wasp

When I had mollies I could make them drop their babies by putting them in full strength salinity. They could handle it although not sure if for the long term. Don't know about the pods.

You can start cycling rock if you wish, before even setting up the tank. It can be done in a plastic tub, just need water, a pump to make circulation, and heater and skimmer are optional but help. Since this will take 6 weeks minimum before it can go in a tank with fish, doing it this way will get things rolling but still give you time to set up the tank.

Couple of things, what sort of tank is it? One of these ones with built in skimmer etc? 2 - 4 weeks to cycle the rocks is not going to happen, unless you get already cycled ones. I suspect you might be so keen to get this up & running you are rushing things, could regret this later. If you have not already read it there is a beginner guide as one of the threads at the top of the saltwater section on the forum, check that out to get an idea of the basics. Like you, I had fresh water aquariums before I went to salt water. However a salt water aquarium is more complex and takes longer to set up than a fresh water one, something I learned the hard way. But one thing, setting up a marine tank takes most people a few weeks or a few months. If you want to keep the tank for a long time, it's best to go slow during the set up phase and do it right, it's hard to change things later. And good idea to contact someone in your area and have a look at their tank & how it is set up, very helpful to see first hand.

How did things end up Jettin?

Excellent David, my tank has some good green and red colours, but lacking in yellow. It's going to make a nice point of contrast and bring out the other colours also. I'll be keeping an eye on pics of your tank and see how it's coming along! BTW for those who don't know David is breaking down his tank next year and heading off to Germany to further his education. Studying conservation, lucky dude!

Since you are in Christchurch, a guy who will know who is best for what down there would be lduncan, a member of this forum, you could drop him a pm. Drilling is best if you can get it done.

Still pretty impressive though, imagine tipping all that back into the tank. Just shows what great cleaners skimmers are. And for a home made one, awesome!

Truely! That's handy to know! Really good fish those kole tangs!

And - little scared to ask, but is that the one you have put my name on?

Wow! Awesome growth! Putting growth hormones in there or something? Very nice!

It should be a slightly milky white and have no smell. May have gone off.

You mean 13 dkh? If so that is quite high. Kalkawasser adds both dkh plus calcium, in balanced proportions, so adding kalkawasser will take dkh even higher. So best plan would be to add some calcium in the form of calcium chloride. Where to get calcium chloride? I know Layton has it so he could advise. Just to explain a bit more about the relationship between calcium, and carbonate alkalinity, the two react with each other to form calcium carbonate, which is what coral skeletons are made of. In seawater carbonate alkalinity is around 7.0 dkh. If it is a lot higher than that, and 13 dkh is a LOT higher, it will be constantly trying to precipitate out the calcium, making it very hard to raise the calcium. Best plan will be to gently raise calcium, while allowing the alkalinity to fall, which it will do naturally over a few weeks, a good level for your tank would be around 8-10 dkh, and raise calcium to around 400. As to the algae type growth, it won't harm the corals at this stage. Probably just forget about it until you move into the new tank. During the transfer scrub each rock clean with a scrubbing brush as you move them to the new tank. It will probably re grow, if so, you could look at a phosphate removing resin or some other means to clean it up.

I'm not a big fan of a "kitset with everything" because thye usually are poorly equiped in order to keep the cost down. However I was at Hollywood North Shore today and saw one of those Red Sea complete systems, set up, and with fish and coral in it. It was priced just over $2,000.00. I had a look under the hood and it is equiped with a skimmer that seems to work well, plus everything else needed, and it looked very attractive, it would definately be a show stopper if you had one in the lounge. I was impressed and would recommend it. Couple of things to be aware, it only had 2 smallish fish in it, and is not a tank that could take much more than that. There are many types of coral that will grow very happily in it, but space will be an issue for certain ones such as ones that spread out & sting other corals. But bottom line the tank is properly equiped and can be a high quality marine display.

Good work! A lot of people don't think of that!

Wow! You guys all shredding them while i haven't even been able to GET a red one yet! Sympathise though I've lost some other anemones to pumps, ones I cultured myself it's a real drag to put all the effort & care, get to like it, then the stupid thing commits suicide. For a thing with no brain they definately got a mind of their own! :lol: Anyhow I was over at Reefs a while back and he has fitted one of his streams with a special anti anemone shredding device, cheaply made from a thing you get from the garden centre. Pretty ugly you wouldn't want it in the tank long term but could be useful for the first month or two after introducing a new anemone.

Good plan. First few years of reefing I had one of those swing arm thingi's. I calibrated it & it was wrong so I put a mark on it at 1.025 so it would still work for me. This worked for a while but one time I noticed the fish looking stressed & breathing real quick. This carried on several months & I just couldn't figure it out. Eventually I had done every concievable check so decided the only thing left was to get a refractometer. Found out the salinity was at 1.032, the swing arm must have gradually shifted. Anyhow, lowered the salinity the fish much more relaxed and the whole tank looked better.

You have to think about what happens if there is a power cut, cos sooner or later there WILL be a power cut. If the ball valve is the only thing between you and a flood, it is not reliable. It just takes a little bit of crud on the ball valve and you are screwed. Not sure just what your design is, but need to make it some way so there will not be a flood, even if the ball valve fails. Case in point, a few months ago a NZ reefer not only had a flood, but everything in his tank died when his pump shut down, the ball valve didn't work, and his tank drained to within an inch of the bottom.

So this pic is not the tank it will end up in?

Just out of interest what ended up happening with the cloudy water, and also how accurate was the swing arm?

Hi Oliver looking good. You have obviously done this "on the cheap" with home made skimmer etc and are to be congratulated on doing such a good job plus doing all the needed research. As there is at this stage quite a bit of diatom/algae type growth, IMO anyway you should not add any more fish at this stage. How is the skimmer going? Taking out a good amount of skimmate? The other thing that is important is using DI water for top off. Using tap water, even if filtered, is usually a loosing battle it is virtually impossible to keep the tank clean long term. A DI, or preferably RODI type filter should be regarded as the second most important piece of equipment after the skimmer. Anyhow keep those pics coming it will be great to watch your corals developing!

Looking at that bottom pic, looks like it might be a relation of gurnard.

Big move tommorrow? Very exciting! You'll have to get a few pics of your corals and post them, plus your aquascaping etc. You'll have to try to get a sneaky one of Layton and post it too! There's a few of us want to know what the guy actually looks like :lol: Just kidding about that last bit better not do that :lol: :lol: But it would be great to see some pics of your set up.

What Drifty said (again LOL) However as to the paint stirrer, it wouldn’t hurt for a few minutes although not so good longer term. If it's a metal shaft they are usually made of some kind of aluminium alloy which can have elements in that are not good for the reef. Might sound nit picky, but better safe than sorry.

It will work, just don't use a metal one, use plastic or nylon or similar.