Reefkeeping South Africa » Items by Nico Kortenbout

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Items by Nico Kortenbout

Marine Aquariums of South Africa

• 

  egg crate in durban

  Posted: December 18th, 2011, 9:54pm CST by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi folks, just a quickie.... anyone know where to get egg crate in Durban?
  
  Thanks muchly :)
• 

  BioRock for quarantine tank

  Posted: December 11th, 2011, 10:33am CST by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi all, I have about 5kg of bio rock that are currently a feature in a FW system. I wish to convert this system to a marine quarantine and hospital setup. Do I need to cook these bio rocks in NSW before Adding to the quarantine setup or can I just chuck them in? They have been in the FW system, with 2 goldfish, for about 6 months. They have some green algae but not much, and not GHA.
  
  Thanks
  Nico
• 

  [FS]: Sergent Major Damsel: Amanzimtoti, Durban

  Posted: December 8th, 2011, 1:47pm CST by Nico Kortenbout

  Fish for saleCommon Name:

  Sergent Major Damsel

  Scientific Name:

  Abudefduf saxatilis

  Size of fish

  5cm

  How long have you had the fish?

  5 months

  Is the fish eating?

  yes, everything, as well as GHA!!!

  Shipping or Collection only:

  collection only

  Your location.

  Amanzimtoti, Durban

  Price:

  Free or swap

  Photo's:

  
  
  
  
  
  

  Notes:

  Hi guys and girls... This is the little guy needing a new home. He is a great destroyer of GHA and eats anything, he is as healthy and fat as can be.
  
  But he is a little terror, aggressive. He chases the hell out of my dragon wrasse and is at was with the fox face. He needs a new home.

• 

  Stocking rates

  Posted: December 5th, 2011, 1:04pm CST by Nico Kortenbout

  So I have a question on stocking rates.... I have a Sergent Major damsel in the tank for the weekend, and he has been mowing the GHA lawn very nicely. I have a Fox face and dragon wrasse that I would like to add as sson as possible. They are in a Boyu as a holding tank and I think they would benefit greatly from the extra space in the new DT. Is it possible, or should I say responsible to add these 2 fish in the next week, say about 3 days apart each? Is this too fast for the system?
  
  By the way the system is about 1,5 months old now, nearing the end of the cycle. You can see the tank thread in my signature.
  
  Thanks for the advice...
  
  Nico
• 

  Calibrating a refractometer

  Posted: December 3rd, 2011, 9:42am CST by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi all,
  
  I have used RO/DI water to calibrate my refractometer. My understanding is that RO/DI water should have a SG of 1.
  
  I thought that there might be an issue with the calibration when it measured NSW to have a SG of 1.023, so I checked against RO/DI and it was 1.002. I set it to read 1.000 for RO/DI and it now measures NSW at 1.026 and my tank water at 1.025.
  
  I would just like to confirm that what I have done is correct.... Thanks a bunch.
  
  Nico
• 

  [FS]: DIY T5 lighting unit and 54W balast and end caps for sale: Amanzimtoti, Durban

  Posted: November 4th, 2011, 8:34pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hardware for saleThread title:

  DIY T5 lighting unit and 54W balast and end caps for sale

  Location:

  Amanzimtoti, Durban

  Shipping or Collection only:

  Collection

  Photo's and description/list of items for sale:

  Hi all
  
  I have a home made (very good quality ) 2 foot, dimming, light hood for sale.
  4 x T5 (including globes, globes are 9 months old, 2 x blue, 2 x white)
  1 x actinic T8
  2 x electronic 24W dimmable ballasts
  
  R900
  
  
  
  
  I also have a set for a dual 54W (4 foot) T5 setup:
  1 x never used 54W B.A.G ballast
  4 x waterproof end caps, also never used
  
  R350 for the lot.
  
  
  
  Prices are negotiable... :P

  Notes:

  -

• 

  Nico's new 4ft Reef

  Posted: October 31st, 2011, 3:04pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi there everyone... I know I have been scarce from Masa for the last year. There is a sad story behind the absence but it is one that rears its ugly head from time to time in this hobby. To get you up to speed, I used to have a AquaH20 250 litre system with 100 lt sump. It was a nice system and was jsut maturing at about a year old when I arrived home to find the front pane had cracked from top right corner to bottom left. There was only about 5cm of water left in the tank. I lost all my corals, but the nennie, the shrimp, the fox face and the coral beauty survived thanks to some wonderful people who took them in at very short notice.
  
