reef

Also great job on cleaning the tank. looks like new.

The sump is pretty small, maybe get a hang on skimmer and remove the sump. The sump is so small that the skimmer will be skimming the same water coming out of the skimmer. This is not very efficient. I would keep the set up how it is and see how it goes as you don’t want to be spending more money upgrading the faults in the tank. Buying second hand can end up costing more than starting from brand new.

Thanks cookie. In terms of the photos i was referring to my pics. they come out more clearer on other web sites. maybe something to do with band wide.

One thing i noticed is that the photos dont come out very clear on this web site for some reason. photos look very flat and matty compared to reef central where they have far more glossy look.

I would normally have them on the side of the tank.

Thanks dudes. The scroll does not fight with it as they dont touch, i am going to have to move the scroll as it is getting to big and the monti is not that well coloured as it does not get enough light . edit. i thought you meant the other red scroll. the yellow scroll does not seem to be bothered by the red scroll. All in all the tank looks ok, i give it 7/10. it has room for improvement as the cal/kh levels are not maintain that well so growth is not that great. when i do get my levels up the growth is pretty good.

So hard to get pics as the lights are so bright, causes problems for the camera. Most of these pics are going to be in the english Magazine PFK soon in Tanks of the world article. A follow up from 10/2003.

this guy is a beauty

time for a small update,

No. the red sea regal are much more colourful.

nice pic of my regal angel

Bigger sumps means more water which means better coral growth. Can only be good. The lighting will depend all on what corals you keep. The lighting power comes down to which bulbs you use and ballast. T5s give you a good spread of light and IMO more tubes the better. Most t5s will lose the output within 6 months , if you get nore tubes then you will get a better spread of light on the sides, so it depends how wide you tank is vs the amount of tubes. In terms of metal halides I think you can put to much light on tanks as discussed here about a year ago. cant find the link, it was the same time everyone ran out and changed to 400w which i said was a waste of time. But saying that 400w would be ok on bigger tanks as they put out better spread, My tank runs 250w and 400w and i have found no differance in corals other than the 400w look a little brighter. the 400w is a big bulbs so you get far better spread of light. Also things to think about is not all bulbs are the same. some 250w bulbs are brighter than 400w bulbs, especially the bluer bulbs tend to put out less light. so a 250w 10k would put out more light than a 400w 20k. If you run a tank that has low nutrients then light is not that important as you will starve your corals if you have to much light. and that is how you get rtn. Corals cant use the extra light so in a low nutrient tank they basically eat themselves to get food as they need the energy to use the extra light.

Takes about 4 days to got quite on the nanos

you just want to drive your car. make sure you bring it over for a test drive on our new drive way.

the above is ok except no water change. use saltwater to start the cycling process. if you use freshwater you will kill the bacteria. Did you shop at organisms again

No rush to get a impeller then? you wont be ready for 6 months maybe

The clips are crap. but will be replaced. Tunze are developing new ones.

yes, 6055 will work on a 7095

using 6025, 6045 Have not tried the 6055. yet.

Pretty cool photos. got more

If only it was that easy.

Good to start over, find it boring having nothing to do to my tank. i wish Hopefully someone will sort out the impeller for your skimmer

In my opinion i think you will find the mce600 is much better. Just by looking at the skimmers specs you will see that the mce600 is much bigger and has a far bigger pump. sure it cost more but you wont have to upgrade and bigger skimmer the better as it will remove organics far quicker before they cause problems. Not far for me to review as i am the Deltec agent for nz, Have been for over 10 years as i am still impressed with them after all that time. Price is always a problem, but come to the conclusions that nothing good is cheap. checkout the reviews on the mce600 http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/8/ ... erm=mce600 http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/7/ ... erm=mce600

The thread raises some very interesting questions. It is something i think about every time i bring stock in as i see how many losses you have and then further losses down the track. I take great care in looking after marine fish for 3 weeks and then it disappoints me that many hobbyists think they are some sort of endless commodity where they think they can get some live rock and then set up a tank the next day. Sure it can work but it takes time for a tank to mature. Cost seems to be a big factor and every post you seem to read someone posts something about price. In my opinion if you can’t afford it then the hobby is not for you as doing it cheap has consequences as you can’t get decent water quality using cheap equipment and it is even harder if you take short cuts. we only have less than 400 Hobbyist and if you count all the fish that come in we should all have about 100 fish each, however not the case as 70% die within a few months of buying them. 90% of coral that come in are wild. 99.9% of fish are wild caught. Hobbyists don’t want to spend the money as aqua cultured corals cost more and are smaller in size. In short term the Hobby will cost even more as stock is getting hard to get. Most tank raised fish imported cost too much and even harder to get as there is a short supply and cost effects us more as we have high air freight cost and Compliance cost. The big problem is places like the USA which get hundreds of imports a year and Hobbyist just kill them faster as they are cheap due to the number imported and no quarantine period. Only way to stop some of the deaths to livestock is to raise the prices as this will stop Hobbyist doing it on the cheap and since they have more money invested they might even buy decent books and do some research before getting into marines.

any discussions re ethics of marine fish can be continued here as we dont want to spoil this good thread . http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/here-vp262203.html#262203