Reefkeeping South Africa » Marine Aquariums of South Africa

Marine Aquariums of South Africa

Back ground - paint

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 7:59am CDT by GI Marine

I am slowly setting up my first marine tank. Have visited marine aquariums sa a couple of times and scanned for tips and extra. I have my tank in place, did most of the plumbing and sump light fittings. I want to paint the back ground blue, but the local paint shop said I had to paint a primer first and then the blue paint. But then the back ground would be white and not blue. What paint can I use and where can I find it? I would like to do a fresh water run in the next week or so to test for leaks and any other issues, doing this with tap water and then draining it, won't have any long term issues like some metals or chemicals staying behind?
Ah Yes my tank is 1500mm x 600 x 650 with two corner overflows and a 1300mm x 450 x 400 sump with space for DSB and auto top up.
5ft tank lighting for lps

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 10:27pm CDT by SchyffS

My future tank dimensions r 1.5x0.8x0.7 with a water level of 600mm. I would like to know what is the min and max lumens required. Also 3 options, namely t5 or mh or combination of both with t5 as the main source of lighting.
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Skimmers - Pump head height Theory?

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 10:22pm CDT by lIghty

Ok, just want to though a bit of "theory" out there and see what the scientists have to say, it all about water levels, head height and "vacuum" pressures.....

He's my thoughts........ but first an illustration to show what I'm talking about.

Hope this makes sense?????:whistling:

With the internal unit, the pump supplies the both the internal water level (WH) and well as the air sucked though the venturi (AH), now this is a balancing act, since if the skimmer sits in deeper water the head height (WH) decreases (water flow increases), BUT more vacuum is require to suck air down deeper into the water and therefore air flow is decreased due to the (AH) height increased, and visa versa.

By the nature of how a venturi works, to more water flow thought it, the more air it suck, so how do we calculate the best level to get the best ratio? Is the relationship between the two linear?

With the external unit, there is only one factor, AH, this is basically determined by the height of the skimmer. There is no actual water head height on the pump, since it form a closed loop. Only the supply pump has a head height to pump, but this doesn't affect the system.

Now here a idea.....:whistling:

What would happen if we moved the circ pump closer to the surface, is would reduce the vacuum AH need to pull the same amount of air into the pump, but it would create a new obstacle, the pump would now have to force the air down wards to the bottom of the skimmer, which is below water level......:whistling:

And now for another question, how do you calculate the maximum air flow through the pump without it starting to cavitate?

Any comments? (PLEASE, I ASK TO KEEP THIS STRICTLY ON TOPIC, IT'S A CONFUSING ENOUGH TOPIC ALREADY, THANKS)
Ideas needed

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 10:14pm CDT by andries

Hey People

I finally got the time so here's my old freshwater tanks specs, what can i do with this?

smaller tank front glass broken: 456 x 303 x 308 mm with glass thickness of 4mm

bigger tank: 610 x 299 x 329mm also with 4mm glass thickness.
My new TL-450

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 9:16pm CDT by AntS

So I've just bought and setup my first reef setup this weekend - a new TL-450.

I've added 4kg of live argonite, and 6.7kg of live rock, as well as disabling the UV filter and adding some filter floss.

I set it up 3 days ago and everything looked great - pH 8.3, normal alkalinity, S.G = 1.025

Over the last 36 hours however, the S.G slowly dropped to about 1.018. I removed some water to add salt and I've raised the S.G to 1.020 - I don't want to increase it to quickly and shock the critters that came attached to the live rock.
My question is - is this normal, and am I doing the right thing to solve the problem?
I'm using a swing arm hydrometer btw.

On the subject of my live rock (pics to follow), I seem to have gotten more than I've bargained for.
I've spotted at least 2 tiny crabs and at least 1 shrimp that I can't identify because it won't show more than its eyes. I also seem to have a tiny slug, as well as quite a few little tube like molluscs/animals (not sure what they are, I'll get pics for you guys to help me out). There is also quite a bit of what look like clusters of small green sacules/pollyps. The guy at the lfs told me that this was some type of coral - I'm not so sure.
LeMotte Test Kits

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 9:12pm CDT by Pete

Can anybody tell me where I can get LeMotte test kits from in SA:whistling:
Dane's low-tech nano

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 7:03pm CDT by Dane

Hey all,

So, been saying I'll post pics for ages... Here you go.

Standard 70L tank - 4ml sides and 6ml base. I don't run a skimmer or a sump, but do a 25L water change every week. The internal powerhead currently has charcoal and filter floss - which I change every few days. Will add some more flow and remove filter media soon... Tank is settled nicely, I don't really have cyano problems and crustose corraline has started growing really nicely (that large white rock in the middle was put in about an hour before these pics) I seeded the tank with live sand and one chunk of live rock (which also has a gazillion aptasia on it! grrrr), and there are a lot of false scroll coral skeletons, which I like - because they provide excellent surface/area to volume and are a refuge for pods etc. WILL definitely remove the calurpa - and burn it!! Will eventually add a fuge next to the tank with cheato in it and a extra light. Some of the zoas look fantastic under actinic, but my camera can't handle the correction.

