reef

Give you a basic understanding of how the system works. The system consists of two columns: Column 1 is the base system consisting of components to minimize nutrient levels. Column 2 deals with coral coloration and food in a nutrient poor system while maintaining “near natural“ conditions. The base system involves the effective reduction of nutrients and maintenance of water conditions close to the natural water parameters. This column consists for the following components: 1. Balanced mix of zeolites (ZEOvit) 2. Microorganism solution (ZEObak) 3. Combination product of bacteria and coral food (ZEOfood) 4. Bacteria food (ZEOstart) 5. Constant filtration with activated carbon The following requirements are also necessary for the ZEOvit method to be successful: 6. Efficient strong skimming 7. Sufficient lighting 8. Optimization of nutrient addition 9. Addition of elements at low levels 10. Optimum water parameters (Ca, Mg, KH, salinity) 11. Regular weekly water changes The goal to be achieved: The purpose of the system is to create a low nutrient environment. The goal is to reduce measurable levels of nitrate (NO3) and phosphate (PO4) without lowering the levels of important minerals, like calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and carbonate hardness (KH), such that addition of these trace elements is minimal.

looking nice, the acros are growing well.

He does monthly water changes. nitrates are under 5ppm and po4 pretty low as he uses rowaphos.

Seen the tank last week, pretty interesting. Looks good. I understand he is getting Deltec skimmer, tunze streams, chiller and 2-3 250w halides.Delltec calcium reactor. so i think he has all the good gear to keep good stock so we might see a few acros also.

Possibly take after there owner

The first photos in aug/05 is with zeovit. Then converted to Biodigest/biotim and amino acids. Tank uses 3x 150w and 6 floros t8 actinic tubes.

Not sure, i think about 4 years. had a major upgrade about 2 years ago, also added acros at the same time.

Updated pics. here are the pics from Aug 2005. pics aug 2006

Acros are looking good. hows the growth with the lumenarcs copies?

Pretty expensive lenses, gold is cheaper, but they do take better pics. Will try more pics on the new 30D i got. see if i can get better pics.

Some new pics, trying out some new lenses for the camera. photos taken with, 24-105mm L lens. nice lens at $1900

i quess it is low at times. we dont get many corals from the northern island groups of tonga if any. Further reading from a book i have. There is the very real problem of the mixed fauna and flora in many of our systems. aquarists tend to mix animals from different geographical areas with joyous abandon. this results in a tank full of animals with a variety of range of tolerance temperaturs found in these localities. The organisms from these areas have generally do not have such wide temperature tolerances and may survive in these lower temps. relative to the conditions found at the centres of their distributions, however they do not thrive under these temperatures. furthermore , animals from the diverse centers of distribution generally do not have such wide ranges of tolerance and cannot tolerate significant reductions of thir metabolic rates. as a result, they have a reduced tolerance for thermal variations. The Great Temperature Debate http://www.reefs.org/library/article/reef_temperature.html

Fully understand that it is hard to follow for the mentally challenged.

i actually do dive, in my tank. Based on the my reseach for MAF/Erma. The lower temp limit fo the most cold-tolerant reef corals appears to be about 20c. This is about temp of midway atoll which has the northern coral reef. although a few reef animals can live in colder water , most cannot. The average annual temp of most coral reefs is around 27-28 c which seems to be the optimum for coral growth(barnes et.al 1995, clausen 1975. weber white 1976) the commonly advised mini-reef temps of 22-25 c are stressing most animals unnecessarily and in some cases severely. Mostly all the corals we get come from indo pacific which has temp over 25c. so anything below is not advisable. could explain some of your problems with the acros. Problem could have happen when the temp dropped. how long was it at 21c? The low temp might have stressed the corals and taken away the uv protection.

Burning corals is quite common. even a 150w halide will burn coral if they are not used to the light. done this plenty of times myself. temp seems way to low. It also could be the lack of light as corals tend to go lighter and the then die. Try moving them up higher.

dispar anthias

2pm-10pm, t5s,1pm-11pm

similavatus butterfly

new additions tangaterriers species

Some updated pics. Not much really happening in the tank. not really had much growth in my tank due to low kh levels. turned my reactor off for a few days as Calcium is at 600ppm. Xenia dont look to happy at these levels.

nice coral, not worth the risk to cut it, might loss the whole coral. keep it. Looks like you still have lots of room for it.

8hours .4x 400w ,12k reeflux. 8x 54w of t5s floro on for 10hours. looking to reduce to maybe 6x 250wDe.

cyno is caused by hight nutrients in the water, it is always around but comes out when water quality is not the best or when starting a new tank. I get small amounts when i overfeed for long periods. Certainly NSW will contain lots of nutrients especially around auckland which can cause cyno outbreaks.

what does it look like with the lumenarc copy and the other two halides on, and using the same bulbs. can you take a photo

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