Nano Reef Aquarium

Thought it was about time i uploaded some photos of some of my corals, frags and fragged corals. Took me a little while to understand how to upload pictures, any how i will now be uploading pictures more regularly. Please understand some of these pictures are old and i have upgraded my equipment. Newer photos will follow soon.

As I said in my last post, It would appear that my look is changing. The replacement transformer's from TMC have arrived as promised. Big thanks Tropic Marine Centre. These replacement units are slightly larger to the original ones, lets hope they last and perform better than the originals. I Cant tell you how pleased i am now my lighting issues are resolved. With the bonus of having the new power-head from Vortech. Cant wait to see if there will be any improvements with coral growth and colouration. Hopefully the dreaded algae wont be able to take hold in any low flow areas now.

As i said in my last post about things not going my way. Last Thursday i was sat watching TV when i noticed one of my aquabeams intermittently flashing. I was frustrated, but thought i would be able to sort it the following morning due to it being late. Luckily, don't think that's the right word. I could smell something burning just as i was on my way upstairs to bed. It turned out to be the aqua-beam transformer. It was split open and red hot. I am so relieved that this happened when it did. The next day i decided to to contact TMC who manufacture these units. They were very concerned to hear about this and have promised uprated transformer's to be delivered as soon as possible, free of charge with the request i return the old faulty units. I await these units as i wright this post. The real frustrating thing is this as happened over the weekend. I just hope this wont have any effect on any of my livestock.

Quite a few posts ago in the aid to help reduce my algae and flow problems. I said that i was looking at getting the new Vortech MP10w es power head. Well i have finally managed to get the funds together and although these pumps are very expensive, they are well worth every penny. The power of this pump is amazing. It features loads of different flow programmes at variable speeds with a very sleek method of fitment and the abilitly to link together wirelessly to run together. As with all things i don't have the best of luck, the pump that arrived wasn't the wireless version but the supplier has promised to send me the upgrade board that can simply be installed into the controller.

My Reef Blog is now in the process of submitting a newsletter, you can subscribe by entering your email address and name in the "subscribe link" in the right hand column of the blog. AT the time of this post i have put together a simple email giving you a general idea of the newsletter contents. Further issues will follow. Subscribers will be able to read my articles before they go out on "My Reef Blog". Please feel free to comment on this post as to what content you would like to see in the newsletter.

Hanna instruments have recently introduced some new digital meters for checking Pphosphorus, Free chlorine, Nitrite and Phosphate. They are claimed to be more accurate than chemical test kits that are commonly used. With a ultra low range and reliable results.  Having found that the phosphate kit i use is very unreliable and inaccurate. This is giving me the urge to purchase one of these over the very expensive deltec phosphate test kit that are very accurate and highly recommended. The reason i prefer the Hanna instrument is that it should allow me to test phosphate quickly and more accurately.

There are three methods of keeping Magnesium, alkalinity, and calcium supplements to the correct levels in a reef aquarium. These are. Manual addition of off the shelf additives, The use of a Calcium reactor and kalk stirrer, or the "balling lite" Method. The first method is probably the best method to start with. It will familiarize you with supplement addition to a lightly stocked reef aquarium with a few LPS and SPS corals and wont cost you a small fortune to maintain good water parameters. After some time with growth and increased stocking you will notice the increased consumption of these important supplements with increasing cost. The use of a calcium reactor and kalk stirrer is a very effective way of maintaining calcium and alkalinity. The problem with this method is the outlay of the equipment,and unless you have a large aquarium (500 litre plus) highly stocked with LPS and SPS corals demanding high consumption of supplements.I just think the outlay is not justif...