wasp

Well thanks all for the great advice, I ordered the Nautilus & it arrived today. Got it running on a transformer from Dick Smith, and alls well. Had a play with it & really like it! It has battery backup so you can unplug it & it just keeps going! Nice digital display panel and very simple to program how much you want it to dose. I've hooked it up to the calcium reactor, as the other pump that was on it was a bit feeble and would vary depending on back pressure. I think this pump is going to make the reactor really hum!

OOPS! Shades of Eric Bourneman! HMMMM....... :lol: But It's very rare, but I'll agree with you Layton! (Not about breaking the law or taking corals you not allowed, but about acros). I think acros are overated! Easy enough to keep alive, and to grow, but to really have the colours sparkling, everything has to be just so... It's always a challenge keeping everything right. But having said that, some of those LPS you pictured are not totally easy either. I've got one that you pictured. I was looking for this exact coral for years, with no joy, then one day I dropped into Hollywood Fish Farm, and there it was, beautiful colours and only 60 bucks! Couldn't believe my luck I had to take it before someone else got it! I always been keeping my eye out for some of those others but as has been said, they are rarely seen. Not sure hoe fast they grow either, I've had mine for around 3 years & it's not a whole lot bigger than when I got it. Not sure if that's normal, or my poor husbandry? Anyway, here it is, on the right of the picture. One day I'll get a pic of the whole thing. BTW as a point of interest, those 2 corals can live next to each other touching, and no bad effects or fighting at all.

WOW! Sorry to hear that Sharkey! You're not the only one there's a couple of other guys lost their fish in the last few weeks, also, they think, to MV. Maybe a batch came into the country recently. Good link BTW

On a hot day it might, the office gets so hot I can't even work up here sometimes. UPS could be a goer, I could rig it to my existing fans via the temp controller. Simple! Only thing would be how to tell the air pump to come on when the power goes off? Anyhow i'll see what Warren comes up with. Often the cheap ideas have merit, because they are the ones the poorer classes like myself can actually afford to do!

Cheers Warren! So moderators do have their uses! :lol:

Need advice I'm wanting to set something up that will keep the tank going in the event of a power cut if nobody around. The biggest risk is overheating as in summer the room the tank is in commonly reaches 35 degrees. What I want is some kind of setup, possibly run from a car battery, that will run a fan, plus an air pump. I need something that will detect if the power goes off, and immediately activate an air pump, there would be some air stones in the tank and this would provide enough circulation to keep things ticking over for a few hours. Also it would need to detect tank temperature and turn on a fan if need be. Of course the lights would not be on so just one fan ought to do it. The thing is the whole set up needs to be reasonably budget, I don't have the money to set up a fully automated set up with a generator etc. If I could just have an air pump, plus a fan that is temperature controlled, that will probably keep most problems at bay for a few hours if I wasn't home.

Well now we have enough info to determine that both ASW and NSW will kill everything in your tank! :lol: No, often there is not. (Runs and hides! :lol: ) Bluetom a feature of marine chat sites is there is always a lot of conflicting info, yet often, they are all right, there ARE more than one ways to skin a cat! Don't take this to mean that EVERYTHING you read is correct though, you have to sift the wheat from the chaff. In the end experience is the best teacher, and most of us have made the odd stuff up or two. For you, my suggestion would be to contact 2 or 3 nearby reefers and see if you could go look at their tank. When you are needing basic info to get started, you can learn more in 5 minutes seeing how a real tank works, and be able to formulate your own method.

Ah Huh! So now cost is NOT the overriding factor? :lol: Actually I don't know what NSW costs these days, back when I used it I just found it a needless cost. Although I will admit I still have a bag of IO in the cupboard, just in case! Mainly I use NSW because I drive right past my collection point every day, so when water conditions are excellent it is easy for me to swoop. Other than the cost saving, for me, it is just easier. When I used to mix ASW I followed the textbook procedure, started with a drum of RODI, added the measured amount of salt, put a heater in it, left a powerhead running in it, re-checked the salinity after 24 hours and adjusted as needed, kept heater and aeration going until it was used. Just found the whole thing a hassle & killed some of the joy of keeping a tank. No doubt if I'd kept going with ASW I would have evolved the most time efficient way to do it, but anyway what I do now is almost no time at all, and I look forward to my little visit to the boat ramp every few months to stock up, do it on nice days, it's enjoyable.

:lol: A fair assesment.

Very good point, cost was certainly rather burdensome when I was using ASW. As I'd heard all these horror stories about the evils of real seawater I used ASW only when I was a beginner. But cost was a problem and then I discovered someone who actually used NSW and his tank looked OK to me so I decided to risk all and try it myself! Surprise surprise, after several months on real seawater I just could not see any difference at all. However to be fair, I would caution newbies that it is not impossible for NSW to harbour parasites, bacteria, and unwanted pollutants. Some wisdom should be used in collecting it. There was also a case about 8 years ago of a laboratory in Wellington that used NSW to maintain their marine livestock. There was a toxic algae bloom where they did their collection and they lost a lot of their livestock.

Pays to work in a shop! :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: Thedoood, i'd suggest looking up all his posts, via the find all posts button. You will discover the true talent of the guy :lol: .

Not sure if you can do that, perhaps Reef would know? What i've done is dilute the sample with RODI, for an expected kH of 35, say, 4 to 1, or similar, so the sample will be within the test kit range, then multiply the result accordingly to get what the pure result would be. Actually to be more accurate my set up puts out a higher kH than that so I dilute more than that.

Did you notice anything about Gregs avatar? Suspect it may be permanent.

