wasp

Daniel I see you did not get my last pm, sent before your trip to Auckland. What ever happened about the shell you needed?

Been done. Now you prove your theory.

You are surpassing yourself Layton, this time you are arguing, you against the rest, in two different threads, all at the same time! :lol:

Your theory Layton, your job to prove it, not mine. No?

The iron part of your theory is clearly wrong as I showed you last time we went through it. Have to wonder why you just keep on repeating it anyway. Your bacterial theory sounds odd also. Are you saying zeovit creates high nutrients, to encourage bacteria to remove those nutrients? Please explain what, in your mind, would be the point of that?

No you are wrong. You definately inferred it was a common theme. The context was left unclear, the reader would assume it was a common theme with zeovit.

Would have been more honest to say that in the first place. I do remember you complaining about people giving misinformation.

Fishboi I don't think you ever worked on a farm :lol:

Very clever! The colour of the water in the calcium reactor looks like you're running quite a bit of Co2 into it. Are you testing effluent pH?

Layton you are just being silly. How can you call this a "common theme", when you have read every thread on zeovit .com, chosen one out of every few hundred, bundled them together and called it a "common theme"? I could equally go somewhere like Reef Central, read all the threads, choose a bunch of threads about some problem in non zeovit tanks, bundle them together, and call it a "common theme". What University did you say you went to?

Exactly. This is the important point that Layton has missed thus far.

Reef having seen your set up, I can say you have a great refugium. You also utilize it for several purposes so I know you see the value in them.

Just should add, he calls his method the "simple" method. Maybe to him, but he does have 12 years experience. To anyone starting out, remember sand has pluses and minuses. The minus being it can catch and accumulate waste. If going with sand, just make sure you know how to manage it & the waste it can accumulate. If this can be achieved there are some good benefits to having sand.

Good question!

Here's some more from his site - Quote- "Tapio's mini reef is run with the same simple method as was his nano reef. With this method it is possible to keep and grow even colourful sps corals in a small reef aquarium. The colours and the growth rate in our mini and nano have been almost the same as they are in my main aquarium. Water remains chrystal clear, nitrates and phosphates are nearzero, and the maintenance is minimal. There has been a slow growth of various macroalgae species and no harmful microalgae growth. Several zooplankton species multiply in our nano and they are eaten by clown fishes. This is simply the best method to keep succesful mini or nano reef aquarium. Technical equipment: 1) Aquarium Juwel® 120 l glass aquarium 80cm x 35cm x 43cm with a stand. 2) Filter and water flow Juwel® aquarium has integrated inside filter. This filter is filled with filter materials descriped below. Additional water flow is achieved with Maxi-Jet 1000 l/h pump equiped with Hydor FLO rotating water deflector. These pumps and rotating water deflector provide very good changing water flow in the tank. 3) Light Four 18w normal output fluorescent tubes are used. Two of the tubes are blue (Arcadia Marine Blue and Osram 67) and two are daylight (Arcadia Marine White and Hagen PowerGlo) tubes. They are driven by a single 2 x 54 w electric ballast. This gives you adequate light intensity to grow even colourful sps corals. I wouldn't use metal halide lights in mini or nano reefs. With fluorescent tubes you get much even and softer illumination of the tank and less heat problems. Beside the tubes there is a fan directed to water surface to provide adequate gas exchange in the tank and to keep the temperature at about 24-28 centigrades. 4) Reverse osmosis or deionisation unit You need good quality water to make saltwater changes and to compensate evaporation with fresh water. Aqualight AL1 di unit is an excellent choice and a cheap one if you have only mini or nano reef. This can really be all the technical equipment you need. The protein skimmer is totally unnecessary. In the tank we have 5cm of coral sand (0-2mm) in the bottom. It is better if you get some live sand from matured tanks. There is only about 8 kg live rock in the tank. The heart of this system is in the filter. In the lowest chamber there is Seachem denitrate in passive circulation (water can flow passing it). We have used about 0.5l in our filter. Seachem denitrate has high porosity to support both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and it removes nitrates, nitrites and organics from water. You should exchange denitrate if the nitrates start to rise. In the upper chamber there is good quality coarse activated carbon like Eheim Ehvi Aktiv and coarse iron based phosphate remover like Korellen-zucht Biophos 2. They are in active circulation placed in the sparse filter bags so that the water runs freely through them. We used about 1 dl carbon and 1 dl Biophos in our filter. We change them every 1-2 months. We compensate evaporation by pouring about 1l fresh water every day to the aquarium. In the fresh water we mix about 1 tablespoon of CaCl2 or 1 tablespoon of NaHCO3 alternately to keep Calcium and KH in the nano in natural levels. Ca and KH values are controlled every 1-2 weeks and necessary adjustments are then made. We will automate Ca, KH and fresh water additions in near future. Also three drops of Korallen-zucht Aminoacid Concentration and one drop of Lugol's solution is added at the same time. 10% water change is done every week using Tropic Marin Pro Reef or hw Meersalz Professional, the salinity is kept at 35 ppt. The fish are fed daily with a little flake or frozen food".

