chimera

I could not disagree more, it's most certainly doable. its all down to the plumbing design/pipe sizes etc versus return pump flow rate.

im sure i can find something for you wasp, after all it'll grow back

arhhh yet another excellent excuse to come see you and test my water i dont have enough white xenia myself to frag for rossco and brian so i'll call ya early in the new year :-? i'll bring over some brown xenia to trade :lol: nah just kidding im sure i can snap a small acro frag or two from my limited collecton!

just asking for a fight aren't we layton i hear the BK is quite expensive? more so than deltec? i also read that most people RAVE about them as being the best skimmer since sliced bread. its american made isnt it? sounds a bit like the american car mentality 'more cubes equals more power' :lol: *add cheesy texas accent* ah dont laaike those funny lil' turbo things they put on those japanese veehikles ya hear, gimme some more chevy power earl *end cheesy accent*

so could it be that the frag was so small it wasnt effected til it started to grow? btw my wife initially called this acro penispora... same acro in august, go figure...

oh so touchy reef. yes i am out to control all the worlds reef tanks by stealing all skimmers and burning all skimmer factories so everyone has to remove nutrients via dsb's only to have them all crash 6 months later... *insert evil laugh here*

an example of STN. acro frag (not sure of type, maybe milli?) anyways here it is start of october: and here it is as of today. note the slow tissue recession at the front: its the only frag that had a stream pointed directly at it for months, all of a sudden (about 4 weeks or so ago?) it started to recede. i directed the stream away from it, not sure if its going to come right or not as it had potential!

either way, same point being made. who knows you might have a hidden agenda 8) didnt say it would be rigged, it simply could be biased. everyone thought it, i just said it.

big call brian and as arrogant as the rest of the comments on this site when someone likes to disprove something with little more than a 'theory' and no evidence to show otherwise. skimming is not based on the biggest pump and number of bubbles. deltec are world renown for a reason. even so, proof is in the pudding. imo i personally dont trust the outcome of this test simply based on who is running it (no disrespect reef, but you do import deltec so it would be advantageous to you) however i am intrigued to see the results as they unfold oh, and the amount of skimmate measured in 'litres' or part thereof is a waste of time. the darker the skimmate the more doc is removed (in theory) half a litre of dark skimmate may have easily removed way more nutrients than 2 litres of light skimmate.

i just buy activated carbon from jansens and chuck it in an old stocking. works a treat

they did for outerspace tanks

hahaaa! if you want it, its still there. im sure i could somehow trick it into walking into a plastic bag either that or i give wasp a call and ask him for some tips 8)

not necessarily - add it up slappers. 0pius is saying the smallest pump is $260 (so probably not controllable) most likely near double that for the 12,000lph streams.

yes its external. not possible unless a separate pump (eg: return pump) is feeding the skimmer. you cant have the skimmer gravity fed from overflow then gravity feed back to the display!

Not too much white xenia to frag, grows pretty slow! Got bored tonight, took a couple of pic's with the blue actinic's on (will get some day shots up soon too) Front right side, small cluster of various acro's. i screwed up though and put a staghorn frag at the front, it grows so damn quick gonna have to keep fragging it!... Took this shot from side on, looks quite arty

I could only see the 'surges' being attributed to either a cheap/faulty pump or mismatched plumbing sizes. My overflow water level stays exactly the same (give or take a few mm) My concern is also having a PITA situation whereby I need to finely adjust the ball valve to get the right flow into the skimmer. Left wide open I would imagine I could push 4,000lph through a 25mm pipe without a problem so the fuge wouldnt get any flow to it. Im not entirely sure what the AP902 looks like as I dont have it yet Im also adding another 3 foot sump to the system as I want to 'sit' both my calcium reactor and new skimmer in it (should they leak, the water stays in the system) I know that this will be a PITA as I will need to somehow join the two sumps together - probably by a bulkhead in each sump joined by a pipe so water flow between each!

As you know, Im in the same boat (getting the same skimmer, been pondering the same question) My idea for the new skimmer has always been to gravity feed it (current design is overflow to refugium, refugium to sump and sump back to display with an insump skimmer in the sump) I plan to T off the current (40mm) overflow pipe then just before the skimmer, reduce it to 25mm (size of the skimmer input) through a 25mm ball valve then into the skimmer. This should have enough water in the pipe behind it to keep it happy with it's requirements (return pump is doing about 4,000lph, recommended flow rate through skimmer is about 3,000lph) Where it gets T'd off, any excess water (approx 1,000lph or 25% of the volume) will go to the refugium and the refugium overflow will go direct to section 2 of the sump (section 1 [before baffles] will have fluidised rowaphos reactor and zeovit reactor, section 2 [after baffles] only has return pump) There will also be a ball valve just after the T piping that goes to the fuge. Benefits are lower flow rate through refugium, fuge pods returned from sump to display without being interrupted by mechanical filtration and ability to separate the fuge off as a QT. Can anyone see any issues with the above?

and especially mushrooms! half my 'largish' patch of mushrooms have been eaten (interestingly only the purple ones, not the blues!) by my regal. i agree, not too hard. so long as you know what diet the regal angel (pygoplites diacanthus) require as they cant live on flake alone (and thats assuming you are lucky enough to get them to eat dry foods) had my regal close on 6 months now and he (she?) is still fat and happy. still gets a little picked on by the tang but not nearly as much as day one. a beautiful fish, cant wait til mine gets bigger and teaches the tang a lesson or two. not recommended for tank smaller than 150 gallon and not recommended with larger angels that will outcompete it for food (according to both fenner and frische) another challenge then im getting a CB next week. perhaps my favourite of all marine fish along with the emporer angel. quite disgusting at how available and cheap they are in the USA though. http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/butter ... butterfly/ I dont mind higher prices on harder to keep species as it makes people seriously consider their investment rather than adopting the 'buy and try' approach.

if you can somehow get the BTA out of my tank you can have it for fifty bucks good beginners anemone, nice and hardy

so how about some pic's rather than boring conversation so the rest of us can enjoy?

sweet

it's not the size that counts, its what you do with it. did ya wife never tell ya that? thanks for dropping off the fluidised reactor. will rig that up once the new skimmer goes in

it's typically a combination of factors that can cause it. first and foremost being fuelled by high nutrients (so get a good skimmer), poor or inadequate lighting and most commonly overlooked, poor water flow (why? because cyano is photosynthetic - a tank oversaturated in carbon dioxide assisted by high lighting for energy will fuel it). higher water temperatures can assist in its growth (as well as most bad algaes) too so ensure you stick around 25 degrees. Upgrade your tank in these areas and overtime it will disappear. In the meantime, try and physically remove as much as possible (you should be able to 'peel' it off rocks and sand). dont brush it off or it will spread it more. dont dose additives to kill it, treat the cause not the symptom or it will just come back. Get your water conditions spot on so good algaes (like coralline) can 'outcompete' it so get your ph, ca and alk spot on

well its still on the plan for next year. i know what you're saying about water noise reverberating up and out the backup pipe but im not so sure it will be that loud. i'll try it out and then i'll know for sure. if it works well then cool, if not i'll go the separate pipe route

ditto, have a good safe xmas c u all next year for more of the same old