reef

Had a bit of a clean up so i thought i would snap some pics.

Fish dont need special lighting as they dont use it like coral.

Not really as the fish was dead before th coral got it.

how long is a piece of string? Lots of info on the net on how big some of them get.

4ft tank. ideally with a protein skimmer. canister filter is ok but you will need to do weekly water changes. some form of lighting. Some rock, Cycle the tank for 8 weeks.

Cleaning a few tanks and came across a Elegance Coral (Cataphyllia sp.) And a Mandarin Fish, Cataphyllia looks ok but can say that for the Mandarin. The Mandarin was dead before the Cataphyllia got it as it was floating around dead the day before,

Intersting about dosing plankton as it might not be good for your tank , but is good for breeding marine fish in the early stages. po4 could be a problem and the copper/diatoms. Hobbyist observe that acropora get more polyp extentions, however that does not mean that they use the plankton. the plankton could cause the poylps to extend as they are hitting the corals.

would be interesting to find out how they remove the excess heavy metals from the plankton, When plankton is cultured the water contains high nutrients and has to be removed before you dose it to your tank, Pretty much like growing brine shrimp . you have to dose the plankton with high nutrients to make it nutritional, and the only way is to use fertiliser, So how do they remove the fertiliser, otherwise you will be dosing it to your tank. are you using it? if so can you test the po4 and nitrate to see if any?

Pointless getting it as we have many available like Seachem JBl Seachem have some nice plant products

Interesting re getting live Phytoplankton. Found out from ERMA that we have about 26 Micro algaes that can be imported as it was added by the Auckland university. Maf approval is easy. Be good to get starter culture and to get a easy supply if it crashes. Been looking at importing some however too expensive and it only last for 2-3 weeks and expensive to dose large tanks.

yes they sleep at night but prior and after the lights go out they tend to come out and looking for food. i observe mine hunting copods at the back of the tank all day but never really see him until night time. Mandarins don’t need copods and can do well in a small tank if you have no other fish as they are too slow to compete. Most will eat frozen foods if they can get to it, but nothing beats live food. Might be a ideal source but it is not required to breed copods. i have thousand and dont feed phytoplankton which is hard to look after and requires a lot of work. especially if you want a pure strain. For most hobbyist it is a pain to look after alage cultures. For copods most of the coral type foods would be more than enough to keep the population going. Problem is if you have to many small fish as they will eat most copods so its hard to sustain large populations of them. Having a sump with a small sand bed is ideal as they will breed and you will be able to get large numbers which will go into the main tank and the fish will then feed on them. Like brine shrimp copods are not very selective in foods so they will eat anything. I just started a new small new tank with a few rock and corals with no fish and noticed today that there are hundreds of them. No food has been added to the tank. Copods have more than enough food source in a matured tank. I dosed phytoplankon(nannochloropsis oculata , chlorella and phaeodactylum tricornutum) 2-20 microns. Did not really get great improvment in corals. Most micro algae are only allowed in containment and ERMA has approved a number over the years. Unlikly that it can be imported unless you have a containment facility and keep it contained. would be a cool to breed mandarines as it does not look that hard but takes time. A hobbyist once had a massive mandarin which was stunning, never seen any that large again. You would think in a country that specialises in aquaculture it would be easy to get algae’s and live food, But not so as many places only keep it for themselves.

Not my mandarin but cool pic.

GHL computer with Photo of dosing pump, still to be hooked up. Sysytem is almost 100% up and running. Want to get if fully runing by end year so that it can maybe help before things go wrong and alert me. Nothing worse when coming home and you have no water in the tank. One great feature is that if the temperature of my tank gets to high it will turn of the halides. great for summer. Whilst the full system can be expensive the new light version looks good

sure that will be fine, dont over do it as you will pollute your tank.

i would start the lights after say 3 pm so that it does not get hot, something less to worry about. check kh and calcium before you go on holiday.

dont bother feeding your fish, they can go for weeks without eating, I leave mine and they look great when i get back, Just feed them well a week before you go away.

yes mandarins will eat amphipods also. anything small. They also eat white worms. coral food is the best to boost the copods and amphipods. They multiply really quick, it is small enough for them to take it.

Mandarins won’t eat baby snails. Mine eats copods in the tank, sometimes he eats brine shrimp and mysis. He has been in my tank for about two years and i don’t really try to feed him. They tend to feed at night when the copods are out so it might be a good idea to put some brine shrimp in the tank at night as they might get some. You do need a well established tanks and a substrate for the copods to breed. Not sure that phytoplankton is really required as pods grow like mad and will have more than enough food in an established tank. If you feed coral food then the pods will eat it. At night get a torch and you should see hundreds of copods.

sure

ok, its 1am and i finally got the wireless part going. I can change my settings from my computer. After 7 months of getting it i final got around to set most of it up. This computer does almost everything. SMS texting will be available next month. Hopefully i will have a web cam up so i can check on my tank when i go on holiday. Will get some update photos tomorrow and see if i can connect my nano 6055 to it as it can be used as a Multi controller to pulse pumps.

Using fish to cycle a tank is crude a primitive way, adding a few fish will not produce enough ammonia to do anything. Best way is to add a little ammonia chloride which will spike the tank and start the cycle as the ammonia will be sky high.. here is some info on cycling http://www.betterliving.co.nz/content/a ... cling.aspx

Where on the list early this year but removed to due to technical reasons. Unlikely to be added unless someone wants to pay to get it added.

Twice a week, also add the reef solution that contains iron and minerals. I try to use as many types of coral food so that they get a good variety. I think the most import pasrt is the iron , Most gonioporas do well in Miracle mud tanks which has very high iron in the sand.

That would be the case. Some Goniopora species are harder than others to keep. Goniopora need iron and some sort of coral food. Some Goniopora are harder than others. In perspective more SPS corals would also die within 6 months and fish

Its a hard coral, Pretty easy to keep if you give it lots of current and food.