chimera

it's brendan, i've PM'd you his email address

dont typically feed the corals, I rely on left over food, 'juice' from frozen food and cleaning the algae off the glass to feed corals. still get awesome growth, not so sure on colour benefits though :-? other than that, cyclopeeze every now and then - dont think its too big so long as you put it in a syringe and shake the s@#$ out of it so the cyclopeeze mostly dissolves. polyp extension is very visible when i put it in the tank

TM, agree its definately based on the type of fish you keep, but do you have any nitrates/phosphates? How big are the portions you feed? Did I read somewhere that nitrates, in small portions, is beneficial for corals?

i think that statement could be rephrased better. it seems that most have a tendency to put too many fish in too small a system, a greater bioload on what it can handle (versus the physical and biological filtration they have setup). fewer fish means less feeding required. if those (specifically with reef tanks) had a better balance then nutrients would, or should, never become an issue. based on this thread, i could not disagree further. the amount and types of food people are feeding IMO is quite substantial. i thought i was overfeeding til i read this thread. i have little algae in the tank yet the fish graze on what they find all day and are still fat and exceptionally healthy. when i mention types of food, i see many above seem to feed frozen food quite regularly which I believe is quite high in nutrients. of course, so long as the filtration is adequate to cope with this its not a problem, but i know many on this forum have inadequate filtration yet feed heaps. I have read this before, seems there is plenty of food available on the reef. But based on 100% water changes 2-3 times a day its no wonder everything is balanced! Apart from that it is an irrelevant point to how much we need to feed in our tanks, the exceptional amount of food available on the reef does not mean it is all consumed by the fish. The question is how much food is required to sustain an average fish per day. I think we have a tendency to overfeed, its quite natural to provide more than not enough. Would be nothing worse than to see a fish die from starvation. From what I've read fish will eat and eat until they die (I know some people like that ) So we feed and feed thinking they are still hungry. I feed a small amount of pellets (?) and flake once a day. A cellphone size sheet of nori perhaps once a week. And frozen food once every 2 weeks. They also continuously graze on the rocks.

clever idea

sounds like you do overfeed fay! no reason for nitrates to go skyrocketing if you do regular water changes. other than old tank sydrome, cant think of any other reason

resolution is 1 degree, cant set it lower unfortunately but still work particularly well. the heater output goes to a 4-way power box which each heater is plugged into. with the cooling, other than the chiller i've also got a big arse fan mounted on the wall over the display tank. I made up a box with 4 power points and controlled by a relay (coz the digital timer kept blowing up when the halides came on! drew too much power at startup that it couldnt handle the load ) three of the plugs in the box go to each of the halides, the last one goes to the fan. usually the fan is switched off, however over summer, if i go away on holiday i turn the switch to the fan on (its also on a separate RCD to the chiller). that way if the RCD trips to the controller, at least the fan keeps the tank cool (plus the fan only comes on when the timer kicks the halides on) works well. because the tank is an inwall, i've also got the room the tank sits in wired up for a temperature controller. im putting two vents in the floor and 2 extractor fans in the ceiling. so, should the room go above a certain temperature, the controller will activate 2 battery backed up extractor fans that will suck cool air from under the house into the room then extract it outside. overboard perhaps, but at the end of the day im just protecting my investment 8) Lighting box: "Backup" fan:

after reading slappers comments about leaving nori in the tank, struck me as a good topic of debate the problem is, how do you describe how much you feed? most of us have reef tanks so feeding is obviously quite important, too much and you're adding waste that will essentially turn into unwatned nutrients. personally i have no idea if i overfeed or not, i have read the best way is approximate a fishes stomach being about the same size as its eyeball. but then on the packet i read "only feed as much as a fish consumes in 2-3 minutes". if i did that, my FAT AS tang would look like a blue beachball. he eats HEAPS and eats insanely fast so that could potentially be a heap of food based on the eyeball thing, i over feed, based on the 2 minute rule, i under feed. so which is it? how much to feed?

yes only single. power into the controller, then heater power out and chiller power out. temperature detected via a titanium probe. you set low and high temperature values, eg: 24 degrees and 26 degrees respectively. if temp hits high value, it directs power to chiller power, if temp hits low value, it directs power to heaters. with temperature swings, IMO its the rising temperature that is more critical than lowering temperature. i found with my tank (after a power problem) that over about 12 hours, my tank temperature only dropped from 25 degrees to about 22.5 degrees (ambient room temperature at the time was probably around 18 degrees) usually your home has adequate insulation to stop the temperature dropping too quick. i seem to recall cookie saying his tank has dropped to 19 degrees (or somewhere thereabouts) without any issues. contrary to this, over summer (just before the chiller was installed) my tank temperature went from 25 degrees to 29.5 degrees in less than 4 hours. granted, the ambient room temperature was about 24 degrees at the time. over 30 degrees i think you'll start having serious issues. so add to this direct heat from halides, pumps etc generally speaking there is more chance on temperature rising too quickly than dropping too quickly.

since this forum is a little stale as late, im interested in seeing what heating/cooling people use. it goes without saying everyone utilises a heater of some sort. but those who are running multiple heaters - its sometimes less effective doing this without some sort of temperature controller (coz they power on/off etc - or at least thats what im led to believe). likewise running a chiller is easier with a controller too. i know jetskisteve has imported a heap recently, a model that many of us use already. consider this post basically a survey... Q. how many litres, how many heaters do you use and what wattage? do you run a chiller? do you run a temperature controller? and i guess last, do you find you have issues with temperature fluctuations throughout the day? 950 litres total, run 2 x 300W and 1 x 200W heaters, an aquamedic temperature controller (which i highly recommend!) and a aquamedic 1/2HP chiller

interesting, cheers

what is that? explain?

Here's a summary of what I learnt, from both reading up on cyano and from personal experience... 1. ALL TANKS have cyano, its just a matter of HOW much and what you do to keep it under control 2. HIGH DOC's attribute to large amounts of cyano 3. As has been mentioned, time will eventually cure it (almost like another form of cycling), but measures are required in the interim to remove it quickly 4. Dosing vodka will assist in reducing cyano by increasing bacterial populations 5. You MUST physically remove as much of it as possible otherwise when the cyano dies off, it will produce more nutrients which promotes further growth 6. Frequent and LARGE water changes are necessary to export DOC's 7. Good aeration and good water movement is essential to stop cyano from 'settling' in dead areas 8. Inadequate lighting can also promote cyano 9. Cyano removal additives should be used as a last resort, they typically cause more harm than good. If used, use half the recommended dosage especially if you already have fish/corals

surely you meant clown fish?

wasp, where did ya get that weather forecast pic from again? want to see what this thursday/friday is like. got those days off work. high tides at 11am and 12pm respectively.

likely story :lol:

here's a pic of my cyano i had just over 1 year ago... nasty stuff. physically remove as much as possible while you try and sort out the cause

hydrochloric acid? *insert disclaimer here*

vodka is a short term solution, you need to fix the cause of the cyano. as per the web site i posted above!

:lol: we could "debate" the fact

typical female

doh! didnt even notice photos posted :oops: i guess that helps with the diagnosis :lol: definately, but as you should do with any additive

yeah, time mainly. vodka certainly helps by speeding up the process. i added an exceptionally good article in the sticky on cyano a while ago, make sure you read all pages! by understanding how and why it occurs will help get rid of it... http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/r ... teria.html

:lol:

indeed. i just tried a "slideshow" on your gallery link KP,... took me a few seconds to realise you only have 1 photo :lol: