wasp

True. Might have been a typo.

First though, what kinds of corals? Sticking a softy for example, is different than sticking an sps. But if they are already on a small rock, and it is the rock itself that is falling off, Knead It is fine to stick rock to rock. If it's a very small rock, you can use superglue. And by the way, dumb question? Actually it's a very important question, something we all have to learn. No question is dumb!

Fair point, you may well be correct. But remember, we are not talking about skimmate. Reef mentioned what was coming out of his calcium reactor. Which is why i found it so strange.

I'd go with that also. In fact i'd say there will be an effect, but it will be trivial. Not so sure that the test kit results could be explained away purely on the basis that the kit is skewed to consider other elements in seawater. Would still be interested to see input from RC Chemistry Forum on this.

That's pretty weird! I'd be interested if the explanation was ever discovered. Perhaps the chemistry forum on RC?

25% change each 2 weeks is overkill. Mostly, a 25% change monthly is plenty. Some stuff you need to know about clowns before getting them. If there are 2 females they will fight & badger each other, in a tank your size, usually to the point one will die. All clowns start life as juveniles, with no sex. As they grow a bit they join a group of clowns in an anemone, and eventually become a male. The group will have one female, who is the boss. When she dies, a male will turn into a female to take over as boss, and a juvenile will move up and become a male. If you get 2 clowns, and neither are female, the more dominant one will become a female. Egg laying will then likely take place, however, this is not an issue in terms of pollution of the tank or anything, when the eggs hatch they will become food for whatever is in your tank can eat anything that size. In fact it should be a pleasure that your clowns are breeding, at least they are doing what they would in the wild.

Ain't photoshop a great thing! :lol: Dude, your set up will be a similar size to mine, which is around 200 litres. I'd recommend going to the deltec 600, also a hang on, not a lot more dollars but a bit more grunt. Just a few things I can add, firstly, rock "cooking" is an excellent idea, but can take a heckuva long time. Could be 6 months, or longer. Do it, but only if you are planning to wait that long. In a nutshell, the idea is to let the bacteria in the rock consume all the waste, in particular phosphate, that we don't want in our tank. So we keep the rock in clean as we can water, and the bacteria in the pores of the rock eat the waste, multiply, and through sheer numbers get forced out of the rock and land on the bottom of the tank as what is called detritus. This should be syphoned out regularly. Eventually after some months, less and less detritus is seen, and we know the process is nearing an end, most of the useable nutrients have been metabalised, and the rock is as clean as we will get it. Alternatively, you can cure the dry rock just until it is "cycled" which means bacteria are established that eat ammonia, and nitrite. You test the water and first couple of weeks will see ammonia rise, and then fall as bacteria start converting it to nitrite. Then nitrite will rise and often about 4 weeks later will fall as bacteria are converting it to nitrate. This normally takes 6 weeks or a bit longer. Once this is done and nitrite is down to zero you can start adding a few things to the tank. You will also be waiting for the nitrate eating bacteria to kick in to reduce nitrate, but this usually takes several months but you can start stocking the tank before this as most organisms can tolerate some nitrate. Of course, as the rock is not "cooked" and really clean, the rock will release phosphate into the tank, so some algae etc may be experienced, this is where a good skimmer, and only stocking and therefore feeding very lightly, at first, come in. As to having sand or not, advantages and disadvantages both ways. Not having sand means you are able to syphon all waste and keep the tank cleaner. If you go no sand, and are clumsy, like I am, some protection on the glass is a good idea, just incase of dropping a rock or whatever. The cutting board Layton showed is a good idea, or in one of my old tanks I used some grey perspex which was perfectly fine. My current tank has black nylon cutting board. If you don't "cook" your rocks before starting, I'd recommend going without sand, so it will be easy to syphon waste shedded from the rocks, plus other waste. After say, 6 months, if you are happy with the cleanliness of the tank, and you wanted sand, you could add it then, just simply tip it in, a little each day until you have what you want.

