wasp

It is kinda long, isn't it! I think it's worth it though lighting is quite a few dollars & it's worth having a good background info before making the decisions .

There has been some discussion on this recently due to the new lighting types coming on the scene, here is an article that has cleared up a few things for me that I was not sure about, so thought I'd share it for benefit of others also. http://www.masla.com/reef/uvlighting.html

Why do people say a fuge adds bioload?? This would depend entirely on how it was set up & for what purpose. If it was purely set up for nutrient export, forgetting critter farming etc, it would just be a bare tank, with just enough rock to give the macro algae a grip, and a heap of macro algae strongly lit. The macro algae would then be harvested as needed to remove any surplus nutrients from the tank, I do not see how this would "add bioload". It could also be run reverse photoperiod to raise pH at night. The only way I see a fuge "adding bioload" would be if it was designed that way, in order to farm critters. However that would be a choice someone would make when setting it up, for whatever purpose they intended it for.

Yes! Got a luminarc!! It's at one end of the tank, that used to be the dull end, now the other end is the dull end, so now I'm just waiting to win lotto so I can get a luminarc for the other end of the tank :lol: So, back to the subject, refugiums. Smallreefer, they were popular, mostly overseas, a few years ago, when skimmers were not so good, to help with the filtration. The basic idea was that to stop algae growing in the main tank, the refugium would be stocked with macro algae, and this would be very brightly lit to encourage maximum growth, so that the macro algae would be able to outcompete, for nutrients, any algae trying to grow in the less brightly lit main tank. This was often very effective, people experiencing good success at reducing / eliminating algae from their main tank. The main nutrients targeted for removal were phosphate and nitrate, although the macro algae would in fact utilize a whole host of undesireable nutrients and even heavy metals from the tank. Many Reef Central Tanks of the Month have refugiums even nowadays, both for nutrient removal, and the other benefits they provide. Some of the bigger tanks they are harvesting a pound or more macro algae a day from the refugium, an excellent way to remove surplus nutrients from the water. On the not so positive side, having a large quantity of macro algae will produce a slight discoloration in the water so carbon should be used to remove this. Some macro algae also produce toxins although the effect of this has been overblown, in fact most of the organisms we keep produce toxins. The other drawback is that nowadays we want extremely low nutrient water to grow sps corals, rather than the softies that were the mainstay of a few years ago. Macro algae, put into a polluted tank, will use a large amount of nutrients. However, once the nutrients get down to a certain level, the macro algae will stop growing. Unfortunately this level is slightly higher than what is ideal for sps corals, although sps corals will certainly grow. Softies etc will do fine. In my humble opinion, refugiums can be an excellent addition to the aquarium, if you have the space and the money. However there are many other ways to reduce nutrients, some of which will do a better job. Here is a useful article http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_v ... fldAuto=33

Do you dose amino acids? an overdose of that can cause something like you describe. Although stirring up the detritus may have contributed also. Something like Rowaphos will help but does cost. Vodka and vinegar will both help here is some info on them:- Vodka http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... ight=vodka Vinegar http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/bree ... asser.html The vinegar article is excellent but does not fully touch on the benefit of it to bacterial filtration, but there is a benefit.

And eat Moorish Idols?

Yes Co2 especially at this time of year. I'm thinking of piping in some outside air to my skimmer my wife keeps going around closing all the windows. Spouses just don't understand why they should freeze on cold days so the tank can dissipate enough Co2! :lol:

Love the pic of the nemos in the crispa! Two happy little chappies!

Looks pretty cool even with the cyano. Nice to see each and every coral looking so healthy! Love the yellow sarcophyton, let it grow some more it will be a stunner!

Puttputt since you are dosing kalk, one thing to consider, if you are not doing it already, would be to add some vinegar to the kalk. This adds a carbon source for bacteria and has a somewhat similar effect to vodka. I have used this several times on some rather dirty poorly skimmed tanks, overgrown with algae etc. The effect was not immediate but after a few weeks the tanks began to clean up eventually becoming completely algae & dino free, and crisp & clean looking. Has worked every time I've done it.

Raeh1, A good plan would be to drip some kalkawasser at night. Do this instead of adding the buffer, however as kalkawasser will add alkaliniuty & calcium in balanced proportion, you should get these levels right first. My corals have not been doing so well recently, but it never occured to me it might be pH. Then I bought a pH probe, and found that at night pH was dropping to 7.7, and even during the day was staying below 8.0! This was partly because I use Zeovit and have quite low alkalinity. So a couple of weeks ago I've started dripping a small amount of Kalkawasser with vinegar each night, now pH never goes below 8.0. Even the first day after starting there was a noticeable improvement in my hard corals, and now they are looking much better. BTW we are not supposed to drip Kalkawasser when using zeovit, so I am mixing with vinegar, and just dosing a very small amount, the minimum needed to maintain pH above 8.0. The main source of alkalinity and calcium is still from the calcium reactor, which now only runs during the day.

Me three, or at least I got mine from Reef. The bigger one fell off and dissapeared behind some rock, but I have a little one about the size of a grain of wheat, didn't know if it would make it but it's about doubled and anchored firmly to the rock, so I think I can count myself in the red cap club too!

