suphew

Burn like holes in the leaves is a sign of a lack of a mineral, from memory potassium, but there are plently of charts on the net that will tell you. I posted one on the plants section a year or so ago, you might be able to find it.

To make it sink, either leave it in water for a month or two, or boil it if you can fit it into a pot. Boiling is a good idea anyway, it will kill any nasties. Also suggest you go to rivers to collect if you can, the wood tends to be nicer shapes and drift wood from the sea will leach salt into the tank, which isn't normally a big problem but if you can avoid it it's best to. For rivers to collect from head for tramping bush spots rather than the open close to the cities rivers, again just because the wood tends to be more interesting

Yep any spray paint will work, you just need to use an oil based paint, just make sure the glass is very clean before you start and do lots of very light coats

IMO you should stick with the smaller simpler tank till you are ready to go the whole hog, the difference between 60 and 120liters isn't really going to improve what you can keep, but you would have to spend a lot more on gear that you will have to upgrade when you go to a desent size. Clowns are a type of damsel, but in saying that they are far better fish, a lot of people regret adding the non-clown damsels when they start to cause problems as they add fish later on. They are heaps of really nice soft corals that do well if not better in low light, there are also some LPS corals that do well in lower light, but they require pretty good water quality that will be hard for you to get with a small tank and no skimmer. The other option is to go fish only there are some stunning angles etc that most of us cant keep because of our corals. Going this option would take away some of the problems with water quality, light, etc. But would mean you would eith not be able to keep corals in the future or have to have two tanks. Running two tanks could be very cool, they could share the same water and gear, and just be plumbed together so you have the bonus of more water volume in the total system.

Should have cured it enough to start adding a few fish slowly and some hardier corals. But be warned if you started with un-cured rock you will have round 9 months of algae stages to go through, you should start to see brown diatom algae soon. Suggest you get an algae eating fish as one of your first, a blenny would be best or maybe a tang.

check valves reduce flow alot and are prone to not working once algae etc builds up in them. anti-syphon hole is the way to go.

I made one using a small glass pill bottle that I got from a chemist. Drilled a couple of holes in the lid for the tubes, one went almost to the bottom the other near the top and filled it 3/4 with water. It worked ok but leaked until I got the hot glue gun out and sealed the lid and tube holes.

To answer your question subflex, you just need to turn off the streams for a while until the BTA attaches to something, this normally doesn't take long, a day or so at most. The only problems people have had other than this is when there pumps or streams are too close to the rock work and the anenome has wandered into it. Also some times if they are very unhappy they might detach and float round, but if this happens your anenome probably has bigger problems than getting stucked into the pump. Also don't write off your anenome, if you haven't already removed it from the tank and gotten rid of it there is a ok chance that it will survive, just keep a very close eye on it incase it does die and starts to rot in your tank, and keep the pump off until it attaches.

You need to get the temp high because this speeds up the life cycle of the white spot, the cures only work when they are in their free swimming stage so the faster the life cycle the more likely you are to catch them when you have the treatment in the tank. As the others have said a half dose is a good idea because BN's don't do well with the treatments. Two heaters is a good idea, that way you have redundancy if one fails as they all seem to do after a while.

For what we are interested in there are two different types/functions of venturi and I think you might be confusing them. The one you are looking at online is (and I could be wrong) for suppling air to a needlewheel pump this is a pretty simple task and often they are as simple as a air feed hole in the side of the pump inlet. The other type (a becket is one of these) creates the air bubbles by using a normal pump to blow water through a venturi sucking air and creating bubble as it goes (aka how your berlin works). This type of venturi is far more complicated. I'm not sure if it is worth your trying to setup a new venturi for your berlin, IMHO there are too many complications in getting it right. If I was you I would look at getting a cheap needlewheel pump and using this to feed the berlin, which basically makes it a berlin turbo. BTW when I had a berlin running I switched it over to use a laguna 7 pump (~7500lph), the pump was about double the reccomended size, but the skimmer rocked for what it was.

I just happened to be reading about DIY venturi's on reef central today. they don't seem hard to make. basically they just use a piece of PVC pipe of the size you need with a smaller piece glued inside to reduce the size, and a hole drilled in the side to feed the air in. I don't think they needed to work very well to do the job, most of the problems seemed to be with them feeding to much air and causing the pumps to stall or the bubble sizes getting to large. The fix was just a needle valve to restict the air flow.

