reef

whats the question

How is the range limited? what is missing? At least you have a few stores that stock marines so you should have a good range. Auckland only has Hollywoods that has a good range.

Just cut it in the tank and leave the main part,

Hows the variety in CHCH these days?

Best method is to attached with a rubber band. The problem you get cutting umbrella leathers is that you loss the nice round shape. Glue does not work very well.

The Jewel tanks are excellent, really well made and they cost abit but worth it, All the new units come with t5s lighting. Far better than the cheap asian units that fall apart after a few years.

cool link http://www.fish.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/9D2B15AD-8CB4-4F60-A083-75A15C83DCAA/1577/NZ_aquatic_report_No_1_A4_section02.pdf

If you want it to skim more then you need a bigger skimmer, however it should be more than enough for you tank. Skimmer dont take out everything so doing maybe weekly water change will help. The skimmer tape should be at 2oclock and you can adjust the cup height to suit your needs, as you get less waste in the tank i would lower the cup. You could also run some carbon which will remove things the skimmer cant. Just make sure it does not over flow. Cyno seems to be a problem at the moment due to the hot temperatures as i have also had a break out in my sump. But they could also be fuelled by the iron i am adding. I will turn my lights off for 2-3 days and most will go.

Not sure about that, i have always read on the boxes that it says use ro/di. If you use tap water then you are adding more trace elements which are already in the salt, Could be that some salts are low in trace elements etc as they allow for the extra to come from tap water.

Freshwater dip will kill it off faster, its basically too late, only way to save some is to cut off most of it and see if you can save something. if it gets worse throw it out as it can effect other euphyllia coral if you have any. I have seen this so many times in euphyllia, once they go you have little chance of saving it. Its a real problem when importing them hence the high price as it is a major risk coral. However once established they do very well.

I would not have a clue. i play with the manuel settings until i get a good balance of colours,

Most salt is designed to use with ro water. not sure about the asian cheap stuff. Using pro salt might be better suited for tanks with high calcium requirement. Any how if you have a tank with a high calcium requirement it does not matter what salt you use as you will still have to add lots of calcium after a few days. The fact that some tap water is low in po4 and has zero nitrate you should still only use ro or di as it will contain lots of other trace elements which is already in most salt mix.

It is not hard to add fish, just takes lots of time and does cost but not over the top. Hopefully someone will start to add new species otherwise in 5-6 years we will miss out on many of the new species that are discovered,. Good project for hobbyist to undertake, here is some info. First get ERMA approval then MAF. should be done in 3-5 years. dont for get you have to also do this http://www.erma.govt.nz/resources/publications/pdfs/ER-QG-18-3.pdf

Your lighting is more than enough except the corallux would be pretty dim. I would change that to a better bulb. the light output would be pretty low especially being 20k. In the first photo when you set up the tank looks so bright. what test kit are you using as not many will go low enough to test po4.? The salifert will go low as you can double the sample to get down to .001 Even better get a photometer or deltec po4 test kit. I would take it easy on the bacterial system as your tank does not have many hard corals and these systems can cause problems like leather corals /mushrooms melting away, Had it happen to me after taking a bacterial system to the limit to get better colours. sps survive but many soft corals did not like it, Your are at a bigger risk as having no substrate will mean the tank is even more clean which could starve the corals. The green montipora on the right might be getting to much light as they tend to colour up much better in medium light,

What is your final light set up. as the tank looks dim compared to the first photos. what are you doing with all the corals on the basebottom? did you run out of room. I understand the fustration with the acropora being brown , i had the same problem when starting due to the lack of information. Typically the acropora will go brown due to much nutrients in the tank and sometimes lack of light, However i think you are running 150w metal halide which should be ok. Nutrients can be po4/ nitrate etc and other elements we cant test for. what is your po4 and nitrate readings? Getting a ro unit is good idea as rainwater has lots of nutrients and could be the cause of your acropora going brown. Your tank has bright green algae on the bottom which is also a sign of not good water quality, It will take a few months to remove these so i would be adding carbon and a good phostphate remover. Your tank id barebottom so it is going to important to feed your corals as they will starve and not grow as many use organics in the water and The profilux computer is pretty good and i dont have a issue with mine. I have everything on it and waiting for the sms texting so that i can get text on my mobile if anything goes wrong. The good thing about the profilux is that they are always updating it and you can add modules to it. GhL who make the aquarium controller have many models and some are very good value. I better got to bed

When taking photos best to close curtains as you don’t want sunlight. I don’t use a flash or if i have to you take the photos side on so the light does not flash back. Generally if you have metal halides on your tank you don’t use a flash. Turn floro lights off as they seem to distort the photos, i get better pics using only metal halides. I cut & crop the photos 90% of the time , also to get one good photo i have to take about 10. Still learning everyday as so much to learn about taking photos, With my camera i try to use manual as i can adjust the white balance and other settings to suit, Its hard taking photo of tanks as metal halides cause problems for the camera,

Hope it goes ok, Make sure you give it lots of water current so it can blow away the dead flesh . I found that once you get the brown jelly disease you have less than 20% chance of it making it. Best solution is to see if you can cut away the dying bit and some good part as well to make sure the brown jelly has not spread.. to cut the dying bit away you need a hack saw. start cutting the bottom of the shell upwards so you get a nice clean cut. Wait a few days first to see if the coral keeps dying. keep us posted,

The list is going to stay the same other than a few fish which might be added. Its coming up to three years since some fish where added and still waiting, If you want to add anything you have to get it approved by ERMA and then MAF. Takes about 3-5 years.

All pics from my tank. Its is part of the Entacmaea quadricolor family which is the same as a rose anemoe,. However this is not a rose colour but pink/orange

More random pics

??? They are on the list and always have been Ricordea florida Ricordea fungiforme Ricordea neglecta Ricordea rupicola Ricordea yuma Just hard to get. Also very expensive as you only get 1 mushroom on a rock which is to expensive for the new zealand market.

My favorite ricordia

When breeding it is best to get a book and get info from the professionals or from someone who has breed them. The hardest part is feeding the babies for the first week then it is easy. you can get rotifers and microalgae so its all available, When breeding it is best to get prepaired so i would flag this batch and do some homework. The clown will breed often anyway, also depends which clowns you have as some are harder than others.

Do you have a protein skimmer?

As mentioned looking at the phot it is hard to tell. However the tank does look like it has lots of nusinse algae which are a result of the tank not having good water quality. I was reading my favourite magazines and read this: The skeleton of euphyllia are often riddled with boring algae. If the water has a high nutrient load, these algae grow faster then the Euphyllia which often results in the death of the coral. It’s hard to tell from the photo but their is a real possibility as it could be boring algae, At this stage i would not make drastic changes but would look at improving the water quality so that the nusinse algae goes. Are you using tap water of ro/di?? What do you feed the fish? Can you put a full tank pic up? What is your filtration? How do you measure you salinity. Sorry for all the questions,