suphew

I wouldn't use the rock out of your fresh water tanks, even if are sure you haven't used medication near it, it will be loaded up with phosphates etc and not worth the pain for the few $$ you'll save. Just a note of live rock, it's a very mis-used term. "Live rock" actually refers to the bacteria on and in the rock because this is what is actually useful to you as part of your filter system. The life on the live rock is just that, extra stuff hanging on. It's great to have and most live rock will have it, but if anything it actually impedes the function of the live rock by blocking the pores. One of the keys to 'cooking' live rock is keeping in the dark to kill of all the life on the outside and allow the pores to clear and clean out. Anyway my point is, putting rock into a drum with some water movement is a great way to make live rock, it should come out clean and well cycled, it will save you a lot of pain later on if you have the time and space.

I almost posted in your other thread that you were moving too fast with your corals, both the torch and fungia are not really starter corals. You need to move your salinity up to 1.025 although at the level you have it it's not likely to be the problem. Are you testing with a refractometer? If not then chances are it miles out. You can do a quick and dirty test of your measuring device by testing fresh water (which should of course be zero) and some natural sea water which in NZ usually sits around 1.027. But any half decent LFS should let you calibrate it against their refractometer. Feeding frozen every second day is far too much for a new tank, cut it back to weekly at most, if not stop it altogether for a while, it's likely you have high phosphate levels and this could definitely be part of the problem. Although 1watt per liter is the rule of thumb for marine tanks, the rule is really for more efficient type's of lighting like metal halide and at a pinch T5's. T8's don't give you much light per watt. Put the 150mh on, if you don't have a 'marine' bulb don't worry about it, the bluer light is more for making it look nice than the health of the corals. If you can start the light off a bit higher than you plan on keeping it and then lower it over a week or two, this will reduce the shock. Lastly as LA suggests, you can't beat doing water changes if corals are looking a bit sad. HTH

I actually think the road shared by Cyclists and Cars are too wide. If you look at places like Denmark where cycling works in the cities the streets tend to be very old and narrow. Hovmoller will correct me if I get it wrong but the idea I got from my short stay was that there were main arterial roads where cars had right of way and cyclists stayed away. But with-in the cites off these roads, cyclists always had right of way, then ped's, then car's. Which worked for Ped's because the cyclists were on the roads not foot paths, and worked for cars because the narrow (sometimes cobbled) streets couldn't be driven on any faster than you could cycle anyway. It seemed to me the key to this system was different road users acknowledging "ownership" of different parts of the roading system. Cars on the main arterial roads weren't frustrated by cyclists and ped's, and cyclists took far safer route away from faster traffic. In NZ every one thinks they have the right to use every bit of road and the roading designers have to try and fit bikes, people and cars all on to the same bit of tarmac. If the main streets in our cites didn't have to allow for bikes and ped's they could all run at 70kph+ and the cars would move in and out much faster leaving the smaller secondary roads freer and safer for bikes and people.

But just watch that the hose isn't also smaller, the 'mini' ones tend to use small diameters hose and are useless

Where does name calling come into it, and I didn't call anyone an idiot? I was pointing out the fact that there are some things that you are perfectly within your right to do, but are stupid, take smoking for example. Take another example, walking alone late at night, some people love doing it and good on them, but most people acknowledge there are places that even though you would be perfectly with in your rights to walk late at night, to do so would be stupid. No matter how in the wrong drivers might be, the fact remains that Tamaki Drive is very dangerous for cyclists and riding there is stupid, just like smoking or walking in some places late at night.

The devil is in the detail, "The cyclists on the cycle path had in most cases the lowest or second lowest exposure to both pollutants." and "The cyclists on the road were exposed to significantly greater levels of both benzene and particulates than the cyclists on the path.". Unfortunately this has the feel of some one using some of the facts to support all of their case. Cycle paths are quite different from cycling on the road in a lot of countries, what they aren't saying is how cyclist's on the roads compare to drivers in cars. They interviewed a lady from the (I think) national cycling council this morning after the latest accident, after the comments you would expect about the how unsafe Tamaki drive is the interviewer asked something like, "Since every one knows it's so dangerous why don't cyclists just go another way?" after umming for a bit she replied "cause it was their right to use the road and the view is nice". I think there is a disconnect somewhere between what is your right to do, and what is plain stupid to do.

Not allowed to post others contact details with out there permission, but I will PM you his email address.

I use fish-street bulbs (although via a local reseller) and for cheap bulbs they are okay.

When water evaporates from your tank it's the same process as distilling. The problem being that the pure water has evaporated leaving the impurities in your tank. If you add top up water with more impurities the levels of impurities slowly build up. This is a slow process which is why some people claim to have used tap water for ages and had no problems, but sooner or later the levels will build up enough to cause you problems. As smallreefer says you can buy pure water from supermarkets and some LFS's sell RO/DI water which can be a good option if you only have a small setup. If you decide to get it from a supermarket make sure it's pure water and not spring or mineral water. HTH

There are two cycles in a marine tank, the aerobic and anaerobic. The first is the same as a fresh water tank, and take about the same time. Once completed it's safe to add fish. Anaerobic bacteria convert the nitrate from the aerobic cycle to nitrogen gas. This cycle can take months to kick into gear and often take's a year to finish at which point a tank is considered "mature". During this time you get various algal blooms, and unless you have a way of removing the nitrate (skimmers, water changes, zeolites, and resins, etc) it's not a good environment for corals. Buying live rock short cuts this process and adding fish very slowly also lessens the impact.

