JoeBlog

I think one of my angels eats mine (Blue Face, Majestic, and/or Swallowtail). Never actually witnessed it, but I used to have heaps prior to their addition. After their addition, I have NONE in the tank, but heaps in the overflow (I mean PACKED when I'm on top of my feeding regime, which is fine with me since they consume any extras). I think it is in one of Calfo's books where he talks about using them as a natural filtration mechanism.

I deal with MD extensively, so I know understand what is entailed. It certainly isn’t as easy as simply going to the LFS to pick up some fish food especially when you have numerous people involved. However, this isn’t my point. I’m just curious about the quality of the food. That is, is this fish food really that much better than the stuff we have readily available here? If it is, then I’m probably going to want some as well! I feed Papone (minus the HGH) for the main diet, but also have numerous auto feeders on 4 times per day. If this stuff is really awesome for the fish, then I may be interested in ordering some as well.

Is this stuff actually so much better than the food already available here that it's worth it to go through all the shipping hassles as well as the possibility of having it confiscated by customs?

I have one and completely agree with everything tHEcONCH has said. The HEAT was one of my main problems and I had to buy a chiller to keep it a reasonable temp. The fans were INSANELY loud and bought all new “quiet†ones from a source online… much better. I may be a little more critical of the skimmer, lights, and flow than others since I wanted to run a SPS or dedicated anemone tank. I’ve replaced the skimmer with a Deltec MCE500. It fitted perfectly in the same spot (after removal of the stabilizing glass shims for the stock skimmer) and it did a GREAT job. I couldn’t get the stock skimmer to pull anything and the Deltec started pulling HEAPS right after dropping it in. If I didn’t want to run SPS, the stock skimmer would probably have been fine. I’m gong to replace the lights with a MH setup that nano(whatever).com are offering. I’ve upped the flow with nano streams, which I love. So basically, I’ve replaced just about everything. If I were to do it again, I would have just gone from scratch and built something similar in structure to what HAZZARD has created (very nice comparable sized nano). This is solely due to my specific preferences for my nano. If I would have done a bit more research before forking out the couple grand on the initial system, I would have realized this myself. If I had wanted to do a little LPS/softies tank, then this would have been PERFECT. Therefore, I think they are great little (clean looking) systems for getting people involved in the hobby (who usually don’t like SPS to start with anyway).

For reference, what is the size of the pipe in the background?

Awesome! I will do the same. Thanks for letting me know. Cheers, Steve

What was your problem with the fans? Mine are INCREDIBLY loud to the point that I just planned on ditching them and bought a oversized chiller to compensate. I had previously asked John a few times to see what the Red Sea rep could do since I read on other threads that they were replacing them with quieter versions in UK and US. Unfortunately, I never heard anything back.

If your purpose is to stop snails, then the light defusers are fairly useless, i.e., the holes are just too big. They are great for stopping fish from going over, but many snails cruise right through that size hole (and still large enough to cause problems in pumps/plumbing in the sump). The gutter guard is HEAPS cheaper as well.

I use that black plastic mesh that is intended to keep the leaves out of your gutters. I bought a roll of the stuff at Bunnings.

Like they say, it must have something to do with the “shock†of the increase since I normally run my Mg around 1500-1550 and still have some. I don’t have any in the main tank (luckily, I think one of the inhabitants eats it), but do have it in the overflows. So, the constant level of Mg at elevated levels does not seem to prevent it. Although, it may be due to the type of Mg additive they are using since they mentioned that “whatever it is†seems to work better than others. I simply use a mixture of Mg chloride and Mg sulfate in my water change along with dolomite in my reactor.

I have an RSM (I think it's 24 gallons) tank and use a Deltec MC500. It does a GREAT job!!

You still coming by this weekend and having a go with the snippers?!

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on some new stock I stumbled upon today. I was in Organisms (Christchurch) and he has brought in HEAPS of quite colorful SPS frags to sell. My tank is pretty much overstocked at the moment, but couldn't help myself and picked out a few. I'm not that much of an LPS or softy guy (and thus don't pay too much attention), but I think he has some nice select few pieces of those as well. For anyone interested in frags, go check it out. Cheers, Steve

Hi Jeroen- I checked out all these on Ebay as well and almost bought one, but I was worried about shipping costs, time involved with shipping, GST/customs charges, etc... making it more of a PITA than the gains achieved by the low list price. Did you have any problems at all with shipping? If you don't mind, what price did you pay overall? If it wasn't in fact a PITA, then that is a great find! 8) I ended up getting mine second hand for a couple hundred bucks. I think the LFS price was somewhere around $700. So, I'm sure you have that price beat by a mile! Cheers, Steve

Where is all this air entering the system? It seems odd that there would be any bubbles in there other than the accumulation of CO2 that produces the random (large) one here and there.

