Doc Holiday

For those of you interested! Inland aquatics had miracle mud analysed and it is basically made of - 7% aliminum - 4% calcium - 4% iron - 2% magnesium - 1% sodium - it showed a reading of 30% silicon, in miracle mud that would be present as silicon dioxide otherwise knowen as quartz, and as silicon has less than half the molecular weight of silicon dioxide that means that miracle mud is made up of 63% Quartz

Just a suggestion-- Why not use the stand you have for the sump and refuge and build another for the main tank its self. That way the sump can be hidden out of sight if need be, leaving just the display tank.

The hang on deltecs are far to small to keep up with a system of 800l, you are going to have to modify your sump to fit a larger in sump model. I think what pies was getting at is the stand may be able to hold the weight of the tanks but it will be very top heavy and could topple quite easily.

With the trend going towards natural ecosystems, miracle mud came about. It is supposed to release valuable trace elements and nutrients into the system and enhance the growth of calurpa algaes for phosphate and nitrate removal and other wase products. I believe these systems have to be on a larger scale to be more effective and are really only suited to low stocked systems with little waste. Systems that have higher stock levels and that are heavally feed should look into the algae turf scrubber methods. This makes for some interesting reading if you have the time. I will post a link soon.

Awesome!! Youre the envy amongst us all!!

A mate of mine is running a skimmerless MM ecosystem and things are looking great. Once the algae takes off you'll have no problems removing the skimmer (TOUCH WOOD)

I want to drill my 5' tank but the glass guys said they would need to remove the panel to put it in thier press and this is not an option. There must be other ways, I need one 1" hole for the overflow and 4 3/4" holes for the closed loops and possibly 2 more for the sump return all on the back panel. Is this too many holes for one 5' panel before causing it to be seriously weakened??

Did you have to break down the glass panels to do this?

Steve the freight is a small price to pay for quality rock when my choices are good quality rock from you or lets see, dead rock, cured or uncured for the same price it would cost to frieght your rock down here.

Do you still have some rock left steve?? I have 30 or 40 kilos of base rock to run in my sump/refugium but I'm after some quality rock for the main system, about 50 or 60 kilos.

I've got an article at home about a guy who pulled a seven metre worm from his 4 foot tank after he broke it down because his corals were being eaten and he couldn't figure what was doing it, man did he get one hell of a suprise. I'll have to try and hunt down the article so you all can have a read.

By the way! the anemone is looking great brian!!

Good one Pies!! :lol: :lol: Sounds like you've thought of the same extremes I have.

Is that one of your Aqua-one Tanks?

Hey pies remember saying this back in april

These two low light softie tanks are my inspiration http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004- ... /index.htm http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/totm/

I wouldn't hold your breath, They say the same to everyone.

Thats got me inspired! well done looks awesome!

Pies wrote . I have a stack of articles in my bedroom thats about two foot high all on DSB's and plenums. If you go to www.reefs.org and click on #reefs, type in sandbeds it should come up with about 260 articles all written by advanced aquariests. Happy reading!!

I haven't spilt more than a few drops yet (touch wood), it's amazing how carefull you can be when your life depends on it (the mrs would kill me if I flooded her expensive carpet and I'd say the fish would come to the same fate!)

This is on trademe at the moment http://www.trademe.co.nz/Lifestyle/Pets ... 986101.htm

$90 is a great price for a koran angel but i wouldn't put one in my reef, would you? with the trend being a community reef i don't think there is a huge market for fish like these.

As a beginer in this hobby I don't have to much insight on what you guy's are debating. But as far as I can tell there is a great deal of demand and a great need for more suppliers in the market place. There are 4 importers here in Christchurch and they can't keep up with demands. There is tremendous growth in the hobby here and any shipments that come in are already sold in advance and the excess is cleaned up in 2 - 3 days. for example Pet world here in Christchurch brought in a large shipment of more than 100 varities of fish and invertabraes just over a week ago and when I went in to have a look a few days ago there was nothing to see they were cleaned out and this the same with any shipment that comes into Christchurch. If I want to buy anything i have to go on a waiting list. This is the reason why the lfs can slap any price they like on things because people will pay with out question because how else are they going to get what they want. most of them have no idea what things are really worth. And untill there is more supply to meet demand the prices will never be driven down. One example that makes me laugh is, I have seen red sea prism pro delux skimmers for sale in America for around $85 american and I have seen three for sale here for $895 This is ludacris. High quality equipment isn't seen in shops here because with a mark up like that who is going to pay a couple of grand for a skimmer thats worth $400 or $500 dollars in America. If it wasn't for people like Alois, we wouldn't have top of the line deltecs on our tanks. Thats enough rambling from me!! People like Steve and nick aren't even going to make the smallest change in our market because it is impossible for them to keep up with the huge demand. Good on you guy's I hope there are many more to do the same and bring some sanity to our insane market place.

Did you have a look into the american made iwaki's chimera?? I would also suggest maybe looking into a couple of Mak4 Gen-x pumps.

I have been quoted $189 for the JBL reef master testkit, does this price seem ok? how does it compare to the equivlent salifert kits?