SteveA

Were the fish still alive? I'm sure none I my copepods would last very long if they tried to hang out on the front glass. Steve

Don't really know. Gave those that could not be transfered to the reef I was setting up away. One clown that I did transfer lived for about 12 years. Steve

When I had them, they got on fine. I also has a couple of other butterfly's in there and don't recall seeing any fighting. It was a good 12 years since I last had these fish and now that I have decided to get some more, I am quite looking forward to it. I can also see the butterflys being a good way to recycle 'weedings' of one of my fast growing montipora's. Steve

Work on a design with the sump only being 1/2 full in normal operation, or you will end up with wet feet during a power cut. Steve

I don't. I said "ignoring duty cycles", so that would be max consumption will everything on. The $ figues came from the power meter the whole system runs thru, so I know exactly how much power it has used without having to worry about how long different things were on. My heaters are on about 30% of the time or more. More in the last week or so since I boosted the temperature from 25 to 27. Steve

Once worked out that to completely power my system using solar would cost about $40,000. Panels don't last forever either AFIK. Steve

Not yet, but plan to attach one to my reef setup shortly. It will be 600L. Actually it is already attached but I want to move it to a better spot before I put any fish in it. So far I have only ID'd a clown trigger, an auriga butterflly and an emperor angel as its future inhabitants. These are all fish I had before I decided to set up a reef. Steve

Between 21/06/2005 and 29/09/2005 the tank(s) consumed $594.01 worth of electricity. That works out at $182.68 per month. Consumed by (ignoring duty cycles): Lights 1992 W Pumps 395 W Heaters 1500 W Other 52.5 W Total 3939.5 Steve

Yes, that to. (well spotted, that man) Actually it has turned into a mushroom, rather than a vegetable, since it now resides, in bits, in the recesses of a draw. Steve

Refractometers are good until they start to leek, because the seal round the lens has crapped out, and you can't get any spare parts. They don't seem quite as good vfm then. Steve

Didn't do any anemones. Was told they were taken care of. Steve

Done. What a job - but it did allow me to ID some corals I not previously successfully identified. 95 items, 4 of which I was only able to ID down to Genis level in the 5 books I had available. I could have persued a couple of the Discosoma and probably the Milliopra or Gorgonian further via the internet, but since 'they' were not accepting anything but ISBN book references, there seemed little point. I can't see my signature being very legibable after printing out and signing 95 docs. This is them: Clam Tridacna maxima Coral Acropora abrolhosensis Acropora cytherea Acropora danai Acropora divaricata Acropora formosa Acropora gemmifera Acropora grandis Acropora latistella Acropora lutkeni Acropora nana Acropora robusta Acropora subglabra Acropora valenciennesi Caulastrea furcata Echinopora lamellosa Euphyllia glabrescens Favia speciosa Favites abdita Favites complanata Fungia danai Fungia moluccensis Galaxia fascicularis Goniastrea edwardsi Heliopora coerulea Hydnophora rigida Leptastrea purpurea Leptoria phrygia Merulina scabricula Millipora sp. Montasttrea magnistellata Montipora aequituberculata Montipora capricornis Montipora danae Montipora digitata Montipora verrucosa Mycedium elephantosus Pachyseris rugosa Pavona decussata Pectinia paeonia Platygyra pini Pleurogyra sinuosa Pocillopora damicornis Polyphyllia talpina Porites cylindrica Porites lobata Scolymia vitiensis Seriatopora hystrix Stylophora pistillata Trachyphyllia geoffroyi Tubipora musica Turbinaria mesenterina Turbinaria peltata Turbinaria reniformis Fish Amphiprion clarkii Amphiprion clarkii COLOUR VARIANT MALE Amphiprion perideraion Centropyge bicolour Centropyge bispinosus Chelmon rostratus Chromus viridis Chrysiptera cyanea Chrysiptera notialis Chrysiptera parasema Cirrhitichthys bleekeri Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus Dascyllus aruanus Ecsenius bicolor Neocirrhitus armatus Neopomacentrus nemurus Paracanthurus hepatus Parglyphidodon oxydon ADULT Parglyphidodon oxydon JUVENILE Pomacentrus vaiuli Pseudocheilinus tetrataenia Pseudochromus diadema Pseudochromus paccagnellae Pseudochromus porphyreus Pygoplytes diacanthus Stegastes planifrons Thalassoma lunare AM Zebrasoma flavescens Zebrasoma xanthurus Shrimp Lysmata amboinensis Lysmata debelius Stenopus hispidus Soft Coral Discosoma inchoata Discosoma indosinensis Discosoma sp. Lobophytum sp. Rumpella sp. Sarcophyton ehrenbergi Sarcophyton glaucum Sarcophyton tenuispiculatum Sinularia notanda Steve

