chimera

dont forget that that is IN ADDITION to what im currently paying - which is about $200 - $240 a month. So total about $300 - $340 a month, and thats only a family of 4, and 2 in the family are 3 and under!!! yeah cees, that was it thanks!

yeah im guesstimating mine is $100 a month based on the $1,300 bill over a year. lights and pumps etc etc etc etc etc have been upgraded on mine since then!!!

nice work!

i know this has been discussed before, but the search function isnt working on this site so i cant find the thread. so... what does it approximately cost everyone in power each month? reason i ask is i just got a (surprising) and massive ($1,300) power bill in the mail. apparently the power company have been unable to do a reading for about the last YEAR so had been estimating my power and only (finally) got a reading a few weeks ago. what is more likely the case though is the estimated readings they took were about right (less the fish tank) and i was under estimating what the fish tank costs to run! even so i have had some major rennovations done in the last few months so plenty of power tools running all day. still im keen to know a better "approximate" cost, or even hire one of those things that monitor power usage across a specific RCD - what are they called??? i also recall a link being posted on this site to work out approx. what it costs based on all the kit you're running. anyone have that handy?

nice pic's drifty, good colour on that monti. what camera? or did i miss that

typo nah, do it probably every 2nd water change. take out 20 litres from main tank (vacuuming), rest of water change from sump

it may be conincidence, but i notice when my rocks get bad algae (green/hair) on them the substrate is crap. vacuuming the substrate up as clean as I can get it, rocks start to get better. and, my rocks are sitting on reef racks (only a couple rocks on, or rather around, the sand bed) i want to remove all sand from the display to test this however am struggling against my urge to retain aesthetics and vacuum the sand bed every water change.

...and perhaps more importantly: 1. how many other fish is he sharing that space with 2. is he 'boss' of the tank (ie: larger and more dominant than the other fish) My BT was happy in my old 4 footer, but was like a pig in sh#t in the 5 footer

or doesn't care? are they really eating it's flesh or just cleaning it?

hehee, i wanna ditch my sand to bring down nutrients quicker,... but then i hate BB. damn it, think i'd rather wait and have both

:lol:

but tropical sun isnt intense for that entire period. guesstimate 10 hours of it would be heavy, 2 hrs either side not so bad. hence the actinics on prior. 8 hrs a bit short, i'd opt for 10.

mine hasn't moved an inch! mind you the tank has about 70 times turnover i'd imagine its pretty happy. if thats the case its highly likely to lose against the monti. any ideas on the best way to kill the monti off that rock? nuke it with kalk paste? i'll manually break it down where possible but as ya know it takes the tiniest slither of a frag to continue growing.

9hrs for mh's, 11hr's for actinics

completely agree ghostface

yeah man so true, its always one of those things you want to ask but arent quite sure how to thats why i love seeing pics on this site, many answer a few questions without actually having to ask

cheers. yeah nutrients highly likely causing unwanted algae, either that or excessive iron from zeovit gut feeling is its leaching from the sand bed though. i think that because acros are showing signs of colouring, then its just a matter of time before nutrients drop low enough. addition of t5's will certainly help. im not adding anything except drip feeding calcium carbonate from the reactor. other than that filtration is ap902 skimmer, zeovit, fluidised rowaphos reactor, carbon and of course LR. the only thing that gets me is seeing others tanks that have been setup for a shorter period of time and getting better colours. trying to work out what im doing wrong (or might simply be what im not doing) im a advocate of learning by experience though so not too fussed addition of t5's shortly may help - but in saying that someone like cookie has few lights and good colours. then again, not every tank is the same. one step at a time!

Oh and a shot of my clam. This thing has grown heaps, only had it about 5 months (?) but what you see in white on the shell is how much it has grown... now I definately need a bigger tank

Some updated pic's of corals - showing older ones to compare. None have been colour enhanced, only cropped and sharpened. some photo's are a bit crap. unfortunately there are some differences that could change the nature of the photos, eg: different W & K for lighting, different camera settings (never made note of what the camera was set too) and relocated corals. I've still got to put T5 lighting over the tank too - I believe this will make a significant difference on growth patterns. i would also get significantly more symmetrical growth if i had a 4th 150W halide and had them spaced further out (monti cap below is a classic example) Lots of corals still got some coloring up to do but getting there I really believe if I take all my sand out they will colour up twice as fast. --------------- aug 05 oct 05 feb 06 --------------- sep 05 feb 06 --------------- apr 05 jul 05 feb 06 (classic example here of camera settings, does not look anywhere near this brown in the tank, looks more like the earlier shots) -------------- aug 05 oct 05 feb 06 (not sure how well the 'parent' branch will eventually hold the weight of this milli?!) --------------- oct 05 (this hydno's growth has slowed down somewhat - and im quite glad it has because it grew incredibly quickly to start with) feb 06 --------------- apr 05 feb 06 (note how the direction of the blue coral has changed since the monti has sheltered it. also note lack of growth on left side of monti where there is no direct halide lighting) --------------- (this one is interesting. it showed absolutely no colour for months and months. all of a sudden, the tips (where light is the darkest) have started to go bright green. i have a feeling it might be a tri-colour) mar 05 --------------- right side/middle acro's aug 05 feb 06 (note how the staghorn is growing like a frickin' weed at the front!!! might snap it and replace near the back of the tank soon) --------------- heres a purple acro i dont have any before shots of but starting to colour up nicely --------------- and lastly a little stylophora frag i got from stevea (cheers dude, awesome frag), pissed off coz i knocked a branch off the frag in the middle. i know, it'll grow back... decided to do a little experiment with the piece that broke off so chucked it right in the middle of a monti cap (which i really want to get rid of but it's encrusted the most part of a rock) i'll manually intervene if it starts killing the stylo off

