chimera

cracker pipe

cracker pipe is a redundant full syphon - would that be the best way to describe it?

definately going to try again!

pity i didnt have notebook and internet access :lol: i was driving over the harbour bridge at the time! honestly, if you asked me off the air, i would have got most of them too, put on the spot like that while 3 dj's and a heap of listeners are waiting for an answer is a different story... i knew my second answer was wrong, just froze then gave up

i was a big fan too, i just froze up! 0wned completely :oops:

yeah, it was a she. and she was exceptionally elated to say the least... rubbed it in a little too

i called it at $468 then got the "name 2 teenage mutant ninja turtle's" question - only got one screwed the other one up. they played it further and yes, it was the one that went to $1,000 - wouldnt have done me any good anyway coz I got the @#$%#@!$ question wrong! oh well, easy come easy go

yeah thats when i do feed. typical my luck, just lost out on $468 this morning on the chicken game on the edge radio station this morning, argh!!!

hahahaaaa!!! nice one steve. im sure there are worse things to call her than "the wife" i took out the fluidised reactor with carbon last night. i wont run carbon again til i see improvements and when there are, will be putting carbon in a bag this time 8) also fed double the amount of mysis shrimp last night and twice the amount of cyclopeeze. am expecting algae outbreaks but can deal with that for now, just want the acro's to recover. will see what happens over the next few months.

try a bigger skimmer dont o/d on the vodka either

it's cyano (or rather the bubbles are the byproduct of cyano) not a major so long as the cyano growth is not excessive. quite common

cheers dude, should be good for a week but, dont see any harm in leaving it will just get the wife to dump food in whenever

thanks brendan. im going to start feeding HEAPS more til i see nitrates increase

any clearer???

so you were going to do it cause i was? oh how sweet... pfft!

I have been for months! yeah, definately will take the carbon out of the reactor. could certainly be the cause.

:lol:

possibly UV - extra flow through carbon combined with lighting upgrade may have caused it. but why would acro's sitting lower down in the tank have the problem and some near the top dont? ok, i know some acro's have different requirements than others, but there are some frags from the same colony in high and low areas. agreed, so I've been feeding cyclopeeze and phytoplankton regularly (as well as the fluid from frozen foods). agreed possibly, but most definately not the only reason. there are many acro's that are just fine under that lighting and have been in there with the ones that are getting RTN. nope. yup cher maybe, depends on what the issue actually is

possibly pies, will try that advice and put carbon back into non-fluidised area tonight. thanks drifty but don't think so, I lifted the lights about 3 inches higher than they previously were. nothing abnormal about photoperiod (similar to everyone elses around 10 hours) they have been running 3-4 months now and as i say, when they initially went on some corals didnt like it so got moved. most adjusted well and coloured up really nicely (as shown in the pink monti pic) however in the last probably 6 weeks it's gone backwards, probably more so in the last 3. really dont think its light related - something "in" or "lacking in" the water i think. wasp - a possibility. if you see the pic's of the acro's they are receding on the tips which looks to be just what those little bugs do. pretty rare though i thought and no actual sign of "red" bugs! as i say, its one of those things where almost everything you can test for is bang on being right and nothing obvious stands out to what the cause is. will move the carbon in lower flow area, do a reasonable size water change this weekend and wait to see what happens. only concern is im in melbourne on monday for a week, dont want things to turn to crap while im not here.

thanks fay. yes, definately running carbon. it was replaced 2 weeks ago from the same batch i've been using for the last 6 months. im running the carbon in a fluidised reactor. that also coincides to when problems started to occur, but dont think fluidising carbon would be the cause (had it in a stocking next to the sump baffle prior) I'm considering putting it back how it was (coz it worked just as well) and running rowaphos in the fluidised reactor again. not quite at that stage :lol:

STABLE. completely stable in fact, i have been testing weekly for all 3 for the past 3 months. Even need to go get new Ca and Alk test kits... pH changes from 8.05 to 8.24 depending on time of the day, all in normal range. In the last 4-5 months I have not let any of these parameters jump out of normal range. agreed, the algae is merely taking over what is dying off - so merely an observation. Question is what's the cause of the problem? AP902 maxed out. Skimming well, mainly dry although I empty about half AP902 collection cup weekly. Should I be skimming wetter? I did feed little (3+ months ago), but feed alot more now after I noticed the blue tang getting skinny. I do overfeed, but also do have a decent skimmer for nutrient export. I also feed the corals phytoplankton and cyclopeeze every 2nd night. Feed frozen once or twice weekly (mysis and brine) Otherwise feed flake, pellets all the normal stuff. Nope. Have Calcium reactor maintaining tank, top up with baking soda, Mg and Ca chloride when needed (weekly or fortnightly) - same as a great deal of others do. Also dosed vodka every now and then (if any signs of cyano showed up) Only dose a maximum recommended amount in 24 hours as per the dosing calculator web site. I realise things take time, I monitor it closely, take note of what I dose and change, it may seem more often than not but most of the time when I post I ask questions on products as opposed to always use them. I did start K-balance just over a week ago but these problems started before that, decided I'd try it to hopefully darken up some of my corals that looked so light they were almost bleached. cheers. Ok, I'm not stupid (no smart arse comments please 8) ), I know it takes time - or rather good things happen slowly and bad things happen fast! To make a generalised statement on what the best and worst thing I've done - the best thing I did was upgrade to the new lights (only then did the acro's colour up really nicely) the worst thing I did was stop dosing zeovit (no evidence here, but when I stopped thats when things went backwards - in fact acro's got lighter coloured than when dosing zeovit - although this was around the same time the new lights went in) Could new lights and stopping zeovit at around the same time cause MEGA problems over the last 4 or so months? If so, how and how can this be corrected? Could have been caused from stopping zeovit and dosing vodka every now and then? I made the decision when changing the lights to go back to basic's, no zeovit, no other additives except regular water changes and dosing Ca, Mg and kH when needed. I noted the tank ran best (least algae) when I simply had the skimmer and rowaphos, nothing else!

another, montipora digitata (granted, i broke some bits off when getting a BTA out and placed them back in the rock, but note the ends of the acro in areas that have not changed between photos, why the die off on the tips and algae growth taking over?)... EXACTLY one month ago... tonight...

come pick it up i realise that. just upgraded??? try 4 months ago. things were getting BETTER after the lighting upgrade and now they're going WORSE. NO OTHER CHANGES have been made. if i change something i'll wait 3 months. do i see any improvements after those 3 months? no, then work out why. i compare this to changes made on others tanks over similar periods with no changes, most are quite significant. :roll: i can show you EXACLTY a timeline of what changes I've made and how corals have reacted. its when things go backwards AFTER they've just made considerable improvements is when you ask yourself why. here's an example, milli at mid june this year: milli as at tonight. why?

only when the explanations are written with trivial numbers and scientific babble. from what i've seen, most take any advice with caution and learn from their own experience. case in point - when you can't test phosphates at such low levels without expensive equipment, it's babble to the hobbyist.

i have HEAPS of LR. display is packed with it, few large pieces in the fuge, a heap more in the sump. however its all in preparation for the upgrade the more bits i have now the more chance i can find the right size piece when aquascaping later! plus all the sump LR is mega clean and ready to rock... no pun intended whats left will be up for sale - if any!