wasp

No, I won't use it, I'm sure you and Layton will be right. Plus, if it was that easy, people would already be doing it I suppose. Just to me, my reefkeeping is primarily limited by money. So I'm always looking for a cheaper way.

The carpet behind the tank can do it, especially if something in the tank has been annoying the shrimp.

Hmmm.... Spoilsports Oh well I guess I'll have to accept you are right though, marine shellfish do live in the high organic areas. I wonder why the calcium would not be so user friendly for the corals though? But if the article is too hard to find don't worry I'll take your word for it.

Yes, well I'm not exactly rich at the moment, but 200 on this will save me money so I HAVE to do it! Also, I now have a calcium reactor that can handle large type media, I'm going to try self collected beach shells see if it works. If it does and there are not too many contaminants, I'll be maintaining calcium and alk at an extremely modest cost.

Well I've been and picked up my cylinder, all exactly as described, a 2nd hand cylinder with a new pressure test. This one is loaded with 6.5 kg of Co2, I gave them $200.00, it had to be cash. Now the bit I'm looking forward to, removing BOC from the list of people who take my money!

In my frag tank, which has 150 halides, I experimented with them at various depths. 15 cm will be a little close, it will tend to close most of the time. Try 25 cm or similar. moderate current, well I'm not sure how to define that, but I'll stick my neck out and say moderate current. If all your other water parameters are Ok you should be sweet. One thing with leathers, reactions can be slow, so give it a few days to see if it will open.

Moderately strong light, and moderately strong current. What kind of lighting you got and how deep is the leather?

Hmmm... Perhaps that's it, anyhow it's that silver paper stuff people line the inside of the cabinet with if they are that way inclined, incredibly shiny stuff.

Give it time Brian, you'll wise up :lol: :lol: Actually that was just a joke, but to me, the two are compatible. All kids love marine tanks, and all my kids have grown up to be fisho's, and have partners who share the interest also. I've only got one at home now and he has finally converted his fresh water system to marine. Much of this to my wifes dismay though I should add :lol: :lol:

Actually, I suspect that in the wild, small mobile inverts must be a major part of their diet, as they do not range far, they just stay put and wait for whatever comes along. Even algae farming would not yeild them much in the small area they inhabit. I once had a tank on my work desk so it was under constant observation, a great pleasure. One thing that surprised me was just the many behaviours of common old glass shrimp, I actually came to believe they have a bit more intelligence than we would think. ( Or maybe I've been breating a bit too much Co2 lately :-? )

What about that reflective stuff at the magic gardener

I'd in broad terms agree with that. See- we have something in common Also, I was not in my last post refering to zeovit in particular, I think for a beginner all they can ever do at first is judge a system by results, any system. But one thing I can say in relation to zeovit is it saddens me to see a campaign of trying to pin negatives to it when it is really a result of not understanding the method. I cannot understand the reason for trying to imply things such as , for example, "no point sweeping things under the carpet". Pointless rhetoric and unfounded vague insinuation. On another note, in relation to your rock cooking Layton, while rock cooking will definately work, in terms of cleaning out the pores blocked in your rock, I don't think it should be a regular strategy, a better strategy is to run a tank low in nutrients so the rock will not get like that in the first place. Then the tank does not have to be torn down periodically. But anyhow, I'm not wanting another great debate over all this, end of the day each person can run their tank how they want as long as it makes them happy.

Agree, and dissagree. To really understand every process in our tank, there is a tremendous amount of knowledge required. None of us will ever know everything, it cannot be done. So to a beginner it is important to spend time gaining knowledge. But in my opinion anyway, what I would say to a beginner, is go and visit some reef keepers, find one with a tank that is obviously healthy and well run, then pick his brains and run his system. Learning absolutely everything including negatives can come later provided the person is using a method shown to work, and is abiding by the nessecary rules of that method to ensure success.

I wonder if it would be worth removing it from the tank, cleaning it, then running it on another tank for a week or so, just to see how it goes, incase something strange has happened to the water in the origional tank. Then at least you could isolate is it a skimmer problem, or is it a different problem. I say that because when I set up my frag tank my skimmer did the same, REAL bad, I used some spa pool tubing for the plumbing I think it was that that did it. Took about a month and several large water changes to come right, I think there may have been some kind of mold oil or similar in the tubing. The skimmer was fine until I turned on the plumbing. (It wasn't a Deltec though).

Wow that's a beauty! I WANT one! But what is it? He He.

Gizzygirl, are you, like I am, origionally from Gisborne?

You are correct they are not highly regarded going by what I have read on Reef Central. But don't throw them away just because of the brand, how old are they? Buying a new bulb can be a bit of a crap shoot, there are so many variables.

I've got some brand new 14,000k 150 watt DE's for sale, $125.00 each. Good bulbs, just I'm only using 10,000k now.

Can be tricky knowing how much magnesium to put in, here's a handy calculator. http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/index.htm ... mgcalc.htm The rest of the site is pretty cool too!

And http://www.elegancereef.com/smf/index.php?topic=841.0

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... genumber=1

Well congrats both Westy and Reef. Sights for sore eyes! But Reef take it easy on the phosphate remover Don't want Po4 to hit absolute Zero! It's only my humble opinion but I think when fine tuning Po4 at very low levels it's better to err if anything a tad on the high side. Also, as your tank cleans up generally there will become less and less Po4 available to be removed. Just thoughts from a guy who's personally made a few screw-ups!

Now you tell me!!!

I now have their permission, the number is 378-9243 (Auckland). Just one thing they are still moving into new premises, still in and out a bit and not very good at answering the phone yet. So be a little patient with them it will be worth it in the long haul. I think some of the previous phone looking up confusion was that they are listed in the book under Nova Fire, they use both names. Sorry I couldn't clear all this up earlier, had to keep you all waiting...

Good point actually Chimera, i should have thought of that. However, now I have been warned, I'll play it by the book and post details after I talked to them and got their permission.