reef

Substrate is very beneficial for snails. small organisms etc, also small gobys/wrasses. I find keeping a barebottom tank is harder to look after as it seems to be always dirty. Cooking rock is not going to help either as rocks attract dirt so they will always be releasing dirt. no matter how long you cook them. Most bare bottom tanks look like quarantine tanks and look unfinished. Although the odd one looks ok being barebottom. whilst you do get dirt in the sand it should not be a problem as it gets used buy oragainsms and might help with keeping some supply of nutrients for corals as too low nutrient can cause problems. It depends on your tank design as i have more flow than most tanks and i have a substrate. i have over 34 times turnoverof water flow in my tank. I think having a 1 inch substrate will limit the anount of dirt and provide a pleasing look. Germans have arguably the best tanks and none are bare bottom. That is enough anecdotal evidence that substrate is the way to go to have a complete ecosystem.

As mentioned, t5s give you false colours and corals look much brighter under t5s.

Had a bit of time today so i snapped some pics. The photo of the arowana is cool, looks like the numbers are on its body.

TMC in the uk breed cleaner shrimps commercially. http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/hatchery/species-list.asp http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/hatchery/lates ... pments.asp some more info http://www.breedersregistry.org/Reprint ... carlet.htm

Some updates on the selling tanks. plenty of stock

Updated photos of Hollywoods after one year, Geez the reef tank looks good. Nothing special done to it except a big Deltec skimmer, and yes Miracle mud. All the acropora are growing very well. redseamax tank

He uses zeovit with Prodibio products. I dont think it really matters which combination as it comes done to his skill not the products. i doubt there is one single reason why he has a great tank, Whilst he does photoshop a little, and does it well. T5s tend to also give you false/brighter colours. Have not read that he uses phytoplankton in any of his posts? He has a article about it on his home page how filter feeding organisms use it etc, etc. and how the deep sand bed does something. Be good if he could come over and aquascape my tank

Iwan as a great skill with his aquascaping. The t5 look does make the corals look more colourful , the tank looks like a painting.

Iwan has his new tank up, looking great as normal. http://www.hausriff.ch/4534/156972.html

normally when they are sick clowns will go to a cleaner shrimp. Clowns are more interested in being in an anemoe than cleaner shrimps.

You should be able to run a chiller with out a sump if you had to, water goes out of the tank into a pump and the pump pushes the water thru the chiller and back into the tank, so no chiller required. Wish could have a chiller, my power load is at its max in my room so i cant get a chiller going. lucky that my aquarium computer turns off my halides if the temp goes over 28c. great computer,

To be honest i would keep the 3x39w t5s. Did you make your own the light up?

So you want to remove 1x39w t5s? Do you have a photo of your tank? i cant fiind any? should be ok to remove the t5. I would also start the t5s say after 3pm to keep the heat down.

why do you have to pull out the body? it will be gone in a few days? crabs, snails etc will eat it, i never pull small fish out as they get eaten within a few days. I would say your tank is getting white spot because of the temperature flucuations, it is a problem as it is not even hot yet, Since your tang has white spot i would get him out with the damel and treat with copper in a bare tank/ best to do it early as it is easier to treat, All you need is a bare tank, air stone, heater and a few rocks. get cupermine a copper product fom seachem. Your tank is still very new so you do have to watch teh stocking levels, even if you put in live rock, I see so many hobbyist get live rock and think they can go and stock the tank uo with fish,. what normally happens is that they get diseases,. Hobbyist end up killingfish due to stocking to quick, seen it so many times.

Not sure what the problem could be without seeing the damsel, Best us to keep an eye on the tank and see if you notice anything, Pointless taking the damsel out as curing fish has less than 30% success rate. Just leave it and hope he pulls thru. The cyno is a bit of a problem as it means you have nutrients in the water, much be the clean CHCH tap water

the cleaners will remove some external parasites like like monogean worms, glochidia larvae .

They do clean fish if the fish wants to go up to them, some fishes only go up to them if they are sick, It’s a not true that cleaner shrimp will keep white spot under control, getting cleaner shrimps to help with white spot control is a waste of time. white spot is embedded in the skin not on the skins surface so to get the parasite out the shrimp has to break through the skin. Anecdotal evidence seems to support my view that cleaners don’t cure white spot, I have had up to 400 cleaner shrimps in a tank with 1 fish, the fish still got white spot, you would think with so many cleaner shrimps it will help cure it.

Can I use tap water?

Carbon removes organics and that yellow appearance you can get in the water. The protein skimme cant remove it. I personally dont use it as i use Ozone sometimes and Dose Biodigest which cleans the water. At times i use Zeolite which removes organics,

Could be Likely that it could have high Phosphates or too many impurities. Some brands put cheap, gray clinoptilolite-based rock or Zeolite that is not in the carbon family at all in with their carbon. It is quickly clogged by toxins and trace elements. This loses up to 50% of its effectiveness in saltwater Carbon can be made up of peat and lignite. This carbon has few pores and is slow to absorb organics and will be more lilely to release impurities. Ph drop can also happen with cheap carbons.

Few pics i forgot about

Here is info on my tank. Hope you enjoy reading http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt3572.html?start=0

Generally around $70-$150, Apart from the rare ones .

Acanthastrea coral.

The lionfish is gone to Butterfly creek. need a zoo permit to keep them. http://www.butterflycreek.co.nz/