Is the sump for fresh or salt water? I assume it's for fresh or you shouldn't be looking at bio-balls and noodles. So if it's for fresh you don't need to have all those bubble traps just a simple divider will do, also (incase this is for salt) your bubble traps are backwards you want to force the bubble's to the surface as soon as possible so the water should go over first, then under. I don't understand the refuge/QT. Unless your putting a filter in there or are planning on running a constant water change system the water in it wont get filtered and will quickly go nasty, besides what about the lack of oxygen and heat. It would make far more sense to use the space to build a bigger sump and have your refuge in there. You're QT should in no way be connected to the rest of your system, there is no point having it if it share's the same water system. Is there a reason you want to use bio-balls AND noodles? The good thing about noodles is the large surface area to volume, but you'll have a massive sump so it's not a big deal for you. The down side's to noodles are the cost, and that they clog easily, problems in a sump where you'll need lots and they are difficult to take out and clean. Bio-balls on the other hand have a rubbish surface area, but thats not a big deal when you have loads of space, they are also cheap and don't clog. Because of the free space round bio-balls you can also put your heaters in with then. Although it's fun, I think people over complicate sumps, they are best kept simple. A simple plastic container (even a rubbish bin or old fish tank) full of bio-balls (or anything really), pump and heaters sitting on or near the bottom, and the job is done.

Love the leaking Jebo filter in the bucket with the power plug lying on the floor next to it. :oops: As you have suggested this isn't really a very safe way of setting up a CO2 system, I'd strongly recommend doing this properly, risking your life just doesn't seem worth the $150 you've saved. If that valve doesn't close and you (or someone who doesn't understand what you have done) undoes the regulator the pressure coming out could easily kill you.

I use cable ties, they soon disappear under the coralline. For bigger pieces I drill the rock and use plastic rods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_freshwater_shrimp I know people keeping these guys in temps up to 30 degrees. They aren't cherry red but very interesting to keep and great at cleaning up algae.

It depends on what type of corals you are keeping, T5 lighting should be okay, I'd go for 4, maybe 3 white and one blue. But if I was going to do it I'd go for a small Metal halide/T5 combo unit.

I got my bottle done by this guy in Wellington and I was in getting a re-cert/fill the other day and noticed he had a converted bottle for sale, from memory it was under $200 http://yellow.co.nz/whitepages/Elsdon/P ... 9_BUS.html

The plant shop between Tawa and Johnsonville used to have it, I assume they still do. But most plant shops should carry it.

You will need to get the cylinder re-certified so get the certifier to replace the valve. CO2 has to be re-certified every 5 years or they wont refill it, and changing the valve require's a re-cert.

I assume it's a spring and ball arrangement, either way I can barely blow through mine now let alone run low pressure c02

I removed the metal one from my system cause it jammed up, i assume it corroded inside, but it's sealed so i can't open it to know for sure.

You have to be a little careful because CO2 + water will give you carbonic acid, the little bit of moisture you get in your CO2 tubing can cause corrosion, particularly to anything metal.

Rule of thumb for water flow is MINIMUM 20 x tank volume, so you would be looking at a pump of 600lph+ it's not uncommon to go 100 x the display volume. You want a nice wide flow. You could even think about connecting some pipe work to a pump and dividing the flow up round the tank

I have a friend with 2 black clowns living in a fluval edge tank (23 liters) it's been running for quite a while now and doesn't seem to be having any issues. No skimmer, but also no sand so nice and easy to clean out. He's also replaced the lights with LED's and added a pump for water movement. Regarding your lighting, it's probably okay for soft corals, but you can't really count the blue light for your 1 watt per liter rule, if it was me I think I would run two white lights and DIY some blue led's into the reflector.

In my bigger tank I have each filter crossing over (the inlet of one is at the same end as the outlet of the other) so the water gets moved end to end. I don't know if it makes any difference but it seemed like a good idea at the time and the tank is working well.

Each option with the lights has plus and minus's, having them on will allow light dependent life like coralline algae to grow, but it will also allow the not so nice algae's. Personally I believe it getting the tank going as you plan to keep it going from the start that way you get to iron out any problems before you add life stock. For example you don't want to add your first corals then find you lights over heat after 3-4 hours and switch off, or that they are heating the water too much etc etc. The water results make sense, moving the rock and the dead rock would account for the ammonia and the water change accounts for the lack of nitrate. You should also have left the water over night with some power heads going before adding your rock. It needs to get it's ionic balance, until that happens your pH would have been all over the place and likely caused die off on your rock and added to the ammonia your seeing.