TURSTY

Sorry for kind of hijacking ya post, but how about the option of purchasing an established tank? I'm toying with the idea of selling my AquaOne AquaReef 400 which is similar if you might be interested. PM me if you would like details.

The tank seems to be doing rather well considering the lack of decent lights/skimmer. Everything seems to be growing nicely, but the SPS's could definitely do with some more light. The skimmer seem to be taking a fair amount of grimy gunk out of the tank, so its working......maybe not as well as it could, but its working. My auto water change system is a god send!! The only issues I have had so far was one of the dosing pump bodies wearing out (easy fix to just clip a new one onto the pump), and the intake line getting blocked once. Salinity has been solid, and nitrates are within check, so all in all Im very happy with how little maintenance the tank needs. The copper band is eating really well and is nice and fat. We got a foxface which has done its job well and smashed all the green bubble algae so tank looks nice and clean. I would love to get some LED's next...but I seem to have too many hobbies and not enough money to go around. Here's some pics =).

Hey all, Thought I would give you a bit of an update. We have been lucky enough to get a new copperband that was FAT and eating well. As you can guess, I was rather pleased to see this: http://youtu.be/urFfk4rkL4g The tank on the whole is going really well. I have redone all the power in the cabinet as well so everything is much easier to turn off/clean etc.

Haha that is one option.....if I can catch it. My rockscape is not the easiest for catching fish!!

Yeah I went and brought a few bits of rock with the anems on it and have that in the sump with a good deal of rock to start growing. Only issue ATM is my copperband is eating it faster then it can grow by about 10x. It's funny I have now gone from having a huge problem with aiptasia to now trying to grow it haha. If you ever want any of it cleaned, let me know and I can stick the rock in my tank for a few days then give it back.

Hey All, I have a picky eater in my tank and I am in need of a LOT of aiptasia. If anyone have any rock they want cleaned or have some rock that's covered in aiptasia they want to sell, flick me a PM I can come and pick up anywhere around Welly.

Hi All, As some of you might know, I have finally managed to find a copperband to help control the aiptasia issue I had. I have had the fish for about 2 weeks now and it seems to have settled in nicely. It cleaned out all the feather dusters in the first two days, and was obviously feeding on pods etc. I have seen it eat an aiptasia once....but there seems to be a heck of a lot less of it around so I think its safe to say its doing its job and cleaning it out. Now I'm a little worried that it will run out faster then I can grow more in the sump, so I have started trying to feed it a variety of food with no luck. Today I have seen it try to eat two bristle worms.....which it seemed to find out were rather spikey (had a fit and spat them out). I've tied: Flakes Frozen Brine Shrimp via floating frozen cube on the surface Frozen Brine shrimp via hand Frozen Brine shrimp thawed in a cup of tank water and fed to the tank via a turkey baster All of the above but with Mysis shrimp A cracked muscle in the tank Live hatched baby brine shrimp The fish doesn't seem even slightly interested in any of this. Does anyone have any suggestions for other foods to try.......or is it just a matter of persistence/patience with the above foods?........or do I really need to start raising brine shrimp to adulthood, and building "Pod condo's"?

We could be keen on something like this. Would be interesting to see what some other wellingtonians are up to/what our tank could turn into when its a bit older =P

Haven't updated this in a while Have since got a phosphate reactor in there, moved the mushroom corals onto one of the big rocks, got a BTA and 2 baby clowns (which have just started hosting the nem) and yesterday picked up our new best friend =D. We did however loose our rockskipper which then ended up being bristle worm food =(.

Haha this was our tank when the power went out. 20 hours later we had a generator running, but I heated water on the fire and put it into 2L bottles and put them in the tank to keep it warm. Only lost 3 degrees over 20 hours amazingly!

Thats very interesting!! Wonder if you could replicate that small scale :bggrn:

Yeah thats the newest addition (as of yesterday actually). Its really starting to extend out now. Looks amazing! :bggrn:

Thanks =). I got it from airpumps.co.nz. Much cheaper then anywhere else and its pretty much the same as the bubble magus one.

haha this always makes me laugh!!

Bit of an update. I rigged up a skimming catch bottle with on overflow back into the sump after I had a small flood. I must have bumped the adjustment dials on the skimmer an not notised as the bottle filled up over night and soaked the place. I hope it will never overflow as I would hate the gunk that has been skimmed out to end up back in the tank, but its better then wrecking the house. I have also brought a dosing pump, and have set up an auto water change system that changes out the volume of the sump every week. Pump 1 takes pre mixed NSW and moves it into the sump just above the main pump. Pump 2 takes old water out of the sump in the area by the skimmer. This should stop the new water from being removed straight away. I need to get a sealed drum to put the mixed NSW in as I currently have a evaporation issue with the unsealed drum I am using now, but otherwise it seems to be working well. Will keep an eye on it. Have added a few more corals. I also just got some frags off a friend that ordered a few and ran out of room in his tank. Our first few seem to be doing really well too.

