Maxima

Price varies, depending on whether you look like CARROT head or NOT..............so beware. Max

Boss, you got so many clams and you state in your previous posting that your calcium demand is low. A dozen healthy clams will suck a Korallin 1502 dry even running the CR 24/7. Either you chk your calcium testing method or chk the validilty of your test kit, or another possibility will be yr clams ...................going to ROD downstairs liao anytime soon. Max

The secret is beyond lighting If you still thinking about lighting...........................

Yes, Joe you are right. That's why when we talk the other day, I told you that dkh should be measure at least after 3 days of CR operation. I think putting dkh aside, the low effluent is an issue. I don't think reactor can be effective running at less than 1 drop/sec effluent drip rate. If you approach any European or US gurus, they will probably tell you to run it with a timer to shut it down. There is some thread on RC on Reactor and it's effluent............worth reading. Max

I think you don't understand my statement earlier. The ARM melts at PH7 or below. If you pump your chamber to PH6.2~ PH6.3 and get effluent PH6.64 -This is fine, but dkh of 54dkh is way low for a a reactor running such low PH. I believe whoever got a Korallin, beside my Deltec, can take a measurement of their effluent or chamber PH. The basic benchmark to evaluate the efficiency of a Reactor using ARM, Korallin or Aquacare Media - All these media are design to melt at PH7.0 and below and will "melt down" beyond PH6.5 -produce whitish calcium milk. What do not melt? -Whatever residue have to be empty every year for ultimate efficiency. 1. Effluent must be above PH7.0 2. You don not need Chamber PH to be lower than PH6.5 3. You should produce effluent concentration 35dkh to 60dkh with effluent of PH7.0 or above. Anything less, you will need to tune the reactor. I think the problem "IS WITH THE TUNING". You should always tune to a effluent if 1 drop per second and play around with the CO2 rate. With such low effluent & CO2, I doubt your reactor is design to deal with such operating parameters???? No reactor in the world is design to deal with such low flow operation. Plse do not take this as ................ Anyone can take this or RC and verify if I'm wrong - I do not think so. RC has a bigger pool of reefers and probably can offer their opinions. I've never see effluent of below PH7.0 classify as efficient Maybe I should start charging consultation $$ Max

I actually meant with effluent of PH6.64, if you run the reactor with such effluent in a highly stocked SPS tank @ high effluent rate of 4L~10L/hr, the low effluent PH will bring down the Tank PH too much and crash the tank. With effluent of PH6.64, I think my Deltec Calcium Reactor can produce 500dkh or maybe limestone ************************** Effluent readings as follows: pH 6.64 kh = 54 dkh Ca = 720ppm ************************* If Effluent is PH6.64, then the chamber PH will be as low as PH6.2 or PH6.3. -> this will already cause a melt down in the media and all the effluent coming out will be white thick calcium milk. BTW a efficient or "working"reactor will have a effluent of above PH7.0 Something is wrong here............ and it's either the Tuning or the Reactor I'm trying to find out what his understanding of Reactor Concept? When you review something, you need to to know what the concept and principles behind how that unit of equipment runs. Max

Friend, your effluent got major problem. If I'm running mmy CR with such effluent on my SPS tank at 4~6drops/mintue, I tank long crash liao!

Friend what's your lighting??? That is not gaping That is a Squamosa, not Crocea.....and it might not attach to rock or sand Mantle have not retract Still got chance Stress too high & lack of food -> What your lightiings!!!!!-? move it under high light area! Feed BioPlankton - Target feeding 2x a day -> might not work as well, since Crocea and Maxima response to feeding better. Next time post a technical detail of your setup- without this what help help what!!! Max

There has been a lot of good recommendation, but juz want add some blunt fact, If you buy some colorful SPS from LFS at the first day of shipment. 1. The SPS you buy from LFS should not brown out 2. There might be a little base type STN if water circulation is not to it's existing growth structure liking. 3. Frag any RTN colony, it might be useless since you might have brought a colony that has already shut down If your colorful Acros brown out. Your system not good enough! So the verdict here is majority of the reefers do not have a system that's good enough. This is truth even for mature SPS tank, a little shift in parameters due to whatever factors, you loose colors - but might not be totally brown out. I think we need some Europeans here to share with us. There is this new thread with European Advance SPS Reefers that their system can maintain whatever colors that come along. There might be a color shift, but definitely not brown. You also need to know the easier colors like green..........If a dark green Acro turn brown on you.........man you need some reading and re-examine of you have the right equipment investment$ before buying your next Acros. If you brought any brown out old stocks 1. Color should come back with weeks You might think It impossible, but put it in such a way the European can do it, some of us can and defintely new reefers can do it as well. Maybe you want to ask AT how much he has spend! Max

I miss it by a few hours.................................. Max

Nitrate measurement for tanks....2004 How reliable are the nitrate test available in Europe and how is their reading precision ? Introduction: Already two years ago our nitrate test evaluation caused a stir. Some hobbyist came together and evaluated the at that time relevant nitrate test kits. As it is now two years ago we decided to repeat the evaluation. There are now new test kits available and on the other hand we wanted to know if the manufactures of the previous tested kits have improved their quality. In collaboration with Sabine and Harald Mülder, Thomas Chronz and Markus Leiser, we started the "Nitrate Test Evaluation 2004" on 21.02.2004. Preparations...by Markus Leiser We always had www.Meerwasserforum.com next to us on the Laptop:-) Preparation: Markus Leiser ordered a nitrate parent solution from Merck (Batch number:1.19811.0500) This solution had exactly 1000mg nitrate per liter. Specific gravity of this dilution has been verified by alkalimetric titration. The water has been measured by 20 degree (Calibration temperature of pipettes and measuring glass) and the respectively needed amount of the parent solution has been added to the dilution 1,2 and 3. We used LicroSolv which is purest water used for chromatography. Afterwards we set the salinity to 35 per thousand and verified the result with an refractometer. All measurements have been taking at room temperature. We took care the there was no daylight incidence on the measuring glass. We used Tropic Marin salt which had been purchase three weeks ago. All test have been performed with the equipment which belongs to the test kit! The test kits have been provided free of charge form the following pet stores / online stores: Mrutzek Meeresaquaristik donated the JBL and Tetra test kit, Claude Schuhmacher donated the test kits from: Red Sea, Tropic Marin, Salifert, Machery & Nagel Visocolor Eco Neu, Andreas Neufeld brought the new Aqualight Nitrate Test. Markus Leiser brought the Aquanal Nitrattest from Riedel-de-Haen, Robert purchased the tow test kits from Nutrafin and Sera at Welke Lünen, who where so kind to give him 20% discount. We like to thank everybody for enabling us to use the different test kits. The following NO3 test kits have been evaluated: Manufacturer Batch number Expires max test Range Price RED SEA 23 23.05.05 60 Tests High Range: 0-12,5-25-50-100-250 Low Range: 0-2,5-5,0-10-20-50 ca. 14,00 € SALIFERT N03-1 T0308 N03-2 NB-B 2642 N03 Me-059 K.A. 60 Tests Normal:0-2-5-10-25-50-100 Accurate: divide by 10 ca. 10,00 € TETRA 326989 Ce T616 K.A. K. A. 0-12,5-25-50-100 ca. 11.20 € NUTRAFIN/Hagen Dilution 1: Lot A10 Dilution 2: Lot Ao9 Dilution 3: Lot Ao9 30.04.2005 80 Tests 5-10-20-50-110 ca. 14,00 € JBL 09849702 - 50 Tests 0-1-5-10-20-40-60-80-120-160-240 ca. 14.80 € AQUALIGHT - - 50 Tests 5-10-20-40-60-100 ca. 10,00 € TROPIC MARIN - 30.05.2005 40 Tests -1-5-10-20-50-100 ca. 14,00 € SERA CH6 03 11-2008 60 Tests 0-5-10-20-40 - 400 je nach Höhe No3 ca. 9,00 € Riedel-de-Haehn