Reefkeeping South Africa » Marine Aquariums of South Africa

Marine Aquariums of South Africa

new to the game

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 11:35pm CDT by ebi123

hi i have limited starting budget and new to the game is there any suggestions on whre to start??
Interested in Marine biology...

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 9:43pm CDT by Annoying

Hey everyone

Well finally it's time for me to think on what career I would like to start one day:yeahdude:. I'm really interested in either micro biology or marine biology as my first Bsc degree. Now I know there are a lot of super smart people on this forum:whistling:, now smart people normally have contacts in high places, hahaha now before you get carried away I'm not asking for a job, only in gr11 now. I would like to know how I can arrange an interview or shadow a marine biologist for a day at Ushaka this vacation. I just want to get an overview of the career and see if it could be something I would enjoy. Please PM me with any info or just reply on the thread.

Thanks a million
Buying water vs buying an RO unit

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 8:52pm CDT by SliverZA

Has anybody done the calculations on how much saving if any there are to buying your own RO unit opposed to buying water (both RO and salt) at the LFS.

Is there a rough estimate of how many liters a 1kg, 2kg, 10kg etc box of salt mix equates to in liters?
stocking advice

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 7:21pm CDT by mupwi

Hi I am looking at restocking my tank as I used to have a small shoal of thornfish (bad idea) who started off small like 15mm and ended up eating all there tankmates and eventualy each other.
So this time around I whant to get it right so I'm asking the experts first. I have a 4ft tank with 3ft sump.
I was thinking of having maby one convict sergon and a few goldies and cromis and some corals are these all compatable if so how many of each could I have in this tank and what order should I introduce them.

Thanks
Juwel lido 120 overflow advice

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 6:21pm CDT by Bluemotion

Hi I would like some advice from you guys, would you suggest a coast to coast overflow with two holes drilled in the tank or a smaller overflow box in a corner with also the two holes drilled? Tank dimmentions are 61cm * 41cm * 58cm (length, width, height or depth from top to bottom). Any advice would be appreciated.
Various euphllia species wanted..

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 6:19pm CDT by leslie hempel

Guys im looking for branching euphllia frags.. specifically hammers...

i currently have euphyllia

Divisa
yaeyamaensis
and the one pierre got from ed. unsure of its name..

any help will be appreciated...
madness????

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 5:26pm CDT by seank

Is this the most expensive aquarium in the world?

Is this the most expensive aquarium in the world? | News | Practical Fishkeeping
small T5 lights

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 5:04pm CDT by mrbloew

anyone know if / where can I get small T5 tubes around 40 cm for my nano Preferablyin the cape twon area
Waterboy RO unit for sale: East London

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 4:58pm CDT by leslie hempel

Hardware for saleThread title:
Waterboy RO unit
Location:
East London
Shipping or Collection only:
both.
Photo's and description/list of items for sale:

Notes:
i have one of these i have barely used.. its actually been dried out and sitting in my garage for ages now..

cartriges etc are all still in excellent condition..

R1100.00
Rics and Brains

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 3:53pm CDT by mytank

Hi,

I have seen the normal orange and green Ric's but I am looking for more color like these ones:

I am also looking for brain's of DIFFERENT colors.

Location JHB.

Thank you
Candy Store

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 3:15pm CDT by Ishtak

Afternoon boys ang girls!

My new tank is finally up and running and a week into the cycling process. I purchased slagters beautiful monster from him and will hopefully continue the fantastic work he did in the tank.

I made a few adjustments to the setup he had. First I put glass over the slits in the overflow box. Works like a charm now with great surface skimming. Then I changed the sump around taking out the baffles and making the DSB bigger. I have plans to add on an ATU and a refugium at a later stage. I also modified tghe return piping as the return pump I got had a bigger connection than the one he had on the tank.

I've never been the most patient of people so taking almost 2 weeks from collecting the tank to being able to start filling it was torture. The first issue I had was around the hanging of the lights. My initial idea was to hang them from the ceiling, only to realise that I have pressed steel ceilings and didn't want to damage them .. so my Dad suggested I get some brackets to attach to the wall and hang it from there ... great idea! So off to Mica, purchase the brackets and bolts, measure everything up, drill the holes for the left bracket, connect it all up and voila! Then upon doing a weight test this happened!!

Turns out the bricks in the wall are old!! Soooo I got myself some threaded steel and drilled all the way to the outside of the wall, whacked on a large washer on the outside and voila

IT took me 2 looooong weeks to fill the tank with RO water ... isnt it typical how work/life gets in the way of making water!

I'm amazed at the amount of muck the skimmer was taking off. I figured it would be clean water! The skimmer is a ReefOctopus NW150, thanks to flamming angel

A week later I was back off to Sean's place (slagter) to fetch the rock he had been cycling for me for the 4 weeks or so it took me get the tank ready.