More like a 'mailbox full" message which, when followed up with a phone call, got the response that the mailbox did not accept attachments and I would need to burn the pictures to a CD. A cynic might conclude that it was a system set up to fail .... Steve

You can print the form, with at least a B&W picture on it, sign the form and send (post) it off. BUT - When you do this with a B&W picture, you ALSO need to send a COLOURED picture seperately, in digital or hardcopy format, to FNZAS for them to match with your hardcopy form. If you are sending pictures in digital format, you need to burn them to a CD as, apparently, the FNZAS email inbox will not accept attachments. I have tried to send some digital pics and it did not work. I was advised to burn my pics to a CD. It is all very clunky but that's the way it goes. Steve

Can't immagine any trigger fish being reef safe unless you had perhaps a 5000L+ reef. After babysitting some fish from another tank by attaching an old 600L to my reef setup, I have pretty much decided I am going to now move it to a better location but leave it connected to the reef and use it as a fish only tank. I would like to get some of the critters I had before I had the reef, things like a clown trigger, and emperor angel and an auriga butterfly. Steve

Yes. Found it here (at least I think I did). http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/invert.htm A good article on it vs Cynarina vs Scolymia vs etc. Steve

Well, if nothing else, this exercise has finally allowed me to identify this long term resident of my tank. Apparently it is Acanthophyllia deshayesiana Steve

Well done. You selected those two for me very well. They did not fight and spend most of their time cruising round together. Maybe, with luck, I will get to see that sight also, although I suspect neither my photographic skills nor my camera will be up to capturing the moment. Steve

Very spectacular, but I think splashes of colour amidst a predominance of brown looks more like a real reef. Steve

Not planning on selling them but will be donating them to good homes. Only cost will be freight. Pies' one is now bigger than it's parent was when I gave him the frag. Now the parent looks like this. The big hole in the side is where a rather large blue/pink crab has made it's home. The recent frags are branches that were at the bottom and were about to get shaded out by the growing colony above them. It was either take them as frags or let them die. Steve

And I have three more frags attached to rocks and currently maturing. Steve

Two years ago mine used to hit 32 on some summer days and every summer my Pavona used to partially bleach, pretty much on cue with the first such event (and then spend the rest of the year recovering for the arrival of the next summer). After briefly trying a DIY heat exchanger based cooling system, which worked but was a plumbers nightmare, I added 4 fans to blow across between the lights and the water. Last summer, with the fans in operation, the highest it got to was about 28. The fans operate automatically from the heater controller. This summer the tank is down in the, theoretically cooler, basement and only has two fans blowing across it. However, I have also installed two extractor fans and a fanless duct to allow air to be sucked/pushed into the room from a shaded windward location under a deck. Just this last addition dropped the room temperature (as noticed when I arrive home from work) by a good 2 deg. Steve

It's just that the bureaucratic boiler has decided it needs another log. There is no way they will give up on it as they have the power and the closest thing bureuroctats have to a life is the opportunity to use their power to push the remaining 1/3 of the population around. Steve

Happens. Have lost several fish that way over the years. Only smallish ones (up to clowns) to date Steve

Bugger, if only you had asked me last Friday. :lol: