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Steves tank is a sweet one for sure. Lots of money and lots of tender loving care went into that tank. I have seen it in person a few times and the pictures dont do it any justice. 9 feet front to back, man the depth perception is unreal Mike

Cycling is just the process of building up bacterial populations, just do the shrimp method and allow the process to happen naturally Mike

As per ammonia when frst mixed Coralife is about the same as kent and IO. Most ASW mixes will have either notrogen or Phosphate in them when first mixed, Coralife has high levels of both. It is also low in carbon and has a very different carbonate system (tough to get accurate measurements on)...

T5's should work fine for what you want to keep.The problem they have is with intencity, as in they dont drive the light very deep into the tank. If your goig to keep some easy sps like montiporas and such just try to keep them a little higher in the water column. Mike

Josh different algaes die in different ways. Most will turn a white transparent color and then fade away. Normally thier is not a residue, it sounds more like the algae died, went away and now you have a bald spot with some detritus on it. Blow it off and the algae shouldnt come back to it. Mike

If your using water from drain standpipes its really not a close loop. You will end up getting bubbles from the drain line and they will get pushed through the pump. MIke

Yea I have had problems simular to this with electronic units, usually its Pc's or Vho's though. I have recommended this unit many times and it has seemed to help folks get past the problem http://www.smarthome.com/4835.html hope it helps MIke

Hi Sevise you will like the aquacontroller, I have had one for years and dont know where I would be with out it. The probe should be calibrated from the factory, if not some calibration fluid will take care of it in short order. I would take a test of your alk to see what your buffering system...

Just over 12 gallons a day, I drip 10 gallons a day of kalk the balance is made up from ro/di. Mike

What you are seeing is percipatate. the kalk is being drawn out by co2 in the air. Aggitating the surface will only cause more of the kalk to percipatate. A little trick to help you would be to grab some bubble wrap and place it on the surface of the kalk, this will not allow co2 to come into...

40 watts should be good enough to kill what you are looking t kill, I would get the two that way you will have longer contact time to do the damage. As mentioned above slow flow is critical. Mike

it didnt happen to me, it stayed with the pink zoo colony. but that is just what happened to me. mike

Revhtree I have seen this before. It is a kind of fungus that comes in on certian zoo's usually pink ones. I dont think this particular problem is caused by light acclimation, but rather something brought in with them. On the colony that I had that was affected like this I just kept blowing them...

apology accepted and I have done the same. Again hobbists use one of the standard instruments to figure out salinity/sg. Refractometer/hydrometers are temperature compensated, so when someone tells me that they have a salinity of X I assume they used an instrument to measure it. The reason...

when people take a salinity measure or a sg measure they use a tool that is most likely temperature compensated. its a mute point. Bang sure you can do that by raising and/or lowering temp, but that was not the jist of what I was laying out. I someone comes out here and say he has a salinity of...

LOL. You know exactly what I am talking about. if you want to hold on to the fact I posted salinity instead of SG by mistake on a post you go right ahead. At a salinity 35ppt the calcium level of balanced SW is 415.. Mike

Perhaps you should read more...alot more. Florida reefs http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/projects/appbmareco.htm caribean http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Acanth_spicif.htm Hawaii http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-482/of03-482.pdf great barrier reef Hogwash! The numbers you've specified are...

Sorry excuse me I meant specific gravity. As I have mentioned prior salinity is the basis that you start from. running below 35ppt is not counter productive, Reefs in the wild can be found anywhere between 1.023 and 1.027 so what are you talking about?? If he is running his calcium at 410 at a...

I wouldnt worry about having to lower the cal level with WC's. the calcium will be naturally reduced by the corals and such in your tank. So let them reduce it and then try to maintain a level close to 400. Its not so much that calcium is in balance with the salinity as it what is the natural...

At 1.024 salinity what would be considered normal level of calcium (balanced) would be around 370. So I would say you are to high, the top end of the normal zone for calcium at 1.024 would be around 400. Its not that you are making the water toxic, its that you are making the coral work that...

The calcium levels that I have quoted are what they are in NSW, Why someone would recommend higher then natural would be a question for them my friend. In order for a coral to divide its cells and multiply it must drive the calcium out of the cell itself. The calcium is pushed to the outer wall...

PPT to SG is basically the same measure, they translate to each other. As in 35PPT = 1.027. The salinity meter I believe only measures the major elements in SW (sodium, sulfate, chloride) so not very effective. Mike

Well according to Dr. Ron (the dsb guru) that is exactly what a dsb is supposed to do. Facilitate the removal of nutrient through algae harvesting. Mike

Like I said its a toss up with the DSB. The experts say not to put anything like it in the bed as it depletes the bacterial population. For me the stiring they perform is worth the small loss (if you dont keep to many) of bacteria. Side note the stars dont really clean the bed, although they...

Hmm no. Actually its the basis for it?? Your salinity is the sum of all the elements with in it. So if you run your tank at 35ppt then you have a combined element total of 35000 parts. If you lower the salinity then the total amount of parts go down. Here is how it effects your calcium level...