wasp

Well if you are upgrading at Christmas there is little point putting a skimmer on it, just run it how it is and try to use the best possible water for changes/top up. But you should try to get a skimmer for your next tank.

Maybe time for plan B, put it in Pies tank.

The brown algae is likely brown diatonomous algae, which shows on the glass as brown powdery stuff. It requires silicate, which is present in most new tanks in good quantity. However, as you use your protein skimmer, I assume you have one, it will remove algae particles containing silicate, and in this way over time, reduce the silicate level in your tank. Because of this, the brown diatonomous algae will gradually dissapear. Not quite so easy with the green algae though, which does not require silicate, but does need phosphate. Phosphate can be removed by the skimmer in much the same way as silicate, but the problem is you add more phosphate every time you feed. So green algae may take a bit more beating, you need to have a means in place to remove at least as much phosphate from the tank, as what you are putting in with food etc.

Hows the brain going now? Improved? Stabilized? Still deteriorating?

Here's a article about it http://web.archive.org/web/200010171320 ... efault.asp Here's a quote from it - "Natural seawater (35 parts per thousand salinity) has 550 millimoles per liter chloride ion and 28 millimoles per liter sulfate ions. Magnesium is accompanied by two moles of chloride per magnesium in magnesium chloride, and one mole of sulfate per magnesium in magnesium sulfate. Working through the math, it turns out that if one took 10 moles of magnesium chloride and mixed it with one mole of magnesium sulfate, one would wind up with a mixture that had almost exactly the chloride/sulfate ratio of natural seawater."

Quick and easy recipe for using epsom salts ( magnesium sulphate ) - mix one part epsom salt with 10 parts magnesium chloride. This will dose magnesium to the tank with almost exactly the same ionic balance (sulphate against chloride) as occurs in NSW. Epsom salt can be used alone, but will over time result in an unnaturally high proportion of sulphate ions.

. I see! - The ZOO MAN :lol: :lol:

Kalk is calcium hydroxide, and does the calcium and the carbonate. Disadvantage being it screws around with your PH and can also precipitate Po4 which some don't like they want it available for removal Calcium Chloride will boost your calcium independantly of carbonate alkalinity

Do think you are going to cheap though Craig, you should at least add a bit for your time!

Oh! OK I just got back. Yes I've been using these same products and they can do a good job. What Craig is doing is similar to this http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... 4/chem.htm or at least the chemicals Craig has can be used to do what the article says. An excellent way to get your levels right if economy is the goal.

Very interesting Interfecus, good to have at least one educated person among us :lol: What is your feild?

Also, are'nt stem cells from a foetus brain or something? So just what are coral stem cells?

:lol:

Yes some of those thoughts ran through my mind also Brian. Reporters have been known to make up stories. Or it may just be poor reporting, don't know.

Not really sure if this is bogus or what. But it is an interesting read http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument

Lovely Fay. One of the things I enjoyed when seeing your tank in person was the fat, happy fish, all looking totally contented.

IRA, go easy on the current, less rather than more at this stage IMO, although others may know more than me.

That's interesting Pies, please share further exactly what you did for the ones you recovered, and also what you believe caused the problem in the first place. Could be some valuable info for the rest of us here. Cheers

Just by looking at it I'm afraid it looks to me like it's probably history, however there's a few things you could try, but don't get your hopes up. Some of them don't like too much light, and if it came from an lfs it was likely held in less than strong light, 2x250w halide may be too much for it, so move it into a shady area with very light current. A couple of hours after lights out try feeding it with mysis shrimp. So often in lfs you see these things dying, I think it's because they never feed them. So your one is likely starving. That's about all you can do, but once they have skeleton showing like that the end is not usually too far away. No reason not to give it your best shot though, Good Luck, and keep us informed.

Depends what you are trying to achieve. If the substrate is for purely decorative purposes, shallow (20 mls) is best as it will not hold so much crud. But if the purpose it to provide filtration and nitrate reduction, deeper (100 mls +) is best, although be aware that this will gradually accumulate and eventually release phosphate. Your 40 mls is somewhere in the middle, better to go one way or the other, although having said that there is a heap of good tanks with a substrate of a similar depth.

ha ha very funny

Hmmm... Very interesting. I can remember this debate raging a few years back, everybody had strong opinions. I think it's a little academic now though, as time has shown that neither system will give pristine water quality for the long haul, although just depends how a person manages their tank and what they want and do.

Sounds like a good plan, might try that. Also, my coral food is now frozen in ice, if I dropped the cube in it would make slow release, give them more time to gear up for it.

Oh, well I've already mixed mine last night, it's in the fridge. I will freeze it, that might work. I've been feeding it for several weeks with not much responce. However last night about an hour after I fed had a look with the torch, and there was better polyp extension than I have ever seen. I also put a lot less in last night, as I hope to feed a smaller amount, but each day.

I'm going to concede here, I was wrong, that tank you showed Reef is certainly a pretty successful tank with no skimmer. I'm still not going to ditch my own skimmer though.