wasp

4 foot tanks are hard to aquascape. Can do some nice designs with rocks but once the corals get bigger the aquascaping gradually dissapears. In my one which is also more narrow than I would like, I couldn't do much more than chuck the rocks along the back in a row.

I doubt they would add it, but if a pipe was leaking it is highly likely it could be contaminated with phosphate from the soil, as any average soil will have phosphate in it. Also, tap water can read zero phosphate when tested with a hobby test kit, but this may well be because hobby test kits are not very sensitive at the lower end and will often show zero when there is phosphate present in low levels. However I'll have to say i've always been pretty skeptical of the claim that Chch water contains zero phosphate and has a TDS near zero, but after what a lot of you guys have said I'm starting to think there may be something in it. I'm wondering if in certain areas, this may be the case. Pity I'm not down there I'd love to drive around & do a few TDS tests, plus test phosphate levels with a digital colorimeter.

Thought I'd link this thread just cos this guy has turned his 4 footer into such a stunner! Certainly something to aspire to! http://www.zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10708

Well i've just tested Auckland tap water for phosphate using a Hanna colorimeter, and it comes out with 0.02 mg/l, an incredibly low reading. I don't believe this could be typical so I'll do another one in a few days! Agree with you Joe Blogg, if your tank is as good as you say the water you are using must be pretty good. Probably as Zhacque said there are different quality water in different areas.

Very tactful sticking to the no advertising rules! :lol: If that 5 ppm phosphate turns out to be a typical reading, IMO it will be a virtual impossibility for someone using it to run a clean tank long term unless spending a lot of money on phosphate removing resin or similar. If the tank was very lightly stocked chances would be better but it will certainly make life pretty hard. When I can I'll run a phosphate test on Auckland tap water & see how it compares.

Yikes!! That is a major issue How was that tested? A hobby kit or something more advanced?

Just read that again, yes good point, even the levels stated may eventually cause some imbalance when you consider the compounding effect of continueing top up / evaporation. I was probably wrong to say they might not be an issue. But it will be some of the things not tested for that will be the bigger issue, when we get some total TDS readings that will reveal the potential amount of other stuff not mentioned in that test.

None of those things tested for would be an issue at the stated levels, other than possibly the chloride although that is easily dealt with just by aeration. To me, the stated unaerated pH, against the stated alkalinity, doesn't add up, although I'm no chemist. Agree with Reef, what is NOT tested for will be of more importance, for example one biggy, phosphate.

Well TheConch has been pretty longsuffering about his tank thread getting constantly side tracked. So I thought I better do the decent thing and start this one so as anything comes up people can post here to continue the Chch tap water discussion.

Hope you didn't dunk those nice ones each side Reef!

Well I don't see it as an argument, more a group venture to gain knowledge, a positive thing. IE - can Chch tap water be used straight? It is possible to run a good tank even with Auckland tap water, depending on how much money you want to spend keeping the tank clean by other means. You could run mega phosphate resin for mega dollars, but an RODI will cost less in the long run. It's a trade off. At the moment the discussion is still a little vague but when Jolliolli has got the test results we will know with more certainty. I didn't want to start any aggro more just there are a lot of new people setting up in Chch & be good to have correct, fact based info for them. BTW Jolliolli, if it's hard to organise the tests, drop me a pm with your address & I'll send you down a TDS meter to borrow for a while. A few tests can be best, many factors come in even things like wether it just rained. So a few tests spread over some time, and some locations, will give most reliable info.

It's an idea that was more popular a few years ago. When adding top up water, we are replacing evaporated, ie, pure, water. Pure water should be replaced with pure water. We may not know what the contaminants in the water are, so why add them? Adjusting pH of top off water is something that I used to do years ago, just because that is what the experts of the day said. However, adding a little un adjusted water with a pH of 7.0, to a tank with a pH of 8.2, has so little effect on pH it cannot even be measured. Plus the tank pH will self adjust back to normal over an hour or two anyway. Most people nowadays see adjusting top off pH as a waste of time.

Ha Ha! The water from my tap does vary, on occasion it has been up near 100. However i've never tested it as low or even close to 35. On the shore we do get a different brew than the city, but i had thought it was better. I'll have to complain! :lol:

So true. In the past it has been claimed on the forum that Chch water is "pure". However I have never seen any supporting evidence. With your Uni contacts, would it be possible to beg or borrow a TDS meter and do a few tests yourself? You could post the results and put this matter to rest.

