wasp

I'm not Pies or Steve but do have an eheim 1048, the impellor is not slack on the shaft. The recirculating pump in a calcium reactor can be in an abrasive environment. Exactly what you describe happened in my calcium reactor, although different pump, excessive wear in the impellor shaft and a lot of noise. Things will only get worse you should get a new impellor & shaft. Not expensive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4846504.stm

Bring them on Chevron, for 80 each I'll take 3. Is your real name Greg?

Good purchase! These are the hardiest of the anemones in a tank situation, you should have no problems. Only thing wrong with them they can be prone to wander around until they find the right spot, but if your one is staying put, you have obviously already chosen a good spot for it.

This ones heavy going, not for everyone. But it does contain some useful information, good stuff, so thought I'd link it. http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php ... #post65239

Very nice! I'll also point out to everyone that Helifax has only been in salt water aquaruiums for a few months, so a remarkable effort! Shows the value of solid research before starting.

GST kicks in around $700.00, I THINK. So if you had them mailed seperately you will likely avoid it. A bigger issue may be biosecurity. I nearly purchased a used American skimmer on Ebay, so rang MAF to see if there was any problem bringing in a used skimmer. They told me it was OK but must be declared as used, and would have to be heat treated, by them, for a fee.

May or may not do it. Because you will only have a comparitively small amount of rock, it will depend on the type and size of coral rock you use, bigger is better, plus bioload it has to deal with. However, not a big issue, just try it & see. Can always waterchange or turn off the UGF. By the way, if you are using uncured rock and curing in the tank, it may be several months before it is fully reducing nitrate anyway.

That's a point of debate, good reasons for and against, but my humble opinion is a 100% water change to get rid of any remaining nasties and have a nice clean start.

That kind of filtration will get rid of ammonia and nitrite, but will not perform the anaerobic bacterial action needed to get rid of nitrate. To do that, you need liverock, down in the pores of it conditions exist which enable the processing of nitrate. So in your tank as it is at the moment, you will get a build up of nitrate. However, as it is a very small tank, it may not be an issue as it will be a simple matter to do a big water change periodically, and get rid of the nitrate like that. How deep is your sandbed total? 4 inches? if it is, and you turn off the UGF pump, anearobic conditions will occur at the bottom of the sand that will get rid of the nitrate.

Yeah True! It takes around 6 weeks to cycle rock. Water changes or not. Just ends up lower in phosphate if you keep the water clean by changing it periodically, which gives you a head start on beating future algae problems.

Do you use liverock for filtration also?

If you don't know how to resize, download Irfan View which is an excellent free program, and use that to resize & other editing of photos.

Do another big water change, it will still only take approx 6 weeks to cycle.

Yes have to pay for them Feelers, might just have to settle for the excerpts given in the thread.

Looking good! What's the equipment?

Here's a link to one http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... uct=TL4311 I'm not using mine now as I use zeovit, but it was quite effective at the time.

OK I'm assuming it's in a bag? To be fully effective, phosban must be run in a reactor, where it is kept fluidized. I used to run phosban in a cannister in a bag, but it just was not that effective. Then I changed to using it in a fluidized reactor, and the difference was major, plus the phosban lasted much longer between changes, as it was fully utilized. If you wish, I can lend you a phosban reactor for a couple of months, which would give you the chance to see if it will work for you. By the way, topping up with Auckland tap water is NOT OK. Just that alone will probably ensure you will have never ending hair algae problems. For a small tank like yours, the most economical way would be to get a deionizing unit & run the water through that.

Some good info about SPS colour can be found in the thread linked. It is very informative, and certainly turns some of the old beliefs on their head! Also sheds some light on why we get pastel shades in some of those super low nutrient tanks. http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php ... #post65164 Also tells you everything you wanted to know about the "Physiological Chimera" :lol:

If your phosban was totally effective, you would not have hair algae. How are you running it? in a cannister, or what? The other thing is, the phosban can get "fully loaded", and needs changing if that happens. If your tank has hair algae, and the phosban's been there a while, chances are it is fully saturated with phosphate and needs changing. It may take several changes, a week or so apart, before you get levels down to manageable. Then it will take a few more months for phosphate to leach out of the rocks, this will happen provided you keep the water low in phosphate. Firstly, lets make sure you are using it correctly, and then it's just a matter of changing when required, in a 10 gallon tank beating the hair algae will be sweatless.

Those Trade Me prices are pretty good, my 35 ml one cost me close to $130.00. Wondering if I got ripped off.

Kermit I've read a few overseas tank wipeout threads, some of those guys have been pleasantly surprised how many of their corals have come back, at least in part, dead as they may have looked at the time.

With a name like Poppy I suspect we may have a Dudette!

Ha Ha welcome to the forum!! You're now a fully blooded member, first conflab under your belt! Actually people are a bit forthright here and there's some arguing, but ask away, you'll get answers to your questions, and some of the more "upfront" members will also turn out to be the most helpful. Don't take any crap as I see you don't, and you'll be fine! By the way I see you give your location as "the beach west of Palmerston North", would that be Foxton by any chance? I have relatives there and hung out there a bit many years ago.

Reefman I suspect you have been reading something which talks about "seeding" it. In reality this is not nessecary, bacteria are everywhere. Just put the rock in salt water, as others have said, with some flow and aeration, and trust me, it will become live in 6-8 weeks. Also you will not get liverock laying around somewhere, it has to be imported, you will have to buy some. Shops sell it for $10.00 to $15.00 per kilogram. Other types of rock you may get locally, just will not do the same job.