wasp

Once again we agree my friend. I'm all for the easy life my calcium reactor has given me too. Mixing those messy additives? Worrying about the Mg precipitating? Mathematical calculations? - History!

I think the graph was posted in jest Ira

No wrong. We = x Everyone = y Layton = z concurrence is x - z = y

Long as the crud is not actually sitting on it, should be sweet. Be interesting actually to see what happens it may even be beneficial being in a wash of potential food.

From the guy who found his calcium reactor too hard . You'd wear jandals, right?

Yes. Amazing the length and complexity someone will go to, to split hairs with Craig. Who by the way, isn't playing :lol: . And the best model is a real tank. I have seen Craigs one, he has nothing to prove.

Sorry dude I can't buy that. A person can build a model on anything he chooses. Might be real, might not be real. Yes it is narrow. While it happens in a real tank, it narrows out other factors that come into play. Again, such as?

I know all that, and I concur. I do not even automatically dissagree with everything you say :lol:. I do not have a problem with your use of hypothetical models, provided they are based on reality. Such as? That is very narrow Layton. Should be easy to prove. Does it reflect all the processes happening in a real tank? No. What in fact you are trying to do is eliminate a lot of real world variables that play their part, and just introduce a bunch of variables that you define as x, y, abc, or whatever. Then having narrowed & defined these variables, use logic to arrive at a mathematically precise conclusion. In the past I have been sometimes exasperated at your use of flawed logic. However in this instance, your logic is perfect, simple even. The problem is in the variables it is based on, they are not all there. For the discussion to be of any use to me anyway, it must relate to a real world tank, rather than a simple x amount of dirt, x amount of skimming type thing that fails to consider the hundreds of other processes that happen in a tank, and are affected by water volume. So, some of these other variables that I do not see in your formulae, have been raised by Feelers. Have you considered any of these yet?

Thanks for clearing that up Layton Now that you have explained what you are trying to prove, I see that Feelers has raised some very pertinant points that impact directly on the conclusion you are trying to draw. I also see that thus far you have dodged trying to explain them. Not quite that simple. Past experience will indicate I would put my viewpoint, you will counter, and this will continue ad infinitum and become circuitous. Not sure I want to commit the needed time when I already know, regardless of x*y=1, that both refugiums, and more water volume, are beneficial. That is the engineer talking In fact, in the real world, there are shades of grey. Although you have not yet completed your argument, it would appear, at this stage anyway, that your whole premise is based on the export of the hypothetical skimmer with the pretend 100% efficiency, which of course does not occur in the real world. Moving away from neat hypothesis, and formulae such as x*y=1, many other factors play their part. To show one example, there are tanks that run for years with no skimmer at all. Also consider this. We have a hypothetical tank, running at a maxed out bioload, right on the brink of the capacity of the skimmer to export enough to keep stuff healthy. We transfer the whole thing into a tank 4 times the size. Even without any skimmer upgrade there will be an improvement in health, as there are other things than skimmer export. Now, we take the origional hypothetical maxed out tank, and transfer the whole thing into a tank 1/4 the size. It's a squeeze, but we do it. Even with the same skimmer, livestock will suffer and maybe die. Like they say on TV Layton, Big IS Good!! :lol:

If Fays tank is not suitable, I think that would be a great idea Fishboi!

And that's meant to be easier than a calcium reactor? :lol:

No, my silence indicated I have other things than this to do sometimes :lol: I have read your posts Layton & there are a few potential holes in your argument, although that will become clearer once you move things along to wherever you want to go. However please define exactly what it is you are trying to prove? I must have lost that somewhere. Once I know that I'll be able to detirmine the value of this discussion to me, and if I need bother with any of it.

Pretty normal levels in a newish tank, wouldn't sweat it at this stage. nitrate 5 or lower is considered ideal, but 20 is commonly regarded as a fairly good level. Your phosphate level, to me anyway, would be more of a concern, although the pics you recently showed of your tank did not show any signs of excess phosphate. I'm fairly sure that if you just continue the good husbandry over the next few months, you will find that these levels will slowly go down. My current tank was set up best I can remember around 6 months ago, and included some new rock that I put in uncured. First couple of months both phosphate & nitrate were alarmingly high although a tad lower each time I tested. My corals suffered badly during this time. Eventually nitrate went to 10, but for several months refused to go lower. Then all of a sudden it dropped to 2 1/2, where it is now, no idea why, other than the tank is still slowly maturing & getting balanced. Good things take time!

Feelers last post made a lot of sense, how do you explain that, Layton?

My number is 479-5446, give me a call & we'll set it up. Cheers, Alastair

The old scientific gobbledegook trick! :lol: I can remember something even funnier by the same guy, when asked to provide references to prove what he said, provided a quote. Upon checking, it turned out the quote was, you guessed it - from the same guy.

Well said. I think the reason it is a "touchy topic", on this board anyway, is down to one particular guy who is detirmined to dominate every zeovit thread, constantly plug his own rather warped, and unproven, viewpoint and theories on the subject, and ALWAYS get the last word. For anyone interested in something a little more balanced, written by the guys who actually manufacture and research the product range, here is a link to the Zeovit manual (pdf format) http://captiveoceans.com/pdfs/ZEOguide1.02.pdf

Well that's what I was surprised about, I'm holding calcium around 440 -450. Alkalinity is low though 7.0 to 7.5, or so. I think alkalinity is a bigger culprit for clogging up pumps, than calcium is. Nonetheless, an impressive display of good pump design. It is all about keeping the impellor shaft cool. The hotter it gets, the more calcification. In fact, it's a little off topic, but what I have done with a few of my other pumps, is drill a small hole through the back, into the impellor chamber. This allows a dribble of water to get sucked through & provide cooling to the impellor, and when I've done this there has been a marked decrease in calcification of the pumps. It can mean a yearly clean rather than a three monthly clean. Still, the aquabee, ( which I have not modified ), running two years 24/7, and no calcification at all, and no wear on the shaft, does vouch for quality design.

Unless there is something in your fuge the bristlestar will attack, it should be fine in there. It is not going to bother pods & the like. If you give him the odd bit of mussel or whitebait he'll do fine. No point giving him too much though my old one had an insatiable appetite I could not fill him, or I guess I could have if I wanted to pollute the tank. He just expanded the top of his head like a balloon to fit more food in.

It's some rubber fittings to dampen pump vibrations, if you have whistling in the venturi I doubt it will fix that. Perhaps some hot water down the tube?

Credit where it's due, Reef came over yesterday and gave me a noise deadening kit for my HOB Deltec skimmer. As I haven't actually cleaned this skimmer in the couple of years that i've had it, I thought i better do the right thing & strip it down, clean the pump, and put the noise kit on. Did all this thismorning, to my surprise there was no calcification in the aquabee pump at all, no wear, other than a bit of slime it looks brand new. Have put it back together & turned it on, ABSOLUTE SILENCE! All that can be heard is a gentle fizzing noise of the bubbles popping. Very Pleased! While Reef was here we got onto the subject of anemone propogation, so just for a laugh, we sliced my anemone in half. Didn't bother it, stayed expanded and today looking fine. In a week or so there will be two healthy anemones, I'll post some pics then. Reef doesn't know it but this was actually a practise run for his Rose Bubbletip . I'm coming with my knife Dude! :lol:

Looks like you're already there to me JDM

I have a fish trap that should do it, currently out on loan but you are welcome to borrow it should you wish, after I get it back on Thursday.

Did you have any luck catching the damsel?