Control

The biggest problem with rain water is possible contamanents from your collection area. I you keep that in good order then you want have a problem. If your worried about harmfull bacteria put it through a UV. I'm glad I live in Christchurh. We can take ours straight from the tap. Its nice to know that there is someone else here that doesn't believe in keeping sterille tanks Aaron

Soft board, thats a good way to do it. Is that the comon practice now I haven't seen them in years. I have never seen the wire's fail, if it did you can still put a normal in the system. Aaron.

I've had them Aaron

The biggest problem is the damage to the foam base if you use the wire type. I have seen this problem before, if any shop tells you they don't, ask them to put it writing. Some run hotter than others. Aaron.

That depends on what you are trying to achieve with it. If you using it as a life saver for anything that may grow or hatch you don't want to be flushing it out the other end. Aaron.

Ira Has a good point, if you aren't using carbon try a small amount. If it is toxin related it could help. If you are and it's not fresh change it. You really need to be able to isolate the cause by using one method at a time, the problem with that, is you may loose it if the solution isn't found quickly enough. Its frustrating when you fix something, but don't really no what you did to fix it. Aaron.

That one is single point calibration. I have an AquaController2 which uses two point calibration. To calibrate the ORP you use PH4 for the low point and PH7 for the high both are saturated with Quinhydrone. They have some for the Aquadyne unit, but US$28 seems a bit much for a couple of single shot pouches and a stirring stick. I may have found some elsewhere on the net. 500ml PH4, 500ml PH7and a 250ml of Quinhydrone as a kit, but there was no price. I,ll email them and add a link to them incase anyone needs it. Aaron.

I can't find the one you see for US$6 Aaron.

It might be easeir to just get some from Marine Depot. Aaron.

Thanks. They don't seem to have any. I miight give BioLab a ring. Aaron

Does anyone know where I can get Quinhydrone in NZ Aaron

Seweeeet Aaron

Iduncan I never had that with any of my test. And if it did happen an established tank would take care of it very quickly. The bottom of a mud filter is an anaerobic filter. Nitrate reactors are anaerobic filters that do an excellent job of removing not absorbing nitrates. In these very specific conditions bacteria remove the oxygen molecule from nitrate and turn it into nitrogen gas that leave the filter in bubbles. The same thing happens in your live rock and substrate, are they saying that we should not use these as well? I don't understand how anyone can come to these findings What they need to live is not 100% known what you have listed above is the basics of all life on this planet and by no means is it complete list. Life is not that simple. That all depends on the rest of the system and/or environment, there are to many possible variants to come to just one conclusion. If people have that problem they can make a sump with two chamber and cycle between them so one could be strip while the other is running. That would be an interesting experiment. reef. All forms of filtration are important. The issue is the order that they are done in. Mechanical removal from water to minimize the amount of biological filtration. Biological of what is left and what mechanical cannot remove. Reactors to remove the side effects of biological creates Aaron.

To my knowledge Maf *#%%$#! doesn't allow crabs. This is one of there many amazingly stupid rules. You can import live corals on rocks which may contain crabs in there holes But you cannot import crabs. Yet ships coming to our harbours dump millions of litres of builge water from other countries in our water every year. Most of thier decissions in these maters are regarding things that can affect our invioroment based on assumption not research. I recall being told that they were setting up a system where people could pay for the research and get them approved if they weren't a problem, and it wasn't cheap. The problem was that one person would be pay for it while everyone else would benefit. I don't know what happened with this in the end.

That's the best time to sit back and and admire the living invioroment that you have created. To me it's all about being able to create the perfect invioroment in the system for the creatures we keep as well as the visual effect of the tank. Aaron.

Most Negative Ion reactors create ozone as well to remove smells Using Negative Ions would not increase the Redox Potential in the water. A Negative Ion unit that removes smells would, because it will have a UV tube in it, which creates ozone. Most would be a nightmare to try and hock up. You must remember that the most important reason for using Ozone is to alter the structure of the oxygen in the tank. The process of making ozone adds an extra atom to oxygen, that extra atom then leaves the oxygen when it makes contact with pollutants and helps lift it out of the water thus making even Deltec skimmers more efficiant than they already are, and enabling the water in the tank to hold a higher saturation of oxygen like a real reef has. Negative Ions will not do this. You can use UV water Sterilizers but the problem with them is that you are using UV and ozone at the same time and that is just to much for a reef because most of them would have to run for far to long. However Ozone units that use UV tubes to create ozone are fine. I use an old Red Sea with a built in controller, which died on me. I have bypassed the control internally so my AquaController 2 can control it. The Red Sea units use an electrical arc which is powered by what is known as a step-up transformer the primary is 220v 50HZ the secondary is 5000VAC 10mA. Basically a small lightening generator. I haven't used the UV tube type of ozone generators, so I can comment on which is best. If any of you that haven’t used ozone before decide to try these things, please ask one of us that have about setting them up, you must understand what they do and why to be able to get the best from them. Ozone can cause headaches and eye problems. Humans can smell ozone at 1 ppm. If you can smell ozone it doesn't mean that you have any in your tank water, smell the top of your tank. you will no it if it is there. Always use an o3 test kit !!! It should always read 0 ppm You must vent the top of your skimmer outside or through dry carbon. it is rare but if you use carbon it can get hot and ignite I just vent mine outside. The skimmer water output must go through carbon before it goe's anywhere else, the amount depends on the amount of ozone that the tank require. If you detect 0.05 ppm it is not a problem, don't panic, turn the unit off and check the condition of the carbon if it looks like its disintergrating then it should have been changed along time ago. The Ozone leaves the tank very quickly. Aaron

Sorry I'm not thinking very well. I spent all of last night in the hospital with my wife and still haven't been to bed yet. However I still think it's a valid point.

