wasp

Welcome Reeftec !! How long has the DSB been in? From the beginning of the tank? And what fish do you have? Got any more of those eye candy pics to show us?

Here's a thing I pasted from another thread - A basic marine set up is like this. don't mess with anything less than a 3 foot tank. Smaller can be done but it's hard. 4 foot up is best. The filtration is done by bacteria that live in "liverock". Liverock is rock made from old coral skeleton and is porous. You should have somewhere around a kilogram of liverock to each 8 litres of water in the tank. The liverock is in fact dry and dead when you buy it at the LFS, but becomes "live" when after a few weeks in the tank it gets a bunch of bacteria living in it that eat the waste products from the fish. So one way to set up a tank is to put a thin layer of sand in the bottom. Put in the correct amount of rock, then fill with seawater. The seawater will need to have 10% freshwater added as our water is saltier then the ideal level. Then you need all this water to be moving, both to assist liverock filtration, and because most marine organisms need it to be moving. So you add a few pumps, enough to pump the entire volume of the tank ten times per hour (10 x times flow) This is the minimum, 20x or more is better. Then you need a marine grade light, most of the corals we keep are photosynthetic and need correct light. 1 watt of light per litre of water is a rough guide to the amount of light you need, but this may vary (upwards mostly) depending on what you are keeping. Don't use your old cannisters for biological filtration, leave that to the liverock. Cannisters and such do aerobic filtration only and do not supply the anearobic filtration important in a marine tank. Cannisters can be useful for using carbon, or phosphate removing resin though. The other thing you need is a protein skimmer. A good one is expensive, but the success of your tank will to quite a degree hinge on how good your protein skimming is. A good one will last you for life, get a needlewheel one they are the best. As I said you will hear other contradictory ideas and they will likely also work. I've just suggested one way to get a basic system going. Do a lot of reading, that's the big thing, there's a lot of learning to do. Good Luck!

ROTFL!! :lol: :lol:

Get a needlewheel skimmer such as a Deltec. Expensive but you won't regret it. BTW if all this takes a while, you will need to act upon some stronger light for that anemone SOON, or he will go white and then die.

. Well, in your defence Layton, I will have to say you are the most knowledgeable reef keeper I know, who doesn't actually keep one.

Nice, although you will definately need much more light for any corals and the existing anemone. Do you have sump & skimmer?

Oh I see what's happening now, I'm talking about a blenny, and you're talking about a dottyback. Yes those dottybacks are bad news for shrimps.

Duke I've just bought a Niger Trigger he's in QT at the moment. But I did a bit of reading on them it said they are not compatable with blennies. That's got me worried because I like my bi color. Did your trigger ever show any aggression to your Bi color? What makes you think it is the shrimp, not the trigger, that is the culprit?

Well since there has been a fair bit of interest I've invited Reeftec to visit our forum and tell us a bit about his tank management etc.

There is a place on the North Shore called Engineering Plastics, who will do it for you. I can't give the phone number cos last time I did that it was moderated for being "commercial". However they are in the phone book. Next thing is the cost, get ready for a rude surprise! this stuff costs. I used perspex, seems fine, also got it in a grey tint.

:lol: :lol: :lol: And these are the guys that voted Japan! But to be fair, I think he was just taking the mickey, it was a joke. Red neck epitomy :lol:

Actually I've got a lot of agreement with what you say Control. However, I was tough on Eric because there is some history you may not be aware of. The author of the vodka article Eric is critisizing is a guy Jorg Kokkett, a German marine biologist with a tank certainly more advanced than anything I've seen of Erics. Jorg published an article on vodka dosing, which Eric took exception too and Jorg, who has done a lot for the hobby, became the object of unfair and even vicious attacks, I was pretty disgusted and lost a lot of respect for Eric. In fact despite all Erics knowledge and his tank which was good in 1985, I think he is out of touch on this issue.

Wow that's pretty cool! Are those things fertilized and ready to go? Or do they have to get fertilized in the water or something?

Thanks for the honesty The particular thread I got the pics from is here http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4396 Does not have much info in this thread but if you wish you could research Reeftech.

ROTFL!!! Layton you are a hoot :lol:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004- ... /index.php

Well Chinese DNA is still keen he won't show in public but he sent me a pm. (Not on this site)Turns out he has a contact who can supply him with live rotifers. (Lucky guy)! He also wanted a lot more info. I don't know enough myself but was able to refer him to some useful web sites, I think all this is going to have a happy ending.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=707656

Here are 3 shots, all the same tank http://zeovit.com/forums/attachment.php ... mentid=588 http://zeovit.com/forums/attachment.php ... mentid=584 http://zeovit.com/forums/attachment.php ... mentid=591

Well I liked them . Guess my standards must not be high enough :oops:

Wow that IS nice! Either that stuff's only just been put in, or they're getting plenty of light of the right type!

Correct. But having said that I think the people who dealt to Chinese DNA had good motives and meant well. But the effect was a pack mentality set in and the guy was attacked, in some needless ways, rather than helped.

Problem solved! Chinese DNA has been suitably chastised, vilified, verbally horse wipped, racially slurred and had his English criticised. He will now know not to make the mistake of asking for help or advice at Reef Central again. No doubt the experience has greatly improved his perception of foreigners also. Mission accomplished.

To get algae you need light PLUS nutrients. Sharkey, that is truely awesome. And at $700.00 each well it's possible to spend that on ordinary halide lighting, then you have to pay for the power, and new bulbs all the time. So I'm rating that 10/10 for the guy actually doing it. I'm looking at doing it myself for next tank, I think the ultimate would be to have some kind of light detector that would turn on supplemental lighting only when the natural lighting is not enough.

Looking at some of those corals I suspect there may be a secret ingredient, such as potassium, at work here