reef

Reef solution, Salifert trace soft/trace hard. Alternate between the two. Feed Coral food once a week, Prodibio reef booster which contains Amino acids All on dosing pump and only dose 1/2 what instructions say?

I think it is better to be a brown coral as you will have a better life. cool how ther are out of the water.

nice pics, got anymore. lots of the coral look brown.

Few changes to be made as i am seriously looking at 6500k lamps due to the excellant growth rates. only problem is that they put out a yellow/green light which hopefully will be of set by the blue t5s. Have to check the specs as they need to run on Mercury vapour ballast.

updated pics june, Photo of Male banggai holding eggs. male is on the left. Would be nice to get the breeding as importing them is not the best as not many survive. So in 30 days we will see how they go as the male is not that fat, Males dont eat for 30 days due to holding the eggs. Photo of my cataphyllia, been doing really well so far. Could be the only Cataphyllia alive in NZ. Almost lost it but when Miracle Mud was added it came back, The mud has been removed and it is still doing well. Could be the addition of iron and trace elements that i dose daily, even the goni is doing well.

maybe

Looks all good for sunday, hope the weather is ok. Please confirm by email or pm me

Still is a lot of money over a year, Something to think about when setting up a large tank.

Are you sure, it could be $4.95

Doc, just keep things simple as possible, one 40mm hole will be more than enough for your tank outlet in the corner. I don’t see the need for 2 overflows.

So i think you estimate of $5 a day will average out over the year as in summer the cost will be lower. So it cost about $2000 a year on power. Does add up.

from RC The zeolite used for the reef aquarium hobby is a clinoptilolite, characterized by strong ammonia affinity and only minor calcium affinity. All other zeolites used in the fresh water hobby strongly adsorb calcium... not really good for marine tanks. However, when te clinoptilolit adsorbs ammonia, bacteria can simply nitrify the ammonia to generate nitrate (oxic surface), which is further denitrified within the molecular sieve of the zeolite (anoxic inner surface). Ammonia adsorption is the key why the current within a zeolit filter must be high, otherwise bacteria would'nt have any chance to catch any dissolved inorganic nutrient. As these clinoptilolites also contain iron and manganese, we have discussed whether iron and manganese dissolve in seawater and bind orthophosphate in the water column. These metal-phosphates might then be skimmable. But this hypothesis is still unprooved. However. when you put zeolite in the water, your aquarium water gets cristal clear within 24 hours. I think, that's due to the iron/manganese release and subsequent skimming of metal-phosphate colloids. But as I said, that's an unprooved hypothesis. Zeovit is a product name, not a specific zeolite. Zeovit ist the clinoptilolite, zeofood is a growth medium for heterotrophic bacteria with ammonium acetate as carbon source for heterotrophic bacterial nutrition, enriched with amino acids and vitamins, and the zeobac bacteria T. Pohl sells might be Paracoccus denitrificans (because these are commonly sold as aquarium bacteria in Germany). That's it with zeovit. You can also combine zeolites with vodka. The zeolite works independently from any carbon source you add to the water, because the main function of the zeolite is to adsorb ammonia.

Looks good, cant wait for the full version, Could be a good seller in the states if the price is competitive.

Would not be worth it as you have to have a real big pump as you lose so much flow.

i think it was a joke

radium blue, have to replace every 6 months, so thay cost $200 a year .can use them longer however big colour change. The higher the kelvin rating the less the lamps will last. i got a better price, my new light is costing about $4000. cheap

which 400w bulbs cost $100???

Make, model,kelvin, retailer etc, $100 is not the normal price,

18% more light is really nothing as it is 18 % of what? 400w ballast cost more than 250w ballast. 400w bulbs cost more than $100. Unless you get 4000k bulbs. I rang radium lighting and they cost $120 plus GST. End of the day it is much the same price, it comes down to the amount of power and for me the extra 18% light is nothing as most coral don’t sit on the ground they are half way up or more. 400w unit cost about 30% more as you can’t have a DIY special in lounge unless you can hide the lights. I have actually seen tanks with 150w metal halides that are getting great colours and growth. So more light is not always better. I think for efficiency per watt, 150w wins.

Using a 400W lamp over a 250W lamp one would expect to see about 60% increase in PPFD, but clearly this is not the case based on the lamps tested. Given the costs of electricity in most places, I think its time for aquarists to seriously reconsider the use of 400W 10000K lamps(FEATURE ARTICLE by SANJAY JOSHI AND TIMOTHY MARKS) Based on the article it is about 18%. which is no much. Also having used both 250w and 400w i would really agree with the article as i have not had any real gains on my tank which would justify the extra power. So if anyone is in the market for 400w double units with new bulbs .PM me.

400w could be cheaper over short term but long term it could cost far more.

I recommend everyone get the issues of THE CORAL mag as it covers lots of this stuff under -Nutrients in the reef aquarium. Great articles. Here is a very interesting paragraph discussing the Redfield ration The Redfield ratio refers to the ration of carbon, nitrogen and phosphate atoms in the dry matter of an organism. Insufficient phosphate resulting in phosphate limitation is almost always deadly. A coral will attempt to capture as much particulate material from the water as possable, to satisfy its phosphorus needs. This is the reason why polyps are usually exposed. If the coral doesn’t succeed in satisfying its phosphorus needs, it will literally eat itself. This usually begins at the base of the coral in order to keep the bleached, yet healthy, upper coral tissue alive. Anyway might be a bit of the subject but I thought it very interesting.

The problem is that testing for iron is not easy in saltwater. Who does the test kits?? Another question re the zeovit reactors, why have they reduced the water going through the reactor?? i think first it was suppose to be 2000L and now it is far less??

I believe that they have changed all the zeolite. I have the old media that they used to get from Aqualight and I have the new media that they use. The media is different, however on observation it looks like the new media has more iron as when you break up the new media I can see more rust marks. Someone must be able to test to see how must goes into the aquarium as one sign of overdosing iron is more algae in the tank and I have not noticed this. When I used to dose an iron supplement and put too much in I use to get lots of Algae all over the rock/glass and now when I add zeolite I don’t get any algae. Mr NZ zeovit should be able to find out from Thoma Pohl why they changed media and how much iron goes into the tank. I still believe the weekly water changes are made to reduce iron and the addition of carbon. But then why cant you use a zeolite that is low in iron.??

Had a big week this week trying to sort out all the cables under my tank and sump room as they are all over the place. I also worked out why some of my metal halides would not start sometimes. It looks like I am close to the load of the power source as I must be powering half of Auckland. So it looks like I will go back to 250w Metal halides as this will reduce the load and found that there is no benefit in 400w vs the 250wDE except a biggest power bill. Here is a pic of the wiring after tidying it up; I still have to cable tie the cables.