It really frustrates me seeing a filter room like this. I would love to be able to do that below my house but I would have to dig a big hole. Fantastic work Chimera Have you put a beer fridge and lazyboy in it yet. Aaron.

That link about the temp could be right. Bob at Redwood Aquatics used to keep his tanks at 22 to increase the o2. The tank I just mentioned could well be lower but I don't now if it is or not. If that is the case they could even be sensitive to low o2 levels. Just like air, the colder it is the higher the o2 level. I might fix my test tank and experiment with differant levels of o2 at differant temps, it could be interesting. Aaron.

One of the shops down here in Christchurh "Redwood Aquatics" has one of those all in one package deal tanks with a basic type of marine filter system in it and the Xenia is spreading all over the walls and will soon become a problem. This tank is not by any means what you would call a clean tank. Is anyone else that has a really clean/sterille tank having any luck with them. Aaron.

My ozone unit comes on for around five to ten minute in every two hours when the ORP level falls below a certain point and then switches off. The speed that they are being killed at is far less than they can multiply. It is not an issue. It would only be a problem if it was running constantly. Ozone should never be run constantly. Aaron

Pies I'm probably going blind but where did "Bourneman" say that Aaron

This is one of the points I'm making. Stability is one of the most important things in a reef tank All forms of filtration and additives must be a constant, or if need be a controlled constant to keep stability in the system. Not once a week or once a month. Ozone when used properly with a controller does not cause these problems. I've been using it for over 8 years without any of these problems. It has only ever been of benifit. I'm still not sure about the idea of stopping and starting calcium reactors without apropriate sensors and control for them, as I have read some people do. Aaron

Layton. No I'm not guessing, I have read it in a number of books that I have. I'll try to find where once I've found the pictures. Regardless of the fact that I have read this many times, it is common sense. Every thing that corals etc. need to survive is supplied to them in and through the water. Bare with me I'm doing this from memory. I did keep diaries on all of my test tanks, I just don't now were they are. All the obvious + O2 test kit. Co2 test kit. I also set the ozone units set point to 0 so it would stay off, I was then able to continue to monitor the ORP level with the ozone unit. The tank already had an established Algae Turf Scrubber and mud filter. As I expected the growth rate in the turf scrubber increased first followed by the algae in the mud filter. I remember I had to do allot of algae pruning to make sure there was plenty of new growth happening to avoid any phosphate spikes. The increase in growth slowed but was still more than it was when it had the skimmer. I actually took samples of full-length algae’s before and after so I could record what was happening to their growth. I Remember that I tested before and after lights on in the morning and lights off at night, however I can't remember the length of time that I used after lights on and after light off which was important. They were recorded. I do remember that I had no changes with all the tests. They have been proven to be many different things in many varyations, it depends on the nature of the environment that is being studied. Are you guys not pruning your algae? It's the new growth that doe's the work. The bases in these filters are aerobic at the top to anaerobic at the bottom with algae rooted into it sucking nutrients including Phosphates out constantly. They only start leaching if you stop pruning the algae, that encourages the new growth which consume the That is pretty much a full biological filter in itself with a built in nitrate and nitrite reactor. Aaron

Brianemone No I’m in Christchurch. But as I said earlier My last remaining test tank has a crack in the front and is sitting in the garage waiting for me to fix it, and my main tank is only operating with half of it's system. I lost most of my stock when my test tank cracked after we moved house along time ago. I 'm trying to find the pics but in the process discovered some boxes of stuff that were never unpacked when we moved into this place. This may take a while. I'll get them up as soon as possible Due to my wife’s high medical bills the tanks have been suffering, but I am slowly trying to get them back to the way they were. She has a condition called Interstitial Cystitis which is an autoimmune disorder related to the bladder. My wife lives in constant pain, which is why I had to leave my job to look after our kids so we don't have any spare money for the tanks at the moment. reef. From what I've seen overseas it's a bit of a mix just like carbon, some do and some don't for varying reason. The amount of bacteria that passes through a skimmer would be probably 0.01 percent of the bacteria that would still be left in the tank let alone the filter. It doesn't need to go through the entire tank system to multiply, it only has to move 0.0001 of a mm. Bacteria multiply extremely fast when there is food available. I don't think the one's that pass through the skimmer will be missed. And it is a constant. Yes ozone does kill the living things that pass through it including algae and bacteria but it doesn't strip the water sterile like carbon can Ozone Also kill's the breading cycle of many fish parasites and diseases, which I have never had in any of my tanks. How? Ozone increases the waters ability to hold o2, which helps the skimmer to foam better and lift out more organic matter, ammonia and proteins, which are the main cause's of the cycles that lead to phosphates, nitrates and nitrites. The water that returns to the tank is stripped of Ozone by means of a tray of carbon as soon as it leaves the skimmer but the water still has the ability to hold more o2 so you can better simulate the high levels of o2 that reefs have. Funny that, I’ve read of people using carbon in that manner as well. I believe that both carbon and/or ozone when used should be used as a constant to avoid fluctuation in the tanks environment. For carbon use less and obviously change more often When Ozone is used the Redox Potential should be maintained at no more than 350 mv and not less than 250. Like every thing else there is allot of debate about what the best level is. What was the unit you were using? Did it have a controller and ORP probe or were you just continuously dossing the tank at a low level. Aaron.