. It's needs some friends, got any to spare?

Cowries? Anyone got trochus snails up there: Layton

The stream won't work. Tried it. I just stab or crush any suspect crabs with a screwdriver. Then it's feeding time for the trigger.

The bacteria that need to be there will get there by themselves, there's not much extra you can do to help them along. All it needs is time.

The cooking process works because of the denitrifying bacteria. It's a specific way of curing rock. So cook it, then chuck it straight in the display. I also suspect the cooking (if done fully) will take a lot longer than 6 weeks.

That's why I chose UV. Crank it up without worrying about OD.

40Watt HO Those nasty oxidised halogens for one. Not to mention ozone itself. Potential to overdose.

depends how much UV you use. ;-) But yes, a tank with a typical sized ozone will clarify water more effectively than the same tank with a typical sized UV on it. But there are other more practically useful effects than water clarity... water quality.

Won't use. I choose UV over ozone. It has many of the same benefits without some of the pitfalls of ozone. If I had to use ozone, it would be on a controller, and the ozonated water run through carbon before entering the tank.

Actually wasp, it wasn't like that at all. You should stop assuming things like this. Layton

Try it and see then. You might be surprised. Layton

A LOT of detritus. Try it and see. It doesn't work that way in the ocean, and it won't work that way in a tank. Try and see how much flow you need to achieve that. You'll probably find you won't have sand left on the bottom for very long ;-) Also bacteria are part of the problem in sinking this stuff. The nitrogen doesn't have to be in solid particulates for it to get there, and neither does the phosphorous. If you have nitrogen (as nitrate) in soluble form, then you are going to have P in soluble form too. Large amounts P will still find their way into storage there. Best thing to do, rather than deny it's happening, is just recognise that you can't change that behaviour just by changing the flow over the bed. The only way to change it is by cleaning the bed. Then focus on replacing the bed, or adding more depth to the bed, before things change. It's all going on, it has to, otherwise the sandbed doesn't "work". Also realise that the typical nitrogen cycle explanation you hear of ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate -> nitrogen gas is not quite as straight foward as that. Nitrogen is cycled too (just like phosphate) some is converted into ammonia some into nitrogen gas. Some of that ammonia is assimilated by benthic algae, some will be oxidised back through nitrite -> nitrate. All these processes are going on so that the sandbed can do it's storage and denitrification. Layton

They will be pacific. We don't get coral imports from the Atlantic. Sounds like you have a research project going on?

What i'm saying is that it is ALWAYS a serious consideration, unless you are vaccuming the sand. The thing is is that for the nitrogen benifits of the bed to occur, it MUST be sinking nutrients. You don't have one without the other. It's the bacteria in the bed which mediate the sink / source cycles. The same bacteria which is performing nitrate reduction. Layton

I don't use flake. I don't know, guess it depends on the brand. I would suspect there is a lot.

Because a little phosphorous goes a LONG way. It's tightly cycled, and kills corals in aquariums.

that was one of the ideas:

Can you reasonably expect nitrogen waste to get to the places required without phosphorous getting there as well? The same bacteria which are performing the denitrification and nitrogen cycling, are the ones which are responsible for storing, migrating and cycling P. They go hand in hand. Layton

But that process is one in the same. If the bed is performing denitrification, it must also be sinking and storing nutrients. Layton

DSB's work by sinking nutrients. If they don't sink, then they don't work. And the only way to stop them sinking is to vacuum them. In this case you want it to sink nutrients. What's the sand for then, if you don't want nutrient to get into it? How will it work? I've had a very similar setup to this before. Run it for a few months and then ditched it. After seeing the state of the sand, i decided i'd never do it again. Layton

I wonder if anyone was listening when I wrote this a few months ago in one of the many feeding threads at the time ;-) . ( I don't talk nearly as much shit as other would make out. ) http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt13 ... sc&start=0 Layton

I've said it before, there's no such thing as overfeeding.