lduncan

Nice. That will be a bit of a change from Dunedin.

that pvc cement must have been especially strong.

You didn't happen to see these little people around the same time as you were plumbing that OM up, did you ?

Same thing with activated carbon. US$0.91 will get you carbon, it'll also get you plenty of phosphate too. It's the usual story, you get what you pay for. Layton

What wasp said. If it could be done, it would have been done. Red Sea salt is probably as close to evaporated NSW a you will come, and around 13% of it is additional chemicals which react once hydrated to give the proper ion composition. $200 for 40kg of salt is not really a lot of money considering (that is retail pricing too). Layton

I use Red Sea salt mainly, $200 for 40kg box. Down here in ChCh our tap water is pretty good (good enough for me) so we don't usually bother with RO/DI, but with the crap water in Auck, you really should use RO/DI. Chimera posted a place to get these units from in Auck not so long ago. Check the sticky at the top of the page, it probably has the place listed. Layton

Give Fay a break, stuff like this on big tanks is time consuming and tiring. I though moving my little tank was bad, this must have been much worse. Hope things are smooth sailing for you now Fay. Layton

True, along with www.reefkeeping.com (advanced aquarist is generally more "advanced" in terms of it's articles content). Layton

Most of us here are more tropical marine, but I think I remember that Pies had some connections in Wellington who maintain coldwater marine tanks, maybe he'll chime in here and help out. Layton

Just keep in mind that equilibrium doesn't always mean static or equal concentration. So the water may be cleaner than the rock, yet still have reached equilibrium. Just for interest start of BB, and see how much stuff comes out of your rock, I think you'll be surprised. Layton

This is the part I found hardest to get my head around to start with. I'll start a new thread here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... 9531#89531 Layton

Just starting a new thread from the change in topic from this discussion here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt8423.html?start=0 Well gravity is the main difference. Rock, as long as it is in an environment which is high nutrients, will soak up crap like a sponge, until it reaches equilibrium with the water's crap levels. What happens when the surrounding environment is lower nutrient than the rocks? The rocks shed some crap, to match the conditions, they reach an equilibrium. Gravity pulls this shedded crap to the bottom of the tank. This is the rock cooking process. With sandbeds gravity is the main reason why they accumulate more and more crap. When they are full they leach phosphate. So what happens when the water is clean and rock is sitting in a dirty sand bed? This is when the rock absorbs the phosphate and crap from the sandbed like a sponge, if this seeps into coral skeletons it can cause problems with boring algae, which can kill sps, some believe it is responsible for stn. Indication this is happening is the skeleton structure of dead corals are green. Water parameters may appear fine in this case. The rocks will indicate there are problems brewing. Layton

Well, the thing is, I didn't intentionally cook my rock. Is is an ongoing process at the moment, after the skimmer upgrade. It just happened. Here is a good explanation of it (look for the bold text in the first post): http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... genumber=1 So it is usually done by removing the rock from the tank and putting it in buckets in the dark. That is the fastest way of doing it. Doing it in tank apparently takes much longer. Layton

That's not entirely true. You can have clean water, but dirty substrate which is absorbed up through rock and into coral skeletons where boring algaes can kill sps corals from the inside out. All the time the water may be pristine. That's why you shouldn't rely entirely on tests for phosphate and nitrate. The sate of live rock can tell you a lot about the overall tank conditions. With sand comes nutrients and dirt, gravity makes sure of that. Water on the reef crest is generally cleaner than that found in sandy lagoons. Layton

What about it?

The reef crest then. Is cleaned by wave action, and is away from sand.

What part of the reef are you talking about? There are a lot of different environments within a reef. Layton

A clean tank is not sterile, you just run into fewer problems / use fewer band-aids.

Think of it this way then. In your house, would you leave food all over the place, dishes unwashed, to attract flies, rats, mice, ants, and other insects? Then call it increasing the "biodiversity" in your home? I wouldn't. Why would you run a tank like that? Layton

It's not a generalisation at all it's fact. What do bristleworms and pods feed on? Depending on what you are trying to keep, a dirty tank can cause problems. Of course pods and bristleworms are always going to exist in tanks, but they are not necessarily something to be encouraged. Pies tank? I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, but his tank is dirty, hence the large pod population. How can I tell it's dirty? Well the state of the rocks show it. The last pictures he posted show a lot of algae covering a lot of his rock. To me that is a big warning sign, i would be worried if my rock was in that state. Why would I worry, well sps corals are essentially live rock with a thin surface coating of tissue, if the crap which is in the rocks seeps into the coral skeleton, it can easily kill them. For soft corals, it's not an issue. As for water parameters and acro colours... it's phosphate remover. Just because water parameters look good, doesn't mean the system is clean at all. Again not to be taken the wrong way, it's not a dig a Pies, it is just that it is a good example of what I mean. Layton

An infestation of bristle worms is a sign that your tank is dirty, same with excessive number of pods. Layton

Welcome. Read my post near the top of this page: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/next-v ... c&start=15 This is much more effective than kalk paste, (and I suspect Joes Juice as well, although i've never used it). Biological control can be hit or miss sometimes. Layton

I would be confident enough to say that wasp is right. Any rock you add to the tank whether it is "cycled" rock, or dry base rock, has more than enough crap in it to kick-start the cycle itself, without adding anything to the tank. If anything, you would want to purge the rock of this crap before adding coral, not add more. Layton

Here is a link to one of the Italian GH threads: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=409899

Does anyone know where I can get this in NZ? Preferably the saltwater version, but the FW will do. Layton