Recent content by ritchie1

Looks like i'll be postponing this project for a while until i can save some money. Estimated costs are significant... Ritchie

Someone suggested to me building a seawater well like the one used in the waikiki aquarium instead of the open ocean intake. Will the water be normally suitable for a reef tank if i go deep enough...the groundwater we use contains very high levels of nitrate and phosphate? Anybody know details...

Thanks for the posts. Good idea on the surge device, i'll use it to feed ocean water into my aquariums. When the ocean feed is not running i'd also want one running continuously. Found it here: http://www.masla.com/reef/csm.html If a surge device is used, will powerheads still be necessary...

This is my 75 gal tank now. The lights are 3X40 W ordinary daylight tubes and 3X40W actinic. Before moving, had the corals outside with natural sunlight and they were growing really fast. Now the light is barely enough. I'll be building a 200 gal open reef system within the next few months...

I don't cover my aquariums and just use ordinary electric fans to blow air across the surface of the water(and the lights). This reduces temperature by 3-4 degrees Celsius. When this is not enough, i turn on the room airconditioner.

Thanks again, Oscer! Will be doing further tests on the water and i'll inspect the area to determine the proper distance from shore and the depth to cooler waters. I'll post here as the system is built within the next few months.

During the summer my tank goes up to 83 F, with no noticeable detrimental effect on the corals. I think it is more important to keep the temperature as stable as possible, as long as it doesn't go above 83 F.

Here's a picture of the area

Thanks for the reply. The seawater tested nearly 0 for phosphates and nitrates...I would think the water is rather clean as it's is away from the city. I've attached a picture of the area. Most of the people here make their living either by fishing or farming. There are no factories. There...

Anybody have any ideas in designing a semi-open or open system reef tank? I live about 50 meters from the shoreline/5 meters from sea level and plan of pumping water from the ocean to a plastic water tank in an airconditioned room where the aquarium is, to equalize the temperature. Once the...

Anybody have any ideas in designing a semi-open or open system reef tank? I live about 50 meters from the shoreline and plan of pumping water from the ocean to a plastic water tank in an airconditioned room where the aquarium is, to equalize the temperature. Once the temps are equal, pump it...

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pack them all as planned, but the fishes and bubble tips had separate bags each. The rest were just wrapped in wet newspaper and were all placed in one big styrofoam box. All the alcyonium and one bubble tip died along with the with one tang whose plastic bag...

I agree that a skimmer should be used as much as possible. It helps remove the decaying matter from the aquarium and at the same time provides the much needed aeration. The decomposition of the decaying matter from the rock consumes a lot of oxygen. Less oxygen, even more dies. Not to mention...

Thanks again for the posts. I'll post again after the trip on mid-june regarding the survival of the corals and fishes.

My exprience with running power heads on ordinary square wave UPS is that the UPS can't run the the power heads well. My powerhead makes noises and doesn't pump water. I run my powerheads on an old smart-UPS.