suphew

Yes for sure, either replace your bioballs and sponges etc with carbon and/or other resins, or remove the cannister. The idea is to remove the waste before it can break down (using a skimmer) running a bio filter just makes it harder to do this because its trapping the waste and breaking it down.

Adjusting the white balance can make a huge difference. Also try using the macro function if you have it, your normally only a foot or two away from the subject so the camera has trouble focusing if you don't

No this just tells you that it is producing KH, you want to know that it is producing balanced KH and CA, testing the PH tells you this. I have run my reactor so my KH has gone off the scale but CA was still low. The procedure is to set the drip rate, then adjust the bubble rate so the PH is about 6.5, once this has settled in, increase or decrease both until the you have the correct KH and CA in the tank.

If you fed your anemone it will grow very fast I have also heard that it can make them more likely to eat your fish, this is maybe just a myth. If your anemone is fit and healthy there is no need to target feed it. If you want to do it for entertainment just use your tongs, once it has hold of something it wont float away. I would just give it time for your clowns, if you dont have any success in a couple of weeks you could try chasing the clowns into it, with a net or tongs, personally I wouldn't do this but I have heard that it sometimes works.

I have read that you turn them by checking the PH of the out put not the KH. I have the same reactor, I run a pretty high dip rate, 2+ drips per second. It is only gravity fed so seems to clog quickly at slower rates. My bubble rate is about every 1 second because of the high drip rate. I tend to leave the drip rate as is and adjust my bubble rate if I find my parameters changing.

I got rid of my flat worms ok, just retreated tank after a week. Havn't seen any for months

funny thing I have some rock in storage in my sump just till it finds a new home and it is far cleaner looking than the rock in my display, no algae, good coraline growth. It has a light on it at night because of the leathers mushies etc growing on it so its not because of the keeping it in the dark. Theres no sand in the sump and is in the display but I ran the display BB for 4-5 months before adding 1cm of sand and the rocks look the same either way.

I take back what I said, you need to slow down adding stuff, this is just the sort of thing that is going to stress the rest of your fish out to the max. I'm with cracker, dont go near a fish shop for 3 months. :lol:

Personally I would say just 5, if the tank is stable and not causing stress once the w/s is gone adding the odd extra coral or carefully picked fish isn't going to stress things to much. If the w/s doesn't clear up in the next couple of weeks (of leaving the tank alone as much as possible) start looking for whats not right. Maybe over night PH swings, test that isn't reading right (salinity esp).

ditto

All the fish your LFS has will have arrived in poly boxes, they are normally pleased to be able to get rid of a few.

Why not just use bleach and give it a good rinse afterwards. Personally I wouldn't bother trying to clean them, why would something that normally lives in the air be a problem underwater?? I just give rocks a scrub to remove any dirt and put them in.

Want do her fins and gills look like? Does she have any sores or raw looking patches? How long have you had her?

It wouldn't help anyway, all the treatments only work during the w/s free swimming stage, not while they are on the fish. To treat her with copper you would have to put her in another tank for the full treatment period. The stress of this often kills weak fish anyway. Copper stuffs your live rock, it leaches out for months afterwards. Are you sure you clown has w/s? It's unusual for clowns to suffer more badly than other fish, esp tangs, normally clowns are the last to go. Its easy to tell, for a fish to die from w/s it has to be so covered you just about can't see the fish for the spots.

The best way to tell how much to feed is by looking at the fish, if they are fat and healthy looking you are either feeding to much or just right, cut back on the food a little until they start looking a bit leaner then you know you have it right.

you could do it..... as long as you dont mind keeping the room at 15 degrees :lol: mind you its not far off that in my place today.

Sometime it depends on the fish, try moving the net slowly so you don't scare the fish, they are used to things moving in there water but fast things look like something about to eat them. If you get another net buy a big one, just sit it in the tank and chase the fish into it with the other net. If all else fails the sure fire way is to remove half or more of the water. Are you sure you have ID'd the problem? It's possible it might have just been damaged in a fight, I'm not an expert on Neons but if you post in the correct section someome will be able to tell you what you need to do.

Hi Timtam22, nice to see another Wlg marine keeper, there are only a few of us around. You need to decide what you what to do (keep), that setup is no good for keeping anything other than a couple of fish and bare rock. There isn't a skimmer and not much light, plus is on the small side, keeping marine is all about stablity which will be difficult in a tank that small. If a fish only of tank is what you want to keep, then it is an ok deal, not a rip off but not a bargin. You are welcome to come have a look at my tank if you like, and I can give you a quick run down on how they work, the hobby changes very fast and some shops etc that don't have big marine setups can get behind the times. PM me if your interested, I'm in Tawa.

The arongaronga (sp?) river is a good place, the hutt river might be a good place to look at the moment to with all the rain, but get you need to get there before all the fire wood collectors. Where in Wlg are you? there is a thing up the road from my place to catches logs etc before they get to the houses, on willowbank/middleton road between Tawa and Johnsonville, there might be some nice pieces there with the rain, the river was pretty high.

I have two berlin classic's, just stopped using them, PM me if your interested in buying one cheap. I dont know how well the 'turbo' models work, there dont seem to be many about, the classic's need a large pump (far larger then the spec the suggests) I used a luguna 7, and it worked well, I had to restrict the air a lot to stop it foaming to much. The other I ran off a king 4 pump which was still over the rating but was just big enough IMO. They are pretty old tech now, needle wheel skimmers are easier but worked fine for me for a few years, I only upgraded because I had another use for the luguna 7 and a bargin needle wheel skimmer came up.

Its normal to gt this if you dont have enough surface movement. either add an air stone, power head, or if you have a filter running on it move the output so it breaks up the surface.

I used daltons aquadic clay, you can get from plant shop, its normally used for potting water lillies. But if your fish are diggers it might not be a good idea, if they get down to the clay it will make a mess of the water. Swords and anubia are good tough plants, or your could try fast growing plants and see if they grow faster than they get eaten, indian fern would be a good one, plus will grow floating as well as planted so it wont matter so much if it gets dug up.

The stuff I have came from the hutt pet shop, but seems to be what they are all stocking at the moment.

I dont know how to sort out your curreent problem but if you set up a new tank add some clay to the gravel then put a layer of just gravel over top to hold it down, the plants will grow huge root systems if they have the space and food in the substrate to do it.

Thanks for all your answers. I'm not worried about cleaning sand, it is coral gravel that I have, it seems to be pretty difficult to get down here at the moment, the stuff I have in the tank at the moment (about 1cm deep average) is like lots of tiny balls all the same size and looks unnatural, I want to add the gravel back in to break it up, but not if its full of phosphates, which I'm pretty sure it will be.