wasp

You've got us all hanging Coelacanth! :lol: Where are these fish? You work at a zoo or something?

Well you've got a real jump start with all that stuff already growing, bet you're stoked! Interesting story about the mandarin. For me I like to get the fish in as fast as i can, sometimes they can do themselves more damage stressing in the bag than what it is worth. When I'm putting in a new fish i test the salinity in the bag, if it's same as the tank i'll change 50% of the water in the bag with tank water, sit it in the tank for 5 minutes and then straight in. If salinity is markedly different it might take a few hours though or I might do it in a different tank over a few days with some fish.

Beautiful. How did you get these?

WOW!!! I didn't even know you had a tank!!

Smallest overflow I've ever seen :lol: . At least it's nice and small and tidy lucky you have a thin arm :lol: . Nice looking tank lots of potential. How's that algae problem you mentioned on the rock?

There has been an issue with some jagers, with the thermostat. IMO get a different brand.

Hi HaNs, check out the thread "Camnbrons Tank setup", that's a pretty good example of a sump set up, and you can see the return pump in it also. Some sumps have some baffles in, to prevent bubbles from the skimmer getting back into the main tank.

Hollywood Fish Farm in Frost Rd, Mt Roskill is well worth a look. They have a very nice display tank, plus you can look how their sumps are set up, skimmers work, all that stuff. Checking out the lighting of the display tank will give you a good idea what you might want, don't take too much notice of the lighting on the other tanks though it's OK to hold stuff for a while but not enough for long term.

Actually I edited my previous post in regard to light requirements it might not be nessecary to have quite as much as i said first time. I was thinking of sps corals, but it depends pretty much on what corals you want. But what I edited it to would be more in line with a general tank that has the right light for a bit of all sorts of corals. 3 halides would be right for spread, and some flouro tubes give a bit more spread if you wish but not essential. You can get hang on skimmers, or in sump ones, the hang on ones are more for smaller tanks so you will likely want to put the skimmer in the sump, the in sump ones are a bit cheaper also. Most calcium reactors can go either in or out of the sump just depending what suits.

Welcome to the club! Any size sump is OK as long as it can fit the skimmer and all other equipment you want. A big sump is good as it provides more stability, and slower depletion of elements. But on the other hand the more water, the more electricity to keep it warm, although you may be able to design your way around that. The two 150 watt halides would normally be considered at the low end of light requirements for a marine tank of that size, it would be restricting on what corals you could grow and where in the tank. A marine tank that size would normally have three halides, you could use 150 watt ones or 250 watt ones depending what kind of corals you will be having, and what k rating you will use for the bulbs. In addition you may choose to add some supplementary actinic (blue) light via flourescent tubes, although this is more to make the tank look nice than a necesity for the corals. Other than that you would just need plenty of flow, liverock, and disconnect any aerobic filtration you may have such as cannisters, trickle filters, or whatever.

That's a good price.

Good to see you are doing this Dogmatrix, they are an attractive tank and it will be interesting to see how you develop it. Also since a lot of new people are interested to set one of these up, your own experience will be a good help to them.

BTW Fmxmatt, not sure how much you know already, but just incase, you monitor the rock cycling by testing the water, so for the first couple of weeks or so you see ammonia build up then dissapear once the ammonia eating bacteria kick in, then nitrite builds up which is being made by the ammonia eating bacteria. This takes about another 4 weeks + to dissapear once the nitrite eating bacteria have kicked in. Once ammonia and nitrite are down to zero your rock is considered "cycled" and you can start stocking the tank. The rock is not FULLY cycled though untill nitrate levels are coming down low, which can take several months. But nitrate is not as toxic as nitrite and ammonia so you can start stocking even though nitrate levels are elevated. The big thing with cycling rocks is it is rather testing of our patience as it can seem to drag on, but not much can be done other than wait it out. But keep us tuned in how it's going!

You have a new drive? You mean I don't have to bring the tractor if it's raining any more? :lol:

Yes, put the rock in, get things kicked off . Usually takes around 6 weeks, minimum.

Once again, awesome Cracker! Well if I can get the time and the money, looks like Vomo will be the prefered destination. BTW thanks for the goodies some has already been used , and all the best for the new life in Blenheim and success in the business!

Wow that's amazing! Differently structured reef to what Cracker shows. Just imagine if you could take a slab of that, as is, and plant it in your tank, be awesome!

Wow! Some of those corals car garage size you say!

There has been debate in the past about wether transfering it 1/2 way through the curing process will slow things down. I don't see why it would, but there was a guy who did it a couple of years ago and claimed it made his cycle start again. Even if you add no bacteria the cycle will still start, there are plenty of bacteria floating around. However some are better than others and there are some products you can buy to add the best types of bacteria, or even a handful of gunge from the bottom of a rock pool at the beach will have "good" bacteria in it. But most people don't bother with any of that & the rocks still cycle fine.

Wondered where you been! What do you think is the cause of the problems?

Noelj raises a valid point though and one I hope all reefers take seriously. With corals it is not such an issue now as they are easily propogated, in fact the majority of the corals pictured in that article have been aquacultured, in some cases for many generations. Likewise the 2 clown fish pictured were bred in a tank in NZ, and even the anemone they are in has been propogated in a NZ aquarium for many generations, or in the case of an anemone, clones. Even the coral importers are now moving to ones that have been aquacultured in the ocean, so pressure on reefs from the aquarium trade need not be an issue provided we are ethical in our purchasing choices. Fish, not so easy to aquaculture in fact there are some species that will probably never be aquacultured. To me, the big thing is preservation of habitat, ie, not destroying the reef itself. If this can be done, ethical sustainable fish harvest can be achieved, and I know our NZ importers are attempting to support areas where this is happening. But bottom line, conservation is something we should all have in the back of our mind, and is achieveable, with the right mindset from all parties.

Certainly a stunner!

Edit, meant to be a pm

Just a thing about the word "base rock", there are 2 kinds of rock, "normal rock" (for want of a better term), and "base rock". Base rock is harvested from areas where it has been under pressure and has become dense and heavy, with less pores, while normal rock is pretty much as it was when it was a living coral and is quite porous. Normal rock is better for the tank as it is better for bacteria than base rock. Both base rock, and normal rock, could be dried and "dead", or cycled and "live". Rockerpellars explanation of the cycle was very good. I suspect that a shop has pointed out a piece of dry base rock and said that is base rock, and a piece of cycled normal rock, and said that is live rock? giving the impression that all dry rock is base rock?

Don't think you need too many pointers, you have done an awesome job. Even the way you have placed the liverock so there is good circulation underneath shows you have done your research. The tank is all set to become one of the really good ones I will be following progress with interest . Question about the overflow, it looks like just a outlet with flow controlled by a tap? And is there a secondary pipe?