Tanzy

Not unless there's something dead in there like a fish. It's a good refugium. Pods thrive among the algae.

Which fella? Not me right?

Are you sure you can boil so many gallons of water for a water change each time? Unless you have a tiny nano, that is not feasible to boil water for water change. You probably add more phosphate to the water when feeding than tapwater ever will.

Yaga, If my memory serves, it's due to the surface electrical charge.

No. But I can throw in portable speakers. Use your own iPod. The engine noise should drown everything else out.

Bump! After more than 3 years till no takers? I'm disappointed with you guys. Price reduced. Must clear now!!!

I don't recommend reefers trying to handle Calcium oxide as it is an irritant to the respiratory tract and it is higly exothermic when it comes into contact with water. A much safer alternative is Calcium hydroxide to be mixed with water a.k.a. kalkwasser. The idea to precipitate phoshates out as calcium phosphate is a good concept but the resultant solution will need to be saturated with calcium ions. What is formed is essentially no different from kalkwasser or calcium hydroxide solution (same thing is formed if calcium oxide is used). This solution is too alkaline to be used as water for mixing. Any salt mix added to it will result in massive precipitation of many metal ions resulting in an unusable slurry at the bottom i.e. waste time, waste money. By bubbling air through kalkwasser or calcium hydroxide solution, you are allowing carbon dioxide to react with water and excess calcium to form insoluble calcium carbonate. This can reduce the amount of calcium in the water and reduce the pH. The mixture will then need to be tested to ensure calcium levels have dropped to a low level before filtering to obtain the liquid. In my opinion, although this method of phosphate removal in freshwater is conceptually and chemically correct but the procedure is tedious and difficult to ensure the suitability of end product for use with salt mixes without numerous testing. Filtering huge amounts of liquid to remove precipitates is not feasible in the average home without a vacuum pump and proper apparatus. If the reefer is convinced that the phosphate level in the tapwater is high enough to be of concern to the tank, then buying distilled water or installing an RO/DI unit will be the best and economical way on the long run.

As an estimate, it takes about 25g of salt mix with 1L of fresh water to make 1L of saltwater. A hydrometer or refractometer is a MUST for reefing!

Have been back for about 2 years.

Some questions that you need to answer before help or advise can be rendered: What test kit are you using? What is in your tank? Live rock? What did you use to cycle the tank?

Hi! I hope you have a great time here. I'm sure the gurus you are visiting can bring you to some of the local equipment shops and LFS. Some of them are not easy to get to for a foreigner.

That's a good sign. Coralline love plastic.

That's assuming you are not using copper coils in the heater.

You? Lurking in Autobacs?

So serious! Beat somebody up nowadays and their parents will look for you? With lawyers and threaten to be charged in court? What happened to the good old days where you settle things outside? The teens nowadays are weak.

Red Sea Marine salt if one of the salt mix which I have tested before and found nitrates and phosphates in it at a level detectable by Salifert test kit. The calcium level is also rather low. That was 4 years ago and I do not know if their standard has improved. I won't be too bothered with phosphate levels right now. Consider it a level that needs to be measured only when something goes wrong. Most of the time, inorganic phosphate is at extremely low levels because of utilisation by algae. If a tank is going well, screw phosphate levels. I won't lose sleep over it. Sera test kits are kinda questionable.

If you need to ask a question, don't be shy to start a new thread. I've created this new one for you. I won't be too hasty to jump to the conclusion that your sky high phospate levels is due to the tap water you use. Are you in Singapore? Many reefers have used local tapwater for years and have no problem with phosphate levels. It's present, but not at sky high levels. What brand of salt mix are you using?

I won't be too surprised if I were you since the water is taken not far from the shore. It's all too natural for the seawater around Singapore to be diluted by freshwater run-off from land. It's good that you checked the salinity. You can adapt the tank to the NSW by changing out the tank water with NSW by 10% every week. The calcium and other ion levels will be on the low side and so will pH. It's not harmful for the inhabitants, especially fish but consider it not ideal.

Very high risk of introducing copper laden water into the tank. Don't do it.

Normally I would suspect test procedure error or faulty test kit. 600ppm calcium is insanely high for normal sea water. It can't stay at that level for long before precipitating out. If it is really that high. Not doing anything is the best thing. Leaving if for a few days should allow the levels to fall to normal.

Most important thing for LFS show tank is consistency. Replacing dead animals with new, healthy, good looking ones is easy for them to keep the tanks looking fresh. There's nothing nice about a tank that looks different everytime you visit even though it may be the most colourful.

No money. No time. No space.

Start your own thread next time since you know it is hijacking. 400W is far from overkill in a 3ft for SPS provided you have sufficient cooling and money to pay for the utilities bill.

Soul, Please keep your images to less than 800 pixels in width for easy viewing by all forum users. Your images have been editted. Please do not post oversized images in the future. Thank you.

Here. Lurking around.