Well the guy who has this tank has posted some thoughts on sand, and his method in general. Personally not what I would do, but I'm not going to argue with anyone who can get these results. He advocates Deep Sand Beds. I've cut & pasted from his web site below the pic. Quote "Over 12 years of reef keeping, I have kept tanks run with pure Berlin system, Jaubert's plenum plus skimmer, DSB plus skimmer with and without algae refugium, and with ZEOvit system. All systems have maintained healthy corals and good growth in my hands. Some systems have worked better in some points, but also in every system there has been some negative aspects. At the end of July 2005 I cut down many of the overgrown corals and removed some live rock and started to experiment with skimmerless setup. I also sold my calcium and kalkwasser reactors and started to use Balling method. The simpleReef was started. My experiences have been very positive. The setup is now very plain and natural, and it needs only a little maintenance. Corals and fishes look just magnificent. I will never go back to that classical high tech setup I used to have. I recommend this setup to all, to both beginners and to experts".

Ghostface I have a trap that works quite well, I'll also be over your way Friday night if you want me to drop it in.

Thanks

Feelers, a question on nitrate reduction - When the nitrate is created presumably in the biofilm at the rock surface, will the nitrate, or much of it, be consumed by nitrate eating bacteria, slightly inside of the rock, before it even enters the water column? And next question, nitrate that actually does get into the water column, does that have to somehow get to within the rock to be reduced, or is there any other way? Please if you have not yet fully done all this stuff, no worries, but for now, you seem to be "the man" for this type of info.

Oh Wow! Another great tank with a fuge! Ha Ha! :lol:

I used too, the algae faded away and so did all the critters, after I started using the bacterial nutrient reduction system I'm using now. Bacteria, with suitable support such as the zeovit system, are able to scavenge nutrients to lower levels than macro alge require for survival. So eventually I dispensed with the fuge. I do miss it though I enjoyed it nearly as much as the main tank, on the down side it was another thing that upset my wife from time to time. Why I'd be up 3 hours late at night looking at it with a torch. :lol:

This is so beautiful I just had to link it. Also of interest, it has a DSB, and a nice little refugium, and sump, in full view underneath. It is an old thread but is updated at the end. http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2341

This is just so beautiful I had to link it. Also of interest, it has a DSB, and a nice little refugium, and sump, in full view underneath. It is an old thread but is updated at the end. http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2341

They start male then turn female. Once female they will not turn back. So the plan would be to get a very small one, which will be either a juvenile, or a male. Be interested to hear how it goes, luckily occellaris are less aggresive by clownfish standards, so the female should be reasonably accommodating.

Good post Feelers. Looks like some really interesting stuff you're doing at Uni! Wish I'd done something like that!