lduncan

There are two species, diphreutes and acuminatus. Diphreutes is considered more reef safe. They have distinctly different shaped "font ends". Diphreutes has a flatter front, with a deep chest. Whereas acuminatus has a more pointed one... for eating coral I guess. They are usually pretty easy to get, but getting the species you want may be another story. Layton

It's going to be one impressive tank! Have you seen this tank which royal exclusiv built. Looks a similar style:

The ehiems on the 902's make a real racket when you block the air supply. Maybe the pumps on the smaller models aren't powerful enough to cause any significant cavitation?

Cover the air intake hose on a needle wheel pump and it will whine even more, from cavitation on the needles.

Pseudochromis are not allowed to be imported.

Metals, and small ions or molecules don't get skimmed. Skimmers target long chained molecules with hydrophobic ends. Strontium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, carbonate, hydrogen carbonate, etc are not skimmable to any great extent. The things which ARE skimmable, are particulate foods, larger organic molecules, highly polar molecules. Generally things labelled as "food". Layton

Too late it's sold already: http://www.reefermadness.us/RM-Hand-Picked.htm (top right) Layton

I bet it's sold in under 24 hours

Exactly. Try telling that to some people though.

There are some comments in this thread about the tank re safety: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/its-bi ... 13103.html

I don't have questions for him, nor am I asking you questions, nor arguing with you about what he said. Nothing is ambiguous at all. It's pretty clear. I understand exactly what he is saying. There is another glaring error (most likely typo) in what he wrote too, which you have obviously not picked up. Maybe your the one who doesn't really understand? You know Eric B has also written on alkalinity levels. IIRC he referenced another study which showed something along the lines of double the alkalinity and you get almost double the growth. Layton

I was just posting the info, no need to be patronising. It's not a matter of arguing, its a matter of understanding what you're reading and not being side tracked by "other factors" which have nothing to do with changing alkalinity levels. It just seems like an attempt by mesocosm to justify the zeo guide recommendations, based on a set of condition which do not occur when you just increase alkalinity. The info i've seen, and the table above, show that this statement isn't accurate. Increasing alkalinity in oligotrophic waters DOES increases growth rate (especially from the dkH levels mentioned above). Hope that clears it up. Layton

The real data is indisputable: DIC = dissolved inorganic carbon (read as alkalinity) DIC enrichment was achieved using sodium bicarbonate (ie baking soda, or buffer) Clearly shows that increasing alkalinity, increases growth rates. In addition, if you increase nitrogen as well as increasing alkalinity the growth rate is also increased. Another interesting thing this data shows (although unrelated to alkalinity) is that growth rates decrease with the addition of nitrate or ammonium. Layton

This is a really interesting one. There is a lot of information around about it. Look more for info on marine bacteria, dinoflangellates, cyanobacteria, and phytoplankton, than corals directly. African dust, coral disease, and siderophores might give some interesting results. If your into DSB's, it plays an important role in the processes going on in sediments too. I have my opinions on adding iron. Will be interesting to see what real information others come up with. Layton

I'd love to see someone build a bomb which chlorides and carbonates. All the questioning seems strange when you can find everything you need to make a bomb at a garden centre for a few dollars. :lol: Oklahoma bombing was carried out with little more sophistication than that.

But that's my point. His posts have little to do with what happens when alkalinity is raised. His posts are talking about what happens when you change other things like pH, lighting and trophic conditions, and the subsequent effects on the carbonate / hydrogen carbonate equilibrium, and then how that effects skeletogenisis. He did not consider what happens when you change the alkalinity in isolation, which is what you do when adding buffer. Layton

Yip. Just thought that someone might have found a convenient economical source in NZ.

A 55 kg barrel would be enough to last several hundred lifetimes!

Elaborate? Anything directly related to increasing alkalinity? Does this extract make sense? Layton

Where did you get Strontium chloride from, how much?

Actually I think mesocosm has missed the point on this one. While much his information is correct, it doesn't relate to increased alkalinity. What he is describing is a shift in equilibrium due to other environmental changes, independent of raising alkalinity. From the paper he references: He based his post on this information. Which doesn't directly relate to increasing alkalinity at all. Layton

i was meaning in reefs, with coral.

That doesn't stop some people

Sulfate and sulfur is very important in de-nitrification and nutrient cycling. Extra important if your using a DSB. I haven't seen any other information on any other roles in aquarium. Sulfur's similar to phosphate in that it's tightly cycled, so isn't depleted rapidly, and isn't exported as easily as phosphate either. Some analysis of salt shows that some asw may be low in sulfate, so with something like magnesium, where often you have to add a LOT to bring levels up, using a mix of sulfate and chloride, can help minimize any skewing of chloride levels. Plus mag sulfate is easy to get hold of. Layton

I think that should be 100 meq which is approx 7,400 ppm (7.4 ppt) Chim, that was when adding magnesium. A combo of sulfate and chloride to try and balance things a little more due to the mass that needs to be added. For dosing things like potassium, by the sound of how much is generally added, it's a non issue. The amount of chloride added is really not significant relative to the concentration which is already there. Which makes me wonder where the rumor that the chloride added if you dose potassium chloride causes corals to brown came from. Layton