wasp

Hmmm.. Hate to tell you but somebody's been down this road already. But good luck, maybe there will be some more information out there. Would be great if you could do this.

I think you are exactly right, hit the nail on the head.

True story as told by an old workmate - Not for the squeemish though. He didn't like cats so one day i asked him why. This guys Dad had died young and he told me the only memory he had of him was one day they were outside doing a new lawn. Then they spotted the neighbours cat digging part of it. His Dad yelled at the cat and also picked up the nearest thing which was an axe, and threw it at the cat. There was no intention to kill the cat, but it was an amazing fluke shot. According to my work buddy, it cut the cat completely in half, not even joined together any more. Then his Dad starts freaking out & the cat was buried, and he was told NOT to tel his Mum, or anyone else. That is the only memory he had of his Dad, and he also had a dislike of cats!

I've heard that argument used a lot, often by some crim trying to justify his behaviour - "I HAD to beat that old guy and steal his money cos I got a family to feed". But in the great depression in the 1930's, there was a WAY lower per capita crime rate than what we have now. There was massive unemployment and no social welfare for most. But they were staunch back then, they could handle themselves, and consideration for others was considered a virtue. When I was a young guy in Gisborne, living at what could be described as the lower end of the socio economic scale, I never committed any crimes but it used to make me sick listening to people who were getting more than me, dribble on about how they HAD to rob, burg, and whatever else, cos they had no money. I just used to think, "yeah right". We have a social welfare system that, not always, but most of the time, provides people with enough money. But when we see poverty, it is usually mental poverty. IE the parents / caregivers have a tobacco, alchohol, drug, gambling or whatever issue, or just no clue about budgeting. Therefore, somebody else goes hungry.

Just bear in mind that using these kind of filters for biological filtration is not nessecary for a marine tank. Can be useful for media such as carbon though. Few of the established tanks on this forum use this type of filtration, other than importers and pet shop owners, where they can have a place. These type of filters is one of the ways beginners spend money that does not need to be spent.

This, of course, is the best idea in the thread so far. A bit of compulsary sterilization would not go amiss either.

The spoon should be level, not heaped. 1500 is not unheard of, especially if salinity is a little high. Or, if you are dosing more Mg than is used, it will build up. I'd get a sample of water checked by some other reefer or an LFS just to be sure, but your kit is likely telling the truth.

There is a bit of cyano but other than that it's an attractive tank! As far as nutrients go, one thing tht stands out, best I can see the pic anyway, there seems to be a lot of rocks on top of each other with not much flow to blow the dirt out that collects between them. I could be wrong but that's how it looks. The test is to get a powerhead or similar that you can hold in your hand, plug it in and blow out between all the rocks. It will be normal for some crud to come out but if heaps comes out this could be something that could be contaminating the tank and doing something to fix it will help.

Nice to hear the corals are doing well, acros colouring up is a great sign. Lots of skimmers can be a bit noisy, stopping any contact with glass can help. Was the neoprene foam or solid? If solid may not be much help. Several thicknesses of the old style foam mouse pads can do the trick. Cyano is hard to get rid of, and as others have said it can be cyclical. But sometimes cyano and frozen food goes hand in hand. Many years ago I had a sun coral & fed it shredded shellfish. I also had a cyano problem. Then I read that as a % of dry matter, mysis and other frozen foods can have up to 10 x's as much phosphate as some flake and pellet food. Still haven't verified the accuracy of that but anyway I converted my sun coral to eating the same pellet fish food that the fish ate, and surprisingly the sun coral thrived on it, grew, and made new buds. The cyano dissappeared also. No way to know if that was coincidence, but anyway if there is a cyano problem, feeding frozen will tend to keep the cyano going.

Yes good point and it's probably even harder from Whakatane. The way I would look at this, to someone starting up in a smaller centre with only maybe one not so well stocked shop, would be that starting the hobby means that eventually several thousand dollars will be spent. Therefore, it could be worth contacting a few reefers in some larger but nearest city, and arrange a "tank crawl", to see what they are using & how it works. A day or two spent on that will clarify things, help sort out what is needed, and likely save money long term. A shop fully stocked with a full range of different brands of skimmers etc would be great, but it is not the economic reality, even in Auckland.

