robe

salmon pink milli (see 2nd picture 8 months at upper right corner for previous size of frag) after 8 months

same piece at 16 months

previous at 0 month, this is at 8 months

my blue acro centerpiece 16 month growth cycle

I would say alkalinity matters more than calcium but calcium should not be too low either. Either way there shoudl be a balance. if you could have 360 ppm calcium and 8-9 dkh that would be enough. Don't get too hang-up on this or this might be higher. Just observe your tank. If you sps grows fast but brown or becomes colorful but slow growth, both are successful in my opinion. Most trials done show that high dkh leads to more colorful corals.

If you are spending $285 for a DI tube that lasts for a few hundred or a thousand litres. You probably be better off buying an RO unit from the US. A 25 gpd unit costs around $350-$400 including shipping. Why do you need to use expensive DI resin to polish water that has not been prefiltered yet. Do you need such highly purified water in the 1st place? You are not using it for semiconductor production. If you need to filter off impurities such as silica nitrates, phosphates, copper and other substances an RO unit is good enough to filter off most of the impurities to a level that does not impact your reef tank. The RO membrane can also lasts several thousand gallons(~2500 gal or 10000+ litres) before requiring a replacement. IF you rellay need a DI filtered water. Use an RO unit before it to extend its life.

CITES is an organization that monitors the trade of endangered animals and tridacna clams and certain species of hard corals (acroporas) are included in the watchlist. That means shipping and trading acropora corals without a CITES certificate is considered illegal and the violator is subject to fines and penalties as well as confiscation of the items. It is not true for LFS to claim that having CITES cleared stocks is the cause of the high prices unless the quantity shipped is extremely small. In any case a CITES cert costs USD100 and if a reasonable quantity is shipped in, it should not result in a drastic increase in price.

Just note that the rating were based on tests done in a temperate country and most likely just a tank of water without heat load. A better way is rate of cooling over time.

A friend of mine uses 5 ft Oceanfree MH fixture as well and the flourescent ballast does not work on 4 feet actinic tubes. He found out too late....

Do it after midnight when the lights are out! Chase the little bugger to death with a skewer or else tire him out so that you can net him. Then dump him into freshwater laced with kalkwasser and dump him back into the tank.... Next morning.... tell your wife "oh, no! the bicolor is dead and laying on its back at the bottom.... honest I did not have to do anything with his death"

I do not feed them whatever food they require can be taken from the minute particle in the water and sediments floating around. Lots of light is what they really require......calcium

ephedrine's high is similar to "shabu" or those pills from Thailand and long term use is detrimental to the health. Overdose leads to death. At one time it is an ingredient in cough syrup but was pulled out due to abusive consumption of cough syrups. Yes it can make you lose weight as it will cause you to lose appetite. Loss of sleep....

For proper calc reactor maintenance, the media should be taken out every 6-8 months and the sediments and mud removed to get better circulation. Anyway the media nevr run out completly unless you do not maintain it periodically. There's no need to see it anyway. The clear tube is mostly for aesthetics.

Hi AT, Let me know once your lobang calc media is confirmed I may be needing it for my new reactor. BTW it's 2 feet high and 6" in diameter. IT's all made of grey PVC so that's its algae free. $26 for the pipe, cap, screw cap and reducer. Robe

I caught my bicolor angel once by chasing him and wearing him out at night and using a torch light to find him. After almost 1.5 hrs he gave up and I managed to net him and dump him into the sump. His crime.... eating pratas, eating plating SPS, eating my heliofungia, eating elegance corals without a permit. Punishment meted : EXILE!!! and eventual torture by exiled damselfishes as well

The high calcium uptake is probably due to the coralline algae. I try to linit my coralline growth in my tank to avoid unneccessary calcium uptake.

Just take note that to get the refelctivity your bulb position must be exact (distance of the bulb center axis from the reflector top center axis as measured along its lenght) otherwise the parabolic effect will not be optimise and you have light scattering.

another one bites the dust.......

AS long as you use food grade baking soda your safe. I am using StrongArm brand which I bought from Cold Storage for aroind $3.80. The box is around 400-500 grams weight.

Yes, green star polyps or any other polyps can sting your monti or acros.... it stunged my monti the last time and it left a bare patch underneath.

By the way where have you been? haven't seen you post for quite a while..

My monti's two and half years old apparently when the light is intense it does not expand its growth but thickens. Whe I first got mine it was similar in size to yours.

Yup the orange monti can double its diameter in a year's time..... Mine grew sideways from a 4 inch diameter to almost 10 inch and started to thicken then it stops expanding and now it just thickening from around 3 mm to almost 10 mm now..... These monti are just unpredictable. How long do you have it?

Check out this experiment on lighting levels on aquariums with different types of lighting. COmpact FL just don't have the power to punch through the water http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug...003/feature.htm

Crab, You can still use pumps like Sedra, Oceanfree and others as long as it is above 3000 li/hr and at least a 2-3 mtr head pressure rating. Robe