The brown colour is caused by the symbiotic zooxanthellae that live in the coral. They perform an important function for the coral, doing photosynthesis which produces nourishment for the coral. However they are brown in colour and if there get too many of them the whole coral goes brown. In a tank this can be caused by incorrect light, or too much nutrients. What happens is that in the wild, the corals live in pretty pristine water, and they control the amount of zooxanthellae they contain, to produce the right amount of photosynthesis they need. But in a tank, the water may contain a lot more waste, nutrients, fish poo, etc, all of which acts like fertilizer to the zooxanthellae, so that the coral can lose control of them and they multiply into much greater numbers than desireable, turning the coral brown. So to solve the problem, the water needs to be kept VERY clean. Depending on fish load, just a skimmer alone will not always be enough to achieve this. Many reefers use something else in addition to remove phosphates and other nutrients, these include Rowaphos, Prodibio, Zeovit, UV, vodka, vinegar in the kalk, and others. Lighting can also be a factor, if lighting is not sufficient, the coral is forced to host more zooxanthellae to do the job of photosynthesis. In this case, increasing lighting can help, the coral will not need so many zooxanthellae. It is also thought that corals will produce various colours in response to bright light, as a sheild, a bit like we make a suntan. Your 250 halides are likely enough light, you may need to look at nutrient export.

Interesting you say what I said is "just crap". Bomber told me the pores in rock can get blocked by dead bacteria. I thought - Bomber said it, it must be true right? Actually, I think it is true.

I didn't even say "because", you misquoted me yet again. And you're splitting hairs again Layton.

Are you saying that this statement is incorrect? Or are you just repeating the obvious, that I already said here?

Good one, that could definately be causing your problems, let's know how it goes . It gets "old" by the pores getting blocked over time by dead bacteria. This may be fixed by cooking it, or chucking it in a rock pool at the beach for a few months, as I have done, comes back sweet. In the throw away USA, the normal practise is to chuck old rock. Also, as stated by others, Zeovit, or for that matter any system that keeps nutrients low, will help by stopping the rock and sand getting klutzed up in the first place.

It can happen in rocks also, some authors advocate changing 10% to 20% of the rock annually to avoid this, once the tank gets into it's third or 4th year. But hey, that article was scary enough to make me stay with my BB ! Although I guess even a sand bed can be changed if it is suspected of causing something like that!

Good question. If the system is 5 years old and nitrates are over 100, then somewhere there is a problem that will need to be changed. Perhaps if you could post a photo of the tank Smallreefer that might help people identify where the problem could be.

I was wondering if some know it all would say that :lol: . Even though we'd be talking tiny quantities that would be unlikely to register .

A basic marine set up is like this. don't mess with anything less than a 3 foot tank. Smaller can be done but it's hard. 4 foot up is best. The filtration is done by bacteria that live in "liverock". Liverock is rock made from old coral skeleton and is porous. You should have somewhere around a kilogram of liverock to each 8 litres of water in the tank. The liverock is in fact dry and dead when you buy it at the LFS, but becomes "live" when after a few weeks in the tank it gets a bunch of bacteria living in it that eat the waste products from the fish. So one way to set up a tank is to put a thin layer of sand in the bottom. Put in the correct amount of rock, then fill with seawater. The seawater will need to have 10% freshwater added as our water is saltier then the ideal level. Then you need all this water to be moving, both to assist liverock filtration, and because most marine organisms need it to be moving. So you add a few pumps, enough to pump the entire volume of the tank ten times per hour (10 x times flow) This is the minimum, 20x or more is better. Then you need a marine grade light, most of the corals we keep are photosynthetic and need correct light. 1 watt of light per litre of water is a rough guide to the amount of light you need, but this may vary (upwards mostly) depending on what you are keeping. Don't use your old cannisters for biological filtration, leave that to the liverock. Cannisters and such do aerobic filtration only and do not supply the anearobic filtration important in a marine tank. Cannisters can be useful for using carbon, or phosphate removing resin though. The other thing you need is a protein skimmer. A good one is expensive, but the success of your tank will to quite a degree hinge on how good your protein skimming is. A good one will last you for life, get a needlewheel one they are the best. As I said you will hear other contradictory ideas and they will likely also work. I've just suggested one way to get a basic system going. Glad to hear you've done a lot of reading, that's the big thing, there's a lot of learning to do.

Well, quite a surprise to see you give a very good explanation and a plug for Zeovit, Reef :lol: And an even bigger surprise to see Layton admit some folks see him as a crazed anti Zeovit propagandist! :lol: Never crossed my mind Layton. Honest! :lol:

Smallreefer I don't know how long your tank has been running, but the main rock cycle is done in about 6 weeks, that means it takes that long till ammonia and nitrite is being processed, but it can take several more months till nitrate is being processed properly. Plenty of flow will help, and all other advise given on the thread is good. Both sides of the feeding argument are "correct", proper nutrient export will deal with waste, nonetheless, if you did not feed at all, there would be no nitrate at all, so obviously feeding less will help. Many newbies discover they are feeding around double what is really needed.

Pretty likely the rock has remained cycled, just monitor nitrate & when that's stabilised you are ready to go. Start stocking slowly. What to stock first? Doesn't really matter from the cycling point of view as long as you build up slowly. From a fish aggression point of view, put the least aggresive fish in first so they can find their way around and get established. If you put the aggresive ones in first, they get to thinking the tank is theirs, and when you add a less aggressive one they attack it and death can result.

5 or less is ideal, however many tanks run at up to 40. For fish, anything under 100 can work for a short time, provided you can reduce it to below 40 within a few weeks. For many corals, 20 or less is acceptable although some hardy ones will tolerate more. BTW don't confuse nitrate with nitrite, for nitrite, level must be zero.