Probably, it's just an issue that to put a range of skimmers and other equipment on the shelf would cost quite a few thousand dollars, and if there is only one new hobbyist starting in the area each few months then the turnover will not justify the expense. But any marine lfs ought to be happy to order stuff in for you, ( I would hope anyway), if you know what you want. On another issue, personally I think the standard of reefkeeping in NZ compares favourably with the rest of the world. Of course we see photos of awesome overseas tanks, but these are the cream of the crop. If you look at the average tank on RC, it will not be any better than the average NZ tank, there are some lovely NZ tanks, and some great people doing it. We all know about Reefs tank but I also enjoyed looking at the recent pics of Puttputts tank, well conceived, natural, and a joy to look at. I can't name all the other people with nice tanks there's too many but luckily I don't feel I have to compare against these people or be the best or anything. To me, this is after all a hobby, my tank will never be the greatest but it gives me pleasure and I enjoy it. There are other more important things in my life I don't stake my life on how good my tank is. ( Luckily at the moment! :lol: ) But one thing I will say to a new person, above all else, get a good skimmer. Not to say the other stuff is not important because it all is but a good skimmer will last you for life and will be the biggest part of keeping things clean and healthy.

Very cool fish! What about the article, got a link?

Ha Ha that rings a bell, pretty much what I did. :lol: Hey Broms don't give up because you're put off by some of the advice given! Most people on the forum call it how they see it, and isn't that what we want? Lot's of people start off with cheapo stuff and I was certainly one of them. At the time the expensive stuff was not an option for me, so as you said, at least I was in the game. But Warren summed it up quite well, for me anyway, starting with cheap stuff did in the end cost me a LOT more than if I'd done it right, once. That's what people are getting at, they are just trying to save you the learning curve.

No I didn't miss the tone of the thread. Jokes at other peoples expense is always a laugh for some. Even I can see the humour. But I'm looking at it from the other guys shoes. To illustrate, I know a guy who was recently in Australia and was called a NZ sheep sh*gg*r. The group that said it thought it was funny but he was so enraged he got up and knocked 2 of them over before the others ran away. It's funny to make these kind of jokes, but not always so funny to be on the recieving end. Plus it is a little rich to see people mocking another country's stupidity, when I know many of these people wouldn't even know basic stuff like who is our deputy prime minister. I'm just saying use the brain muscle, BEFORE using the mouth muscle. Anyhow David, the first post of the thread was quite good, but that map you posted was the best, pretty much sums up the world situation :lol: .

Yes it made sense, maybe you been asking people some simple general knowledge like, who is our deputy prime minister? Sadly there is a heap of kiwis who wouldn't know that, or jack else. But they'll be the same ones talking about stupid Americans. :lol: Basically, IMO we are all about as good as each other.

Personally i'm a little surprised at the tone of this thread, American people are probably no better, or worse, than the rest of us. Also, in NZ we are pretty laid back, and don't feel threatened by anyone else. The latest fashion is to bash the curent US administration as being militaristic. But there are some REALLY nasty governments and organisations out there run by fanatics, who would like to do us harm. America has traditionally stood between us and them and i don't think the average kiwi appreciates this.

Still no idea what the cause of the final crash was?

I don't think you have been in Auckland long LOL! There will probably be more surprises in store for you, wait till you go to the dentist!

Always like a happy ending!

edit, double post

So, how was the meeting?

Yes environment can have a big effect. My two clowns are much smaller than wild ones would be, yet for several years they have lived in an anemone and appear happy as, breed regularly and behave as in nature. Although they are in a small tank, it is bigger than they need as clowns have a small territory, neither of them have ever been down the other end of the tank, I transfered them and the anemone in at the same time they just stayed with the anemone, never even seen the other end of the tank. My yellow tang, not sure just how old but several years, is considerably smaller than a full grown wild one. But he appears happy, spends his day weaving his way around the tank picking at stuff. Never paces the glass like some fish do when they are feeling cramped, is interested in life and looks healthy. Maybe it's excersize, water quality, or what, I don't know.

Another one! To be honest I have seen so many top people end up getting banned by RC, and sometimes I can't find any reason for it at all. Just wonder what goes on ay the site sometimes! Do you know why he was banned Zaita?

Wow, what a fascinating link!

Does it have to be Napier? In Auckland you can get some for around the price you want but not sure about Napier, somebody else might know.