HMA’s 115 gal. Reef Tank

[kathywithbirds]

Wow! Breathtaking scenery.

Did you manage to get into that water and see anything, Heinz?

[hma]

Originally Posted by kathywithbirds

Wow! Breathtaking scenery.

Did you manage to get into that water and see anything, Heinz?

Yes of course Kathy, i am a member of SharkPROJECT and was together with a group of members dive near Port Elizabeth, Blue water diving ore also called open sea diving! You know what this is? What is the crack point? Now we did not see reefs in the open sea, because we have gone from 40 to 60 nautical miles on the open sea to the scarp of the African continental plate. Out there flows of the Agulhas stream with turquoise-blue water warm up to 24° C degrees. Adventure purely, with packed lunches and drinks, diving bottles and photo equipment. It was simply incredibly; the further one leaves the coast one sees the more sharks already in the surface of the sea. Many white, macos and blue sharks. Incredibly as the sea bubbles there and is active. Lunar fish float in the surface and we are snorkeled with them for a while and the lunars disappear in the deep blue. We saw gigantic schools of yellow thuna and heard this cheep from dolphins going hunting in the open sea. It was simply a dream.



A Project Poster:



and a SharkPROJECT Movie

[JWarren]

I enjoyed reading of your exploits Heinz! I too like to dive with the sharks here. Hammerheads, nurse, tigers, bulls, macos and quite a few others all right here in my back yard.

I went and dove with a few friends last month. 5 Goliath Groupers (Jewish) that live in some bridge rubble that was dumped to make an artificial reef, just off our coast in 65 FT. The biggest groupers eyeball was 8 1/2" inches in diameter. These fish are such a treat to see up close!

I viewed the last photo you posted of your tank. Very beautiful!

Welcome home! I did not know you where gone, sorry.

[JWarren]

Here is a shot of a small Goliath grouper.

[Craig Manoukian]

Wow, big fish!

[Woodstock]

Awesome photos of your trip Heinz. Very enjoyable! Your reef is looking fabulous as always
Kudos to you being apart of saving sharks!!

[AQTCJAK]

Heinz, Very impressive. Just joined the project as well

[cheeks69]

Great shots from the trip and tank
My wife spent a couple of years in South Africa, it's a beautiful country !

JWarren one of those Goliaths was staring me down while we were eating at a restaurant in EPCOT

[JWarren]

They are just wonderful fish! Really docile, until they get hungry.

[vdituri]

Looks like it has its own ecosytem its so big.

[hma]

Originally Posted by AQTCJAK

Heinz, Very impressive. Just joined the project as well

Wunderbar Jack, thank you so much ! Every new member is important and helps a small piece further in the fight against the exterminate of the sharks. I would be glad very much if I could persuade even more people of the Project.

Many thank’s also to all the others for her nice words and comments, it’s a wonderfully community on RS and I am very glad to be a part of it.

@ John, this groopers are the bomb, I love it too …. Thanks for the nice shot.

@ Robert, South Africa is simply beautiful. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful although they themselves often so little own. I love this land but above all, the people there.

[hma]

We discussed during the last weeks in different Threads the use of vodka in the reef aquarium. I would like to begin here no other discussion on this subject; I would like to make clear merely my point of view.





I am absolutely sure, the dosage of vodka harms neither fish nor corals or inverts and I will try to clarify why.

Carbon is hardly discussed as limited nutrient in the reef. Inorganic carbon is in the reef in form carbon dioxide or from carbonates available. Additionally one knows organic carbon as a component of many soluble and insoluble compounds (amino acids, fatty acids, sugar etc..).

Let us first clarify what's vodka, of which ingredients he exists? Now vodka exists, at least here in Europe, too approx. 40% vol. from pure alcohol, the remainder is distilled water and hardly provable portion aromatics (potato, rye). The alcohol is simply only one, CARBON. That distilled water in a sea water aquarium is harmless, not to discuss.

We regard ourselves now the solved nutrients in the corral reefs somewhat more exactly. We come to the following average values at the most frequent occurring solved nutrients.


(mg/Liter)

Nutrients open sea coral reefs

nitrat 2,0 – 5,0 0,1 – 0,3

ammonium <1,0 0,2 – 0,5

phosphat 0,5 – 2,0 <0,3

silicate <0,2 <2,0

solved phosphat <1,3 <0,15

solved nitrogen 5,0 – 20,0 3,0 – 13,8

solved carbon 1500 – 2000 500 - 800


As one can infer from the table, carbon is present in large quantity as solved nutrient both in the open sea and in the reef. One can see further in the table, it is used over 2/3 carbon in the reef, obviously as nutrient. What should be so dangerous at carbon? Nothing, it is simply FOOD.

How does a coral in the reef supply itself with carbon for example? Did you ask this question already once? Now, in one "normal" reef aquarium is sucked the koralle by its zooxanthells with carbon (sugar), since in the water mostly no more carbon is present. Carbon at first existing in the water is very fast used up. The coral MUST of the Zooxanthellen nourish itself, another possibility is mostly not offered. Corals in a reef aquarium have substantially more zooxanthells than comparable corals in nature. Therefore they have mostly all a slightly brown colouring, the reason for this colouring is the zooxanthells. The natural color is covered by this increased number of zooxanthells. In reef aquariums, running with the vodka or zeovit method, the corals separates large parts of their zooxanthells in the first weeks of the dosage. The coral can take the necessary nutrients again out of the water and the natural colors become again clearly better visible and bright. This process of change takes some weeks. In this time the appearance of the coral does change naturally, ill is these coral definitely not.

[tbittner]

I'm curious, what brand of vodka do you use? I know some are triple distilled and things like that, which if I remember right, removes a lot of the impurities from it and makes it "smoother". I wonder if that has something to do with the difference between success and failure?

[JWarren]

So, Heinz, which are you saying, medical alcohol or vodka. A little lost there in translation.

[hma]

Originally Posted by JWarren

So, Heinz, which are you saying, medical alcohol or vodka. A little lost there in translation.

Vodka = 40% alcohol and 59.? % dest. water