Achilles Tang

Yes, vinegar will dissolved calcium carbonates as it is an acidic solution. Go ahead and use white vinegar.

Every 5 months, I will run an acidic solution through my chiller piping to clear out calcium deposits and the slimy sludge buildup inside my chiller's titanium cooling coils (is that the correct name?). It is a good idea to run it through the chiller pump as well. You can use holdhold white vinegar or if you can get hold of a stronger acid (be careful when handling strong acids), it will make the job faster and cleaner. Who else has a tip to contribute?

Okie. Will post it up.

Yeah, have that too... only saw one so far!

Wow... that is a very large system volume! Anyway, if its any consolation to you, I'm pretty happy with my Titanium chiller, keeps my tank from going past 27.5C, even with my fan off and running for more than 9 hours with full 1600watts of MH running. You should look into ways to improve/help the efficiency of your chiller, like place it in an area where there's lots of cool air circulation so it doesn't recycle hot air (that's why placing a chiller in a cabinet is suicidal), using external pumps that are air-cooled instead of water-cooled, using a fan to move hot air from the top of your tank (esp if you have an enclosed hood) and even the ambient room temperature. You have to also make sure that you run some acid solution like vinegar thru your chiller pipes once every 5 months (that's what I do), to dissolve any calcium deposits on the cooling coils and of course, the slimy buildup which will also clog and reduce the heat exchange efficiency. My 2 cents, AT

1. There is info on the nitrogen cycle that you should read up and understand in the pinned up links before attempting this transfer. 2. You can't transfer LS until your new tank is cycled. 3. All the parameters are at safe levels before transfer of LS.

Really? Any hard data on this?

Blue coralline? I am afraid they have died off during a bulb change! No thanks... about the skimmate! Hahaha!!

Why be restricted to the beckett model? There are many other fountain head venturi valves around.

Point 1 from Yazid won't work. The plants will die. Skimmate has salt in it. Point 2... hmmm... perhaps the cloud of flies hovering around camouflaged soldiers will give their position away? Point 3... bo liao! Point 4... my wife will strangle me first and pour it down my throat! :lol: Point 4... I think paint and engine oil's still harder to clean off.

Yeah... especially during school holidays... no one's going to be around. Not just feeding but water topup (unless you get a TUBBY and solenoid controlling your freshwater tap), feeding, auto-timers for lights etc.

IanJ. Can't help but note the algae growing on the inside of your skimmer. To get maximum gains... I suggest you vinegar soak your skimmer body and scrape out the algae. It will affect your skimming greatly when the reaction chamber is dirty like that. AT

Funny but it's quite hard for me these days to get skimmate of the above quality these days. Maybe if i don't have to clean my collection cup weekly and let it build! I guess my reef tank's rather stable now? Ok, less talk and more pictures... come on Yazid... SHOW ME THE SKIMMATE!!

Marine fish-keeping and keeping a reef tank is NOT the same. If you put corals into a FO tank... you have to provide your corals with a lot more care.. and often than not, it means you have to remove incompatible fish... upgrade your lights, invest in something to cool your water. get ALL your water parameters in line with what corals BASICALLY expects etc. Its a whole different ball game... you have to spend more money compared to just keeping a FOWLR tank. Consider carefully... and do not compromise with yourself.

I like jazz too. All diff kinds.

No restrictions but I think you need an import permit, you need to submit the CITIES certification from the exporter and to declare to AVA that its not for sale but for your own use. You also need to clear customs and arrange for transportation/freight. It's a lot of work.

Gonna be closing this thread now. My new thread My SPS tank as of 5 Jan 04 See you there!

kkoil... you said 'we'. Whose the 'we'?

Closed loop returns will be good for near the top or bottom of the tank. A problem with Tunze streams is that it may sucked in air bubbles if placed too near the water surface and it may move a lot of your sandbed if placed too mear the bottom. They are better placed in the middle. The closed loop returns will help cover the 'dead' zones especially near the 'start' of the Stream's water cone. My 2 cents.

Sorry man... featherstars are better left in the sea. Don't buy them because they are very specialized feeders and acclimatize poorly. They also do not like to be harassed by fishes. I guarantee you it will die shortly and disintegrate in your tank. Remove the pieces asap or it may even stain your sandbed red!

kkoil... please make use of the search function (top right hand corner.. see the magnifying glass?) Keywords: Coralline algae. Anyway... here's the search results for Coralline Algae. Happy researching!

When posting a question, we will need you to provide us as much information as you can about your system, with as much details as possible being given so as to help the rest of us analyse and troubleshoot your problems faster and easier. Some of the pertinent details should include: 1. How old is your system, inclusive of the cycling period. 2. What kind of system type are you running in terms of natural filtration (Jaubert, Berlin, modified berlin, DSB, etc). 3. System volume including sump. 4. Water flow (incl equipment used to achieve it). 5. Filtration type (refugium, skimmer, skimmerless etc). 6. Additional filtration types (chemical eg. GAC, polyfilters etc and mechanical eg. filter wool) 7. Lighting photoperiod, scheme, color temp, type and wattage (NO flourescents, T5, Power compacts, Metal halides). 8. Water parameters (esp. salinity, ammonia, nitrites/nitrates, temperature, calcium, alkalinity, PH etc) 9. Test kits used to measure the above (brand names and age of test kits). 10. Stocking of your tank (number & types of coral, fish, inverts, etc). 11. Additives used (kalkwasser, B-Ionic, calcium reactor, trace elements etc). 12. Feeding (types of food and feeding schedule). 13. The last thing you remember doing to your tank before the problem occured. 14. How long have you been in this hobby (it would give us a rough indication of your experience). Before you ask questions, we hope that you have at least read through a good marine aquarium book or read the pinned up links in the New to the Hobby forum for the basics of the marine hobby. A lot of wasted time could have been avoided if SOME effort have been made on the part of the hobbyist in terms of research and knowledge-gathering. Knowledge is key to success in this hobby and it is EXPECTED of a serious and responsible hobbyist to learn as much as he can before attempting anything that he is not even 99% unsure of. Some mistakes cannot be undone. Livestock cannot be reincarnated or be resusitated. Money cannot be made back so quickly. Be a Responsible Reefer! Happy Reefing! On behalf of the SRC Moderator Team, AT

Prize you mean? Spell-check in future please. If you really mean 'price'... I will be happy to sell you my skimmate at $20 a gram. Rest assured it's of the highest quality! If you meant 'prize'... WINNER TAKES ALL!

Hi... you must be new here. Read this and this. Sorry for the inconvenience but I thank you for your future co-operation in making SRC a little tidier. AT

Nice specimen! Is it eating algae yet?