reef

lend me your pottasium kit when you get it and i will test the theory.

I dont want to take sides but this is what i have found. when doing po4 testing it is important you dont get your fingers on the regents as this can make a big differance . po4 is hard to read at low levels so most test kits will not go that low as a hanna meter. however saying that when i get readings of .02 on the hanna meter the salifert test kit will still read it when you double the sample. using a merc test kit which is lab grade i still can get low reading however its hard to read the colours on the chart. i find using the hanna meter gives me a number so i dont have to worry about my eye guessing which colour it is. i am still not sure if readings of say .05 are bad for a tank as i have seen tanks with readings of .20 and still have nice acro colours. i cant understand why no one can do a organic po4 test kit. actually they can however you have to heat the sample etc, sounds like it takes a long time. i already hate doing a strontium test.

looks interesting, however seen reports that they clogg up really easy, so will wait and see over the next year if they work well. Iwan need to lay of the supa photo shop. would be nice to see his tank as it is. even the current photos look really photo shopped.

You are out of date with times. i have not sold boron test kits for 3 -4 years as i found no use for them personally on my tank. i only used the boron example as a joke. so sorry not making any $ if i dont sell boron test kits. i think my tank is more than enough facts for me. i dont add any pottasium. tried it and found that it darken my corals, i dont have bleech corals like zeovit users who have to darken corals. pottasium might help some but i dont see any hard facts either. Sure it is, increments of 50ppm does not sound really accurate to me. i will get one form hollywoods when they arrive. Hows does boron advertise anything? no zeovitnz/aust. did you lose the aust

these things eat fish all the time, i had a friend who saved his yellow tang twice, however 3rd time it ran out of luck. some info The largest mushroom anemones are from the genus Amplexidiscus, which have small tentacles spread out over their discs, and can reach a diameter of up to twelve inches. These are known as 'elephant ears' and are known to 'eat' fish! This is one mushroom anemone I would not recommend. I have one and have not been able to keep any gobies or blennies in the same tank, as they will eventually meet their fate as food for these large mushrooms, due to their habit of 'resting' on corals. Elephant ear mushroom anemones have a potent sting, which stuns the fish, and then they just roll up around it, trapping the fish so they can slowly digest it.

I am still trying to get to the great bit. so i might dose some boron.

yes, i forgot about that. so list should read Po4 Nitrate Calcium Kh magnesium and have these kits available if you have problems so you can test. ammonia nitrite and if you have time to test strontium iodine

Actually tested po4 yesterday, it was .24ppm a bit high as I have not been running rowaphos for sometime. I put in some phos buster and just tested and the po4 was .04ppm. Will test tomorrow again. I think it is a bit of a fallacy that dropping po4 to quick will cause problems for acros. I think the problem with rowaphos etc is that they also clean the water which causes the corals to burn due to the extra light they get from the clear water. Rowaphos can also drop kh if you add too much.

Just leave the tank and let it do its thing. You could add bacteria like bio digest which are live bacteria; it may speed up the cycle. Try Hollywood’s as they have just started cycling and have added ammonia chloride and bio digest. it takes about 6 weeks to cycle.

You don’t have to worry about potassium. To get an accurate test kit you will have to spend hundreds/thousands.. It is not easy to test for. Adding potassium will darken you corals. Even if levels are low I doubt they will effect your corals much as it is not used much like calcium and kh. Main things to test is Po4 Nitrate Calcium Kh

I think you tank is cleaner now so the skimmer will be taking out less. skimmers will always take out lots when you start them and a few months on will take out less as there is less to remove. A bigger skimmer will help to a degree however will not solve the problem. i over skim more than anybody else and i still find it hard to keep the nitrates down. skimmer dont remove all organics. reduce feeding, dont feed frozen foods will help. if still finding it hard try a sulphur nitrate reactor. keep doing the water change. maybe 10% every week.

just change 50%. should drop the nitrate. you will have to heat the water to about the same as the tank. then do another 50% a week on.

UV does kill off free floating bacteria that is exposed to UV, However, the percentage of total bacteria that is killed off by your UV is minimal . Uv will not reduce nitrates. How high are they? If you have high nitrates then do big water changes weekly. I also have problems keeping my nitrates down and found that the suphur nitrate filter was in only thing that could keep it below 1ppm. However i found that keeping my nitrates too low was also causing problem with some corals. i aim for below 5ppm.

All uv units look the same. the deltec does not take 24000L like the cheap asian unit, it only takes 2000L as that would actually will kill paristes and some bacteria. deltec uses 30w t5 tube. same as life guard units. also the unit runs on a electronic ballast. if you are going to a use a uv it is better to have it going on the main pump so you pass all the water thru it and get maxium kill rate. so most small uvs will be no good as they can handle high flow rates. pretty much. The TMC commercial units are real good quality and use nice high wattage bulbs.

No doubt they can, however might as well not use one if you can get so much water thru it, even at 3000L it would not be a very good unit. Quality units are not cheap as they are made correctly so that they work to kill parasites. Pump so much water thru it will means that the uv won’t kill anything. Here is some info http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/commercial/uv-filtration.asp

They are tiger cowrie snails. 50% chance they will eat zoos or polyps. should be ok with soft coral and sps.

Some updated info on streams 6300 Stream and all Electronic Streams The 6300 is pictured below, the electronics are now in the pump, the controller and transformer connect at the small junction block. The speed can now be adjusted by varying the power on the transformer which will now be electronic instead of the bulky copper coil. The 6055 Nano Stream will be the same way. Early next year the 6100 and 6000 will adopt a similar design as will the 7200/2 and 7400/2. For those with existing units the spare motors and drivers will still be made so you have no reason to be concerned about spare parts. The new pumps will not have the alarm feature and the speed adjustment will not be so neatly linear as the power will be adjusted in steps on the transformer so it is a bit of a tradeoff to consider. Nano streams 6025/6045 due out oct/nov. Nano streams 6055 due out early next year 6025 2500l/h 6045 4500 l/h 6055 1000-5000l/h

Sometimes it is hard to find what it is, is it getting enough light? what is your nitrate levels? low nitrate can cause problems? have read that you have to add sodium nitrate if levels are to low. i really doubt magnesium has anything to do with it? 900 ppm is low but wont cause your clams to die

T5 Ho lighting is available at most aquariums stores as arcadia do a unit and i understand that hagen will have a unit out by xmas. T5 lighting is used in marine tanks for lighting coral so i beleive if it is ok for coral then t5s would be more than enough for plants. Has anyone seen Hollywoods fish farms plant tank in Mt Roskill?. Sonce they added t5s about a year ago i have seen dramatic improvements in the plants and the tank is looking fantastic to date. you have to be careful as you get normal t5s and ho t5s, the HO t5s wattge is 3ft 39w 4ft 54w 5ft 80w.

i wonder if you could these for a aquarium? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=69360118 http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=69215500&permanent=0

try these guys in Australia http://www.abyssmarine.com/wavysea.asp Makes sure you get all the attachments for the pumps as they cost extra.

Kevan That bubble coral looks amazing, you dont see many of them for some reason.

Tank is looking better everyday, by xmas it will be a masterpiece. , Then you will move.

the brackets that come with the streams are pretty poor. the magnet holders are the best as you can move the stream where ever you want it. The new streams out have also better direction bracket so you can move then to the side better instread on only straight ahead. here is a stream 6080 for sale on trade me http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=69593002

so how are you going to stop it syphoning the water out of the overflow.? the main pump might not keep up.