I just get it in 20 litre plastic bins, and store it in the garage. Don't bother with aeration or anything. In winter I'll put a heater in it overnight before putting in the tank, that's all. Couple of things to be aware of re water chemistry, our water in NZ has a higher salinity than the water where our livestock comes from. Our NSW needs to be diluted with 10% fresh water to bring it where it needs to be. Also, calcium tends to be lower than ideal, magnesium can be low, and alkalinity is somewhere around 7 kh, so what I do is do my weekly water testing after doing the water change. If anything needs adjusting I'll do it then. In the tank, not in the NSW prior to adding. Some people have found ammonia in NSW, although I never have. However if it contained ammonia at lowish levels it could still safely be added to the tank as the filtration system would deal with that. If levels where very high it could simply be left in storage till the ammonia is gone.

You can get a UV from several different sources, but to do it right in a marine tank you have to get a 40 watt one or higher, and one designed for marine not fresh, which will set you back at least 400 bucks. I've been using water from Takapuna boat ramp for quite a few years & I don't use a UV. As far as I know I have had no problems from it, but Reef and others are correct, it could cause problems but the tank owner does not realise, or attributes it to something else. The main thing is you don't just collect the water anytime it suits, it should be collected when the sea has been flat for a few days (offshore wind), and shortly before high tide. Bottom line the water should be very clear or don't bother. I get enough at one time to last several months, which means I can pick only the best possible times to get it.

Kinda. The coral rock takes a while to "cure", ie, establish a population of bacteria that eat all the waste products. Before it is cured, the water is probably too toxic to put any livestock in the tank. That particular tank went maybe a year with no skimmer. In fact I had never owned a skimmer at that point, but after reading about them I decided to DIY one. It was pretty crude and inefficient, but none the less the difference in the tank was dramatic. From that time on I was a skimmer convert! As to the aquaclear/nitrate question, what happens is that the media in the aquaclear is exposed to a constant flow of aerated water, ideal conditions for the bacteria in the media to convert the ammonia to nitrite, and the nitrite to nitrate. BUT, that's where it ends because the bacteria that eat the nitrate, converting it to nitrogen gas, cannot do it in a highly oxygenated environement, they need a very low oxygen environement such as is found deep within the pores of the coral rock (liverock). So to get rid of the nitrate, you ditch the freshwater type filtration like cannisters and HOB filters, and simply have coral rock in the tank and allow the bacteria in that to process the waste, they will deal with the nitrate also. But if it is a small tank and you really wanted to run a HOB filter, you could always do big water changes & get rid of the nitrate like that. But it is one of the things that is hardest for people moving to saltwater, from freshwater, to get to grips with. In a saltwater tank, cannister and hang on filters usually are bad for the tank. Don't have one, instead use the money for a skimmer. Should add, cannister or hang on filters can be used for the purpose of running carbon, or similar, but as a rule should not be used for biological filtration.

Well that makes sense, he says the 2 channel tubes are good for 6 months, so after 12 months you could expect some problems. I'm OK with that, at least it is what he claims. Has it got roller things as per TMs posts?

Years ago I kept a 600 x 300 x 400, somewhere around 60 litres. lighting was 4 18 watt floros which was fine. For a time it had an HOB filter but this eventuallty caused 2 much nitrate & I had to ditch it. Tried to go skimmerless but it was a losing battle eventually I had to put one on. The tank housed an anemone with 2 percula clowns in it, a cleaner shrimp, damsel & couple of native rock pool blennies. Assorted easy type corals mainly mushrooms and zooanthids, and other bits and bobs. Had the tank for a couple of years, had algae problems for a time, which gradually came right once the skimmer went on, plus dosing vodka.

Yes I want something a little sooner, and I know a 3 month target date can spin out to 6 months etc.... But let us all know once it's on the market I may just get one anyway for something else! Will it run on NZ mains? Drifty, you say you had trouble with the tube. Was that the high volume tube? The vendor claims it is good for 3 years, although the 2 channel tube only good for 6 months. Would like to hear back on that before making the actual purchase.

Wow, thanks for all the help guys! I'm surrounded by experts of every kind! :lol: Drifty you made me realise it's simple. The Americans presumably buy it and plug it straight in, so if I use a Dick Smith adapter to US voltage, that should be all I need, as you say. In fact I already have one of these. How do you find your pump? Will it genuinely turn up to 800 mls per hour? That is what I want. Layton, that pump you are getting made, what time frame, and is it adjustable doseage? If so, how much $$$? And you other guys, thanks for that, greater minds than me all of you! (Not saying much) :lol: However if Drifty is running his on the 110 volt adapter, that must be the way to go, I don't know how the vendor got into this 12 volt stuff, must have been something lost in the translation. Just one thing I want to clarify as I'm trying to be energy efficient, the pump is described as 7 watts. The Dick Smith adapter I have has written on it 210 ma max. Will the whole thing still only draw 7 watts, or will it chug out at whatever the maximum is the adapter will use?

What TM said. Also, 2 juveniles would be good because they will sort out themselves who will be the male & female, and clownfish are social fish who naturally live in a "family", so would be happiest with more than one of them. IMO they are one of the few marine fish who can live in an aquarium behaving exactly as they would in the wild, as they are quite content with the amount of territory they have, and live, act, and relate to each other completely naturally. Assuming they have an anemone.

So you have less calcium coming out, than what's going in?

I would like to buy this pump, the Nautilus ll, but have a question about adaptability to our mains power. http://www.innovativeaquatics.com/ I emailed the vendor & said our power is 240 volts what is required to adapt the pump to run on our power? He replied that all I need to do is get an adapter to reduce power to either 9 or 12 volts DC, which he said "should be fine". Nothing was mentioned about amperage or wattage. I just found this a little vague, and wondered if someone with more knowledge than me in electronics can advise what I'd need to do to get this pump running here.