chimera

and we're all hoping thats coz you have corals

yeah that was it completely aware. if your tank has 60% sodium chloride, and you dose magnesium chloride and calcium chloride, then you're adding chlorides on top of what you have, so more than the normal 60% and who's to say that chloride in seawater is so finely balanced that the addition of even say 5% more chloride doesnt throw everything out of whack? take it even further, what if you dont do a water change for 2 months but dose heaps of mg chloride and ca chloride to keep up with the uptake, what happens then? clearly a higher percentage of chloride. btw, a year of dosing is a bold call. with the amount of mg chloride i've been adding, it's gotta be a HEAP of chloride. not proving you wrong, just want some hard evidence to prove it!

another thing to be aware of, with all this talk of dosing xxx chloride (calcium, magnesium, potassium etc) is that the chloride component cannot be removed other than by water changes. i think layton suggested dosing magnesium chloride and calcium something? to ensure you're closer to the levels of seawater? sorry cant remember exact name

yeah come to think about it, it is definately cyano, just a variation of the usual blue/green you get. the fix for this is, well, from experience a combination of things. mainly overfeeding contributes to it (leading to high DOC's or dissolved organics) but also poor lighting, bad water conditions and low water movement all contribute to it as well. fix all these (most especially, dont overfeed!) and it will go away. the best way is to keep manually removing it for now and keep doing water changes. upgrade to a decent skimmer if you can as this removes doc's. have a look at the cyanobacteria link i posted under the algae section of the sticky at the top of the page. its a good read.

i have had this before, kind of like a black version of green hair algae (in fact, i have about 3 very small patches of it still, comes off the rocks very easily) are you overfeeding by any chance? how old are your lights? have you checked for nitrates/phosphates? do you top up with tap water? go buy a nitrate and phosphate test kit from your lfs and test first. personally i never bothered working out what it was, since i had so little of it.

it's not that much, it's around $130. are you asking for the right one?

ghostface - if you're keen i'll go you halves in a 25kg sack. get it from MedChem Ingredients, 118 Asquith Ave, St Lukes, Auckland (Ph: 09 846-8460) good quality stuff.

Clearly its a US web site - but are you saying that SOG sell this exact same unit? If so, would definately be interested myself. Otherwise ordering from the US web site would cost a few bob in shipping costs.

stunning. must book a trip sometime! as young as that coral reef is, some of those close up shots show it will pan out to be quite amazing in a years time. way cool.

cheers shane, but have had power off here for about 12 hours about a year ago and tank temp only dropped about 2 degrees. going to get battery powered powerhead to come on if power goes off anyway, purely to oxygenate the water should it happen again.

salifert

i also heard 5 foot reflectors and bulbs are hard to come by hence why i opted for 4 footers instead. quite convenient anyway as it gives 6 inches either end to work in the tank without having to move the lights

neither to be honest. i thought 54W was the max. you could get.

i had a foxface rabbitfish, wasnt too interested in algae, a bit of luck as to what you get. how about fixing whats causing the algae rather than trying to get something to eat it? is algae excessive or just needs trimming? snails should be enough to keep it at a minimum if you have everything else right

damn and I was going to bid on it too!

100W T5's must be quite intense, these are 54W bulbs and the combo of all 4 are bright enough. The additional 216W added from four of them makes a considerable difference (even 3 are brighter IMO than a single 150W halide - purely because the better spread of light) In terms of brightness, i think its really what you're used too. I used to think 3 x 150W'ers looked good until I added the T5's. IMO the real key is getting the combined colour spectrum just right (both aesthetically and for photosynthesis), if I don't have the 2 x blue T5's on it looks way too yellow. Happy with it right now, just hoping this is what it takes to start getting acro's colouring up again. I noted one such photo showed an acro that was starting to colour up nicely to a good purple colour, looking at the same acro now its gone backwards. I know it takes the right combination of all things to get good colour - at that time it was the calcium reactor that packed up and all water chemistry parameters went out the door that caused it. Once those get back on track as well as the additional lighting, I'm confident things will progress along much better.

he only complains that his tools are too budget to perform a good job

type T5? brand you mean? narva i think. 4 foot so dont quite cover the length of the tank but because of the spread, they still work brilliantly. reflectors came in from singapore (the bulk purchase organised by puttputt) contact jetskisteve hes got heaps of T5 gear.

i think you should call him king kong, he's big alright!

it's true, i should, i will. jetski ur finally back will see how the T5's shape up. the evidence in 'lack of lighting' is substantial without the T5's - just look at the number of shaded areas in the first photo, first page. will see what happens in the next few months - proof is in the pudding!

Pretty standard, 600mm. All SPS are halfway or higher, all softies and LPS are nearer the bottom. LPS/softies respond well to the light they had, opened up, very large when polyps extended, good colour. Issue is SPS. I think its highly likely to be lack of lighting after seeing before and after shots!!!

love the blue in the acro, bottom left pic, top left corner. what is it? got a piece big enough to frag?!!! 8)

oh HELL yes!!! hahaaa! wife said "it looks like you just had a night light on before" so true. maybe i should get 5 x 400W'ers instead then buy shares in the local power company Im considering gruntier halides, but as a test, I want to see how well the sps respond to the new lighting. if no improvement in a couple of months (and gonna see if i can get wasp to test my water with his colormeter at some stage - so assuming thats all ok) then i try 400W'ers... :-?

2 blues, 2 whites. it sucks without the blues, looks too yellow. the 2 blues even it out perfectly. awesome white balance now. stoked. if its not enough lighting though, probably get a big mutha 400W'er in the middle.

both! 3 x 150w halides and now 4 x 54W T5's Oh and my 2 cents worth for photo's (for the Sony camera specifically) Taking photo's, use 'P' setting. Press menu and set white balance to WB. Quality to fine. Metering to Multi. Always best to have camera on a tripod or at least on a table. At one stage I had a ladder in the lounge and put it on one of the steps :lol: Worked a treat. Close up shots: Turn macro setting ON (flower button) and turn flash OFF. zoom in half way press button half way to auto-focus, if it doesnt focus correctly, zoom out a bit and try again. Better to get a larger photo then use a photoediting program to crop it first, then resize it then finally apply a 'sharpen' filter to it. If you dont feel there is enough light in the shot, point at a darker area in the tank and hold the button down half way then move back to the subject should go lighter (you might lose good focus though) And visa versa, if there is too much light, point the camera up at the halides hold finger down on button half way then back on subject, should go darker. Full tank shots: Turn macro setting OFF and turn flash ON. zoom fully out. turn room lighting down but not off, good to have some light from behind though.