wasp

Using a phosphate remover will not cause a sudden increase in nutrients. It will cause a decrease. The Seachem product is an effective phosphate remover, but has also been shown to leach aluminium.

Before going zeovit I did a ton of reading on RC about iron based Po4 removers. The "issue" is RTN, but nobody could come up with an explanation. The evidence though, is that the RTN would tend to occur a week to a fortnight after the media had been changed, and was more likely if the more effective media such as Rowaphos was used. This would fit with the theory that RTN is related to a sudden drop in nutrients. A number of people were able to solve the problem by putting their phosphate reactor on a timer. The first few days after changing the media, it would only run two hours a day, then this would gradually be increased until after 3 or 4 weeks it would run 24/7. Those using this method did not have any further issues with RTN, and generally believed that this was due to reducing any sudden changes, by means of the timer. The other thing is there are a number of phosphate removers on the market that simply do not do a good enough job to be of value to us. Stick with the iron based ones, or certain of the zeolite products. Having said all that, RTN is only an issue for those keeping sps corals. Nobody else need care. And even many reefers with sps never had a problem.

No.

You're onto it Skuzza. Apparently it's pretty awesome, the next most famous symbiotic relationship we can have in our tank after the clown / anemone one. The shrimp digs the hole, and the goby moves in with it. During the day the goby comes out and sits there keeping an eye out for a passing meal. The shrimp also comes out but keeps one antennae on the gobies tail. If the goby sees danger, the shrimp can feel the gobies body language and dashes back to the hole. At night, they both tuck up in the hole and the goby places a small rock he keeps nearby over the entrance. I know all this, not from personal experience, but from reading a thread on Reef Central by a girl who was totally pleased, she got the goby shrimp pair, and as luck would have it they set up their hole right in full view near the front of the tank, and they became the main feature of the tank, she was wrapped. I'd like to do this myself, but you have to have sand.

They created quite a stir on Reef Central when they first came out, people ranting on how awesome they are. But for me, I'm not totally impressed, however in fairness I'm not using the standard issue pump, mine is slightly higher GPH than recommended, I could not get the exact pump locally. It's not that it doesn't skim, it does. But it pumps a huge amount of air with an inconsistent bubble size, and can be very sensitive, and if I add a bit more pollution than normal the skimmer can go nuts and literally skim out gallons of water overnight. Lucky I got the model with the autodrain. I've also had to put an on/off float switch in the draining container, to make sure if the skimmer goes crazy it will turn off before it takes the tank to lower levels than I want. Now they are being brought in by a shop, presumeably there will also be the correct pump available, so others may have different opinion to me and may have comments on this also.

Sounds great Newtman! Those crested blennies are definately characters. But they are VERY aggresive feeders, hard for anything else to get much. I think you will need more light for some of your rock life to survive longer term. But overall a great set up. If you ever come to Auckland get in touch. I can send you to a place where you can get awesome coloured anemones.

Sometimes they quieten off after a couple of weeks. The Remora Pro (I have one too) put a lot of head pressure on the pump, which can increase noise. I run my one with a pump from Jansens called an extrema. 550 gph and 10 foot head pressure.

Wow! Yes I did notice it has a funny looking mouth. Looks like the fish was quite a score!

What is growing in it?

Now I find out who all the old guys are! :lol: :lol:

Hey Thanks, very cool! Hope they work in emails. Sorry folks, back to topic

I'll hand it to you Layton, that was pretty cool! Should have done that with Nicks one, I saw it last week it is all over his tank. Chimera, where do you get all those little thingys from? They're funny :lol:

Cool. How about you guys tee this up, and then post your findings. I want to get to the bottom of this.

Lets put it this way. Once he chills and stops looking for an argument, I'll happily answer his questions. But I'm not moving from a zeovit argument, to a live rock argument.

Actually, that is an interesting subject. I used to be real careful about changing salinity gradually. Then I read a thing by Shimek, about when he was diving in an area that had bursts of fresh water going through. He noted many coral types living there and prospering. Since then I've been a bit more careless about salinity adjustment, not noticed any ill effects.

I can remember back in 1986, when I got my first FO set up, Ralph Jansen told me the way to do it was get water from Takapuna, and dilute by 10%. Perhaps he was right all the time! BTW a little nostalgia for those who remember, Jansens was at that time operating from a little brick place that later became a corner dairy. Times move on

Sorry - not going to bite I think I can feel your high blood pressure from here. It really is time to let go!

Don't know about temperature auto adjust, Craig would have to answer that. Calibrating solution, may have been distilled water, in any case it's the stuff that came with the instrument and measured 0.000

Really looking for some opinions and consensus here, I was over at Craigs today looking at his latest toy, his refractometer. We had some NSW from Takapuna, so he calibrates the refractometer in front of me with the standard calibrating solution, then tests the NSW, and it comes out close to 1.028. Now can this be possible? As all swing arms seem to be different, I've been running my tank using Takapuna NSW as the standard, which I thought was 1.025. Anybody else got any insights into this?

:lol: :lol: I saw that post. Trouble now, everybody wants to know what it was! But PLEASE DON'T tell us!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Layton you do not need to wrongly contradict everything I ever said. That is what started that whole zeovit thread mess. Time for you to let go...

Cool. Although I am starting to feel like every time I post somebody tells me I'm wrong :lol: Not normally you though chimera. :lol:

Pies, that is the best piece of writting I have ever seen in my life - You are a genius!! I think that sums it up in one paragraph. Now nobody has to argue any more. And Chimera, if I read you wrong, I apologise. I thought you were trying to make it a non zeovit against zeovit thing, which I find pointless. Hope I was wrong.

It would seem to be one of those "dammed if you do, dammed if you don't" things. Various posters have repeatedly asked for before and after shots. I have somewhat reluctantly done this because I don't know what the outcome will be. Because I do what these posters have asked, don't get all upset Chimera. If you want it as a competition, that's over to you. I am simply doing what several requested.

Yes, it is with zeovit. I have no idea wether these corals will color up or not, I'm purely doing it for interest. Hope nobody sees this as some kind of competition or something because it is not. The zeovit argument I hope is over.