Faithbleed

Never had oxygen added to bags when buying from Auckland shops, but all fish have survived the journey home. Take them back ASAP and talk to the shop.

Local farm supplies: RD1 etc Buy the 20kg bag for about $20.

Snails are good, but you'd need quite a few to manage algae. I've heard urchins are good at cleaning up, but obvious with the spikes comes risks of fish getting stabbed. Hermits are great cleaners, but once again they have issues like walking all over corals hap-haphazardly. Don't mean to put you off a clean up grew, just saying research before you commit to anything. Theres always mixed opinions on anything marine related. I have a 300L 1m wide display tank and won't keep a tang as I've been told even 4ft is pushing it for tangs, but I've seen happy tangs in a 150L, 600mm wide tanks, so guess it's up to if you really. I think the tang that copes the best with smaller tanks is a Sailfin, but I'm no expect and stand to be corrected. HFF Albany has a nice RSM 250, from memory they keep a flame angel, sixline wrasse and maybe a couple clowns, can't remember what else.

Gorgeous tank Fay! I've just converted from t5 to LED, I'm running the Maxspect RAZOR for my tank and am very happy with the results in colour, coral health, easy of use and cost saving ill encounter from not replacing bulbs (but obviously an expensive initial outlay).

A sump is optional, it's up to you how big you want and what you want to put in it and/or accomplish with it. In my opinion go as big as you can fit under your cabinet as the greater the total water volume in running in your system the better/more stable it'll be. 660 is quite deep, you'll need decent lighting if you plan of penetrating that depth, especially if you want to keep more advanced corals and inverts later on. I got away with quad t5's for softies and LPS' at 500mm deep. It was suggested to me that I not try SPS till I upgraded to at least 6 t5 bulbs, go MH or LED. My advice is invest in good quality, future proof equipment early on. Otherwise scale down your plans as the bigger the tank the more expensive everything else becomes.

My tank is 1000W x 600D x 500H, seems to work for me.

Ouch, I run a Reef Octopus Skimmer and it goes hard. What is it that you don't like about them reef? The corals I had all grew well under my quad t5's, but have upgraded to LED and I'm happy, what pushed me over was the $260+ 6 monthly bulb replacement cost. Personal preference at the end of the day, try getting a look at other people tanks first hand to help with making decisions.

Yup :bounce: Updated equipment and stock is in the above post. Heres a few snaps: Tank shot, waters a little murky as I'd just completed a clean (lights at about 70% here): Chromis: Bangai and one of the clowns: Bangai Foxface, the biggest fish and the biggest blouse: Sixline: Xenia which has done well from a small frag: Ricordia, theres 3 rocks of it, all doing very well: 2 of the 3 zoa's Frogspawn: My pride and joy the bubble coral: "You can't see me"

The 3 or 4 RSM's I've seen up and running were all pretty impressive. I believe the quality of equipment is good from what I hear, but I have no first hand experience, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

RO/DI units don't usually require any modification to pipes. Mine simply attaches to the laundry tap and I run it till I have the amount of water I require then detach and pack away. But yeah, check TM.

- You can get a full RODI unit imported from the US for around NZ$250. It's the one I use and it's still going strong after months. Unsure about that HFF one, don't know enough about them to comment. - Depends on the model. Skimmers come in 3 types, in-sump (literally sits in the sump, partially immersed in water.), external (still designed for sump use, but sits out of the water) and HOB (self explanatory - Hang On Back). - I hadn't built anything since woodworking in school, but I managed with the following tutorials and build posts on tank stands - Stank, tank, sump, lighting, heater, return, powerheads, skimmer and plumbing (it can get quite pricey).

- Unless you have a Redsea or Hanna Test kits, you probably won't detect phosphate even when you have phosphate issues. Tap water is high in phosphate, nitrates and silicates all of which aren't good for the marine setting - fish are far more tolerant than corals. Try testing just tap water to see what you're putting in. - I'm running a 300L display and 100L sump (filled to 50L) with nothing more than a skimmer, heaters, carbon and a return pump. As my tank matures and issues arise, my plan is to use the space in the sump to put in a DSB, refugium, bio media or a reactor, what I add will depend on what issues arise and what I want to tackle/solve. - An HOB skimmer will probably suffice, unless you want to get into the more serious corals and/or you want to hide some of your gear. - Get multiple quotes - talk to Greg about building you a tank and consider building a stand yourself (I made mine for 1/3 the price of a store bought one and it doesn't look too bad if I do say so myself).

Are you using just tap, RODI or distilled water? Regular tap water is not conducive to coral keeping. Keeping it as a fowler tank and maturing your rock isn't a bad way to start out until you have the gear to setup a full reef, don't get disheartened. I still suggest creating a budget and working out which way is going to be better for you.

Take the snail out and smell it - if it smells rank chances are it's dead and will soon be dumping ammonia into your system. Bare in mind that snails are nocturnal and do bugger all moving during daylight hours, also they probably wont stick if you try to attach them. Just leave them on sand or rock and they'll find their happy place. Can really keep a happy marine setup without a skimmer, unless you like doing reasonable sized water changes often. Set a cap of how much you're prepared to spend and work backwards from there. Bare in mind there will be lots of unforeseen expenses and if you're gullible - even more. I advise looking into the DIY option, it will give you more flexability and you won't run into the same issue you're having at the moment with your inbuilt hood. Correct, think that bit through. You will need a skimmer to dose either. Lots of conflicting information here. I've been told that coral rubble is good, then been told its bad, then been told it's useless - it's a one of those trial and error things, if you notice it helps remove negative effects, keep it, if you find it's adding to the issues (as my coral rubble was) - the remove it. Sorry to hear about the coral, you can always see if someone is willing to nurse it back to health or if your LFS is willing to take it back, rather than it simply dying and going to waste. My clowns nip at my finger as soon as I put them in regardless of whether I have food or not - great little characters they are.

Hey Brett, welcome! Few things: - GSP - Not opening after 5 days is not ideal, could be on the out - keep monitoring it. - Astraea snail - I have 3 and manually acclimated them over 2 hours. I just ensured the PH and temp was the same before I dumped them in. Also have lots of algae so they're well fed. - Nitrate - That's pretty high, could explain the snails unhappiness. Good filtration and flow help keep nitrates under control. You could resort to chemical dosing (NOPOX) to reduce nitrates, but my experience is that it causes more issues than it fixes. Vodka dosing is a good alternative. Obviously try to fix the cause rather than just a bandaid. Consider removing the coral rubble from your filter (why are you using a filter and not a skimmer by the way?) as it could be contributing. Can't really comment on either setup as my system is full DIY, but I've heard good things about RSM and they do look quite good when setup. Bare in mind that with all-in-one setups comes a lack of customization and upgradability.