chimera

layton should know

as suphew says, like this (although if i were to do it again i'd put alot more holes in the legs!)

and i seem to recall your reflectors being quite large? i think thats most defiantely where im lacking, not necessarily wattage but coverage. directly under my 150's the corals are excellent, colouring up nicely. everywhere else they are crap! it seems pointless to let that extra wattage go to waste when you can use decent reflectors to direct that otherwise lost light down into the tank. KP, probably a mixture, but for starters will try either a 14K or 20K in the middle. corals prefer the white/blue light spectrum, even though 10K's seem to give better growth.

sometimes i feel like a lab rat it never was taken as criticism, in fact i take very little as criticism from this forum i take it all as positive feedback experience counts for more than anything in this hobby. perhaps im just a slow learner puttputt, what lighting are you running out of curiosity?

yes i am aware of this. im also aware of the upgrade im planning next year. yes, a very valid point. im going by the fact that its obvious zoox need light for photsynthesis. im also aware that zooxanthellae can do a very good job at adjusting to what they need. however after reading more and more books, the point that comes across more often than not is that lighting is one of the most important areas in reef keeping but always the one area that is most overlooked (or left til last when the budget just cant afford :lol: ) i do agree, i lose more and more patience the further i get in this hobby but im not one to give up easily 8) i've invested a reasonable amount of money into this hobby as well, probably more than most and i'll be the first to admit i've learnt more by my mistakes financially than probably anyone else. but if you enjoy something, money should not be an obstical (within reason) not that im too worried because as i say i do enjoy the hobby alot and expect to be in it for years to come. perhaps a small investment if considered over 10+years or more all in all, I know experimenting is an expensive way to learn but, i dont think its alot of money down the drain as long as you can resell (albeit less than what i paid for it )

puttputt, i do let things settle for several months before changing. in fact, I've been in this hobby now for 2 years. for the first year, granted I was learning alot and not expecting to see many changes (had very few sps in fact). of course, still learning but in the last year, i've done things in pretty much 3 month intervals - in other words make a change and leave it for a few months and see the result. the biggest improvement(s) were probably stability in terms of water chemistry and adding more lighting. i noticed the T5's certainly made an improvement, but that improvement changed in perhaps the first week or two but no improvement from that in the last month. i still do have shaded areas in my tank and several sps are just getting completely inadequate lighting - this shows very specifically especially those corals that are half under light and half in shade (clearly those under light are showing good signs whereas the shaded side shows nothing) I think the lighting upgrade is perhaps more so for the reflectors than the wattage as the reflectors cover a greater surface area. the current 150W'ers, while they are good, they dont cover a great deal of area compared to the luminarcs. The 250W vs 400W is based on future proofing myself. In other words, the new tank will be 700 deep so that extra intensity should help. I could (and am considering) still going with a 400W in the centre and 250W'ers on the outsides - however I dont want to get to a stage where the 250W just isnt quite enough then have to upgrade yet again!

who said this hobby is cheap? clearly no one who has ever owned a reef tank 8) im going to be upgrading my lighting yet again i've tried all types of combinations, each time I find the more light I add the better the corals colour up. if i look at some really good reef tanks around (pies, reefs, crackers for example) what do they all have in common? (other than stability in terms of water parameters) awesome lighting. just out of interest, heres a summary of the lighting i've been through and am going to now!!! (incidentally, its also like a short term investment for the tank upgrade later next year) Initially... 500W (2 x 250W halides) Tried to spread the light more evenly by going... 450W (3 x 150W halides) Supplemented this with T5's... (current configuration) 666W (3 x 150W halides + 4 x 54W T5's) Due to limited budget right now, upgrading to 400W with luminarc... 808W (2 x 150W halides, 1 x 400W halide with luminarc, 2 x 54W T5's) Finally, I'm wanting to be at this... 1308W (3 x 400W halides with luminarc, 2 x 54W T5 actinics) Hmmm, eventually some intense lighting but Im taking recommendations from others here plus based on progress I am seeing in my tank over the months. Power bill? Yeah well, costly but not excessive. I estimate lighting power cost a year at approx $0.11 Kwh at 10 hours a day to be about $900 a year!!! ($525 a year in power costs + bulb replacements) Not cheap, but then again, its all part of the hobby :-? Interested in others feedback on this, your thoughts?

waricks tank is simply awesome. just out of interest warick what lighting are you running?

ah, yet again go the canon for top quality pics! will be really cool to see some updates. i still hold your tank as my #1 all time favourite tank for the complete package (layout, colour, variety) just shows it doesnt need to be massively large to be an inspiration!

canon would be my choice, I have a sony, dont rate it that well. all my mates have canon's (10D, 20D, 350D etc) and they kick serious butt! expensive but you get what you pay for.

awesome warick, how about a pic of your whole tank as it is now?

my initial thought was salinity too as this can kill corals quick... but surely other sps in his tank would be in the same boat if that were the case?

wow, you and wasp agree on something? surely not! :lol:

ok layton, just going by what i'm reading on rhf's 2 part write up http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php it does state that most people suffer from a lower pH so baking it helps increase pH as well as alkalinity in one go. every 0.5meq/L increase also raises pH by around 0.3. it also specifically states that if you are not having pH issues (or if pH is currently 8.4 or higher) then using baking soda in its raw form is the recommended method. so its not just down to "its easier to dissolve" - there are reasons behind the 2 methods being based on the current state of your tank.

3 reasons - raises its pH, raises alkalinity and makes it more soluble

tried that, no difference for me, still went rock hard really quick. found i had to add a little at a time and mix quickly! (thats 500 grams baked for 1 hour on 150 degrees Celsius)

but just think of the baking soda you save coz you need to dose less to achieve the same effect! :lol:

yes selleys aquakneadit buy it from the warehouse heaps cheaper

did you bake it first? bake it and mix it and its a PITA. goes rock solid almost immediately touching water. need to start stirring hard core the second you add to water! try heating the RODI in the microwave first makes it a little easier

nup, but if you find one let me know.

are they white at all? if its receding up the base, break a couple of frags off and position those elsewhere. at least you can save some of them

:lol: based on what?!!! took me on adsl about 45 minutes. would take dialup half a day. could take others on adsl 10 minutes or 3 hours depending on what speed your connection is.

326MB, AGES!

korallin's dont need pH controllers supposedly

what type of clam? what are your water parameters? how much light is directly over the clam? how much flow does he get?