wasp

Not sure about that one, is it a beadlet? However most of our native ones are non photosynthetic, meaning they have to be heavily fed in comparison with the clown hosting anemones. Also the native ones, or at least the ones I used to have, reproduce differently, by a hole opening in their side, and spurting a whole lot of tiny baby ones out. Would be interesting to see if they would survive being cut. You've hit the nail on the head there Pies, it's often about money. Most people will support eco friendly ways, provided it does not hit them in the pocket. With the higher cost of getting corals into NZ, that leaves scope for some to be propagated economically, certainly BTA anemones can be propagated cost efficiently in NZ, but in many foreign countries with lower importation costs the only way captive propagation of corals can be done is on the basis that the customer will have the good will to pay more for it.

Very interesting Feelers. As you have a much better understanding of the science involved, what is your opinion as to the possible success of cutting other hosting anemone species, than BTA's? I've often heard it can't be done, but never heard of it actually being tried. It can be done that way, although perhaps not quite as readily as suggested. BTA's that are heavily fed will sometimes eventually split, but sometimes not. They also split as a stress response, sometimes after some kind of tank disaster that nearly killed them, or being put in a new tank, or being injured, they will split. The theory is that in the wild if there is some disaster, but they survive, they will then split, to ensure survival of the species. So heavy feeding, followed by a big waterchange or some other stress event, can stimulate a split, but it's not guaranteed. It should also be realised that many naturally occuring splits in aquaria, are followed later by the death of one or both halves. A search of RC will find many threads by dissapointed reefers who have lost one or both following a natural split. Why the deaths I don't know although I would suspect the same old problem, infection. However, I think the way I'm doing it now is relatively risk free, the losses I have had were during the learning phase and I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong.

Thanks Cracker, Wow! I'm famous on Reef Central :lol: :lol: Come on fish_NEMO, Who are you? And I got referred to as a Nazi! :lol: :lol: Interestingly I once read that Adolf Hitler would not eat crayfish because he considered boiling them cruel. Now there's some hipocrisy! Good posts by all the Kiwis on the RC thread, good common sense. And I will say that the reason for my interest in captive propagation is I do not believe in the wholesale destruction of wild ecosystems that is happening in some areas currently. Having said that, I've also got to say that the 2 main Auckland importers are getting their stock mostly from areas that are harvested in a reasonably ethical manner, so no issues there, but none the less I'm a strong supporter of captive propagation of as many species as possible, and thanks Fay for supporting on that issue.

The tank you have is a good place to start. 280 litre's nice size for a first tank. The biolife 55 filter is not recomended for the biological filtration of a saltwater tank as this type of filtration does not eliminate nitrate. Instead, in a 280 liter tank you put approximately 28 Kg dead coral rock. Use big chunky type rocks not small rubble or finger type coral. The pores in the rock house bacteria that do all the biological filtration, including nitrate reduction, which cannister filters will generally not do. The coral rock needs to be "cured" prior to use, which means it is put in seawater for 6-8 weeks to get a working population of bacteria, this can be done in the tank, no fish should be put in the tank until this process is complete. The tub of coral sand will be good to put on the bottom, the shells will not, as they will accumulate decaying matter and detract from your water quality. The power filter can be used for circulation, and also to put stuff in such as carbon. It should not be used for biological filtration. Flow, you need a lot in a reef tank, a minimum of 10 x literage, ie for a 280 litre tank you need a minimum of 2,800 litres flow per hour. For example, 2 x 1400 litre per hour powerheads. Light, a kind of rule of thumb is 1 watt of light per litre, although this can be varied quite a bit depending what you are keeping. You may be able to get away with 1/2 that, or double that. The other thing you need is a protein skimmer, although some people do not have one I would not recommend trying without one.

Seems like your saying that the person whose business is under attack should not even have a right of reply? He will have become aware that some people would have figured out which business is being referred to, and as this is his livelihood he will have felt a need to portray his side of the story. To say he "went on the attack" is rather one sided, there has certainly been some nasty attacks from the other side. To be unable to see that would certainly betray a lack of neutrality. As the whole thing is simply about an incident where the store exercised their right not to re-purchase a fish, I just wonder what would happen if some people ever had a REAL problem. It's way overblown, and I'd have to agree, the thread sucks.

I agree with you too. I just think it's not the end of the world & it's time to move on. When HFF would not buy back a fish from me, I simply sold it privately, got on with my life, and still deal there happily. Not now, after all the mudslinging. I just question if it was all nessecary.

No I don't run a UGF Just think this whole thing's way over the top, that's all. As they say, crap happens. I'm not meaning to be personal or anything just from where I am there seems to be 2 sides of the story, and both are valid. Yours Steve, because he could have taken your fish, but also his, because there are reasons not to. It's just the way things went on this occasion, but it's not the end of the world. You say you used to be friends, I think you should not let this come between you and continue to deal there.

It's a mountain made out of a molehill. The guy did not buy back your fish. I think you should get used to it. There can be reasons for this. Some of the personal comments in this thread are way out of proportion to the "crime". And an undergravel filter is a very good option for an LFS. In the constantly drastically changing bioload that an LFS tank has to cope with, a UGF is much more able to adapt and cope, than rock like we would have in our own aquarium, although a combination of both would be a good option.

