bawater

LPS as a whole covers a huge range of corals and although some are sensitive to water conditions, most are tolerant of higher nutrients. Why? because most of them are found in lagoon areas where the nutrient levels are much higher than open reefs (which are nutrient poor). 10ppm and below would be a guideline for keeping acros (of course the optimum would be zero). It seems acros don't do well in anything higher. For LPS- you can stick to a limit of 20ppm NO3 (the average level given for all LPS/Softie corals). They can live in much higher levels ...many of them can tolerate up to 50ppm or 70ppm NO3(i think many ppl can relate to this). This is if you provide enough light and foods for them. Stick to below 20ppm to be safe. Corals like bubbles,open brains,closed brains,lobe brains,gonioporas,alveoporas and maybe hammers will thrive if they get enough LIGHT & FOOD.

The world's your limit. Any saltwater plant will do - it depends on your preference on nutrient uptake or looks . mangroves work but u need a lot (just one pod won't do anything). For green you can use any of the caulerpa species but the feather & grape kind tend to go sexual often if overcrowded and melt away. The moss kind doesn't go sexual and grows well & fast. For red you can try the red bamboo kind- they have very slow growth. Sargasso weed also works if you want brown. It may sound like a garden...but again its only for you to see so go with what u like, or just a pure workhorse of fast growing algae and copepod production. You can use either a 6500k or 10000k light, but stick to the light spectrum plants prefer.(6500k) and you should get more growth. Do not use pink tubes. If your refugium is big enough, try a mixture of different macro algae. Use fast growing plants for a better uptake (faster growth means more uptake/ nutrient assimilation)

From the same LFS, These are magic rocks. 1kg $18 no need to change water one.

marineOP, yes-usually all my excess cultures, but current batch all taken. i'm stopping culturing for the next 2 weeks while i'm on reservist. Will be starting a new agar disk once i'm back. send u a pm then k if u still want it.(2-3wks)

what i mentioned was that even though the bacteria will increase in population, there may also be other kinds of bacteria which use it as a source (who don't convert nitrate to nitrogen). There are various accounts of sand clumping and white slimy bacteria growing. This is the feedback from a few aquarist out of a few thousands who use vinegar. As No two reef systems are the same...you have to be the judge!...u know the rest. i can't find the exact bacteria strain you asking robe for. but i found another article from aquarium frontiers that notes the slime and sand clumping. This could be from the excess carbon fueling other organisms... Limewater, Acetic Acid and Sand Clumping If you are worried about what vinegar is made from in the first place: the leftover Acetate ions from the broken-down Vinegar leaves you with free organic Carbon - so good skimming is recommended. Bacteria secrete matrix substances that act like organic glues. Increasing the mass of bacteria in the sand by giving them a new food source might result in the production of more of these glue-like substances. Acetic acid is a natural product. It is produced by microbial oxidation of sugars. The complex soup of fermentation products is distilled to give reasonably pure acetic acid. Anything that can distill over with acetic acid and is produced by the microbes can possibly wind up in vinegar, so it is quite possible that some impurity in the vinegar itself is causing the increase in skimmate production. Another possibility is that vinegar is used by organisms in the aquarium and some metabolic product increases in concentration. These secondary metabolic products could increase the amount of skimmable organic material in the aquarium. Because foam fractionation or “protein skimming” is one of the major nutrient export mechanisms in many reef aquariums, the apparent enhancement in skimming may also influence the amount of nutrients available to nuisance algae in the tank. It is also possible that the addition of acetate stimulated dissimilatory denitrification in the aquarium and reduced the pool of available nitrogen. Note****** We are only discussing artificial vinegar(5%) as a acetate source. NOT wine vinegar,cider vinegar,rice vinegar

bacteria breaks it down......but too much fuel may make other things grow. The concern with dosing a lot is that the acetate will be metabolized, using up O2. If you add too much without adequate aeration, that could possibly be an issue. i did a search and i found that Calcium acetate is used to prevent high phosphorus blood levels in people with kidney failure. interesting. http://www.gnc.com/health_notes/Drug/Calci...ium_Acetate.htm Back on track.......covered in the topics here : The chemistry forum(RC)...calcium acetate

deepblue, i'm using the azoo set. The PL built in the middle are not actinics- they are 17k(& the light spread from them is concentrated in the middle). i think the MH bulbs are sylvania All u need to do or can do is add a cheap 4ft ballast and 1x actinic 03 FL tube.This will offset the yellow. (i use 2x 30w Arcadia actinic). Maybe at the next MH bulb change you can go for 14k.