Cheers Graeme!

What is the cheapest way to buy phosphate remover? Is the waste water trade Bayoxide E33 readily available?

Ah, I thought I might know ya being that PKB is not exactly a huge place, but dont think I know anyone up that area. We are down on the beach. Flick me a PM if your ever in need of anything etc.

I might have a look out for some perpermint shrimp if I dont have any luck finding a CBB. We need something to keep it in check. The Racoon Buterfly we borrowed did a good job at clearing the tank, but its already coming back so need a more perminant controler. Hi fychan - Good to hear. Be sure to put up a post with the tank build! Where abouts in the bay are you? One piece of advice I would give is to make sure the live rock you buy is clear of apistasia!! Its been a real pain battling this stuff!

Hey all, With the combined ABC+ suppliment by red sea, it states how much 1g of the powder will incease Ca by (1g will raise the Ca level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 1.5ppm), but I cant find anywhere on the net how much 1g will increase the Mg or Kg. Does anyone have any idea? Cheers, Sam

Ive been using the Boyu WM-3 and have had 2 of the 4 pumps start making a horrible vibration after 5 months :an!gry . On the lockout for a new one as well. Definetely don't go for suction cups though...they are USELESS!!

So we borrowed a Racoon Butterfly and it totaly wiped out our Aiptasia in about 3 days.... :happy2: ...then started on the corals so we gave it back. Ive managed to get my test under control and bumped up the levels to 9.1dKH, 445 Ca and 1320 Mg. The corals have now started to look MUCH happier. My dosing pump also turned up today and I am in the process of rigging it up as an automatic water change system. I will post up details once I have all the bits, the basics is it will be swapping out about 7-8L every day...Totaling about 50L or my entire sump evey week. Ive read mixed reviews on this setup so will give it a go and keep a watch on it to see how it goes. We are still on the hunt for a copperband to keep on top of the Aiptasia regrowth that will be comming back no boubt, and I might give fragging some of these mushrooms a go to put them where we want them.

Hi Guys, I put this post in my tank thread, but thought I would put up a seperate thread. Ive been getting some strange readings from my red sea foundation kit which has me a little concerned. I have done the Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity tests twice now and got the following readings: - Keeping in mind nothing in the tank has changed between these tests (no water changes and no suppliments have been added) Test 1: Salinity - 1.024 Ca - 375ppm Mg - 1000ppm Kh - 7.6dKH Test 2: Salinity - 1.024 Ca - 410ppm Mg - 1600ppm Kh - 7.3dKH Test 3: (I just retested the Mg because I thought it seemed weird that the other two were so low and this was off the charts compared to the test a day earlier) Salinity - 1.025 Ca - NA (didn't test it) Mg - 1600ppm Kh - NA (didn't test it) I took a water sample down to the local pet shop and they did a calcium test on it and got 400ppm with a salinity of 1.027. I also tested some freshly mixed water in my drum and it came back the same - Mg at 1600ppm Is it most likely that my Mg test is not testing accurately, or is it possible to have a hugely high level of Mg in the tap water (wellington water supply)?

Ive been getting some strange readings from my red sea foundation kit which has be a little concerned. I have done the Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity tests twice now and got the following readings: - Keeping in mind nothing in the tank has changed between these tests (no water changes and no suppliments have been added) Test 1: Salinity - 1.024 Ca - 375ppm Mg - 1000ppm Kh - 7.6dKH Test 2: Salinity - 1.024 Ca - 410ppm Mg - 1600ppm Kh - 7.3dKH Test 3: (I just retested the Mg because I thought it seemed weird that the other two were so low and this was off the charts compared to the test a day earlier) Salinity - 1.025 Ca - NA (didn't test it) Mg - 1600ppm Kh - NA (didn't test it) I took a water sample down to the local pet shop and they did a calcium test on it and got 400ppm with a salinity of 1.027. I also tested some freshly mixed water in my drum and it came back the same - Mg at 1600ppm Is it most likely that my Mg test is not testing accurately, or is it possible to have a hugely high level of Mg in the tap water (wellington water supply)?

Heres a few more pics of the new stock. The Tree Leather is looking a little sad so will need to see whats going on there in the next few days. The other two corals are looking really good so it might have just had a hard time in transit.