reef

Nice new acro pic

I would do you homework first before you add anything. If you dont know the temp then you have not done the research.\ Not trying to be smart, but i just hate seeing animals die for no good reason.

I would not waste my time fixing a tank, just get a new tank, wants you start to pull it apart you will weaken the other joins. i personally dont think it is worth all the hassle,

Generally We have about 20 at the Meeting.

Well its time again. 3rd July , Sunday 1pm. email me and i will provide details of meet next week. [email protected]

These old arcadia units are mercury vapour ballast, designed to run iwaski 6500k lamps.

Have you had the replacement bulbs yet Ira, how are they looking.??

I see that, it is a old test as zeovit do use a different zeolite, Be good to test the tank water.

Has anyone actually measured the iron levels before and during the zeovit system?? Cant be that hard to do.

Who really cares if it is not 100% the same stuff or more expensive. Zeolite is Zeolite. providing it can be used in seawater ,some might have more iron minerals etc or more pure etc. You can compare them, The princapal is the same but Red Sea skimmer might work better than Deltec for example. So Zeovit works the same as Tunze Zeolite or better because you are adding bactaria and feeding it. all very simple. At the end of the day the Tank of the Month is based on skill not the fact that it uses zeovit to reduce nutrients. I doubt it is a proven method yet as many hobbyist including myself did not get a reduction in nitrates and PO4. It seems to work differently on each tank

yes you cant use any zeolite . But the Tunze zeolite for example looks identical, i suspect they come from the same place. Nothing special about zeovit zeolite just marketing speak. I doubt they are out there mining their own zeolite. End of the day how a tank looks is down to the skill level of the hobbyist.

To much to read, but does he say that DSB's and plenums are crap

Interesting , Good points by ldrhawke. Zeo is a very basic system that does work, I quess most people dont like all the secret behind it. and the coral losses, Most people who use zeo have success, but then there are many that wont admit that they have had huge coral losses. Many companies now also do zeolite which you can put in the filter, it does the same thing. The media even looks the same. My experiance so far which acids/zeolite dosing has been that everything starts ok then total wipeout of all my soft corals and a few acros. This has happen 3 times. My corals did start to look good, but no reduction in phostphates and nitrates. Then i have tested some tanks using zeo and phostphates are almost zeo insome and still hight in others. Like any product it has its pluses and minuses . Hopefully soon we will see a zeo tank from NZ on reefcentral in the next 20 years.

Sure there must be a warranty. Bulbs last about 18 months. Lets us know how the replacements go.

Here is the info on sand beds. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/6/aafeature

Maybe you should use Zeovit Layton.

Buying salt is not expensive, at $129 for 25 kg. is pretty cheap.

Yep, that is why I don’t advocate cheap equipment and livestock.

Yep. they die, 50% or more within 6 months

under 100 reef tanks under 50 fish only tanks. This excludes shop tanks.

Not many. There is no benefit for any one to approve more species etc as no one is making money to make it worth there while. If they were they would have added new species years ago. This is as good as it gets, and it is way better than we have every had it. Best is to wait and see what happens over the next 6-12 months after MAF have done a review. I understand most importers will be involved anyway. If you read you local paper they are reviewing all imports of livestock and are also looking at the red ear turtle as it has been found living out west.

I think steveA has summarised it well and did a great job in giving me a hand. If you can fund it and have $5k plus to waste per species then go ahead I doubt anyone will part with any money as it will not be recovered. Also there are other factors to consider as getting coral in the future is not a given due to the reefs being decimated. I also doubt any coordination will make any difference as we just don’t have the expertises in NZ to help, and any more submissions will only open more questions for ERMA. and if it gets to hard they will just ban everything.

In terms of adding any new species is out of the question, unless you have endless cash to do the research that is required to get new species approved thru ERMA. Spending money on new species would cost over $5000 per item so it will never be recovered as no one is making any real money selling these items. I have already added the leathers/xenia to the allowable list at my own cost and this was a 2 year major project. NO group can actively lobby MAF as it is pointless, MAF only enforce the law not set the law. The problem we have in NZ is that no one is qualified to comment on anything to do with coral. i think we need to appreciate what we got and live with it. So far nothing has changed and just need to move on as too much information just blurs the lines of information provided to MAF.

so true, but what about all the damage that is done by overfishing and development. More Damage is done by humans that anything else.

Shit guys are in the wrong game, pet shops make $100 hr