wasp

Agree with last 3 posts, even Laytons I think you miss my point Layton I'm not saying you cannot rely on a calculator. Of course I realise that a calculator can tell you exactly what to put in, to get from the current level, to the desired level. My point though, is that over a period of time, usage can change, or even as you have said, become unbalanced. Therefore, if using a calcium reactor, adjustments may periodically have to be made, or maybe not. Same with dosing 2 part and using a calculator, if usage changes, then new calculations have to be done and dose rate changed. So both methods work, and both probably need adjusting from time to time. That is why the argument that one method is better than the other is really just a silly argument, it just comes down to what suits the particular person best. Me, I'm a busy guy, I put a premium on getting everything done the fastest, easiest way. For me, that's a calcium reactor, cos I can set & forget, for many months, bar weekly water testing to keep an eye on things. For someone else, it may be dosing 2 part. Been there done that too, I have no particular issues with 2 part other than it was more hassling around mixing etc.

If you go with 150 MH, I'm selling some http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/150-wa ... 14496.html

Yes I'll put one in & see what happens. Just thought it may add some interest to the tank, I'll update in a couple of months.

I agree with Layton, he got it right! :lol: Can certainly appear sometimes though that output is unbalanced, but the explanation is usually what Layton said. Which is another reason why I don't rely 100% on calculators, as Layton said there are other factors that can swing usage out of balance.

Tang - What Suphew and everyone else said. Also, the bioballs do not actually "create" nitrate, it's just that they don't get rid of it, which of course allows it to slowly build up in the tank. This is because the surface of a bioball is well saturated with oxygen, but the bacteria that reduce nitrate need a very low oxygen environement to do the job, they cannot do it in a high oxygen environement. So liverock, which is porous, will have on the surface of it the high oxygen needing bacteria, which will reduce ammonia, and nitrite. Then a layer inside the rock, where oxygen has been depleted, are nitrate eating bacteria. The nitrate is produced at the edge of the liverock, in close proximity to the bacteria that eat it, just inside the liverock, so a lot of it can be consumed immediately. However with bioballs, all nitrate is released into the water. It is then harder for this to be trapped and processed by the bacteria within any rock that is present. So if a tank has a high nitrate problem, simply removing the bioballs, and making no other changes, will usually have a beneficial effect. This is also the problem with cannisters in a marine tank, the media in the cannister is small and exposed to constant flow, making it a highly oxygenated environment, in which nitrate will not be consumed. Therefore, better no cannister. A cannister may be used for carbon and such, but not for biological filtration, in a marine tank. Now if cannisters, and wet/dry filters, are so evil, why are they used in fresh tanks? Because the fresh tank does not have corals, which are adversely affected by high nitrate, plus many fresh tanks have a lot of plants, which actually benefit from nitrate.

Good link Bubbles

BTW, if you are going salt, don't bother with the cannister for bio filtration, all you do in a salt tank is put what is called "liverock" in it. This houses the bacteria to do the filtration, does a better job than a cannister, and for your size tank will cost considerably less. Actually this brings up something that crops up over and over with people who are changing from fresh to salt. They are so often reluctant to spend anything on a skimmer, which is important for salt, but will happily fork out several hundred for a cannister, which is not needed, and in fact may do more harm than good. Don't take that personally I know you're just asking . I've just noticed that I see this same thing over and over.

Yes you could make that, and it would work, may keep a 20 gallon clean depending on bioload. For your $50.00 you would need an air pump and air stone, the rest you may be able to fashion out of something else. Why do fresh water tanks not have them? Cos fresh water will not foam properly, as salt does. So it's one advantage us salties have, we can have protein skimmers.

Can't find the instructions for my Aqua Medic, but just read the instructions that came with my Deltec reactor, it says Quote :- "the dKH of the water coming out of the calcium reactor should be measured with a suitable test kit. A measurement of 35 to 40 dKH should be measured which will equate to a calcium level of approximately 600 mg/lt." End Quote. That is all I have ever done with both reactors & works fine, however I guess Suphew is right his way would make certain all parameters are in line.

