Nano Reef - Coral Frags
Tagged: ArticlesThere is a new growing popularity in the reef keeping hobby called Nano Reefs. As the name implies, a nano reef is a reef aquarium on a small scale; 2.5 to 29 gallons. The price of a nano reef is also on a small scale, from the tank itself, the lighting, and it takes less live rock and corals to make a very dramatic reef display.
It was often thought that the bigger the aquarium the easier it would be to keep the water parameters stable. You could not keep corals alive without a massive trickle filter, large efficient protein skimmer, and powerful metal halide lighting lights. The bigger the aquarium the more gadgets you could add to make the water quality pristine, from ozone generators, redox meters, ph controllers, and calcium reactors. You had to be a marine biologist and a chemist to maintain a coral reef aquarium. The nano reef aquarium would seem to go against all these principles. Can we really keep corals alive in a 10 gallon aquarium with no sump filter or a protein skimmer?
What has been learned through the years more than anything is, most of the biological filtration occurs in the live rock and live sand. Lighting has also played a role in enabling the reef aquarium to become smaller with the advent of power compact fluorescent and the smaller HQI metal halide lamps. Having invertebrates that sift through and clean the live sand and live rocks ads to the ecological balance of the tank. Most of the trace elements are replaced through a strict regiments of 5% weekly water changes. There is yet to be a salt water mix that has adequate calcium and strontium levels for good coral growth and these elements should be maintained separately.
The best products to maintain calcium, strontium and other trace elements are made from aragonite, such as AragaMilk from CaribSea. So what is aragonite? Aragonite is fossilized coralline algae that has extracted minerals from the ocean to grow. Grinding aragonite into a fine powder and adding water creates a milky substance that precipitates quickly adding these minerals to the water naturally. Add a few drops to top off water to maintain calcium levels at 450 ppm. You will be amazed at the growth rate of SPS corals. Yes I did say SPS corals that can be easily maintained in a nano reef aquarium.
Fish For The Nano Reef Aquarium
Fish are a great addition to a nano reef, but you must take extra care of you nano. You will have to be sure to keep up with your water changes, because a small body of water can collect nitrates quickly. The following fish are nano reef safe: anthius, true and false percula, banggai cardinals, pajama cardinals, royal grammas, fire fish, clown gobies, pseudochromis, basslets, and most damsels. While you are not limited to just those fish, these are hardy and good for beginners. Keep the number small from 1 to 5 fish depending on the nano aquarium size.
Cleanup Crews For The Nano
A good cleanup crew will keep your nano reef running smooth, and free from algae, detritus, and other unwanted wastes. Commonly kept cleanup crew critters are red leg hermits, red tip hermits, sand sifter starfish, sand sifter gobies, turbo snails, and astrea snails.
Corals For the Nano Reef
There are may corals that are compatible with the nano tank. Soft corals would include zooanthids, zenias, star polops, and mushroom anemonies. Lps corals would include Fox Coral and Blastomusa. SPS corals do well with metal halide lighting. Acroporas and montiporas are the easiest to grow in a 24-29 gallon nano aquarium. SPS coral frags are the way to go in a nano reef. They are much cheaper and easier to ship. The benefits of buying corals online is the greater variety that cannot be found at your local pet store. Buying several items from the same seller can reduce shipping costs. Simply use some Marineland’s Hold Fast, which is a two part epoxy similar to plumbers epoxy, to glue the coral frag to a live rock. Be sure to give them plenty of space for growth.
For more information visit reefkeepingfever.com
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RC Moore Content writer for reefkeepingfever.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=RC_Moore If you are looking for Corals or Coral Frags in the UK contact www.inthenetaquatics.com |
Used car market is not for the faint hearted
Tagged: Articles, FinanceLast month (September 2008) saw car manufacturers cut back production in an effort to match falling demand. The ailing pound pushed UK new car prices even higher and whilst the US finance market shored up Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and, subsequently, AIG, it was still hit by the demise of Lehman Brothers.
With that as a backdrop, and with most cars manufactured outside the UK, the falling pound should lead to a round or two of new car price increases in the coming weeks, particularly for those made in the US.
When it comes to used cars, the situation is equally challenging. Used car valuations are down by more than 25 per cent year on year, according to the latest figures from the HPI Used Car Valuations Index. And used vehicle values have suffered further falls in both the car and light commercial markets.
Combine this with lower demand, high stocking costs and shrinking profit margins and you could have a recipe for insolvent dealerships.
But there is hope that things may be about to bottom out. Despite the across the board falls, some sectors are performing better than others and a few are beginning to show very small signs of a potential recovery.
Buyers continue to downsize, which is having a negative impact in the Luxury, Premium and 4×4 sectors. However it is buoying demand for many City cars and Superminis.
The petrol 12-month-old City car recovered slightly in September, with its year-on-year fall at 9 per cent. The diesel version performed even better, showing a total fall of 5.6 per cent. While neither are by no means great, they compare favourably against the average year-on-year fall for all 12 month vehicles of over 20 per cent and the 33 per cent drop suffered by the three-year-old luxury sector.
While doubts linger over the Government’s vehicle excise plans, the City car will continue to benefit as people look to reduce their CO2 emissions - and possibly their tax burden too.
However, one sector that may have fallen as far as it can is the 3 year old family car group. Both petrol and diesel family cars saw values rally a little in September, rising 2.3 and 1.9 per cent respectively, compared to year-on-year figures for August against September. The 12-month diesel MPV is also steadying - perhaps a sign that family practicality is fighting back over image?
But, there is no escaping the fact that on the whole, year-on-year, values continue to drop. And when we compare the variances of year-on-year figures for August against September, we see an average fall of around 3 per cent a month for all 12 month old vehicles and 2.4% for all 3 year old vehicles.
The much-maligned 12-month-old petrol luxury sector slipped the most, falling another 6.4 per cent, followed closely by 12-month diesel Small cars at 6.1 per cent.