chimera

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=red+sea+berlin+review&meta=

just my 2 cents, i had a neon with exactly the same symptoms, i took the option to leave it there. it lived a long and happy life and the other 15 neons/cardinals were as happy as and never got the same symptoms. not saying this will be the same for you, just passing on what i experienced myself (errr.... never could get that bump off my butt - i mean what my fish experienced, you get my drift!)

hey, anyone know where to get a (about 20mm) T-pipe that has a tap on it to redirect the flow out one section or anther? (see crude diagram below) i tried the hansen range at mitre 10 but they dont do one. neither do mico plumbing. the guy suggested an engineering shop but i need a plastic one.

i have no idea where its at, just thought i'd bring it up as it makes me laugh everytime i read differing opinions about it

well i went against my previous post and added half the recommended dose to my tank (after mechnically removing as much cyano as possible and after doing a 30% water change with nsw) i was a bit shit scared about adding a full dose after reading the instructions no problems so far - but in saying this its only been 12 hours. will know more when i get home tonight to check... keep you posted! :-? 18/5, 8pm - well, much to Pies disgust :evil:, I did dose the anti-red but only a small amount :-? . It doesnt seem to have caused any adverse effects on my tank except my toadstool leather is a bit shy and is all curled up. The cyano has ever so slowly appeared back on the sand bed but in a very small amount (compared to 36 hours ago) - its more a brown colour now. Calling Anthony Preston Ltd tomorrow for some prices on RODI for my top up water and kalk water (have sold my go-kart so can afford some new toys )

steve - you failed to mention chillers START at around $1,000!!! going to scare Fish_Tank away at this rate... :lol:

pies, i think you should move the magnet to the top of the list - top priority in regards to tank temperature, im only going by what i have read (on several occasions) in different books or on the web. perhaps it was writeen quite ambiguously and perhaps did mean "throughout a season, water temperature is stable". will find the book and post what was written. i guess with this hobby, so many people have varying opinions on what is right and what is wrong. at the end of the day, do whats right for your tank and its inmates - just take the zeovit saga as an example!

i've already asked jetskisteve for one of his spare temperature controllers - i would consider this a must too after realising that my tank also drops to the 23's at night, and up to almost 28 during a hot day, doh! sea water temperature where all these corals and fish live remains constant all year around so its important to simulate this in your own aquarium.

Fish_Tank - i think Nicks has a good skimmer for sale at the moment for $500. If you decide to go ahead, PM him for details.

A handy reference site for future use: http://www.onlineconversion.com/ 8)

he he heee, my sumps (I use 2) total 200 litres which service my 320 litre marine tank. then again, there are guys with sumps the size of both my main tank and sumps and larger! A protein skimmer (also called a foam fractionator) is a chamber in which fine bubbles are pumped into. Dissolved proteins and wastes in the water get attracted to the fine bubbles which rise up the cylinder turning into foam which gets left in a collection cup (and it stinks!) It is the most recommended filtration equipment for a marine tank (wont serve any purpose on a freshwater system) A UV steriliser is a device in which water passes over a UV lamp or similar. The UV light hits the water and is intense enough to kill most bacteria and viruses in the water. This helps keep your fishes disease free.

see you there

...are partners welcome?

hmmmm, ok, might hold off with the anti-red (its giving me the shits when reading the instructions). im not keen on adding any chemicals to my tank to alter water chemistry; prefer to let nature do its bit. i need more live rock though (got about 50kg at the mo) to up the biological filtration. at the end of the day, its all down to having the right equipment (a good skimmer, a good quantity of live rock and good maintenance) to maintain correct water chemistry. when you're adding ASW to a tank with tap water that has been put through de-ionisation (not RODI) and when the mixed-bed resin needs changing, i will never get the correct results (going NSW now) I realise I only have myself to blame!

my 2 cents worth from what i've read... 3 foot (or yours @ 110 litres) is way too small and asking for big trouble if you are a beginner. i have a 4 foot tank (320 litre) and i would say its the minimum size you should use (and am also a 'beginner') in regards to make/models, i dont know but i will say from costing things up myself (depending on if you go new or second hand) that for my 4 foot i originally budgeted about $3k and have since up'd that to $5k (and still think im probably about $1-2k short) what are MUSTS is a decent skimmer. this is the one purchase that you should not cut corners on. hff sell them from around $700 to $1,600. my ones a deltec @ $1,600 (new) and after looking at how it performs, would not buy anything less. live rock (cant buy from retailers - have to 'cultivate your own' otherwise buy some already 'pre-established' at around $10 - $12 a kilo) corals from lfs are anywhere between $70 to $130 on average. you can buy frags cheaper from guys on this forum usually from $30 up. all and all, do what i did not do - spend the next few weeks reading as much as possible on the maintainance and upkeep of this hobby. if you get it wrong, it can cost you a shitload.

pies - i totally agree (and what are you doing on the web tonight with steve down there anyway!) but the amount of cyano appears to be quite bad (its like a red carpet the first time then I removed as much as i could and its starting to appear again). i figure a (calculated and careful) one-off dose of anti-red to get rid/minimise the cyano is a start. by the time the anti-red has reduced it (has to be dosed slowly with new water anyway which I'll use nsw tomorrow night) i should have additional equipment (rodi, scwd) to stop (or rather minimise the chance of) it coming back. its all a learning curve right? (albeit an expensive one if i screw it up) my main (or rather major) concern that is hesitating me on dosing it is that it says "observe the aquarium during treatment. if the fish become distressed transfer them immediately to another aquarium". and that is my issue - i dont know if my "half-established" quarantine tank will suffice. very concerning indeed considering there are 9 fish and 3 shrimps...