  And there the story has remained for 10 months. 2 months ago, for my birthday, my wonderful wife managed to reaquire the Boyu nano that I had when i first started out in this hobby. I got the tank up and running after some TLC and we were finally able to get some of the livestock back :) However it was way too small for the nennie which has now grown HUGE so that was donated to guys who were looking after the fish. Currently I have a foxface, dragon wrasse, sergent major, hammer coral, soft orange coral (not sure of ID) and a clam.
  
  Now as a pleasent surprise, our LFS had a tank for sale which included hardware. But since I still had my old hardware, in perfect working order, from the old tank, I queried the price sance equipment... and hay, now I have a great 1220(l)x450(w)x400(h) that I am now putting together. It came with a 100x350x350 partitioned sump.
  
  The last 2 weeks have been planning how things are going to work. I am planning on keeping a mixed reef of softies and lps. I have planned a DIY light hood using aluminium and pine plywood, the design I will put up in the lighting forum once it is complete. However I will most likely be running 4x2ft T5 (2 white, 2 blue), 4x4ft T5 (2 white, 2 blue), 1x2ft T8 (actinic). I am not planning to keep sps and if in future I decide to go with another nennie I will look at perhaps a MH. But that will not be for a long time yet....
  
  As for the sump, I am planning to run my Tunze comline Doc skimmer, small DSB (5kg aragonite), liverock/refugium, my DIY carbon reactor, 0.5 HP Halea chiller, and a 2500lph return. I will be fitting a 20watt standard energy saver light over the refugium. I have about 10kg live rock for the refugium.
  
  As for the display.... I have chosen to go with Aragonite (a long and arduous internal debate as to the truth about sand releasing silicates and leading to phospate problems). I will have about 15kg in the display. I also have about 60 kg of live rock that I will be using for the scaping. The scaping design is still in the processes of being thought about.... and I was wondering about using egg crate to design a skeleton onto which I could fix liverock. (comments please ;)). For flow I have a Seio 550lph powerhead and a sunsun 12000 lph powerhead. There is also the return pump. I may add another sunsun.
  
  I will post pics for you photo hungry buggers as soon as I get around to taking some. Any suggestions and comments are most welcome!! It is really the most exciting time to be back in this hobby!!
• 

  DIY Lighting using aluminum

  Posted: October 30th, 2011, 1:01pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi all
  
  I know I have been absent for about a year. I will post everything in the new tank thread i will start soon.
  
  For now, I need some advice.... is it possible to use aluminum on a Marine Tank? I am busy trying out different designs for a light hood, but I am trying to come up with a plan to have a hood suspended over the tank, so as to have an "open" tank system. If it turns out aluminum can be used then I will post design ideas, otherwise it is back to the drawing board.
  
  Thanks very much!! Any and all advice is welcomed :)
• 

  White spot

  Posted: September 30th, 2010, 1:37pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi folks
  
  I have been fighting a battle against White Spot for some time now :banghead:. Here are the tank specifics:
  Age: 8 months
  Volume: 300L including sump (250L DT)
  SG: 1.022
  Temp: Ranging 28 - 31 Deg C (I think this is the stress that caused the initial outbreak)
  pH: 8.4
  Alk: LOW 1 - 1.4 mE/lt (milli equivalents per litre) I think this is about 3dKH
  Ammonia: 0
  Nitirite: 0.1 ppm
  Nitrate: 20 - 25 ppm
  
  Fish:
  Powder Blue Tang: Heavy infection
  Fox Face: very light infection (3 spots)
  Coral Beauty Angel: very light infection
  Yellow Tailed blue Damsel: no infection
  Mandarin: Unfortunately the mandarin succumbed to the infection and died last night. Heavy white spot infection:dft004: He was one of my favourite fish and was doing so well.
  
  Inverts:
  4 x local hermits
  5 x local snails
  1 x blood shrimp
  1 x cleaner shrimp (the cleaner shrimp shed 2 days ago as per normal but died last night as well. I have had him about 8 months)
  Large Elephant Ears coral
  3 Torch Coral Frags
  Mushrooms: 1 colony
  Zoas: 3 colonies
  
  I am running live rock and a huge skimmer (Tunze comline doc skimmer double head) as well as carbon in the sump and do 10% water change every weekend.
  
  Does anyone (the gurus especially :whistling: ) have any suggestions on the best course of action to combat this White Spot outbreak. I have finally baught a second hand chiller from Christiaan and it will be arriving tomorrow night.
  