Aquanal Plus Lot 10920 02.04.2004 200 Tests 1-2-3-5-10-20-35-50 1-50 mg/L Photometrisch 0,5 - 50 mg/L ca. 55,00 € Machery-Nagel Visocolor Eco NEU Lot 1021 10-2005 110 Tests 0-1-3-5-10-20-30-50-70-90-120 ca. 33,00 € Machery-Nagel Visocolor Eco Old Lot 0190 03-2005 110 Tests 0-4-10-20-30-50-70-90-120 ca. 33,00 € Harald Mülder and Markus Leiser made the three reference dilutions with different nitrate concentration. Only they knew which dilution had which nitrate level. Due to this the four test persons did not know the nitrate concentration of the three different dilutions. The test it self was prepared by one person, the determination of the result has been made by four different persons. As one can see in the following people read the color codes different. Therefore this is already the cause for some variations of the results. This year we did not use the photometer from Hanna as they meanwhile announced that their tool is not to be used for nitrate determination of salt water. Results: Dilution 1 contained 4 mg Nitrate Dilution 2 contained 18 mg Nitrate Dilution 3 contained 40 mg Nitrate Manufaturer Dilution 1 (4 mg) Dilution 2 (18 mg) Dilution 3 (40 mg) RED SEA Tester1 0 Tester2 0 Tester3 0 Tester4 0 Tester1 0 Tester2 0 Tester3 0 Tester4 0 Tester1 0 Tester2 0 Tester3 0 Tester4 0 SALIFERT Tester1 3,0 mg Tester2 2,5 mg Tester3 2,5 mg Tester4 2,5 mg Tester1 12,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 10,0 mg Tester4 10,0 mg Tester1 35,0 mg Tester2 40,0 mg Tester3 40,0 mg Tester4 40,0 mg TETRA Tester1 12,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 10,0 mg Tester4 10,0 mg Tester1 20,0 mg Tester2 20,0 mg Tester3 20,0 mg Tester4 22,0 mg Tester1 75,0 mg Tester2 60,0 mg Tester3 50,0 mg Tester4 75,0 mg HAGEN Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 5,0 mg Tester3 5,0 mg Tester4 5,0 mg Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 5,0 mg Tester3 5,0 mg Tester4 5,0 mg Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 5,0 mg Tester3 5,0 mg Tester4 7,0 mg JBL Tester1 1,0 mg Tester2 1,0 mg Tester3 1,0 mg Tester4 1,0 mg Tester1 10,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 12,0 mg Tester4 15,0 mg Tester1 20,0 mg Tester2 20,0 mg Tester3 20,0 mg Tester4 20,0 mg AQUALIGHT Tester1 1,0 mg Tester2 2,0 mg Tester3 1,0 mg Tester4 2,0 mg Tester1 10,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 10,0 mg Tester4 10,0 mg Tester1 15,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 12,0 mg Tester4 10,0 mg TROPIC MARIN Tester1 1,0 mg Tester2 1,0 mg Tester3 2,0 mg Tester4 2,0 mg Tester1 10,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 10,0 mg Tester4 10,0 mg Tester1 20,0 mg Tester2 15,0 mg Tester3 20,0 mg Tester4 15,0 mg SERA Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 5,0 mg Tester3 5,0 mg Tester4 5,0 mg Tester1 n.a. Tester2 40,0 mg Tester3 40,0 mg Tester4 30,0 mg Tester1 80,0 mg Tester2 80,0 mg Tester3 80,0 mg Tester4 80,0 mg MACHERY-NAGEL NEU Tester1 2,5 mg Tester2 2,5 mg Tester3 2,5 mg Tester4 2,5 mg Photomet. 5,0 mg Tester1 8,75 mg Tester2 8,75 mg Tester3 8,75 mg Tester4 10,00 mg Photomet. 8,75 mg Tester1 18,75 mg Tester2 18,75 mg Tester3 22,00 mg Tester4 18,75 mg Photomet.26,25 mg RIEDEL-DE-HAEHN Tester1 3,0 mg Tester2 3,0 mg Tester3 3,0 mg Tester4 3,0 mg Photometer 4 mg Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 10,0 mg Tester3 10,0 mg Tester4 5,0 mg Photomet. 14,3 mg Tester1 50,0 mg Tester2 50,0 mg Tester3 50,0 mg Tester4 35,0 mg Photomet. 36,0 mg MACHERY-NAGEL ALT Tester1 5,0 mg Tester2 5,0 mg Tester3 5,0 mg Tester4 5,0 mg Tester1 18,75 mg Tester2 25,00 mg Tester3 18,75 mg Tester4 18,75 mg Tester1 37,50 mg Tester2 37,50 mg Tester3 37,50 mg Tester4 37,50 mg . . Conclusion: RED SEA: It was almost impossible to read the expiration date of the Red Sea test. One of the test bottles containing reagent C was already damaged as we open the test kit. Performing the test we faced that no results could be achieved. obviously the bottle got damaged and the reagent. Therefore we could not evaluate this test. Kindly refer to our evaluation two years ago - there the test kit scored very good. AQUALIGHT: This test is new on the market and we where looking forward to see its performance. Unfortunately the test did not meet our requirements in terms of handling, result determination and accuracy. Very disappointing was the spatula where we really ask our self how one can measure the correct amount reagent. Aqualight should work on this.. TROPIC MARIN: The Marin Test Kit