Everyone knows that the design of the original Tunze Stream pumps was flawed. The pump itself is great, silent and efficient but the electronics were it’s achilles heel. Both the transformer and driver unit were very prone to breaking, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. But that was easily dealt with because Tunze has always supported their products with complete selection of spare parts. Until now, that is. To my surprise (and shock) I learned that Tunze no longer provides spare parts for older Stream pumps. Instead, you are required to send your old Stream to Tunze and then negotiate a discount for a new model. In my case that means I could get a Tunze 6105 for 200 € instead of 245 €. Hardly a substantial discount, especially when you consider that I still have one more 6100 for which I might need spare parts later (and, by the way, for which I’ve already bought a new transformer and driver unit about a year ago). I think I’ll keep the broken 6100 for spare parts, it’s much more valuable than 45€.

The important question of course is how will this “new” Tunze handle current equipment two years from now? They will break.

Only two days after the Tunze debacle I managed to accidentally break the ceramic axle in my ATB skimmer pump Airstar 1500. I contacted ATB and all the necessary spare parts were sent to me three hours after my email with no mention about money (I assume an invoice is included). The parts were sent with fast express service to ensure I’ll get my skimmer back online as soon as possible. No negotiations and no hint of “who cares” attitude.

It is nice to deal with serious people.

No related posts.

New tank shortly after move. Everything was good.

It all started 15 months ago when after a long and serious illness I was able to “restart” my old tank. After a lot of work it all started to look good but then something happened that set the tone for the next 15 months: just when I thought the tank was back on right track the center brace broke and I was forced to drain the tank and buy a new one. So began a year during which pretty much nothing has worked (or so it seems to me).

Old tank before and after. It took 5 weeks of hard work.

This tank has caused me more trouble than all my previous tanks combined. Well, actually, it’s not the tank but the owner who has caused so much trouble. Traditionally I’ve been very conservative with my husbandry practices. I’ve always used pretty standard and simple Berlin type setup i.e. combination of sand, live rock, skimmer, GAC, limewater and good lighting. My only departure from the age old Berlin method was DOC dosing which I started about 10 years ago. Sure, I’ve experimented with some additives but all in all, very safe and stable.
That’s boring, right?
So thought I and together with this new tank I started to explore all kinds of “new” and exciting products that would certainly make my new tank that much better than all my previous attempts. Unfortunately I got a bit too enthusiastic about some of the products and as a result managed to almost completely ruin my tank with extremely high nutrients. This year has also been plagued with equipment failures and about 1000 miscellaneous smaller problems. By far the worst year in my reefkeeping history.
Unfortunately as the problems have been piling up so has my motivation to write plummeted, I haven’t even had the energy to be grumpy

My 240 gallon tank April 2010. Current number one problem: Aiptasia

Let’s hope 2010/2011 season will be more enjoyable!

Related posts:

1. Tank update, July 2009
2. Tank update, June 2009 (Updated)
3. Tank update, October 2009

Related posts:

1. Summer break is over – a quick update
2. Tank update, July 2009
3. Tank update, October 2009

The key to ultimate long term success in the hobby is not just having the ultimate system and the hottest equipment – it’s the effort that you put in as a hobbyist to provide your animals with the best possible care.

I can’t think better advice to give to a new (or experienced for that matter) reef aquarists. It is really important to understand the message: the success depends only on you and your actions. A good aquarist with mediocre equipment will always beat a mediocre aquarist with good equipment.

–––

I have a couple of my own, more grumpy advice:

Don’t just sit there, do something!

The saying “Only bad things happen quickly in a reef aquarium” has some merit but many have taken this far too literally. If you can see there is something wrong in the aquarium it calls for a immediate action. Don’t just sit there wishing the problem will go away by itself. There is absolutely no reason to prolong the stress the inhabitants are experiencing.

Only ask if you can’t find the answer.

I don’t agree with the phrase “There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers.” The question that has been asked hundreds of times is a dumb question indeed if it is repeated. You will learn a lot more by doing the research yourself.

And finally, one of my favorite quotes:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

- Albert Einstein

Related posts:

1. ULNS is not really L and far from UL
2. Let it foam: Selecting a skimmer
3. Sometimes you just sit and go “Wow, I’m stupid!”

I think one of the problems is the definition of the term “Ultra Low Nutrient System.” It seems to me that this description really has nothing to do with the amount of nutrients in the system. Reading some of the forums where the term ULNS is most often used it looks like people understand ULNS as a system that uses some form of DOC dosing and/or zeolites to aid in nutrient export. Obviously that tells us nothing about how much dissolved nutrients there really are in the water. Some “ULNS experts” even insist that you should always have some measurable phosphates and nitrates in a “ULNS” reef aquarium. Talk about contradiction in terms!

However, the question remains: why are corals so stressed in ULNS systems that they suffer from chronic partial bleaching (“pastel” colors) and very quickly develop tissue necrosis after small and for most systems benign change in water chemistry? People like me have been using DOC dosing for more than 10 years and never had the kind of problems ULN systems have. Large number of people (including me) have maintained healthy reef aquariums with constant “zero” nutrients and high alkalinity for several years. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the term “ULNS”must mean something else than low nutrients and DOC dosing with or without zeolites.

So why not just be upfront about it and say you are using ZEOvit? It is very confusing when people describe their system as an “Ultra-Low Nutrient System” when it clearly isn’t. It is even more confusing when people claim that it is the low nutrients that cause the many problems so common with ZEOvit system. It is almost 100% certain that aquarium corals will never suffer from “too low” inorganic nutrients. Nutrition is a completely different story. Together with intentional heavy metal poisoning the lack of proper food is certainly a good candidate for many problems…

Truly L NS

What I would consider to be a low nutrient reef aquarium would be one with similar levels of dissolved inorganic nutrients that are commonly found at costal reefs. The “Ultra-Low” would be reserved for tanks with even more nutrient poor water, something like remote oceanic reefs.

Below is a recent study on water quality on several costal coral reefs in Australia. These values are a result of large number of measurements from several sites and I think these could be used as a guide to LNS aquarium. Many reefs have order of magnitude lower inorganic nutrient levels but getting aquarium water so clean might prove to be an impossible dream.

Note that the values are in ug/l (1 ug/l = 0.001 mg/l or 0.001 ppm).

Taking the annual mean values, a good candidate for a LNS reef aquarium would have 0.003 ppm PO4, 0.003 ppm nitrate and 0.2 ppm silicate. For phosphate, that’s 1/10th of detection limit of best PO4 test kits and 1/100th for NO3. Note that silicates are often too low in a typical reef aquarium!

Related posts:

1. New ideas for reef aquarium filtration
2. Back to spirits (Updated)
3. Guidelines for some parameters from Kleypas et al