Example of a Brown under 150w (10k). bought as brown stays as brown. Green also stays as green There is a general rule to watt to depth ratio- but water quality,calcium levels, water circulation and a handful of other factors i think play big roles. Its when you put them all together you get optimum conditions. There should be some SPS requirements in the SPS section soon. (it was lost recently) Save a colony Save a reef.

Yes...to a certain extent. People can only tell you that it will help...how much? that's a different story. It will depend on the area used for the refugium, the amount of macro algae used and maybe also the kind of algae used. Employ a refugium and a DSB or plenum to gain the full potential for NO3 removal. A refugium alone won't lower 50-100ppm NO3. i judge mine to process only abt 10ppm NO3 (its W14"xL18"xH18"). I did this observations before my DSB kicked in, but now both are running i can't estimate consumption anymore.

You shouldn't add vinegar as a main aim of lowering pH. You add it so that you get more kalk to dissolve- thus a better saturation mixture. all you should try to do is get more calcium into less water volume. (saving money on kalk, saving time on making more volume). A way around the pH problem is dose kalk in the mornings, this is when the tank will be at its lowest pH. - Try 1/2 teaspoon of kalk to 30ml vinegar in 1 gal water. You will only end up with dust particles of left over kalk... 30ml per 1/2 teaspoon was the highest amount tried....until phang came along. i only use 10ml vinegar to 1 teaspoon kalk in either 2ltr or 1 gal water. (i use this mixture to 2 ltr to raise calcium levels or mixture to 1 gal to maintain levels) i get a evaporation rate of 6-8ltrs a day. It takes me abt 2-3 days using a few 2ltr mixtures to raise calcium by 100ppm. My daily calcium consumption is low- only abt 40ppm per day.

without a sump,macro algae,deep sand bed...you just ruled out the NNR methods (natural nitrate reduction). btw, sump got nothing to do with reducing nitrates. (sump is under filtration). You can try the more expensive way(but no guarantee it works)Nitrate media. e.g Nitrate sponge & other nitrate reducing media. If u run a good skimmer, AZNO3 also works. using this will lower oxygen levels so increase circulation during treatment period. AZNO3 works...but depends on how much skimate your skimmer produces. OR......change water weekly. Without a removal method to match your NO3 production, You won't end up with zero nitrates ever as your tank will be producing it and it has nowhere to go. All u can do is dilute it.

The amount I mixed is for feeding rotifers and if you use this dense mixture on your new tank with immature filtration you will be playing Russian roulette with Mr. Cyanobacteria and Miss Green hair algae. Remember you already harvested the culture; you can use back 30%-50% of the old water and top up with new saltwater or 100% new saltwater. The culture only runs for a week before next harvest anyway Add 5 teaspoons of rotifers (the amount of new culture water you see is about 2ltrs). Slip the top back on. And back on the shelf. Bubble rate can be 1 bubble per sec to 2 or 3 bubble per sec. Because of the usage of new saltwater, would be very troublesome to mix every time I need so got some toyogo containers (and also coralife bucket hee hee) to mix a quantity every few weeks. If I do a water change on my main tank, I just use up one bucket. 3 cups of coralife salt for each means about 6 gal per container. I also use a little spirulina algae to enrich live brine shrimp. Dosing phyto has its methods. You will need to build up the feeding amounts gradually over some weeks so that the system can compensate to the extra food load, maybe start with 100ml then increase by 50ml or 80ml every week untill you reach your target amount. I can’t tell you how much your tank needs, its really base on the number of phytoplankton feeding corals you have in there and how well your nutrient management is. I started by feeding every other day and can now feed daily 700ml to 1ltr amounts with no drastic side effects. I can but still don’t, apart from a trial period of daily feeding I now just feed the amount every other day or small amounts continuously for 5 days then let the tank rest for 2 days. (My small amounts mean at least 500ml each time). I shall repeat myself again here, if your tank is still young (as less than 6mths old) your nutrient removal choice (DSB) may have not become established and you are feeding liquid foods at your own risks. Doesn’t matter if they are live or dead or dried or frozen. If you do, do so in moderate amounts and watch your tank for any signs of trouble. That's all for culturing folks........happy culturing!