You can get a RODI unit for about $350.00. They don't work all the time, just when you run the water through them. However they can be hooked up with a stop valve and set so they will keep a container full as water is used. In simple terms the way they work is the water first goes through the Reverse Osmosis membrane (the RO part). This membrane turns away dirty water and allows some pure water past. Normally 1 part of pure goes through to around 2 or 3 parts that are rejected. Hence the waste water from an RO unit. The pure water is not quite pure, it will still typically contain around 5% of the impurities, so it then goes through Deionizing resin (the DI part) that gets the rest. DI resin slowly gets clogged with waste and is expensive, this is why a RO membrane is used first to get the water nearly pure, so the DI resin will last a lot longer. RODI units are referred to as 3 stage, 4 stage, or similar. In a typical 4 stage unit, the first stage will be a coarse filter. Stage 2 will be a fine carbon filter which will remove chlorine, as chlorine is bad for the RO membrane. Stage 3 will be the RO membrane, and stage 4 will be the DI unit. With my RODI unit, I allow the waste water to go down the drain, however it is drinkable, just a bit more concentrated, it could be saved. The tap water goes into the unit with a TDS of around 60. The waste water has a TDS around 90, and the "pure" water coming out of the RO has a TDS around 2 or 3. This goes through the DI and comes out with a TDS of 0.

Ok well the results of the Chch test, the two things us reefers are concerned about is phosphate levels, and TDS. TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. The Chch water over several tests came out with an average TDS around 60 ppm. That's about the same as my Auckland tap water when I test it. Course it all depends just what those impurities are, they may be something harmless. But to me, I wouldn't be using water with a TDS of 60. He didn't test for phosphate, but a while back someone else tested for phosphate & got some much higher readings than you would want to put in your tank. I've been reading this forum for quite a few years and seems to me that the idea Chch tap water can be used straight was largely promulgated by one particular reefer who is no longer in the hobby, everybody else just took his word for it. Just thought I should share this for consideration of anyone who may have been wondering if their issues just might be caused by less than pure top up water.

Here's the thread if you have a few days spare to read it! http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... oreef+club

Just for you Chch people, i've been talking to someone who has tested some Chch water & going by his results it is not as pure as it is reputed to be. Any of you guys have water quality / algae / coraline won't grow issues that might be attributable to less than pure top up water?

Since the goby is new it will be a potential object of aggression and this may reduce, however if it doesn't have room to get far enough away from the damsel the bullying may continue indefinately, damsels are like that. Fire gobies are very passive and if they get bullied too much they just go and hide all the time, and may eventually die. If things seem to be going this way, and you prefer the goby, you may have to pull the damsel. I've had some very pretty damsels, but I've finally given up on them due to the problems they cause, and over the years i've lost quite a few fish to damsel bullying. The thing with the clowns, clowns and damsels do tend to square off aqainst each other if they are too close. I doubt the clowns are protecting the goby, but more likely when the damsel moves aggressively when attacking the goby, this may trigger a response from the clowns.

Really! That must have required a bit of skill / planning!

Very attractive ! Can't see all the pics, but what is that brown plant looking thing in the top pic?

OK let me know when you'll be in the area. Probably can't wait 2 weeks to prune it so I'll go ahead & mount the piece. Don't get dissapointed when you see it the branches are only matchstick thick and it won't be a big frag.

I'm breaking a couple of "little frags" off it any time soon as it's getting too close to another coral. You passing any time soon? (They will be little though)

Yes the skimmer actually removes particles as they stick to the bubbles. These could be any small particles, bacteria, algae spores, or any type of particulate organics. It won't directly remove some things such as some toxins, yellowing agents, etc although it will eventually get them once they have been utilized or attached to water borne bacteria, algae or general organic particles. To get some of these type of things quicker carbon can be run although many people don't bother. Next thing is you should not use the cannister for biological filtration in a marine tank. You can use it if the purpose is to run carbon or some other chemical media, but if you use it for biological filtration it will cause a build up of nitrate. This is not such an issue in a fresh water tank or can even be a good thing if plants are growing, but in a marine tank nitrates can be a problem. Instead of using a cannister, HOB filter, trickle filter or other such fresh water aerobic filtration systems, you put coral rock in the tank to house the bacteria and let them do the filtration. Coral rock is structured in such a way that it enables bacteria to reduce nitrate, something that does not happen much in media such as bioballs and filter wool. So the basic filtration is really pretty simple. A skimmer, and coral rock. No expensive cannisters or whatever needed. Once the coral rock has been in the tank a few months and has the full complement of bacteria in its pores, it is referred to as "liverock".

Well here is a night time pic of my brain coral with all it's tentacles out hoping to catch a passing pod! A pretty green polyped acro A pretty acro, this one nearly died when I moved tanks, just saved a few tiny bits but at last is coming back to it's former glory And some easy care but pretty softies