wasp

How's things now? All settled?

Those critters may be the same ones why you don't sit on certain beaches naked in South America, or Brazilian region anyway. They go right up your xxx. Only consellation once you've got them, if you committ a misdemeanour & they lock you away, you put the word out to the other inmates you infested with these things, no worries about getting sodomised! :lol:

Nice one Skippy, there is something fascinating about a softy tank, especially when they got humungous leathers like yours! What is your lighting? I found a pic from a few years ago of part of my tank when it was a softy tank, here it is. Moved on since then & added sps to the mix, but sometimes regret that, more money, time, worry, etc. I still think some of the absolute best tanks I've seen, from an aesthetic point of view, are softy tanks. I'm happy to say also that I still have every coral from that pic, or at least their descendants .

All those corals will probably work, especially the mushrooms. Some leathers may do better with more light, and also there are different types of brain coral, some of which will be less suited. Before you buy, this site may help http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=597 The percs & the shrimp will coexist fine. The firefish is also suited to a tank like yours, however, if the clowns get territorial, they will bite the firefish every time it goes in their territory, and in a tank that size there may not be much room left for it. Might work, might not. Personally i think you should stay with the tank you have rather than go smaller, but instead upgrade the skimmer. Not that the skimmer was not a good deal, at $30.00 I guess it's better than a kick in the head.

I've had the best xenia growth in "good" water, ie. clean as. They do like enough nutrients in the water though, dosing Reef Solutions is the absolute best thing you can give to xenia. Always had been told they do best in a dirty tank and I've tried that, but not such good growth. Thought I'd cracked the "why do they pulse" riddle a few times, but no, it's still a mystery, to me, anyway.

Help needed!! I'm going to make Laytons Special Recipe, but turns out Steves fine scales is the set he sold! So, anybody else local got scales that can weigh 1 gram? If not i know where I can still do it but will have to call in a favour :-? .

Yes good thought about the NSW, done that, but just thought I'd like a standard test mix also. Laytons formula is correct, will be easy to make, so I'll go with that. Like I said, he can be very helpful. Sometimes! :lol: . I'll update in a few days with some more testing results.

True!

Didn't know you such a sensitive guy Reef! :lol: Yes me and Layton have known each other for several years now, like all relationships it's had it's moments :lol:. And Layton, "Patronising", "Snarky"!! Whoa!!!! Could this be another "moment"? :lol: Truely, I appreciate your help, your formula would be practicle to make, and I am happy to swallow your advice!

Not at all Layton I will happily swallow your advice! I'll let the other thread run a couple of days and then see what is the easiest method for me. Being by nature lazy, I will do whatever ends up being easiest. Hey I do appreciate the help, I'll keep you posted how it goes.

Thanks both, yes I had considered baking it. And Layton, what a guy! So good I can talk to someone who knows what he is talking about! AND do a two second calc!!

Nice to see a positive post from you Layton. Good research. You can be a very helpful guy! Sometimes! :lol: And Jetski, thanks. I may take you up on it, depending. I suspect my potassium chloride may have absorbed a little water, which would affect measuring it by weight. There is a thread here http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=955885 will see what comes of it, may be able to measure it by volume, which could be a safer option. So, if no joy on measuring by volume, I'll take you up on the weighing thing Jetski. Oh, and just out of interest, for what lawful purpose do you own such a device?

He He! Snigger!!

Thanks Bychineva, good link. Looks like I’m not the only one finds this test hard to read. When I have a few more minutes I am going to post on the RC chemistry forum & find out how to make a potassium standard calibrating mix, with the potassium chloride I have, so that I can know exactly how to read the kit.

Looking great! just wish I could get time to go there!

Thanks Craig, those pods are HUGE!! And that green acro you gave me - AWESOME!! You da man!!

Another person who does not go to bed at night! :lol: The Hanna looks good an electronic read rather than an eyeometer would be a definate advantage with this test. Only trouble from a marine aquarist point of view it only reads from 0 - 50 mg/l, not the 380 or so we are interested in. But the idea is there, pity they don't do a higher range meter. Been doing some experimenting with the kit, instead of the 1 ml of tank water I used 1/2 ml, + 1/2 ml DI, and the result has tested at below the 200, as low as the test can go. Did this because all the other tests were fairly similar i just wanted to be sure it will give different numbers. Reef I heard by the grapevine you may have some kits coming. If that's correct it will be interesting to see how they go.

Interesting Fishboi sounds like a real menagerie how big is your tank? Petplanet that was a great article, thanks for posting. I have heard of that mini ice age but have never seen a decent examination of it, a fascinating read! Hard to imagine the Eskimos defeating the Vikings! :lol:

korallen-zucht, swapped it.

I heard $3.00 by end of 2008. What do you think?

You have to be up 2.30 in the morning to feed them! :lol: That's dedication! What kind of fish are they?

Hope it's not saying anything about the projected price of petrol by 2009!

Finally got the potassium test kit, & done some tests. The kit is a colour change one so it's a bit tricky to interpret it relies on the eyeometer :lol: There is a colour strip starts dark at one end and slowly fades towards the other end. After mixing the reagents you wait 4 minutes, and the mix turns a watery milky type colour. You then put it on the colour strip at the dark end, and slowly slide towards the other end, until you can no longer see the colour strip through the mix. Stop at that point, & it gives you your potassium reading. I found the exact interpretation quite hard as I'm staring through this stuff trying to see the colour strip & it's a bit tricky getting the exact pint where it fades out totally. It was somewhere from 300 down to 250 for me, but another reefer who was with me could see it at 250. So I tested NSW knowing that is around 380, and got a reading of 300. However what I realised was that was at my desk by the window in quite bright light, I tried it in a less brightly lit part of the room & got between 400 to 350, which would be the correct reading. In any case my tank water is the same as NSW. So I would say due to it being hard to interpret, the kit is really a guide only, although using NSW as a standard does help say if the water is where it should be. I was told by someone associated with the marketer of the kit, that they could have done a more accurate, easy to interpret one, but it would have been more expensive than they felt people would pay. With a little practise i think I can probably get to where I can get a worthwhile result with this kit.

So........ How did it go?

You ever sleep? :lol: That 1 or 2 degree rise is deceptive. Most of us could raise the temperature of our tank 2 degrees with almost no effect. What happens in the wild is that there are temperature swings. So over the centuries, reefs have established where the minimum and maximum temperatures all fall within the tolerance of the organisms living there. But, if you raise average temperature a degree or 2, then those maximums are going to go over the limit for some species, specially if, as happened recently on the barrier reef, there is a heat wave which is sustained for several months.