wasp

It's just the way it is, the importer cannot go overseas to personally pick each piece so they get what comes, there are variations among species so it is inevitable a certain amount of less attractive ones will arrive. But you have a real nice selection TheConch, I am surprised you think it is second rate, I think it is awesome!

Good plan. Just for what it is worth, an average 14,000 bulb will give around 1/2 the amount of light a coral can use for photosynthesis, than an average 10,000 would. An average 20,000 bulb will give around a 1/4 what an average 10,000 would. But there are variations between bulbs, grading them for k rating is not an exact science, because the bulb actually emits a whole range of colours, the manufacturer just draws a line in the middle somewhere and calls that the k rating.

TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!! Wicked corals, I knew it would go like that from the way you set it up. Bet the fish love it too .

It can certainly be done, in fact my first marine tank back in the 80's was a FO and fairly similar. Cost back in those days, less than 300 bucks. Couple of things though, the tank as pictured is nice and clean and attractive to look at, won't stay like that everything will go green as there is no phosphate removal. What I did in those days (please nobody laugh) I had two sets of decorations, they were alternated monthly, the one I took out of the tank would sit on the deck to bleach white again. Did a 10% water change monthly. Nitrates tend to build up pretty high in these systems also. If you want to go this way, you will eventually want to get live corals. A good plan would be to set the tank up in such a way so your options are open in the future, to install the needed stuff to go full reef if you decide to.

Where in Auckland are you? I can spare a few snails. Also, from the rocks at the beach you can collect some species that will eat algae in a tank, some less suitable than others. A cleaning crew, such as you see advertised on some overseas sites, is not really available here due to importing restrictions. The issue of algae in a marine aquarium is really about phosphate control, you will not control algae long term simply by putting snails etc in. It's all about phosphate, algae needs a certain amount of phosphate and if you can limit phosphate to a low enough level the algae won't grow. There is a lot to learn about phosphate control and many ways to do it, I would suggest spending a bit of time on research on the subject on google, with a search word such as "phosphate control marine aquarium", or similar. You will find much information, some good, some bad, but once you have a reasonable understanding of the issues, and some ideas what to do, come back here and ask, before you actually do anything, just to run your ideas past some other reefers before committing to anything.

Can try sitting the whole thing on some foam. The noise seems to come from the pump but can be amplified by whatever it's touching so some foam can reduce this. Even those foam type mouse pads can help.

Oh one thing, you probably thought of this but just in case, if the fan is enclosed in the hood with no outside air, it will not do any cooling the heat will just circulate. The fan has to be set up so it can draw air into the hood, and there should be an outlet to allow waste, warmer, air out of the hood.

Yes please do keep us informed Volkster, whichever way it goes!

Don't know anything about the freshwater one, but the saltwater one is most often although not always present in marine tanks, although pretty much unseen by us as the fish can deal with it. But when temperature goes up the fish resistance is lowered and reefkeepers with excessive temperatures will start to see it. If nothing is done it will often progress to full blown serious infection and sometimes even loss of fish. When this happens, simply doing something to keep things cool can allow the fish to regain the upper hand and throw off the infestation.

World fame at last! :lol: Reef Central can eat shyte! :lol:

The fans are turned on or off by a thing called a temperature controller, available from the shops or importers if you know them. A typical unit will cost 2 or 3 hundred $$, it is a box with a circuit board and which sits outside the tank. A probe from it hangs inside the tank and monitors temperature. It will have several standard outlet plugs on the box, into which you can plug you fans, heater, or whatever you want it to control. It is programable so you can set it to turn each individual thing on and off at whatever temperature you set. So a temperature controller is the ultimate but if it's beyond the budget a timer to control the fans is second best, cost about 9 bucks at the supermarket and certainly better then having nothing.

Alien Eye! :lol: I love the names they give some of these things! :lol:

All the organisms have different tolerances but in an average mixed reef tank you will be starting to look at problems once it gets over 30, and maybe lower than that, depending. Every summer since I have been reading this forum, we get a few people posting that they have fish starting to "flick" against the rocks, and showing the odd whitespot. Sometimes also looking a bit stressed. This is often the first warning that temperature has been creeping up a bit high sometimes. A good cheapy way to keep things cool over summer is a fan over the tank pointing at the water surface, either a small household type fan available for very little $$ at the warehouse, or for something a bit more compact one of those computer type fans from somewhere like jaycar. It is quite surprising how much cooling a fan directed at the water surface can do. Put this on a timer from foodtown to come on during the danger period, and you have tank cooling in place for 50 bucks or so. I have 2 fans pointing at the water surface, set so they will churn the surface a bit when they come on, this makes the best cooling. They are turned on or off by a temperature controller when the tank gets a bit warm. As a backstop there is a chiller, set to come on 1/2 a degree higher than when the fans come on, but it is rarely used even though the room the tank is in often hits 35 on a summer day.

How's the temperature been on these warmer days?

Yes that will be best, in a quiet type place with low light.

Yes you can turn the nanos on & off once daily I do that with one of mine. Sometimes there is an issue with them restarting though. Frogspawns like almost no flow so you will have to put it somewhere in the tank that is sheltered, both from flow, and not too much light either. Some of the other corals will like heaps of flow though so bear that in mind also.

Yes, the capacity of anemones to recover from major injury is remarkable, long as they don't get infected. So just keep the water quality as good as you can, should be sweet. If it gets through the first week & shows signs of healing you are 90% there. If it gets any jelly looking stuff on it's wounds, blow it of with a turkey baster, syringe, or similar.

How's it looking now?

What does ammonia test at? Any sick livestock might be releasing something? Is there enough aeration? Has it overheated?

Wow that was a fast reply, by the time i got to look at my post you had already replied to it! I was at Origin Aquatics today & they have an anemone living in a RSM, it's a rose BTA very pretty, and looks as happy as. Looking at the specs and design of the RSM I think this type of tank is actually a very good environment for a BTA anemone.

Well finally lost this little piece. For a while it seemed like it was doing OK and stretching it's tentacles out looking like a proper anemone. But the base was never right I don't think there was enough basal tissue for it to regrow properly. Then it looked poorly for a couple of days and then i got up in the morning and it was a lump of jelly i think an infection got it. The two main splits are doing good though one is still in my tank and the other one is living a in a RSM now.

Love to see that crud getting sucked out of the tank . Syphoning the bottom is also a good plan while rock is curing.

That's interesting Volkster, please keep us posted. If your tentacle re-grows, I may "frag" mine also.

Looking good! Yes it's funny the way the clowns give a nip if you are too close to the anemone, got to give them 10/10 for taking on a creature 1000 times their size! :lol:

Well one good thing it will encourage the captive breeding of this species that is happening, and if there is not competition from imports the breeder will be able to get a price that reflects the effort he has put into breeding them. I think they are being bred more and more in the US also, so a ban on wild collection is a good thing. Just it's often cheaper for a 3rd world diver who works for a few bucks a day to collect wild ones than what it is possible to breed them for, so the only way to encourage breeding (of species that can be captive bred), is to ban wild collection if they are endangered.