Kingfish

Eric Borneman's study on reef salts was not very conclusive, and the experimental design is not well suited to aquariums that contain live rock. It would take to long to sum it all up, so is are some superficial conclusions that i drew from the presentation. Instant ocean is the lowest quality mix of the study group having produced the least coral growth and most cyano bacteria. Oceanic is average to good all around Tropic marin ranked very high, having good growth and the least amount of algae. Tropic marin pro (to my understanding) is reserved for those aquarists that use calcium reactors, yet maintain a high and unbalanced borate alkalinity (really high Kh). According to the Tropic marin rep. "just because pro is more expensive doesn't mean that you need it, if you don't know exactly why you need pro, then don't use it." His words not mine.

I second the testing. After a long conversation that john and i had with Bruce from Rowa-usa I have a good understanding of phosphate in a reef. Here it goes: A reef aquarium stony or not needs between .008 and .01 mg/L of organic phosphate. This PO4 initially binds with free calcium ions released from a calcium reactor, or participates in the bonds between calcium hydoxide (kalk), or calcium chloride (liquid ca). The zooxanthellae incorporate this calcium phosphate molecule into their cells where the Ca-PO4 bond is cleaved supplying the skeleton with Ca and the algae (zooxan.) with the necessary phosphate. So in short, a tank without any phosphate can have trouble with both color and growth.

PS. The new Deltec HOB skimmer that I saw at macna is available and can handle a 90g tank for $239 http://www.deltecusa.us/proteinskimmers/mce300.php

This hobby is like any other, you get what you pay for, period. But to play devils advocate, a skimmer is just a clear tube with a pump and some air bubbles. The reason expensive skimmers are such is due to materials and engineering. Cheap skimmers use extruded rather than cast materials. They are press molded not hand assembled. But most importantly the pumps used on cheap skimmers such as: Via aqua, Rio, Cap, etc have thinner layers of epoxy covering the copper coils in the pump head. These thin layers of epoxy can easily crack leaking stray voltage and copper into your aquarium. Just an FYI.

Reefman, As far as a new skimmer goes, a coralife would be an improvement over the prizm. At macna, Deltec released their new hang on the back skimmer that retails for $239. You might consider it if you don't want to install a sump system.

Kingfish Aquarium is donating 40 assorted frags at meeting on Sept 30. There are metallic gsp's, Green sinularia leathers, millepora, Bali green slimer, A. efflorensis. So everyone be sure to come to meeting. Pictures are posted under "corals" -Brian-