RnB

my deltec goes crazy with a change of NSW......

tank snob

dont know what type they are but i have heaps of snails....... will take photo

still pis s myself thinking about reef fragging his purple tang.....

nice tank, what are the dimensions

Radium NZ Lighting 1/27 Porana Rd Glenfield Auckland 0-9-444 4873 for about $280 they do a 400W ballast and reflecter unit.

chim i will run a colourmeter test on your water if you like...

not being negitive, but your skimmer is small given what you are trying to do as well........ want to by a bigger one 8)

how low in the water coloumn do your acros sit? do you know that other who have purchased the same ones have nice colours? wasp gave me a very pale acro that has become very orange, its right under (like 2 inches under the water) a 400W 6.5k MH, its growing slowly. I have quite high phosphates again as my RO membrance died and i did not have a TDS... now have a TDS and getting them lower again, it has not seemed to effect much tho.... Peter

where is that reef?

nano's are so uber...

keep watching trademe, that guy had 30 at $50 each a while back.......

cool, looks like money cannot buy happiness but does buy big cool tanks...

great prices at that site......

when diving on a reef you find examples of the same coral at deffirent levels and light intensities..... I think the issue is that they have had the opportunity to adapt to that position on the reef, when collected you have no idea where from.....

noticed that too! I have 800W of 6k lighting and noticed increased algae growth ....

most of the research shows that corals grow fastest under approx 6K lighting, but they don't "glow" like they do under bluer lighting.... depends on what you "like" to look at

what form the magnesium in and how dosed? thanks

is this a NSW or ASW tank? what is the water change routine?

how much for magnesium?

or get a second tank......... really big fish only one....

Congrats on your second born!

Overall Summary: Our experiment shows no evidence for any of the espoused benefits of a plenum (reviewed by Goemans 1999) either with or without live animals in the design. Instead our results suggest that any benefits seen are a direct consequence of the presence of the sediments themselves rather than the void space beneath it. Each sediment-based aquarium design appeared capable of handling nutrient inputs up to 0.5 mg / L / day of NH4+ - which is equivalent to a well-stocked reef aquarium. At this input level, final concentrations of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate did not differ significantly among aquaria 1) with or without plenums, 2) containing deep (9.0 cm) or shallow (2.5cm) sediments, or 3) containing coarse (2.0mm) or fine (0.2mm) mean particle sizes. Bioload and animal deaths in the aquarium show a much greater effect on the water quality than does the specific design for the tank. The greatest differences among experimental treatments were observed as decreased buffering capacity, and higher final phosphate concentration of aquaria with coarse sediments relative to those with fine sediments. However, the chemical composition of the gravel may be responsible for this effect, and we have not tested other gravel types of similar size. We recommend that aquarists test any new gravel for dissolution before adding a lot of it to their aquarium. We show that there can be extreme variation among identical tanks, even without any live animals included as outlined in Part 1. Given the added variability as soon as live animals are included into the mix, our results highlight the problem with drawing any conclusions based on a single aquarium - no matter how beautiful it may be. The results from any study lacking proper replication and controls should be viewed with suspicion. We argue that anecdotal evidence is simply presentation of an opinion in cases such as this, and more than 5 years of heated debate on the merits of DSB vs. plenum systems has resulted from the staunch defense of opinions without data. We show that even high-quality aquarium tests provide only a ballpark estimate of the actual concentration of nutrients in the aquarium. However the readings from the Salifert test kits were sufficiently correlated with the true nutrient values to be reliable for comparisons among aquaria. Overall death rates were roughly twice as high in aquaria with shallow sediments as in deep sediment treatments. The highest overall death rates were seen in aquaria with shallow coarse sediments over a plenum, and the lowest death rates occurred in aquaria with a sandbed composed of deep coarse sediments. The treatments that were closest to the design aquarists employ for deep sandbed, Miracle Mud and Jaubert plenum aquaria had intermediate death rates. The shallow coarse sediment design that is closest to that used in Berlin systems had one of the highest death rates, and the deep coarse sediment design for which there is currently no accepted name had the lowest overall mortality (Fig. 10). We did not test bare bottom tanks, but the data clearly suggest that the shallower the sediment, the higher the mortality rate, and you can't get much shallower than a bare bottom tank! Experimental results were surprisingly similar between the aquarium dosing and live animal experiments. Contrary to our expectations, the presence of live animals and sediment infauna does not have any measurable effect on final nutrient concentrations in our experimental aquaria.

Data is needed to support claims that one is Better then another..... especially when you supply one of those products, I know you are in a difficult position of owning, using and SUPPLYING deltec... You may believe and may be right that deltec is a very good, maybe best skimmer... but as a supplier...... you have to provide data to back up any claims that its the best..... as a hobiest feel free to make your observations available but please as a supplier acknowledge you are making claims about a product for which your only have personal opinion and observations to back up..... I personally can't see why H&S skimmers could be less supierat all, considering they use the same pumps exactly and have the same tube sizes etc etc.... and I also really like the theory behind the big dual becket units popular in the us and very popular with shops in the US.

I agree Reef that Deltec are dam good skimmers and they do provide quite a bit of marketing info, but no real data about how skimming falls off if you have say too much water flowing through the skimmer..... so without the data i wonder how it was obtained? lacking the data makes me think they have just choosen a few values that seem about right! maybe not with deltec but certainly with some copy skimmers... not saying they will not skim, just that their is no way of comparing them from a brochure or even a price comparison with efficiency data, cost of operation etc etc then there is the whole beckett vs needlewheel issue... which one is best if operational costs are not important (its generally accpeted that it takes more power to run a becket unit then a needlewheel system....)