There is life in my tank!! *bounce* *bounce* I got rather excited when I spotted this ....

Only to be told to NUKE IT! Thankfully I have a supply of Aptasia-X and nuked the little swine.

So this where I am today. Every day I find myself sitting for hours staring at rock. I'm told this is what all newbies go through :) I even got excited when I spotted my first bit of green algae!

There is a small white tube looking thing with a head with tentacles on it that disappears back into itself when i come closer. I have no idea what it is .. I'll try and get some shots of it, and I've also spotted some purple looking tubes (you can see them if you look closely in the picture above) ... man this is exciting! :)

Thanks for reading this far!

Next on the list of things to do is scaping! :)
Various corals for sale: Mossel Bay

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 10:46am CDT by Evo R

Various corals for saleCommon Names:
Mushrooms GSP leathers ..... LOTS of Aptaisia
Scientific Names:
........
Size of coral
-
How long have you had the corals?
18 Months +
Shipping or Collection only:
Both
Your location.
Mossel Bay
Price:
Free
Photo's:
Hey guys.

I have about 5 to 10 kgs of LR with the following growing all over..

Mushrooms (4 diff colours and about 30 mushrooms in total)
2 Smallish pieces of LR with GSP.
So zoas(nothing fancy.Think its the Transkei zoas)
Some sponges ect.
One or two leathers and some pincusions.
And LOTS of Aptiasia!!!

O and 5 to 10 kg of aragenite.

Free to whom ever collects it first or pays for the packaging and shipping.

This is all still in my nano, and i cant shut it down till all of this is gone.(And i need to move the tank asap as im renovating my office and workshop!!)

Mods i dont have pics at the moment.And all of this should be gone before the end of the day.Hope this is acceptible??
Notes:
-
Safety of cement in tank

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 9:54am CDT by gmohr

Hi All
I read about aquascaping with cement. I have put a cement block in my koi pond before. Anybody with knowledge of any dangers of putting stuff made of cement in a marine tank? I would think that it be ok if cement is properly set (say after a week or two).
Any ideas welcome.
GP Social group

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 9:43am CDT by dallasg

howdy all!

ok all GP reefers i am wanting to setup a proper social group where i can contant and plan events for GP area, please can we all decided on a date to meet, eg last tuesday of every month 7pm - 9pm etc

lets get this going
Detailed form submitted: archiecrain

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 9:27am CDT by archiecrain

Detailed help requestAre you experiencing any problems in your tank?
Yes

Brief Description
Tissue necrosis on SPS colony
Ive had a fairly large acro for about 2 months that started showing slight necrosis on some of its tips on wednesday. This morning When I checked on it, It was also showing tissue necrosis in the middle of the colony as well as well as the tips getting worse, which was not there last night before lights off.

So to sum it up Its lossing tissue in the middle and some of the tips at the same time?

Tank size
45cm x 45cm x 45cm

System Volume
approx 100l

How long has your tank been running?
4-5 months

What livestock do you have?
SPS corals + a few softies and LPS approx 8 fish

recently split bubble tip anemone (not very healthy either)????

Water Parameters
KH 8
Calcium 450
phosphate not detectable
Magnesium not measured
PH 8.2
Nitrate detectable but very low
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity LFS salt water (cheap hydrometer shows constant reading)
Temp 24-25

What lighting is over the tank?
150 watt halide

On friday last week I changed the bulb from a 10k dymax to a 20k BLV (can this be the cause? its not as bright as the old 10K bulb?)

Pumps and equipment
I have 3x 200l pumps to turbo charge the water + approx 8000l of flow pumps

Maintenance
Daily buffer of KH (seachem)
Daily buffer of calcium (seachem)
Daily dose of Special Blend

weekly 15l water change

Other info and photo's.
So to sum it up Its lossing tissue in the middle and some of the tips at the same time? Ive had tissue recession on many of my other corals at some stage, but in the past its always been from the bottom, which I put down to KH fluctuations and low nutrients.

None of my other SPS corals are bleaching at the moment, but neither are any of them growing at the moment????:(

I have had a bubble tip anemone split recently and then start to bleach....can there be chemical warefare....none of my corals are touching.....

I am completely puzzled by what can cause this and what I can do to stop it I have invested a lot of time getting all my params as stable as possible.

What can be the cause?

What do I do? I dont really want to frag any of my corals....
skimming wet

Posted: September 2nd, 2011, 9:12am CDT by mytank

Guys and gals

I need some clarification of what skimming web means.

Does it mean every second there are some drops into the bottle attached to the cap. Does it mean there is a constant flow of skim mate into the bottle?

I am never sure if i am skimming wet or i am just skimming normal.

Also what is the optimal. When the bubbles are right at the top touching the top cap of the skimmer or when there is a health amount of bubbles come over the side?

Thanks for the advise