I have had conflicting opinions after 2 phone conversations to different jansens stores:- one says yes, anti-red is moderately harmful to corals etc but it is very good at removing cyano. he said its probably more a nitrate problem and to increase water quality by water changes, filtering and movement. At the second store the lady said she does not recommend to use anti-red at all as it is too harmful to corals/anenomes and said the problem is probably a phosphate problem and to put a phosphate remover in the tank for a month instead and the cyano will gradually disappear. She said better to treat the cause of the problem than the symptom - fair enough. After checking the water, (using hagen and wellfish test kits - brands most seem to recommend against using, waiting on some salifert kits...) phosphates and nitrates are visible but not overly high (still aiming to reduce though of course) phosphates = 0.50mg/L nitrates = 10ppm Kh is fine at about 110mg/L, pH is about 8.2 and fish/corals visibly look healthy. I figure I will syphon as much of the cyano out of the tank, do a largish (30%) water change (using NSW) and a half dose of anti-red. I have just added phosphate/nitrite/nitrate removal bags to the filter in the skimmer until I do the water change/add anti-red tomorrow. Most importantly, I need a RODI system (only have ion-exchange unit) and to add a wavemaker to up the water movement... ouch, more $$$...

sometimes when i'm really drunk i forget my entire full name, is that a short or long term memory issue? ...sorry, couldn't resist!

I use notepad as well - best way to get the nicest layout! i'll create some cool buttons for you and email them through to you (does your techtonics email address still exist?). How big is your web site (including pic's?) I notice you're hosting your domain name with comnet, I dont know if they offer free URL redirection or not? What you can do is transfer your domain records to Freeparking (www.freeparking.co.nz) who charge about the same price per annum (around $40) FreeParking offer a URL redirection so you can redirect your www.homereef.co.nz to anothersite/folder. So, if you can find a free web hosting site (that usually offer up to 2-10MB free disk space) and upload your files to that and setup a URL redirection to the new site, you have a pretty cheap setup! As for me, I host a single web site with IHUG then create a folder structure off this site and redirect my domains all to the site at IHUG (10MB free disk space with my ADSL account)

Hey Pies, Well this is a reply to an extremely old post (6 months+) but having seen your site before, heres some tips (or should i say constructive criticism) Take it as you will but perhaps you could use some of the info next time you go to update your site... - experiment with the (currently grey) background. it doesnt do the site any favours. keep the colour dark to make the "tank pics" stand out and obviously dont do it white (as this will make the tank pics worse). perhaps a colour that flows with the title pic at the top? if you go quite dark with the background, make the text white. - move the picture of your tank on the front page nearer the top of the page, you cant see it unless you scroll down and if its nearer the top, people who visit will stay interested! - put the text on the front page around the photos more, ie: split it up. it makes it look like less to read in one go (much like you have done on the inverts page) - most web developers would tell you to get rid of frames, but personally i like them and use them on my sites - try using arial or verdana as fonts rather than times new roman which is just outright ugly! most of the top web sites on the Internet steer clear of this common font. - Generally it needs a bit more colour to match the colourful pics, such as in the buttons on the left. Perhaps even 3D? Gimme a yell if you want me to create some for you! - Any links should be clickable, such as your email address on the front page. Make your email address a hyperlink and prefix it with mailto: - Most of your pics are the same size (specifically width) however you missed a few meaning you need to scroll horizontally (with the exception of Alois' tank!!!) Make all pics on the same page the same width. - update some pics of your tank!!! i've seen some posting of your tank on the forums and it looks a damn site better than it did 6 months ago! Btw, i only posted this rather than pm'ing you so others could read my comments. otherwise, its a really informative and cool site. i especially like the corals and names so reef beginners (like myself) can learn their names quickly and easily. not many sites do that! Cheers.

the skimmer is doing well because there is not much foam coming out than there usually does - but im putting that and the cyano down to no water change for a couple of weeks (was away last weekend) as its only occured recently. Also putting it down to lack of water movement (2 x crap eheim powerheads that need constant cleaning - not saying eheim is crap though am after a swcd as per steves recommendation (bang per buck as it were) seame.com dont seem to sell them otherwise i woulda bought a couple already!

thats a really cool looking tank pc - hope mine ends up looking like that!

Take another look at your own tank Nick, and Mark, and Steve and Alois - all you guys keep hard corals and all your tanks look way cool. I'd have to say, even though this is a "good looking" tank, its just not "natural" looking enough for me. It looks too much like a Rose garden!!! Arh well, thats my personal opinion anyways...

schwing, trick question - no wonder though, its a million pingas

ok ok, not get rid of it but keep it under control! you get my drift... i saw steve's and his isnt nearly as bad - plus his is brown.