Both have an effect, but kh tells you what you actually want to know, ie, is it actually working.

Probably not the whole answer, but it doesn't appear to be getting much flow. ( Just going by the way the pics look ). Also do you feed it? Often they don't get fed at all, but a feed can do wonders for an ailing one. If it has not been fed, start small so he won't barf it up again. Do this when it's expanded obviously.

Just wondered if anybody knows if a rock oyster can survive in our tank. Before saying no cos they're temperate, I'm not talking about native ones, but the introduced so called "pacific" ones, which has more or less taken over from the native ones in many areas.

Having set an aqua medic up recently here is what I would recommend. Plumb it all up with the bubble counter where you can see it while adjusting the Co2. Then, with the Co2 off, get the water going through it at around 2 drips per second. Once it has maintained a steady drip rate for 15 minutes or so, turn on the Co2 and set at around 1 bubble every 2 seconds. 12 or more hours later test the effluent kh. To do this collect the drips coming from the reactor & test it. ideal is a kh somewhere around 40. As our test kits don't go this high, you can dilute the effluent with DI water. If you diluted it to 1/4 effluent, 3/4 DI, and got a kh of say, 10, you would multiply this by 4 to make up for the dilution, giving you a kh of 40. If the kh is a lot lower than 40, increase the Co2 slightly, and retest in another 12 hours. Once you have the reactor running about right, you then periodically test the tank for ca and alk. If the tank is losing these, you may have to increase the throughput of both water and Co2 to the reactor, and if the tank tests too high, you may have to decrease. Expect to spend maybe a few weeks fiddling till you have it right where you want it, and then do a weekly test of the tank, and adjust if needed.

Oh, should add, these are different to several types of coral eating flatworms, fortunately these nasties are still fairly rare, but becoming more common as stuff gets shared around.

They are photosynthetic so during the day they go anywhere there is good light, they also tend to hang out in groups. Because of the small size they can pass unnoticed, a while back I didn't realise I had them till I took a closer look at a few little specks, then Yikes! thousands of them. If they reach plague proportions they start to make the tank look dirty, plus they sit all over the corals and shade them. Other than shading they do not do any harm to corals, they derive their sustenance purely from nutrients in the water, plus photosynthesis. With the advances in the hobby nowadays towards lower nutrient tanks, these flatworms are less of a problem than they were years ago, but can still sometimes do surprisingly well even in low nutrient tanks.

Colour not quite true, they are more brown than that. They are tiny, smaller than an uncooked grain of rice. Sometimes they sit there without moving, and sometimes they crawl around.

I have observed my six line eating them. But he won't eat many at once. My theory is you nuke them with SFE, and once the numbers are low enough the six line will finish them off. Had flatworms once, never could quite eliminate them. They always seemed to be gone after a SFE treatment, but a few months later they would be back. Then introduced a six line and that was it, no more flatworms. He could not control a big population but I did a FWE treatment then he must have finished off the survivors.

Tell me about it! :lol:

Good to hear! the mussels will be cheaper & less messy than mysis. That's a pretty cool feeder, initially i thought it was some kind of drug inhalation system :lol: . Clever though, good work.

Thanks Reef, well I think I'll get one next time i come across one I've always liked them. Oh I should ask, I do have some nice torch & frogspawn that would be hard to lose, anybody know for sure how that would work? You got a racoon in your main display Reef?

True! To think of all the time and effort I put into eradicating aptaisia, took years. Now i have a copperband could have saved the effort. :-?

Thanks Layton, now all I need to know is will my copperband get on with a racoon? Anybody tried this? I've read that copperbands will not get on with certain other butterflies.

What do you mean by too much Layton? I would like a racoon butterfly if they can be trusted, they are certainly a pretty fish.

Nice!

You got some, so therefore you have to make use of it so it's not wasted right? Jokes aside though, best not to use it.