I heard back from my mate today. He said that with the lux meter, surface water turbulence reduced the readings by 20%. He also sited Jay F. Hemdel from Advanced Marine Tech, "For every focused glitter line, there is an area ten times its size of reduced lighting travelling as a wave parallel to it." This next part was on a continued text, so I'm not sure if it is part of the previous quote. Anyway, here is what he said, "There is some advantage in light being angled in sideways which hits some areas. Overall though, a 30 percent loss."

Hmmm... I will have to ask my mate for those readings again. Cheers.

I don't know first hand, but a mate of mine has taken Lux measurements with and without the surface water being turbulent. If I recall correct, the readings were definitely lower with surface water movement. I do believe that it may look better though with the glitter lines. You have a light meter reef. What have you experienced with your measurements?

From the pictures, it appears as though that is about all that it is doing. Do you know if it has much impact on the tank as a whole? It would be nice to have a movie of the machine in action. If it is only creating chaos in the top water column, I don't see how that would be of much benefit. If anything, it could have an overall negative effect since the turbulence of the water greatly decreases the penetration of the lights. Hmmm... Puzzling product.

Anthony Calfo says/suggests not to rinse it.

That's interesting about the OM. I've had mine running for almost two years now and never cleaned it. I get snails all the time in the pump itself, which I have to clean out regularly. Each time the OM has no buildup of any sort. One problem that I did have with it initially was that I was trying to push too much water through a single outlet drum (~3000 gallons per hour). The high pressure kept breaking the magnet connection between the motor and the drum, i.e. it didn't spin (loud clicks). I'm currently running the two outlet drum and it works like a charm. If you are having problems, I would contact Paul at OM. He provides the best service I've experienced in the hobby so far by a long shot!

Looks like it is coming along very nicely. This is a bit of a worry. What sort of tub were you using? I'm just getting ready to get some new tubs/barrels for water changes, rock cooking, etc... it would just be my luck to end up with the same ones as you. Looking forward to your progress. Cheers, Steve

I think that there are always risks with these sorts of fish, but whether a one actually eats your coral depends on the traits of that specific fish. I have a Blue Face, Majestic, Koran, and Swallow Tail in my reef tank (SPS dominant with a handful of LPS, but no clams) and no problems at all. That being said, I have previously had pigmy angels (flame, coral beauty, etc...) and they went mad over the SPS polyps. It is definitely a risk and they may develop the taste for your prize corals at any time. However, I think that they are so beautiful that I decided that it was worth the risk. Like I said, so far I've been lucky.

Hey take it easy. I'm have no personal interest in this at all except to try to help the hobby and YOU! If you feel like paying more, then so be it. My LFS is obvious very well clued into competition since he has the lowest prices. Maybe you could take a lesson into the benefits of competition. Hmmm...???

The point of this discussion isn't really a matter of getting a bargain, but rather supporting the LFS in order to ensure that our hobby is sustainable and grows. In your case, I am glad to hear that you at least went to your LFS to check the price before buying direct (or in this case, semi-direct). Don’t get me wrong, I am completely supportive of getting the best deal. However, I get the feeling from reading posts over the last few months (possibly even longer) that the general public opinion is that shops can't compete, and thus creating a social norm of not even giving them a chance before we make our purchases direct. If we don’t even check with the LFS before making our purchases, why would they continue to provide a marine section? If they don’t provide a marine section, how are we going to attract new people into the hobby? If we don’t attract new people into the hobby, then we are already at out upper bound and the only directly is down. This is exactly the way things seem to be headed in Auckland. It has been mentioned more than a couple times that some of the LFS up there are already considering pulling their marine sections. I don’t know about you guys, but I would be bummed without my LFS. Listen to all the guys in Wellington. I've read statements made by some of them many times that it sucks not having a LFS. It could be that way for us all. Just something to think about. It would be interesting to take a poll to see how people actually made it into this hobby. I personally walked into my LFS to look at buying some freshwater setup and saw the sweet colors of the marine section. If they didn't have a marine section, I most likely wouldn't be keeping marines today.