Very nice Fay a real point of interest in the tank! Was one of the things that got me wanting a tank when I started, I saw a clownfish pair in an anemone at the LFS it looked SO cool I just had to set one up at home!

Ha Ha! The humor on this site is one of the things that keeps me coming back! :lol: Thank you Pies . You are a scholar and a gentleman! If you think that is scary you do not want to see my wife chopping up the pork bones with it! Truly the stuff of nightmares! :lol: :lol: Sadly yes, I've lost a few but only ever one half not both. In each case it was when I was lazy and did not put the new splits into optimum conditions to recover. I am sure that 95% of it is about putting the new splits into pristine water & clean surroundings, provided they do not get infected they will invariably recover. I've only ever done it on BTA's the conventional wisdom is it cannot be done on many other species. However I am hoping to give it a shot on something like an LTA, as these anemones sometimes recover from nasty powerhead injuries and similar, I think it may be possible to split them. You can have one but I'll hold them until they are eating first. Very good question. However like they say no brain no pain! A knife is easy and can get good results, so why futz with a rubber band. Yes one thing I've tried is dividing them, then dividing again in 2 weeks, cutting through the origional scar. Did work well 100% success, but the anemones were very small & took a while to grow to a saleable size.

Here is the anemone before cutting. It has just run into a powerhead & is a little unhappy, mouth hanging out a little. On the chopping board ready to be cut. Cutting. Cut straight down right through the centre of the mouth. After cutting. Here they are 1/2 hour after being returned to the tank, they have begun to expand. This is the critical stage they are very vulnerable to infection. Water must be extremely clean and flow set just right. Four days later two healthy and almost healed anemones . Normally takes a week or so for them to heal, but in this case here they are already joined back together in only 4 days, danger period for infection is now past. The mouths are still not properly formed it will be several weeks before they are ready to take food. For this reason anemones must be in good shape before dividing them.

This topic was discussed a few months ago and I showed a couple of pics although not enough for someone to properly understand how to do it. I divided an anemone a few days ago and this time I have photo journaled the whole process so others can see how it is done.

Yes, but I wouldn't be encouraging briopsis, some people have had big problems with it. Also, your phosphate may be undetectable with a Salifert kit, but that does not get the lower levels. A different tester such as a Merck or a Hanna would likely find some. If phosphate was really absolute zero you would be experiencing problems with your sps, and I know they're healthy enough

Can happen to anyone dude! But hey I'll admit it. When I see that short fuse it's REAL hard to resist lighting it ! :lol:

I think what Cracker means is a tank can have a phosphate problem, and therefore lot's of algae. However, if you test the water you may find a very low orthophosphate level, because the algae is consuming it as fast as it is being released, and growing even more algae. That's why you sometimes see threads on Reef Central with someone complaing they have heaps of algae, but no phosphate problem. ( That they can find ). This is one of the common traps for newbie reefers. But hey! Better not get Layton started again !! :lol: :lol:

Well here's something to aim at guys! This is the guy with that beautiful tank we saw the other day, he has done an experiment getting a completely brown SPS coral and putting it in a tank with good water conditions to see how long for it to colour up. His tank uses live bacteria dosing to achieve excellent water paramenters, to achieve this he uses some of the zeovit products, and some of the prodibio products, it's a blended system obviously he's put a lot of thought into it. http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5719

Watched it at last! Only looks about 1/2 as big in the movie as what it really is! And the aquascaping is different every time I see it! Looking good though, plenty of coraline and nice clean tank.

Dunno. I got 25% of it downloaded then it stops, no resume.

Telecom deliberately cripple upload speeds so that they can claim high download speeds but still make internet toll calls perform badly. In that way they can achieve their goal of protecting their toll call revenue, appeasing the government who are considering action against Telecom, generally annoying everybody, and hurting the economy.

Yes, very interesting subject. A while ago I was a card carrying sandbed basher, but now with the increasing number of pics of stunning sps tanks with deep sand beds it is undeniable that some people must be able to make it work. I'm going to put a little sand in my next tank. just a wee bit though! Not quite sure what you meant Reef in the first paragraph, are you saying you think the sandbed may actually be assisting the bacteria that we add? ( if using a bacteria adding system ).

That black edge round the pics kind of has a nice highlighting effect on the pic! How do you do that?

Certainly a stunning tank. Although pale, the overall effect is of lovely colours. Interesting also, in that although the tank is very clean & obviously nutrient poor ( a good thing ), there is a "dirtyish" looking sandbed with worms etc. To me it illustrates the benefits of the bacterial based systems that are becoming more popular nowadays, and how effective they are.

What?? You mean there's guys who go to bed instead of sitting up with a torch watching the tank at 4.30 am!!!?? Well that's what I'd LIKE to be doing, but the real reason for the late posts is that curse of reefkeeping people, WORK. I can't believe I have to work I should get paid for looking after my tank :lol: But seriously, I run a commercial cleaning business & 2 of my staff on holiday at the moment so I'm up till all hours covering things. But hey, to those who haven't tried it, night watching the tank with a torch is pretty cool, but also a good way to get your partner upset! So should only be done in moderation. :lol:

Coming along nicely!

It won't extend the wait time. It was also a good move because letting the rocks sit in dirty water likely containing phosphate will mean the rocks, once cycled, will contain a higher level of phosphate to leach into the tank over time.