SteveA

When I had to empty my last tank, a few year ago, for repairs, I discovered a worm over a meter long and about as thick as my thumb. I suspect it had been the reason I kept loosing small fish. I wish I had at least taken a picture but I was so stunned to find it that my first reaction was to flush it. Still, when I moved to the new tank, last year, all worms I found in the old one were transfered as well. Luckily no more giants were found. Steve

8 on each two cycles. 2nd cycle starts 1 hour after the first.

The trick is not to overcrowd in the early stages. I discovered this with another tank where there were only a few corals. The acro below developed from one branch donated by you a couple of years back. That set of forceps are about 15cm long. Steve

I've seen pics of my tank taken with w 350D (possibly D350). After that very impressive demo I have set my sights on the 20D with the image stabiliser lens. The only gap in the plan is the saving up for it. The anemone came in from Jansen's several years ago and has kept deviding. It is not very colourful but my clown loves it/them all the same. You can count on more of them, the main issue is getting the offspring onto a rock that is not a major part of the reef. Steve

Thursday evening or Saturday afternoon are the best. Bring an exchange rock to fill the gap - just a bit over hand sized. Last time I looked, the latest one to split, plus it's offspring, were on the same rock. One good thing about them is that they don't demand to be right on top of the reef and are quite happy to tuck themselves down between rocks and not bother the corals above too much. Steve

I did use paintshop to sharpen the images slightly. It was very tempting to try to fix the colours also but I decided to leave that issue as an excuse to get a new camera. That big Acropora grandis at the back has quite bright blue/purple tips yet with my camera that doesn't come out. There is also a tricolour acro but you can't see it in the pictures. Steve

Weren't you also interested in an anemone frag at one point? I now have 5 of them and at least one is on a removable rock. Steve

Shortly after setup Now. Not very happy with the colours have washed out but I have resisted trying to use software to fis it. I think a new camera is called for. Steve

Colours washing out mirrors my experiment with Vodka also. It seemed to be improving things at first but by the time I stopped, a chocolate brown acro with purple tips had become light brown with pinkish tips and a tricolour acro with very dark brown flesh, red/purple coralites and green polyps had lost it's red/purple and the polyps had become a sort of greyish colour. 2 months later everything is pretty much back to normal. Steve

Put in a new 40 amp dedicated spur, even if you have to tun it round the outside of the house. I had power supply capacity problems with my tank until I got in a such dedicated spur feeding 3 seperate RCDs. Just for backup I put in a second one, to a single unprotected outlet, on the other side of the room (plus one upstairsd for the HiFi). This happened very shortly after arriving home from work to find my system had popped it's circuit breaker. Steve

Effluent from reactor goes thru second media chamber then drips into sump. All water from sump is returned to tank via the protein skimmer. Kalk water is used as top-up, which is automatic. Steve

You are correct. They do look similar. His stylophora has not yet grown as big as it's parent and is still only about fist sized apparently. Steve

Don't think so. Looks one of the children of this stylophora, which AFIK, is the parent of all the green stylophora in the country. Steve

You must be doing something right. That styplophora looks like it is as big as its parent now. Steve

It is clear acrylic. Doesn't sound to good a design if you are planning on holding it together with tape. Even if you meant ‘tapped’ then I think you should get a circular slot milled in a solid base plate then glue the tube into the slot with the appropriate glue-filler product. The tube is certainly thick enough to hold the pressure. Steve

Would a 2m length of pipe with an ID of about 200 to 250mm and wall thickness of about 5-6mm d?. If you want such then you can help me tidy up my garage by putting it to good use. Steve

Parts of my tank have a DSB and parts are BB - one of my fish has it’s own ideas as to how the sand I do have (nominally 3cm over front section of tank) should be arranged and gets very aggravated when I smooth it out to cover the bald areas it has carefully prepared.

Current tank is 650, previous was 700. I reduced the height so I could go up to 1000 front to back and still get access at the back. Steve

Chromus in his acro. Not a very colourful coral, I know, but a happy one nevertheless. OR http://users.actrix.co.nz/stevea/CrromusInCoral.JPG Steve

Several of my chromus sleep in the larger acro colonies and I think a couple of damsels do as well. My flame hawk also sleeps in an acro and I often get to see, just before the lights go out, it and one of the chromus squabling over who is going to have the best spot in that acro. Basically the chromus does not want to share it's coral and the hawk does not want to be kicked out. My stylophora has a largish (i.e. 2cm across shell) crab and I would immagine it would create a bit of water movement as well. Steve

Fish sheltering in corals at night help to maintain water circulation round the inner branches of the coral, thus preventing the formation of stagnant areas. Steve

http://www.maritime.co.il/db/uploads/fish%20ventilation%202004.pdf

About a month ago: or http://users.actrix.co.nz/stevea/FullFrontalTank.JPG Steve

Very interesting. I can't recall ever having a case of ich in my reef since I set it up aver 10 years ago, althought I do remember worrying about getting it in the reef in the early days. I probably did have mild cases of it, but even the fish that died over the years, those I found anyway, never showed any signs that I can remember. I did use ozone, however, up until the time I moved the reef to my basement last May. I suppose stating this will now be the kiss of death. Steve