No you will want at least that much flow. You will probably want to add a power head or two as well.

I could be wrong but I believe that trout are one of the fish that are white bait. A bigger problem than the tank size will be the flow you would need in the tank since they are used to fast moving streams with high O2

How low is low?? Often people panic about levels that are fine, and it is better to not try and adjust it if you dont need to. Also have you tested your KH? This buffers your PH maybe your water is very soft and your PH is swinging during the day.

Have never tried Joes Juice so can't compare, and yes you actually need to inject the viniger.The bigger they are the easier it is cause the smaller ones are a PITA to stick the needle into. I'm not 100% converted to using viniger yet I know a good covering of kalk works but there have been a few survive the viniger treatment, I'm just not sure if this is because it's not 100% or if I just missed them when injecting.

If you just have the one or two, try and remove the rock from the tank before you kill it this will lower the risk of bits floating off and growing. I have been using white vinigar lately, injected, it seems to work but would far rather be able to remove them and coat in kalk paste

Are you testing for nitrite (NO2) or nitrate (NO3)? Nitrate is the final product and what you need to remove via water changes. If your nitrite is the one that is low, your cycle is well under way (which it should be now) and you can think about starting to slowly add fish.

it doesn't matter to much what you use as long as you hold it in place for a week or two. I have often just jammed them down between rocks, they will grow out into the light. I found that cotton and netting was a pain cause the cotton either comes loose or cuts the shroom and netting tends to cut and is a real pain to remove later

The guys with 600+ power bills are usually running remote sumps under the house or in basements plus this is their total power bill so who knows what else they are running. I helped break down a marine tank owned by a local doctor, his power bill was around $2000 a month!!!! But he had 3 teenage kids a lit outdoor tennis court and large heated outdoor swimming pool. My marine tank is around 800l and my monthly power bill is around $220, this includes water heating but not heating the house. I have around 800w of light and another 300-400w of other gear running. It sound like a lot but when you consider a fan heater uses 2000w or so, and lots of people run them all evening its not so bad.

Sorry I misread thought you were talking about two overflows. Two returns is a dumb idea (IMHO!). It's not needed and you would have twice as many things to go wrong, if you want the output going in two places use a SWCD or 'T' the return.

One is going to cost half the price. just so long as the one you put will handle the flow. of course having a second hole, means you can have/switch to full syphon system and have a back up.

from the durso web site "Flushing Effect: A commonly reported problem when first installing standpipes is what I call a flushing effect. The water level in the chamber bounces up and down at a slow steady cyclic pattern. This is different than the issue above where the water level stays to low. This issues typically is not caused by the size of the air-hole in the end cap. The flushing effect is almost always caused by back pressure in the drain line. Typically the back pressure has two main causes: Drain pipes in the sump being submerged below the water surface to far. Ideally you just want the drain pipes submerged about an inch or two. Just enough to reduce the splashing noise in the sump. Any loops or dips in the drain lines if using flexible tubing. If using hard PVC pipe for the drain lines make sure they always have a slope to them, don't make them perfectly horizontal or perfectly vertical. The flushing effect works like this: Back pressure in the standpipe prevents air in the pipe from exiting the drain line. Instead of exiting the drain line, the air bubbles try to rise in the pipe slowing the rate at which the pipes drain. The water level in the chamber then rises. The increase in the chamber water level adds pressure to help clear the air from the pipe. Once enough water pressure exists in the chamber to overcome the back pressure, the air is literally is "burped" out of the drain line which crates a sudden rush of water. This is displayed as a rapid drop in the overflow chamber water level. This cycle then repeats itself over and over as the back pressure builds and gets purged. "

Most of the blennies are great algae eaters, but unless your tank is huge you can only have 1, so pick one you really like, I got a bi colour blenny think that its tail would colour up as it grew but it has stayed a boring brown, still a very cool fish but... A blenny is a good idea to because if it is a young tank you will likely have months of different algaes to go yet.

Is the tank 12mm glass, and well braced??my tank is over 1700x600x600x12mm and I have no support in the middle. I did a lot of measuring and testing when I filled the tank, but found the poly under the middle of the tank wasn't even under pressure and still moved so there was no bowing of the tank at all. The vertical glass front and back make the bottom very ridgid. I have the stand bolted to the wall and crossed braced at the other end so the stand cant colapse sideways.

Shrooms seem to get far bigger with lower light, isn't the rule of thumb like 1watt per liter or something?