As stated above it's best if you don't use the cannister filter for biological filtration. This is because they process ammonia and nitrite, but not nitrate, so using one can result in more nitrate than is good for a marine tank. They should really just be for fresh water tanks. Instead, you use liverock, which is porous, and will deal with nitrate also. As to skimmers, in some ways this can be regarded as your most important piece of equipment. In amongst all the gunge it skims from your water, are phosphates, heavy metals, and other nasties that are not removed by the normal nitrogen cycle. You should get the best skimmer possible. One of the things I've noticed in recent years, is that people are starting out, and within a few months sometimes have a tank that 10 or 15 years ago would have been regarded as world class, but now reasonably commonplace. IMO a big part of the reason for this is the much better skimmers available now. Not cheap though, but once you have a good one it will last you for life. Plus if you want to sell, the good brands do not lose much value as there is little to wear out on them. And lights, if / when you get a few corals, the type of lighting is important. In a fish only it does not matter, but nobody stays fish only! :lol:, what kind do you have? One more thing, a phenomena exists in reefkeeping, that there are certain rules you should follow to achieve success. But you will also find people breaking every one of them and still being successful! So every time you ask a question you will get several different answers, and often they will all be right, there is more than one way to skin a cat. But when you are learning, following certain basics such as good skimmer, no cannister, liverock filtration, among others will give you the best chance at success. And one thing often overlooked, every reef keeper should have a reverse osmosis deionising water purifier, to process your top off water. These can be bought for somewhere around the $300ish.

Keep us updated Volkster, there are ways and means to handle these problems if you do not have immediate success. I have it in my tank, mostly I never see it. But if ever there is a nutrient spike, it shows up. I've accepted it will always be there, but I just have to focus on correct water quality and tank health, and it is not a problem. But it seems to be able to survive in lower nutrient conditions than normal hair algae, and most other algaes. One advantage, if water quality ever slips, the bryopsis will let me know and force me to take corrective measures. So in that way probably ensures good coral health.

It's a baddy I'm afraid. Those big ones, best plan would be to deal to them now with some boiling water administered with a turkey baster. But also you will not eradicate it completely, you need to keep nutrients right down, plus have something that will eat it. Most fish find it distasteful, but if you only have a small amount they will eat it as it's something different. But if you got quite a bit of it, they won't handle it. A yellow tang will eat it in small doses. Also, if you have a big area of it and give it the hot water treatment, in a day or two it will lose its colour, and at that point fish find it more palatable, it must lose its taste.

:lol: I got some green ones too! Wonder where Gerald is?

Reason I ask what brand is because I use knead it aqua, which is waterproof, and have not had such a problem. But it does make sense it could happen, just wanted to check which brand. The pics you show, is that what is sometimes referred to as green boring algae?

Interesting point Layton, what brand of epoxy are you talking about?

Basically as it grows, you can divide it by cutting bits off, and attach the new bit to a rock & let it grow. They can be very slow growing though. Some sea fans are easy and some are hard, do you know what kind you have? And how long have you had it?

Very interesting Warren. How did you find that out? I remember him, he got a bit picked on cos he is pretty lippy on the net. But he came to my place a few times to buy frags, in person he was a nice young guy and very keen, and I just knew, when he left us, that we would be seeing more of him! Now HE is the moderator, aint life full of twists and turns! :lol: Heck I should start my own site! ( Just kidding ) :lol: .

Well you guys all appear to know something that I don't. Who is it?

I could spare you a small number, if you drop me a pm at the time. Have a look around your area first though, there are quite a few established reefers who might be able to help out.

I'd go some mushrooms, and zooanthids, as they are low light, hardy, and easy care, plus they can be very attractive. Here are some examples from my tank

Jebos are cheap, but not as effective as most other skimmers. My first skimmer was a jebo, which I modified & put an airstone in to get better performance, but eventually I bit the bullet, spent a lot of money, and got a high quality needlewheel skimmer.

What kind of skimmer is it? A good skimmer would be taking a fair bit of gunk out of that tank.

Cleadus1 do you mean undergravel filter? If so, it will not deal with nitrate, as it stays too highly oxygenated. Although in such a small tank I guess you could water change the nitrate away without too much difficulty. It could be a very pretty little tank, what are you planning to keep in it?

I knew it! Soon we going to be over run with them!

Yes Layton I'll say you got this right. I'll add that skimming will help, and keeping the surrounding water as phosphate free as possible, by changing it, or whatever. Can be done in warm or cold water, but warm water will keep the bacteria humming and speed up the process. Something else that is not often realised, rocks can be cured quite adequately in fresh water, it does not have to be salt. This could be useful to save a person needless expense on salt, or gathering NSW. Once the rocks are finished the salinity should be brought up to the desired level over a few days to give the bacteria time to adjust, so we don't kill them.

Whaling is a whole new can of worms. Personally I am not against whaling ( I know I am in a minority ), provided it is done humanely, and sustainably. I am against whaling in its current form though because I don't think current Japanese thinking meets either of those criterion. But back to topic, Eric did wrong, nobody denies that. However it would be hypocritical for somebody to gloat over him getting caught, if they themselves have ever bent the rules regarding prohibited species, dodgy importing, etc. I'll add here that I am not perfect in that regard, but nor am I critisizing Eric.

Whatever. I'm still saddened by it, don't like to see it being drawn out, argued about, & gloated over. I'm with Reef