robe

Full tank shot Feb 2003

same seriatopora in Feb 2003

seriatopora hystrix July 2002

My old 3 x 2 x 2 tank with the orange monti on the left

The original blue acro in Jan 2002 2 months before fragging...

Hi Phang, As long as it is German MH lamps you can use any of the 250w MH lamps sold in electrical shops here plus the igniter. In the trade they call the igniter and ballast system as pulse start. THe igniter will ignite the lamp with a 4.2 KV injection voltage to create the arc. So no need to order the ballast from the US for German lamps.

Phang, that model is not pressure rated itis only circulation.

zeolite can be imported from New Zealand in 40 kg or 100 kg bags... One thing though they absorb ammonia, nitrates, phospates, calcium, magnesium, carbonates you might end up dumping lots of trace elements into ur tank. THants why they recommend not to add any trace elements during the treatment. THey practically filter out most of the good and bad element from the tank to create a nutrient starved tank then dose trace elements, calcium, magnesium etc to balance it out again.

I guess they are selling zeolite after all Check out this link for info about zeolite and its use for filtration. I think its being sold here in Singapore in some freshwater shops. http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/Sili...te/ZEOLITES.htm

Hmmm...where can I get yellow acros???? See that yellow table acro on one of tanks....

If u want to translate the German text, go to this website: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

Press the "kundebecken" button to go to the reefers galleries.... Aluminum oxide is normaly used for phosphate filters as well water softeners. There's a type of product used for water treatment called zeolite. Could this be the zeolite they're using. It is a type of mineral resin that attracts positively charged particles(or is it negative charged particles any way that is the principle they use ) to it thus trapping unwanted contaminants.

Look at the links to some of the reefers tanks..... a 6 x 3.5 x 3 ft tank w/ 2 x 1000w 10KK lamps..... MOst of the tanks has only 3 x 250w 10KK lamps but look at the color and acros.... sheez where can we get those specimens!

SPS mad reefers!!! Go drool and cry!!!!!!! http://www.korallen-zucht.de/farben.html

Check using a multimeter to see which of the terminals are connected to the capacitor (black rectangular box w/ gray wire). Do a continuity check by touching the probe to one of the capacitor terminal and the other probe to either of the terminal connector. The terminal w/ the continuity to the capacitor is the neutral terminal. Ground the earth wire to the screw attached to the motor body.

For a 500 gallon tank the ratio of softies to SPS is on the low side. That may account for his success. Certain softies are less agressive in their chemical warfare. I did kept a few softies with SPS in my previous tank without any problem in the SPS growth or health. I had sinularia, lobophyton and actinodiscus, green hair mushrooms in my tank. As long as you don't let it touch each other they're okay, but let the acro touch the green mushrooms and you get dead acro skeleton on areas touched by the mushies. I gave away my sinularia recently as it has grown to over a foot in diameter at the base and taking up precious tank space. Other than that reason I don't see any why they cannot coexist with SPS. Get a good skimmer though if you intend to mix as a precaution. I did read an article that haard corals also has chemical warfare capabilty especially gonioporas and in fact can be very potent to other corals.

Listen to LFS owner sales pitch on this and that equipment and advice.......

It can be done using small geared DC motor to drive the mixing vane. U need to buy acetal bearing and an oil seal but yo need to do some machining on the bearing holder and oil seal holder. It requires also a machined base to mount the motor and shaft in perfect alignment. For the shaft u either get stailess steel of plastic delrin rod. Paddles can be made out of chopping board plastic.

Phang, That 6 inch colum needs at least two beckett head to generate enough bubbles to fill the riser tube and it requires at least an MD55 or better an MD70 to run it. A single Beckett is good for up to a 4 inch riser tube only. A beckett needs the air to be regulated to generate the fine bubbles. After a certain amount the air will get too big and it becomes a fountain head. If u want a finer air controller get a pneumatic speed controller used in pneumatic cylinders to slow down the piston speed. I just intalled one on my skimmer. SMC, Festo, Bimba and others are available.

PVC coated copper is very risky to use in a reef tank as i tmay not give you a perfect seal. Over time the copper may leach out and you find ur tank not doing very well. It will not be a sudden kill off of inverebrates but general deterioration of health leading to mortalities. For those planning to get the DIY ask them to use 316 stainless steel instead or titanium if they can.

6500 litres/hr should be enough. There might be something wrong with ur beckett column. I run mine on 3000 li/hr and it has very fine bubbles. I use a plastic air valve to control the air intake and it does not take much to form the fine bubbles. Typically Beckett should be able to run on a SEN900 which is equivalent to the Oceanfree 9000 which is around 5000 li/hr and non-pressure rated.

The brown algae is diatom bloom caused by high silicate content in your water..... If u face a lot of diatom bloom try to use a RO or DI unit for ur top-up water.

Phang, How's the blue acro doing?

NIce montipora, good shape!

Hi AT Watch out when you dose antibiotics as the tank can crash if u kill off the bacs i nur sand and LR. Use a separate tank for treatment. Why not use cephalosporin or gentamycin easily available from doctors , just pretend ur sick and ur throat is so sore that u can hardly talk.