reef

You need to get the correct ballast to match bulb as you cant just use any metal halide ballast to run all metal halide bulbs.

The euroreef and asm would be ok if they had decent pumps to run the needle wheel, The sedra pumps are rubbish as they are loud and not reliable like the eheims. euro reef is still doing testing to find a decent pump to run the skimmers.

Just thought it was funny and the guy sells some cool electronic stuff like ph meters.

Thanks check this out, Might be what you are looking for chimera http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/0351-2494-/auction-32174377.htm

electronic ballast are a waste of time as they run the bulbs too hard and they can cause problems with tv, radio etc. I understand that the digital ones are better, but for aquarium purpose normal ballast are the best so far and digital will be ok once the price drops. When i had the 400w electronic ballast they caused problem with my IKS computer and TV. My 14k bulbs which are blue using a normal ballast went white as they were being driven so hard. So electronic ballast are not that great. Spend the extra money on t5S.

It is no problem to have cleaners and boxing shrimp in the same tank. Currently have a number of boxing shrimp pairs with 50 or so cleaners.

Father Banggai let all the babies go last night and spat them all in the anemone. So far I counted about 30 babies, so all looks good. Feeding on rotifers and will add brine shrimp in a few days. It was pure luck that i got a breeding pair. Placed them in my reef about a two months ago and within a few weeks he was holding the eggs.

I would also agree with too much light . Place in medium water flow and low light, you can move it to more light wants it has settled in. Looks like you still have most of it alive so it should come back.

I use it on my small tank, it is nice but brown colour, Jansens & Hollywood sell something similiar at quarter of the price.

Xenia tends to crash if it gets to big. You need to cut it regularly and put small rocks against it so it can attach, once it is attached, cut it so you will end up with two xenia. Xenia does do better with ph above 8.10 and some nutrients. Lots of water movement is very important.

That is personal

the other thing i thought about using rowaphos is to use it daily only for 2-3 hours for a week and then 4-5 hours and step it up every week as it can bleach your coral as it it will shock them when dropping phostphates to quick and coral can get burned from uv as it also does clear your water.

An Experimental Comparison of Sandbed and Plenum-Based Systems: Part 2: Live Animal Experiments http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/7/aafeature

H & S use the same needle wheel. I did not say Deltec was the best, but it is better than any queen, aquamedic skimmer. They work good but you need a huge pump and then it will cost more than a Deltec. you cant run a small iwaki pump to get good performance, and have you tried to clean them, Check the net. All comments are good. you wll find photos of bubble size,

Photos?? Last photos looked average. Thats a good quess,

You dont always need data to back it up as you can judge it on airflow, bubble size, water mixing ratio, redox of tank, and the amount of waste removed in the cup.

Make sure you also follow the instructions as putting too much rowaphos in will reduce your ph as most iron based product will do that. Be a good idea to dose kaltwasser to get your ph up. People have killed there freshwater fish because they used too much and the ph dropped way down.

Many companies dont as they just add a pump and hope that it will work, The better skimmers do get tested and it takes many test to work out the correct air/water ratio. Most companies cant even tell you how much air is pulled into the skimmer.

I dont think that would be hard to do, but tanks are getting much better in NZ. I think i can count more than 3 tanks that are worth seeing as in the past there were not many. Tanks these days are getting better and in a few years there should be some beauties.

They started to do testing on various skimmers in the states and it has not progressed much, they tested about 6 skimmers and are still looking to test another 20 or so. Hard to get scientific proof and experience with various skimmers is a very good indicator to judge which is a good skimmer. My comments are not an opinion, they are based on experience using various skimmer and feedback.

Good point wasp, i never suggested that you dont need a skimmer as i skim heavy and have always said you need a good skimmer, However I was playing the devils advocate to show that you can go skimless.

Do you research and you will find the answers you are looking for. I have used over 10 skimmers and viewed as many so I think I have a good idea which skimmers work well and which doesn’t. How am I defending short Deltec skimmer?? Just plain fact that a shorter skimmer will generally pull in more air so that is why deltec make short skimmers with bigger tubes, that is why they cost so much. Why do you think, bubble king, h&s have short skimmers?? Yes ,all top line skimmers are expensive and so is a Porsche, When comparing skimmers you can’t go by manufactures ratings, you have to compare by size, so when you do this then you will get a fair price comparison. Get an air meter and test, I have done this and the Deltec does pull in far more air than most skimmers. I am not saying that the aquamedic 5000 skimmer is faulty; they do work however they don’t work as well as they should due to being too high for the pumps they run. The pumps are too small for the height of the skimmer, Jansens have the same skimmer and it does not skim that great. Aquamedic have changed all the pumps to oceans runners as they make the skimmers in china so they can compete in the middle market And at the end of the day is overskimming any good for a tank, who knows? Your last photos did not show any great colour, where are the pics and proof.?

Did you say mainly softies, wasp http://www.korallenriff.de/mark_re_korallen.html To go skimless you need huge sump which is not possable most of the time. But getting a good skimmer is a must

500l is getting up there, Talk to ben at jansens ph 6257915

The caualerpa uses it. and then you trim it. or you use a phostphate remover. skimmers dont take much phostphate out.