  Thanks very much.
  Nico
• 

  Looking for a chiller

  Posted: September 16th, 2010, 2:40pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi all, I am looking for a 2nd hand chiller in good working order. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
  
  Thanks
  Nico
• 

  Urgent help needed Fox Face with some kind of illness

  Posted: September 6th, 2010, 9:56am CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi guys
  
  I have a new Fox Face Tang with what looks like white spot. I got the tang on Friday (3 days ago) and took about 45 - 50 minutes accimatising him like I do all my livestock. Yesterday I had a heat issue in the tank and the temp got to 29.5 degrees. I managed to get the temp down to 26 by this am and everything else looks nice and happy again. However the Fox Face has these black and white spots. Can anyone help identify the problem and suggest solutions. I really don't want to loose this guy.
  
  Thanks a bunch.
  Nico
• 

  Urgent help needed Tomato Clown attacking Powder Blue Tang

  Posted: August 16th, 2010, 2:10pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi all
  
  I have a realtively new Powder Blue Tang. I got it about 3 weeks ago. I have had a large Tomato Clown for some months now. When I first introduced the Tang, the Clown took a bite out his tail, but I added food to distract him and all seemed well from then till 2 nights ago. I came home to find a large bite mark in the side of the Tang. I kept an eye on things and sure enough it was the Tomato Clown again. He is harrassing the Tang fairly regularly and I am worried he might kill it. It does not seem to bother the other fish (Yellow tail damsel, and coral beauty) or any of the shrimps or hermit crabs. Is there something I can do to stop the Clown attacking the Tang, or should I just get rid of the Tomato Clown and substitute for 2 smaller orange clowns? I have tried new aquascaping to see if it is a territorial thing.
• 

  My new DSB and ATS

  Posted: July 29th, 2010, 4:12pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi there. So after some excellent advice from the likes of crispin, tobes, sandlewood, monti and marco :thumbup:, I am planning to build a remote DSB and ATS. Here is the plan, for scrutiny by the gurus :)
  
  I Plan to pump water from the sump to the DSB, collect the drain water from the DSB and let it run onto the ATS. From the ATS directly back to the sump for pumping to the DT.
  
  Would it be better to run from the ATS directly to the DT?
  
  The DSB:
  I Plan to use a 1200lph pump to pump water from the sump (after the compartment with the skimmer) to the DSB. The DSB itself I have a medium size black plastic storage box with thick walls and fitted lid. I am going from 15mm outlet from the pump to 50mm PVC piping to reduce the presure and create a softer flow into the DSB. The sand bed I plan for will be about 35cm deep in a 40cm by 50 cm container. This will leave about 25cm clear above the sand. The inflow will be a 50mm Spreader pipe in a T shape. The outflow will be a 110mm to 50mm conversion pipe leading to a 50mm drainpipe for the outflow. I am not planning any illumination in the DSB.
  
  The ATS:
  This is where I will need the most help. I am planning to try and use a smaller tank, about 50x30x30cm. I will run a piece of 80% shadecloth at an angle (about 25 deg so as not too steep) in the tank. I plan to have the outflow from the DBS as the inflow for the ATS, Let the water run down the shadecloth and then drain out of the tank and back to the sump. I am hoping the water will flow through the shadecloth and hence the algae. I am planning on 2 100W powersaver lamps for lighting.
  
  Here is a diagram of the planned ATS.
• 

  Carbon or Vodca/Sugar dosing

  Posted: July 22nd, 2010, 12:29pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi there
  
  I am still a relative newbie at Marine tanks. I will psot a thread soon with pics of my setup but I would like to know more about Carbon dosing. I have read on various threads about dosing with Vodca and/or Sugar. I have a 250L display tank and a 50L sump. How and why do you dose with Vodca or Sugar. I have also read about the new NP Bio Pellets from Marco at the Waterboy. Is this a better option?
  
  Thanks very much.
• 

  Buying Equipment and foods

  Posted: July 6th, 2010, 12:15pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi Folks,
  
  Does anyone know of a good supplier of brine shrimp, plankton or zooplankton and other food types in Durban? Also are there any good places to pick up second hand equipment such as power heads or pumps and lights?
  
  Thanks very much.
• 

  Hi all...

  Posted: July 5th, 2010, 4:53pm CDT by Nico Kortenbout

  Hi there
  
  Just dropped in to say a quick hi there and hello to everyone. I will be putting up my stats and pics of my new setup as soon as I can. Looking forward to being a regular member in these forums. About the best place for advice I have yet found.