Here are two methods of culturing rotifers, one is continuous culture which you maintain a constant culture of rotifers and harvest small amounts as and when you need. Problem I find is trying to keep water quality high with cultures prone to crashes by the time it reaches 30days. The other way of culturing is batch culture, where you culture and harvest a whole volume then start a new culture with a little from this batch. I use this method. Here are my rotifers ready to harvest and some equipment i use. How I know when its ready? I try to keep the culture water a light green tinge with phyto until the rotifers can clear the water overnight (12-15hrs). I do it by eye, just gauge the density of the culture. I use those containers that people use for cookies/love letters/pineapple tarts, it holds 3-4ltrs each and cost about $1.20 to $1.80. I have learnt my lesson in rotifers, I don’t run too many cultures now because they will eat you out of house and home if possible, they just eat and eat and eat and their appetite was getting too expensive. (I use to run 4 containers …that’s about 12ltrs). Now I just run two batches. You will need a filter of some sort to strain the rotifers, you may feed the with old water but it may contain some “who knows what else” bacteria. I use a 53micron mesh . Simple and easy, just pour the volume into the filter and you will be left with rotifers only. I then rinse off the rotifers from the mesh with a squeeze bottle, you may either use phyto or some new saltwater or some tank water. For this demonstration I use new saltwater, usually I use phytoplankton. I use live phyto to enrich the rotifers before feeding to my tank. I usually harvest in the evenings or late afternoons on (weekends). The rotifers are left to stand for 4hrs to eat as much as they can, remember that when I harvested the rotifers they were in clear water? This means they didn’t have much food in them and have very little nutritional value. This way I gut load the rotifers and not waste any extra phyto. The whole amount above is then fed to the tanks after lights go off (for me that’s around 11pm-11.30pm) It’s the same way I gut load brine shrimp (just that BS left to grow in phyto for a few days) Ah ha! Back up! Frozen algae paste is fed to rotifers and sometimes I use it on my main tank too. I use to use up a small tub in a month until I cut down my rotifer cultures, now at least I can make a tub last 3 months. The frozen algae is easy to use, just scrape a little on a knife or teaspoon and mix with saltwater. *note, if using to feed a tank , a little goes a long long way, just alight green colour is enough.

Then we prepare the fertilizer, if using Florida farms Micro algae grow solution- 10 drops per litre or 1ml is needed. In this case I use a 2ltr bottle and 20 drops then shake the bottle gently. You can prepare the medium (fertilizer solution) ahead of time and store but I find that if its not airtight, bacteria may start to grow in the solution and lead to contamination Top up the culture to be restarted with this fertilizer water, write the harvest date on the bottle and your ready to rock and roll. Note* the more old culture you use to restart the faster it will mature. Using about 350ml –500ml will give you a new batch within a matter of 4-5days. You may even start a culture with 50ml, just that it will take longer. I just use 200-250ml(1 cup) This is what I get from tonight’s harvest, about 3 ltr for storage (to be used over the next few days), 700ml-1liter for feeding to my tanks and remainder to feed my rotifers immediately. The bottles go back to the culture station for another 7 days (the two on the left side) You can store live phyto in the fridge for up to 3 months and still be able to restart new cultures from it. I have only tested up to 3mths but on RC they say can go longer 4mths-6mths. I also keep a starter culture or two in the fridge, just in case as back up. Anyway after a few months phyto cultures seem to degrade in quality so I just restart from this. For the storage of live phyto, just take the bottle out once a week and give it a shake as it does tend to settle at the bottom. An optional piece of equipment is a seechi stick and density chart which I use to check the density of the cultures once in a while. Very easy to use, just dip the stick into the bottle and read at which dept the white circle disappears, check the measurement against the chart according to the algae strain and you have your answer. I said once in a while because over a period of time home cultures seem to get less dense (I find it happens every 3-6 months) and then its time to restart a culture from a back up or new agar disk. That's it....just takes a little time. If you do culture, there will be crashes...its a fact of life- deal with it . Contamination in home cultures are common as bacteria is everywhere,or the algae pushes pH up and too high pH and it crashes, or the lights produce heat....too hot and the culture crashes. And since you culture phytoplankton...why not jump on the lorry with another live food- ROTIFERS

