chimera

we'd be lucky to get to half that down here at the moment :lol:

oh yeah! kick arse!

same :lol:

can be returned at the top, just preferential at the far end of the tank. if you have enough water movement in the tank, the water all gets mixed up anyway. some of us salties have huge turnover so chances are every bit of water will make its way down at some stage in the day. you typically cant have the return at the bottom anyway, if the power goes off the water will be sucked out of the tank to the bottom of the return pipe (whereever that maybe) if its at the bottom, you'll empty your tank (unless you have an anti-syphon valve on the pipe) too much risk though, easier to just dump water in the top at the far end from the overflow!

gravity thats the simplest way to explain it. water flows out of the display tank at the same rate its pumped back in from the sump. also, while sumps are more beneficial for saltwater, as suphew says they are also good for freshwater too. typically fine particles of "crap" float to the surface. with an overflow, the water from the surface flows out of the display and into the sump where it can be filtered. the sump doesnt need to be large, just big enough to hold any filtration equipment. also allows you to easily "hide" that ugly unnatural looking gear, helps oxygenate the water and depending on where the sump sits, water changes can be easier as well! many benefits!

nice, and very similar profile to what i wanna get when i upgrade, 3 feet wide!

good excuse, but quickly doesnt mean immediately. i bring up alk 3 points over 3 days - i can control the levels via additives to get the exact target required. after this, the CR maintains those levels. based on experience, doing this with a CR is painful to say the least. if your CR is already "calibrated" to maintain levels, why adjust it to bring up those levels then go through that entire process again to get it to then maintain those levels? dumping in calcium chloride or baking soda is an efficient and practical method. you dont need dosing gear. you know we're both right, its just a matter of which method is more convenient - IMO dosing initially is alot more logical approach, plus for ongoing "topups" its much easier. as an aside, cracker doesnt use a CR at all, simply doses. he brings up his alk 3+ points in one hit every week (personally not my preference) but does he have any side effects? no. does he have a crap tank? far from it.

yup. varying light of course, but the biggest difference was when the 400W'er went in

very close to the surface (about 4") almost directly under the centre of a 400W with lumenarc, theres a stream pointing straight at it from the other side of the tank (about 3ft away) on full noise oh, and i use zeovit i broke off the 2 dead (white) branches but everywhere else its brown, its slowly (although not fully) grown back over it

because 1. it's quicker and more precise and 2. if you have unbalanced ca and kh, then a reactor wont bring one up higher than the other

any updated pic's cracker? its been approx. 2 weeks since the first photo

:lol:

cheers, had him for about 14 months now. certainly is "colouring up" nicely :lol:

Here's another example of an acro colouring up (again, NO photshopping, only cropping!), my pink pocillopora... 11th July 2005 3rd October 2005 (3 months later) 3rd July 2006 (9 months later!)

dont know, but dont need to calibrate the refractometer (depending on the type you get)

exactly, you can get reasonably decent ones for around $100 now. not a great cost to ensure salinity it right at every water change, especially considering too low/too high salinity is a quick way to kill corals (not to mention inverts and fish) protect your investment and splash out on a refractometer, or at least borrow one for starters.

yeah depends on the sps, i got some that have just loved the extra light and adapted well, colouring up quickly. others (stylophora for example) has done the reverse, it hates it! time to move it down for a month or so me thinks...

:roll:

You are misinterpreting my post. This is HOW you should be configuring your Calcium Reactor. If its increasing Alkalinity then you have not set it up properly.

got pics?

gotta be my favourite fish by far now, got some real personality developing :lol:

here's a better shot, zoomed out of the right side. main difference (other than colour) is i took the stag out and put it in the back right. first shot is with 150's and T5's, 2nd shot is when i upgraded to 400's with lumen arc's. photo taken 2nd May (2 months ago) photo taken today, 3rd July the stylophora (bottom middle) doesnt seem to be doing as well as it initially did. what lighting and flow do they like?

most definately a major part of it. the other would be lighting for sure. i think i would have still got there with the 150's + T5's but perhaps not as quick and perhaps not the same "deep" coloured purple that this acro is starting to show. stability is the key! i've also noticed alot more diatom growth after the 400W'ers went in. noticed the same change after putting T5's on, then after a while it went away. everytime i change my lights in fact, i get a diatom outbreak. is this common?

how quickly can corals colour up? quicker than i thought. didnt think i was making any progress til i took some photos and saw the changes. here's an example. not sure about camera settings on the first, but last two are exactly the same settings. first pic i took was 5 months ago, in february. this is back when i had only 150's and did not monitor water chemistry very often... :oops: this photo was 2 weeks ago, 19th of June... and a photo today, 3rd of July. noticeable difference... none of the photo's are modded (except cropped) sweet!

My Regal Angel isnt so shy anymore, he even likes the camera and tries to pose. Still he hates sudden movements and runs off like a baby, but he's nice and fat and doesn't get picked on by the tang anymore