The three little xenias started out about 3 months ago as a fingernail sized frag, and have recently got a few more zoas (sorry some are closed, just did water change before the pics). Also still need to get in a good CUC - just have two cushion stars at present.

Current tank list
3 x baby false occel.
2 x cushion stars
Pulsing Xenia
5 x zoas spp

Lighting
2x 15watt 6400k CFL
1x Actinic Hagen "marine-glo"

So, pretty basic setup and I'm trying to keep it that way :-P

Thanks for your time/comments

Please excuse my rather... "rustic" attachment methods :-P
Which Trigger?

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 6:04pm CDT by AfricaOffroad

At first I thought it was the long nose puffer - Cathigaster Valentini.
http://www.reeflex.net/tiere/270_Can..._valentini.htm
But then I saw it pop up its trigger fin.

Has those same black saddles on its back - its not a Picasso.

Saw a juvenile in a rockpool today, keen to figure out what it was????
Itchy fish?

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 5:10pm CDT by Tim S

Hey all,
Every now and again my fish are lightly scraping themselves on the rocks. I've seen this behaviour before but cannot remember how to fix it. I tested my water and found nothing wrong.
PO4 -0
Nitrate - 0
Salinity 1.022

Can someone advise me on this.
Reeftek kalk stirrer mod help

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 4:58pm CDT by gaboon

The clamp thingy that the pump turns into to hold it in place is broken, how do I remove that? I want to seal it off somehow as I do not need the pump anymore, mine is fed RO through a high pressure pump which adequately mixes the kalk.

Have any ideas?
Hermit crab changed colour

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 4:11pm CDT by Kevin

In December, I collected a few local hermits from Eastlondon. They are green in colour with yellow spots on their feet. These guys really mow down hair algae and macro algae.

All of them are doing fine, but one has decided to change colour. It has gone a dark blue colour. I thought it was molting but it has been like this for a few weeks now. It is very active and is eating well.

Anybody here know why hermits change colour?
Australian onyx clown

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 3:16pm CDT by clown

Hi Guys,

I want to know if any one have these clowns Australian onyx clown.
I would like to know where I can get them.

I dont know if any one is selling a pair.
Lighting and pricing question for hammer coral

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 2:34pm CDT by Dane

Hey all,

Wanted to get some feedback on LPS corals, particularly hammer coral.
I'm running two 18watt 6400k CFL's and a T8 hagen marine-glo actinic tube on my 70L nano, and my zoas and xenias are all doing very well.
A friend of mine who copied my setup exactly has candy canes doing very well too.

So, I would love to get an LPS - particularly the bright green hammer (or frogspawn if I cant find a hammer) but I wanted to get a ballpark figure on prices.

a) I've been told on a few of the international forums that these LPS would be fine mid or high level in my tank (not very deep), what do you guys think?
b) What would expect to pay for a small head/frag of these corals? I seldom see them in my LFS and I would much rather buy from a local reefer that is fragging it.

Thanks in advance for the advice, and if you know of a fragger in cape town with these available I'd be very interested!

Kind Regards
Dane
Hello Everyone!!

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 11:23am CDT by Jacojs

Howzit people!!

Name is Jaco. I am very interested in starting a Marine tank and have a lot of questions :thumbup:

For easy reading sake I will not ask them all at once, just to keep things neat ;)

My first concern is moolah :( How rich does one have to be to have a Marine tank, I will not be able to buy a skimmer, a sump a display tank and cabinet plus live rock all at the same time not to mention pumps, power heads, salt and then some!!

Can this be done little by little and what should I look at starting with??

I know all the peeps here will have answers for me and I have to say that I already have a brainchild for my sump but we'll get there in due time I suppose :yeahdude:

Thanks.
Jaco.
Lighting heat issues

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 9:50am CDT by Riddi

Hi All

Firstly I have done a lot of reading wrt to lighting and the different pros and cons of the different lighting solutions but am a bit unsure of which solution to use on my new build maily due to the temperature aspect of the tank which the light have a great effect on.

What is the approx temp difference between running a MH (150w) with 2x T5 39w VS 6 x 54w T% light units.

I do not plan to have a chiller imediately but will be running six fans (pc style) cooling the sump and two over the DT
Thank You

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 9:42am CDT by robertkukla

I had a major 4ft tank burst on Saturday morning and i would like to thank Benoni Aquarium and pets for there help , he built me a new tank that i could collect the Sunday morning , i managed to save all my live stock so THANK YOU :thumbup: