cookie extreme

hi layton, how is your tank coming along? any pic's? just to show the DSB guy's how a "real" tank looks with lots of growing acro's and the lot. you know the stuff you frag and sell or give to other reefers.

na got some sheets of blue paper for the pic. don't worry your eyes are ok, it is a bit out of focus. really need a better camera (well thats my excuse anyway )

lefthand side of tank (tank is a room divider with 3 viewing sides) front view from the hall way righthand side

learnt the hard way. my first ever saltwater tank which was a "massive" 85 liters. chucked 11 fish in and killed 10 of them with white spot. only the neon damsel survived (don't thing that any illness kills them). ever since i keep low fish numbers, and try to feed them as best as possible. but have to admit that i still don't quarantaine them.

you just keep going, never mind all those narrow minded people. at least we might learn some more. what is there to loose? it seems its a common problem in a few tanks lately and i guess its worth trying to find out why.

hey i downgraded to 150's

a PhD is optained by writing a paper!! for example on the poo's of starfish or similar. it does not mean that that person has absolute knowledge. it's the same in medicine. most of the family are medical doctors, but my MIL has a PhD doctorate in health. that does not make her a qualified person to judge on my well being or anybody elses. layton you could write a paper on draino in the fight against aiptaisa and if accepted you could gain a PhD. but that will not mean that you know everything about corals and the like. but i will agree people with PhD do write pretty good articles which are worth reading.

whats an expert? i would say any proper hobbyist today as more knowledge then any "expert" from the nineties or earlier. one reason not to purchase any old books on reef keeping! most "experts" are normal hobbyist's like you and me, that have written a book or published some paper on reef aquarium's.

the crab is IMO allogalathea elegans a feather star ssquat lobster and it needs a feather star to survive. unfortunately feather stars do not survive well in aquariums.

disagree, had some of my leathers (mainly smaller cuttings eaten or partly eaten a while ago. removed a large black crab and it stoped. so i put it down to the crab. could be wrong of course but it seemed the obvious thing. and yes i had acro tips shaved as well, assuming by the same crab.

ohh that's jimmy!

yeah right! another tui's add!!!

none of the above, i make my own mix! wanna buy some?

hi wasp, sorry to hear. your corals and shrimp will be ok. the toxin seems to effect only fish. didn't i show you my dried little boxfish? at 4cm he wiped out all the fish in a 330 ltr system including himself.

whats a Q4?

oh my god. little growth, little P/E, crap colours and lots of algae. better start all over again, and cook your rock for at least 5 years, you call yourself a reefer/hobbiest ? and go BB just to be sure, and get a diploma or doctorate in iron control. i think you better start with goldfish or guppy's again. looks good to me, guess you just getting tired of the looks! start fragging! i got to the same stage so now i try to cut leathers, cutting them as thin as poss. to see how thin one can cut them before they stop growing. (haven't reached that point yet). tahat will keep you amused for weeks.

chiller chills the tank but if the room is hot it has to work overtime ($) aircon cools the room which seems to cost less then chilling a tank plus you are nice and cool, tank will sit at ambient room temp. (25-26 deg.). only draw back a good aircon cost more to buy then a chiller.

to hot, you would need some way of cooling the tank. ie chiller, aircon for the whole room.

no its not a mantis thats for sure. wrong body shape and wrong leg structure. it almost looks like a fresh water prawn from south east asia (the type thats been grown in large numbers in the taupo/rotorua area. i would say its a "normal" type a shrimp/prawn of the kind you eat with garlic butter. yumm mantis do not have long antennas and different looking eyes.

it does look good, seen it on reefs 40th b/day (damn he is old ) looks a lot bigger since he removed lots of (god only knows how much) rock. the very white sand helped too.

had one about 5 years ago. wasn't bad, but stuffs up cheap powerheads very fast and shortens lifespan on good ones by quite a bit.

true,but the larger the tank the higher the cost and the end heavy well growing SPS tank will cost you a small fortune (mine over $48 plus a month when i upgraded, don't want how much it would cost me nowadays, also the levels stay more constant)

it helps if you going a way for a couple days or weeks. i clean my skimmer cup weekly but still use a bucket to collect all the crap. this way my skimmer can't overfill and empty the skimmate back into the tank ( in sumpe skimmer) or overflow (external) if it goes ballistic!

you will, if you want to be successful in growing SPS. light alone just doesn't quite cut it.

many beginners also use a selenoid to shut off the CR at night to get a stable ph, but as steve said many don't seem to worry to much about ph (i am one of them my Cr runs 24/7 and i stopped messuring my ph a long time ago) if its 7.8 in the mornig so what as long as everything is happy. will save you lots of sleepless nights worrying about your ph! i counter act the dropping during the night by adding kalkwasser. (which may or may not be a good thing, lots of conflicting arguements)