chimera

thats the idea. it's supposed to grow quick - it acts as a nutrient export by taking up nitrates, ammonia etc You have to rip out old calurpa every now and then, thus physically removing the excess nutrients. here's a couple of good sites on refugiums: A quick speil on refug's http://www.wetwebmedia.com/refugium.htm Building a refugium... http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquariumdiy/a/aa041400.htm John Rice's fauna beast... http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/fauna_sump/fauna_sump.htm

still? bastard...

Where is Pies these days, dont see him here much nowadays!

and here is my reply to the above: will post his response when i get it!

kevan - thanks, I'll take some thanks! i dont mind waiting for it to grow, apparently it grows really quick. refugium is 300 litres so heaps of room for growth and help assist with nasty nitrates etc

he hee heeee, i was waiting for that post desh however, here is the reply from Ed @ Aquarium Currents (who make the sea-swirl)

Who or where is the best place to get aragonite and oolite sand? i want to setup a DSB in my refugium of about 2 inches aragonite with 2 inches of oolite on top. can you buy live sand or does it have the same import restriction as LR? i also need some calurpa and/or mangroves and anything else recommended for the refugium. will the lfs have this or somewhere else cheaper/better? reef? anyone got an overgrow of calurpa they want to flick off to me! I assume (from what I've read) that all the above are recommended additions for a refuge?

I need the following pipe fitting: It needs to be black plastic such as the hansen fittings. I have tried getting a hansen fitting like the above where the 15mm comes straight out from the thread and heating and bending it but the plastic is quite thick and wont budge! I would also consider putting an attachment on instead but it must be rigid.

sump is in a room which has generally has the light switched off, so pretty much dark yes. why is that? optical light switch?

I had 2 cleaner shrimp and 1 blood red fire shrimp in my old 4 footer. When I moved the rocks and fish etc downstairs, one of the cleaner shrimps "disappeared". Now that I've moved the rocks and fish back to the new tank, there is only a single cleaner shrimp left! I turned each rock and searched as best I could as I was creating my rock structure last night. I can only see the single cleaner shrimp left. He is sitting down the bottom left corner and hasn't moved all day. Should I be concerned? Are they happier with a 'mate'? If the others did die, would they get eaten completely so there would be no visible remains?!

email it to me and i'll do it for you if you like, [email protected]

this was posted a while ago in the technical section, thought i'd re-post as it's got some cool stuff: http://www.automatedaquariums.com/index.htm

here's a reply to an old post Pies!

Need a (submersible) optical switch (preferably not a float switch) to detect when the water level in the sump drops below a certain level it will automatically switch off the return pump. Anyone know any suppliers of these in NZL at a good price?

steve's heading off to the sperm bank

maybe you have se(a)men in your tank...

Howdy, Im still working out the appropriate Iwaki to use :oops: Essentially I need 850gph at the head of the sea-swirl (that’s its maximum rating) The head height is about 10 feet (a little over 3 metres) The pump I currently have is an Iwaki MD-40RXT. According to the diagram in the PDF (http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/CA_Iwaki_Pump.html - it's the MD model, not WMD) the 40RX(T) flows at 840gph at 10 feet head which you would think is spot on – however this figure doesn’t account for pipe friction or bends etc. The 55RT model flows at the same (if not less) at the same height. So, in theory I need to go to the 70RT. However, this (according to the diagram on the same site) does approximately 1,200gph (20gpm) which is 350gph more than the sea swirl can handle. The pipe going upstairs starts as flexible bilge piping (which I think may cause some problems being flexible loses flowrate) then through 2 x 45 degree bends (to get around a floor joist) then upstairs into 3 x 90 degree bends (1 x 90 degree heading horizontal across the top of the sea swirl, 1 x 90 degree bend down into the sea swirl then 1 x 90 degree bend out of the sea swirl into the tank. I dont know if the 850gph maximum rating is at entry of exit from seaswirl) The pipe is all 3/4†(20mm) Question is, will the above friction and bends etc pull the flow rate back enough to the 850gph maximum rating? Personally I think 850gph is an approximate figure they give out and probably a conservative estimate so I would imagine it would really be capable of closer to 1,000gph. Do you think the 70RX(T) is too much for this setup? If so, any alternatives?

well its 2am in the morning and I've finally created a single bommie and moved all fish in. missing 2 shrimps but they were probably hiding in rocks somewhere. will take pic's late this evening and post then!

ha haaa i thought you were going to use golf balls for a minute

pm jetskisteve

ok, answering my own question here is a good anemone FAQ i found: http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf

about the same size. apparently 3 times larger when he's (ok, he/she) happy though whats some signs of a happy anemone? should the base be plump like say pulsing xenia? mine now looks like a balloon at the base in some parts (or more like a condom blown up a bit ) What about the tips, I assume fat?

nice, here's mine (just gone in 20 minutes ago so not fully settled yet)

ha haaa! the hard way? tried the hacksaw approach it doesnt work with this eggcrate as you need about 8 cuts (cross section of egg crate is close together) Your best bet (after trial and error) is not cross cutting at all. Drill 2 holes next to each other at the top of the pipe all the way through (4 holes) then cable tie upwards to the egg crate. Strong as.

ask for egg crate