suphew

In a cycled tank you shouldn't be able to measure any ammonia, I suspected that whatever you did to the bioballs has disturbed the filtration and what your seeing is a bactreial bloom. I would suggest that you just keep an eye on the ammonia and make sure it doesn't get too high (change some water if it does) and otherwise just leave it and let it cycle again.

My point was that you will always have white spot in your tank and if you don't or manage to get rid of it, chances are sooner or later you will put sometning in your tank and get it back. I trick is to run a good clean stress free tank so that is never a problem.

Unfortunately it isn't realistic to think that you can ever get rid of white spot. There have been a few people here that have tried and failed. If there was a way as simple as adding a UV or diatom filter we would have all done it. Even if you did manage to get rid of it, it would soon be back, it just isn't realistic to QT or disinfect every rock, coral, fish, second hand piece of equipment, bucket, fish bag, etc etc etc, before it gets into contact with your tank The simple answer is to have healthy unstressed fish, through good water quality etc. I haven't had white spot since the start of the year, when I upgraded my tank and stressed all my fish out. Do I think I am rid of it?? Nah next time something major happens it will be back. Do I care? No as long as the stress is short term it will never become a problem.

I have a proper extracter fan (all be it a cheap one) removing the air from my enclosed hood and pumping it outside. The fan itself is 3 or so meters away from the tank down some 6inch pipe, I have had to replace the fan, it lasted about 9 months. This time round I removed the wire joiner block and soldered then sealed the wires, covered the fan motor with CRC and put some filter wool over the intake. Was only replace a month or two ago so don't know if this is going to make it last any longer.

I think thats a bit cynical, for example I use the same bike shops as pies, its a family business, the grandmother and grand children all work there they looked after us from day one. I often go in there just needing a seal or bolt and they just give them to me, if im getting a bigger part, like the gear lever I got last week and I'm not sure what one I need they let me pay for one and take a selection and bring back what I dont use, thats what service is all about.

My personal experience is that I get far better advice and assistance from wholesalers who are only interested in marines than LFS that hire low cost staff that need to know about not only marine fish, but also fresh water, cats, dogs, birds, etc etc.

Because it will only kill what is free swimming in the water, which is only 1 stage of the whitespots live cycle. It can live for weeks in the substrate

How many watts are the lights? Different plants need different amounts of light, often the really nice looking ones are the ones that need more light. Also are you leaving the plants in once the leaves fall off? Often plants are grown with the leaves out of the water, this makes them grow faster and not get covered in algae. The problem is that the leaves when grown out of the water are different from leaves grown under water so they tend to die off, but should be replaced quickly.

Good question, but I guess theres no point blowing air across the water if theres nowhere for the heat to go. I do both on my tank, extractor fan running all day to remove warm damp air from tank to outside, and two fans blowing over water controlled by temp controller

Put a bucket below the tank and run the filter like a syphon (i.e. put the outlet into the bucket). Silly question but you dont have the flow control tap thingy turned off?? both this one and the release lever should be all the way down.

If you do change the gravel (and IMO I wouldn't do it) make sure you give it couple of really good vacuumes before you do it otherwise all the nasty stuff that has worked it's way into it will be released and could cause your water to go bad. Keeping enough water ready to do some large water changes might be an idea also.

Its impossible to say with out seeing how the stand is setup. However the bottom of the tank wont bow, the upright glass on each side would have to bend for that to happen, so as long as tank is supported well at each end it will be fine.

It's really easy to tell them apart in Pies tank, the female is the one that always has a huge belly

I loved mine for about the first week, once I discovered that the PH changed so much during the day I realised it was a bit of a waste of time having it

If it is white spot I strongly suggest you dont try and treat it, just sort out the stress, removing it from th etank and medicating will just stress is more. The key is to not panic I have seen fish completely covered in spots and recover with no help other than removing the cause of stress. Also think about getting a cleaner shrimp or two they will eat the white spot off the fish.

White spot is usually stress related, the first thing you need to do is some water tests and check that your parameters are good. Also get your salinity tested with a refractometer all those floating etc ones are crap. If thats what your using I would put money on your salinity being to high.

Unless you have long arms 680 is getting pretty deep you will have problems reaching stuff on the bottom at the back, also it will mean more powerful lights when you start getting into corals (which sooner or later you will). Spend you $ on a the best skimmer you can afford, I dont think you will find anyone here who hasn't either upgraded to a bigger tank or isn't planning on doing it soon. Almost all of us have made the mistake of going cheap on the skimmer and having to replace it or getting one that was just ok then having to upgrade with the tank upgrade. Lighting isn't important until you start getting corals I wouldn't go over board now, and whatever you choose to do make sure you will still be able to use them when you upgrade. NSW can go straight in the tank, I don't warm it and change 15+% at a time. However the salinity is a little high in NZ so it helps to add about 10% fresh water to it. Spend the money on a refractometer (sp?) (approx $80) the floating etc ones are crap. If your just keeping fish you can put in dry 'live rock' and let it cycle for a month or so, before adding fish, they wil handle it ok. They can handle far higher levels of nitrates than corals so the cycle to get it a point for keeping fish is very similar to fresh water. Also I notice jetskisteve has some mature live rock for sale, it will cost you round the same as buying dry live rock form your LFS but is far better.

INteresting, a couple of methods I hadn't heard about, but funny he missed the big one, live rock??????

I would guess from memory 5-6m

I dont really thing there is much of a limit (but I guess there must be at some point. Pies's dosing pump sucks the water right across his garage and through a wall. But this is all horizonal so there isn't really a head hight issue.

LOL youll be fine, loads of people use them every day without damaging themselfs. Just make sure you have a good firm grip on the grinder, make sure your body isn't in line with the disk incase it flys apart, let the grinder do the work you don't need to push on it just rest it against the metal, and cut it from the side dont start flat against the end or either the metal or the grinder will jump about. Youll get the feel for it pretty quickly.

Best thing about a ca reactor is that its another piece of cool looking equipment to show off to visiters, a couple of containers of water just doesn't cut it :lol:

Diff wear gloves and glasses, some times the disks will fly apart and some times the disk grabs so be careful where you have your hands. One of my mates was cutting up an old trailer and the grinder grabbed then broke the disk then jumped and got hold of his shirt, it tore his shirt up but he was very lucky it stopped before it tore him up. Also an old shirt/pants the sparks will burn holes in your cloths.

As TM says. I have 5 of these in the bottom of my tank, no problems at all.

With the amount your adding you must have some mighty big containers.