Recent content by AnotherGoldenTeapot

I've not used them since before 2000. My experience was that they were useless. Very pale colours and results that contradicted other tests. Maybe they have improved since? One thing you can be sure of is that they won't have gotten worse :D

You could skip cylcing first if you're using ozone. Ozone will convert ammonia to nitrate very effectively. This is the sort of thing you might do in an emergency situation.

Phosphate removing compounds, be they aluminium or iron based, are silly prices in New Zealand. For example, a 250gram container of Seachem's Phosguard costs about $40USD. Interestingly the beaches on the west-coast of Auckland commonly have a sand that is coated in iron oxide (the sand is...

The shut-of valve is a pressue operated solenoid valve. There are two independant paths through the valve. The first is to where the input water comes in. This is then connected to the RO unit. The output of the RO goes through the second port on the valve. Once the pressure of the water going...

The thing to realise is that you're usually only really interested in confirming that the end product water has a TDS of zero. A meter to measure zero dosn't need to be calibrated EVER - the maximum measurement error at zero is tiny i.e. the meter will always read a tiny value near zero whether...

Personally, if everything else is okay, I'd just nuke the stuff. The active ingredient in the products you can get that kill this is invariable the antibiotic "erythromycin". The dose I've used in the past is 1 gram per 50 gallons. The human vaiety of the drug is quite a cheap way to get it...

I'm firmly in the camp that cannister filters are not useful on reef tanks. But, ignoring that view... The overflow design of the fluvals is inferior to the ehiem equivalent. They can crack and let air in. The other problem is that fluvals are hard to start. The auto-start syphon mechanism is...

I can only speak for HQI (double ended) MH bulbs. UV is definetly a problem with those. I've "burned" a hole in a set of curtains, given myself, several fish, and corals sunburn etc. Ever seen a longhorn cowfish with sunburn? :( I use a thin sheet of roofing lexan (polcarb) less than 1mm...

It's always struck me that ozone addition is a good idea in a quarantine tank. Instant "cycling" of the tank - so long as the ozoniser doesn't break down. Given we're talking quarantine here that's not an unreasonable assumption. Water optically good enough to drink and all nasties in it dead.

Worried about diatoms? FWIW I have about 2 inches of very fine silica sand at the bottom of one of my tanks, this in turn is covered with about one inch of shells. I have no diatoms - or at least, no visible evidence of any. In USD for a 6' x 2' tank I spent under $10 on this media for the...

I don't see the point for such software. There are many things you can measure but very few that need to be measured. A one second glance at my tank is enough for me to know whether there is a problem or not. You can even measure alkalinity like that. For example, if there isn't coraline...

Different species of coraline require different amounts of light. In my tank the green coralines grow in the brightly lit areas. The purples and reds seem to prefer more shady areas.

I had the sump version of that skimmer. To be honest, it wasn't great - I've since thrown it out. In a small tank it might be fine - I'm thinking a 50gal or smaller. I know the promotional material claims alot, but I bet the marketing department have never seen one going :D

It's not uncommon for new fish not to feed for a few days. My clown seems to eat whatever goes in the tank. He gets mysis shrimp and flake food. In the past he has eaten whatever is on the menu. I expect you'll see your fish eating in a few days time.

It's not hard to wire up a ballast. However, you're working with mains voltage and so stand the chance of easily killing yourself too. Buying a ballast from an electrical wholesaler often means literly just getting a ballast. You'd need a metal box etc as well to turn it into something useful...