convinced with the usual good handling and the color scale to determine the result was easy to read. But the test was not as accurate as we expected. SERA: Color scales are easy to read. But in the higher nitrate levels it shows almost the double of the real concentration. TETRA: With Tetra you can only see a vague tendency, in the lower and higher nitrate range it showed to much and in the middle range it showed roughly the correct values. The color scale is not bad and intensive. HAGEN: No comment .... see table above JBL: JBL shows a tendency which is getting more inaccurately as higher the nitrate concentration gets. SALIFERT: Salifert shows a accurate tendency which is getting more accurate in the higher levels. Has a good cost / performance ration. RIEDEL-DE-HAEHN: People had problems to determine the correct color scale with artificial light. No other test has been compared that long. That's one of the reason why the different people has different results. But this test is currently hardly know in our hobby. MACHERY-NAGEL NEW: Recently Machery-Nagel changed the color scale to enable better results. We don't know, if the test it self has been changed too. It was significant that the new test did not even approximately reach the expected good results as the "old" test did. MACHERY-NAGEL Old: As the new version showed so bad results we took the old test out of our drawer. It has expiration date March 2005. This test kit showed the best results of all evaluated test kits. The color scale was very good to read and is was easy to determine the result. That's how we expect a test to be. Feel lucky if you still own one of this series. It would be interesting to know why the new version showed so bad results -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the unexpected bad results of the MN test kit we contacted Machery-Nagel as this test is currently the sate of the art thet not only for reefers. Dr. Reinhardt, form Machery-Nagel stated that the only reason he could imagine would be the powder. Claude Schuhmacher did send us a new MN test kit from the same batch 1021 and a Red Sea test kit so that we could make up that test as the first one was not usable (see above) On February 28th Sabine und Harald Mülder started the comparative test. For comparison they used an about one year old MN test which has been used already several times. This might explain the slight deviations. Manufaturer Dilution 1 (4 mg) Dilution 2 (18 mg) Dilution 3 (40 mg) RED SEA Tester1: nicht ablesbar Tester2: nicht ablesbar Tester 1: 2,5 mg Tester 2: 2,5 mg Tester 1: 5,00 mg Tester 2: 5,00 mg Machery-Nagel NEU Charge 1021 1,00 mg 7,5 mg 18,75 mg Machery-Nagel NEU Charge 1021 Pulver alter Test 1,00 mg 7,5 mg 18,75 mg Machery-Nagel ALT Charge 0190 3,75 mg 15,00 mg 31,25 mg So we have to point out that also the second test showed to less and therefore wrong values. Meanwhile we figured out that what is most likely the reason. It is not the powder as expected form Machery-Nagel , it seems to be liquid 1. Because if we used the liquid 1 from the old test kit we could achieve more reliable test results with the new powder. We also have an addendum to the Tetra test kit. Sabine Mülder discovered that if you keep a little more distance between the test cylinder and the color scale the values seem the be a little lower and therefore more close to to correct values. Still not exact but better than holding the test cylinder directly in front of the color scale. . Unfortunately there is not hint like that on the user manual. RESULT: The winner of the first Nitrate Test benchmarking Red Sea did not reach the expectations during this second comparative test at all. Machery-Nagel should definatly check again the batch 1021 and verify what is wrong. Finally only the test from Salifert comes up with an reasonable result. We are very very disappointed that only one of the manufacturers seems to be able to produce a reliable test. We want to thank Mrs. Leiser for supporting us with food and beverages so that we did not have to suffer from thirst or hunger :-) Final conclusion: we are excessively disappointed what some manufactures sell us as a nitrate test. We could have bought a dice box and "determine" the nitrate like this ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sabine Mülder, Harald Mülder Thomas Chonz, Markus Leiser, Manuela Kruppas and Robert Baur Copyright 06.03.2004 by www.korallenriff.de Translation by Peter Scmiedel (Thank you very much )