Phytoplankton There are various articles on the subject all over the web so I shall not explain what phyto actually is here. And if you’re thinking of cultivating it then I guess you should have done your research and know what you want to grow. Phytoplankton There are two interesting articles on feeding phyto that I suggest you read by Sanjay Joshi and Rob Toonen on one of their talks (or print it and read in your spare time). It covers all the details with regards to the hype of feeding phytoplankton dead or live products. Also covers feeding of sps. Sanjay's Article Rob's Article There a various sources you may start a culture from, cell farm in the UK and Florida farms in the US sells these agar disks.The old DT’s has also been known to be able to seed new cultures, not always but there are many success stories. The new DT's is a poly culture(meaning a mixture of strains) and culturing is not recommended as nobody knows what will grow. (commented on DT's website). My cultures were started from agar disks; this at least ensures I started with a pure algae strain. We start with a batch of cultures currently running on my culture station. It has a capacity for 12 nos of 2ltr bottles, but currently I don’t run as many. Instead I run 7 bottles of phyto, a cultures of rotifers and a brine shrimp enrichment culture. This is what a ready culture looks like when it’s ready, usually 7 days old. This bottle has a cell density of 13.3 million cells per ml. Sometimes I let a bottle or two sit longer to get 19.2 million cells per ml (10 days). In my case I harvest 3 x 1.5ltr bottles twice a week (that means I run 2 batch cultures on my station) First we empty the bottles for storage and leave behind about 200ml or 250ml of the original cultures to restart new cultures.

souphamster, don't feed the entire packet of live brineshrimp...that will confuse them. Feed a tablespoon at a time untill nearly all eaten then feed more. (u can store live brine in a container in the fridge for up to 3 days) What they do when watching is actually hunting. They will follow a single shrimp all around the tank and slurp it up when they think its time. But......brine shrimp alone will not be enough to keep seahorse long term. Roughly take 9mths of slow starvation before they look like sticks and go to seahorse heaven. MYSIS does contain the essential fatty acids to sustain them, weaning them onto frozen mysis is a big task by itself. Some will, some won't & rather starve to death. Sad to say that the ones you bought were wild caught. Watercircle is the only place in SG that sells Aquacultured seahorses (Emperor seahorses). Cultured horses are trained from young to eat frozen mysis. Honestly, wild seahorses have a very low survival rate. i get something like 40% from wild ones(to live more than 15mths). Feeding is a pain.In the morning and in the evening....took too much time and i don't keep them anymore. I gave away my last few when i tore down my old tanks. The horses you have are the common Tigertails referred to as H.Comes There is a wealth of information on SH and here is something to start on Seahorse.org

what's your alk? what do you keep? SPS? how many? if you don't keep sps then refer to my first question

since you are already in the 4th week, running the skimmer would be better- and will not harm or disrupt the cycle.

hmmmm aluminium acetate ginseng of some kind that the monkey found in the forest. SO if it works by binding the particles and then settling to the bottom......that doesn't solve your problem because the detrius/particulate is not removed, just made heavy enough to sink(to put it in simple terms). Won't that layer of sediment do something to your water quality. Maybe not an issue to use it on fish only tanks But to use it on a reef tank....isn't the minor particulate matter/ bacteria flocs a source of food? this was why micron filters went out of popularity. its a Monkey Mystery

thanks for the list Razo. This should be under LFS weekly report.....

thanks i wish i didn't have to but the piece i intend to do it to is in the direct flow of a Tunze stream...and its not liking it. Its too big to move anywhere else unless i make it into smaller pieces. i tried the web...nothing about propagation of alveopora. Only found the simple method of breaking skeleton with no living tissue. i'll see if it will adjust to the flow by the weekend, if not then...

i split this piece into 2 a while ago. i have some considerations on how to go about this the second time round. The first time was just dead skeleton base to i just split it with a hammer & chisel..simple, but now i need to cut through living tissue.....which method to i employ? hacksaw it?or split it with a hammer again?(like an acro)...there will be some serious tissue damage to the surrounding area and i want to try to minimize any disease that might happen. And - what do i use to mount it with? 1. Superglue it? 2. Do i epoxy it? i got 2 small bulbs of abt 1cm new growth on the ends of the drumstick-after nearly 4mths

i can't get closer. lousy camera

robe, my seriatopora hystrix still has the pink tips. but its still too early

i mean those big pieces take up lots of space Hon. i haven't touched LR since it cost $4-$5 per kg. die die also won't buy now. For my upcoming i rather use back dry base rock i stockpiled under the kitchen sink then seed it in tank with current LR . I can only cringe at the thought of u filling up that 6ft...phew!. can die