i took a bit of live rock outta my tank coz it was chocker full of unwanted algae, figured i'd burn it off with boiling water. just before nuking it, this little guy popped out. about 4" long. whats the general consensus on these worms? i read some say they bad some say good. chucked him back in the tank anyways.

thats what i always do too - simply adds to a pictures clarity, otherwise i find the photos are a bit blurred. time for a camera upgrade for me too. i had a friend take some photos of my tank with a canon 10D, a big difference over a crappy little point and shoot sony dsc-p100 canon's rock. im also warming up my car, almost worth it for the 8 hour drive

fantastic, great growth. good you resisted the urge to photoshop it would be good to see similar photo's from others over a period of > 3 months. will try and get some pic's of mine up tonight

The ambient temperature usually dictates whether T5's or T8's perform better (T5's perform better around 35C, T8's around 25C), however in general: - T5 (HO) typically has greater lumens per unit length than T8 equivalent (light output of standard T5's is pretty much the same as T8's though) - T5 retains a higher light output over time than T8's (in other words better lumen maintenance) - A two-lamp luminaire using T5 high output (T5 HO) lamps produces more light than a three-lamp luminaire using T8 lamps - Downside is T5's are more expensive than T8's and T5's produce more 'glare' (but this can be prevented by having a good luminaire)

Also hooked up the automatic top-up unit and the rowaphos reactor the other day. Works an absolute treat. Its reasonably well priced through DE lighting (http://www.delightings.com), definately recommend it. I was guesstimating the amount of topup needed nightly and feeding it in 10 minute intervals over the night via a timer and peristaltic pump. Now it brings the level up to the exact right amount whenever is needed so no manual adjusting is required. Extra long sensor cables meant I could have the main unit sitting above the resoivour (where it needs to be anyway to power the topup pump) and run the cables around the entire room to the sump. Easy to setup. The small 600lph pump that comes with the topup unit is not grunty enough to pump from the topup tank as it only has a maximum head of 0.6m, so I continue to use my peristaltic pump instead. This drip feeds the tank slower (3L per hour) which is preferable. (I would make some suggestions for improvement to the auto topup unit though: have an alarm built into the unit should the water level in the sump drop below the white sensor (this is the very bottom sensor that is currently unused) or even better have your return pump plugged into (and powered by) the unit also - the power to the return pump would go off should it drop below the white sensor. this would save the need for another controller to save the return pump running dry - although i imagine thats done on purpose (they currently have one for when the resoivour runs dry, it wont kick off the topup pump which saves it burning out. not an issue with a peri pump though ) heres some pic's Heres a top down shot of the rowaphos reactor (couldnt get a side on shot). It has minimal amount of rowaphos in it at the moment (basically what i had left) The small 600lph pump that came with the auto topup unit works perfectly for the fluidised reactor so it didnt go to waste Another thumbs up, this time to OceanWerx, their fluidised reactor is extremely well made.

Got the T5 reflectors finally, stupidly they are slightly shorter than the actual bulbs. I assume the clips solve this? Anyways I dont have clips so made something up. Everything I do now on the current tank will be pretty much hacked together coz its all gonna be changed (and done alot more professionally!!!) with the new tank upgrade There will be 2 'sets' of T5's, first set contains 3 bulbs (replaces a couple of old fat fluoro bulbs), second set contains 1 bulb (or maybe 2, considering adding a 3ft for the second. needs to be 3ft to get around the seaswirl ) The first set goes near front of tank, second set goes at the rear. Construction made from offcuts of timber, quick and easy (only took me about 30 minutes to make :lol: ) On a different subject, Im also going to reduce the sandbed depth in the refugium. While its certainly not DSB, its about 2" and I think is still leaching nutrients into the tank. Gotta get some new bulbs for the fuge too.