Where's Morgan? .............looking for Price and Dates.............. Max

I strongly suggest, if there are enough reefers looking for specific Tangs that are less commonly imported, maybe consolidate a figure and ask Steve to Bac to bring it in. I'm not a fish person.......I'll bug them for specific corals only:P Max

Guys wake up Those at LCK are junior Yellow Mimic, Yellow Lemon Peel Tang and real lemon peel. This is what I know as per yesterday morning.............. Worng ID The most frequent wrong ID is Carmel Shrimp taken as Peppermint Shrimp Max

He's oversea now...........might be back or soon...... Max

Plse count me in.................................have not dive for 3 years since marriage..............sort of itching Plse keep me posted of the date. BTW, anyone here dive in Solomon, Vanuatu, Palau or Micronesia. Hope to plan a trip there this year if my work(business travel) schedule allows? Appreciate any recommendations. Max

I cannot understand the new thrend of adding lots of Anthias? Anthias = lots of feedings = some will die inside your rock = Nirate Factory = end up buying more equipment = more $$ spend. I guess Anthias is best left to Species specific tank.. Maybe I'm a poor man voicing from a poor man's perspective..... Max

When you drip rotifiers or Plankton, it loses it's freshness and nutriontal value + alot of these rotifiers will stick to your tubing ofthe drip. Juz off your Tunzes or circulation pumps, pump 1 or 2 or more drops into your tank base on tank size and Coral loading. -TAKE it back to the frigerator ASAP. Then stirr your tank surface with a chopstick or whatever and see the content dispense and drip slowly aross the tank. You will see your corals response within mintues. If you don not see your all corals responsing fast, why? You have not been feeding for a long...long time. It will take a few more days to coax all the corals to feed again- some will definitely response faster......... Patience........you can definitely see result on all the corals within days to a week. Max

The Luo Han crazy dies, came Marine Crazy and now Marine Crazy on the verge of death..............what's next............... Max

if your water is so high, you should get skimming result without closing your output pipe!!!! Make sure your water to bubble foaming level is in level or slightly higher than Cup attachment line at skimmer funnel. -> this works for low-bioload tanks I advise you take your the whole cup, wash it with strong soap, clean it dry and put it back. 100% skim better. Max

How much you skim depends on your bioload. If you have zero fish, don;t feed anything and change 20% water every week...........what's there to skim? Water level need to be at least 6inch, best 7inch and play around with the output funnel, test lose it 25% 50% 75% and leave it there for 12~24hrs and see the result. Different tank, sump wil require different tuning. Max

This hobby is juz as expensive as a regular golfer would pay for Golfing as per reef manitenance. Equipment wise, reefing is more expensive. You can get very good Golf equipment with $5K, but for a 4ft tank, you probably end up more than $10K for complete equipment setup without LS - specific to a SPS reef. Who can affort this longterm......not much......Maybe I will convert to fowler tank before retirement to cut cost...............take out chiller, CR, MH ..................talk about savings. The amount of SRC visitor have reduce by at least 50~70%? Max

BTW, FYI a Leopard Blenny is a coral eater, SPS or LPS alike form part of this monser's diet and it gorws to 6inch easily, unlike the rest of the blenny. Roidan, remember the little cute monster I point to you the other day.........that's teh Leopard Blenny. Max

Anyone want to guess how many XL size Purple Queen Anthias Roidan brought 2 days ago? Prize for guessing the right answer will be a Leopard Blenny Max

Alfa juz reserve a very NICE Hawaii Kole specimen that is Pastel PINK in Base color. Max