Nano Reef Aquarium

Christmas has just been and i decided to treat myself. As you may well know from previous posts. One of my to buys, was a new skimmer. After reading reviews and comments posted on reefing forums i decided to buy a Deltec MCE skimmer.  It's awesome, running at just 10 watts it produces loads of micro bubbles. It is producing much more waste than my old TMC V2 500 skimmer and this was running from a ocean runner 2500 pump using 50 watts of power. so this should save me some money to help with the purchase of a auto top up unit. Not only is it cheaper to run it is much quieter and tidier. This in turn has got rid of all the piping running to the storage cabinet underneath and as given me the chance to tidy the cabinet up and make things much more accessible. Here you can see it in operation. This shows how much tidier it is. And the cabinet Comments welcome.

With all the lighting options available. LED, Metel halide, T5's. What is your preffered option? For the very first time i have added a poll for all blog readers to let everyone collectively know. You can enter your option on the top of this page. lets see what reefers use and prefer. All comments welcome in this blog post. 

Upon the desisson to adopt metal halide with my current led setup. I may now be changing my mind again. The news of big aquarium manufacturers such as ecotech and D&D, utilising the new Cree LED lighting technology  is making me listen.  Metal halide performance is becoming achievable with led lighting with many advatages, such as reduced heat, lower running costs, and much more it has to be the way to go. The Ecotech Radion XR30 has 24 cree XP lights totaling 130 watts. these consist of blue, white and green bulbs. the unit is upgradable and its customisable functionalitly allows users to exchange firmware online. Like most things Ecotech is utilisers the 'w' wire less technology  to sync with pumps to create variouse weather conditions. More information is available at ecotechmarine  . D&Ds equivalant the A1 SOL has 24 cree LED's, 16 white and 8 blue totalling 75 watts claiming high enough output to keep many SPS...

For some time now i have used the Vortech MP10 power head for water movement and i am really happy with it's performance, even more so from reading articles about there underrated flow rates. These power heads produce much more flow than stated on there specification sheet, leaving other competing brands behind with rated turn over/flow. Regular readers of this blog will know about my battle with algae, well it as started again but in a different form (unsure of name). The thing is the algae is only on the right hand side of the reef aquarium. From my photos you will see my aquarium is approx 90cm wide, 40cm depth and 60cm deep, with a tall rock formation on the left hand side and of cause the location of my MP10. I feel this is reducing flow to the right hand side where the algae is growing and i consider this to be the cause. My options to solve this problem are to purchase another Vortech MP10 but feel this to be a costly solution. the more favo...

The challenge of keeping LPS and SPS is demanding enough just maintaining good stable parameters but many say they cant thrive under LED lighting. I have to disagree, below are some growth shots for you take a look at. I know colouration is'nt great but these corals have almost doubled in size in the last 12 months. Before Now Before Now

Total dissolved solids, or TDS as it is otherwise known can be the cause of many problems. One of the main problems that it can cause, is nuisance algae like i have had. As you will know from following my blog, i have had major issues with Algae. The RO water with a TDS reading of 9 that was being used woud'nt have helped. So how do you overcome this? Get yourself an in line TDS meter to establish your TDS reading. This meter measures the water before the Reverse Osmosis and pre filter stages. It is not unusual for tap water to have a reading of 300. These meters also indicate the reading after the reverse osmosis process. As expected this should be zero. If like me you have a TDS reading above 0. You will be feeding the nuisance algae. Provided your TDS is quite low, for example around 10 you can be satisfied that your Membrane is in satisfactory working order. If higher or your RO membrane is a few years old you might want to consider membr...

It was my Birthday last week and i decided i wanted to visit a local fish shop. Off we with the intention to get a  few bits and bobs and came away with a Pair of tank bred Percula clown fish, a really nice acropora frag and the new Algae Control test kit from Red Sea. My intention was to purchase the high sensitivity Phosphate Merck kit from D-D, But as informed  by the shop that this had been replaced with a new kit, and in there opinion was not as good. I also needed a new Nitrate test kit but was unsure which brand to get. I really didn't want the salifert again, i wanted a high sensitivity kit. The sales assistant recommended the new High sensitivity Algae Control test kit, gave me a quick demonstration, I was hooked. I am really happy with this kit and the kit has given me the accurate results i need. It's a quality product that is really easy to use with a colorimetric comparator like the old D-D. Refills are available so...