Achilles Tang

Lately, I have been rather lax in reinforcing my long-standing instructions to have users in SRC respect my decision & ruling NOT to ever mention, subtly or directly, certain businesses who have vested interest to see SRC fail due to their personal or business reasons. Their ill-bearing activities are made known to me and some of you will be really shocked to hear of their plans to have SRC closed down because of the grudges they bear against me. However, in the interest of peace and bygones, I will not divulge these activities publicly or to entertain any further speculation and ill rumours being spread. However, I will not allow free publicity in SRC to be given to those who bear ill-will towards me/SRC and I need your utmost co-operation to help me enforce this ruling. Therefore no more mentions of that 'forbidden place' or 'blue s i g n b o a r d' or the addresses of those places, or hints of their location, or 'sole distributor of certain brands' via public postings or via the PM system will be tolerated . Any SRC users who breach this standing rule will be warned and those who persist for whatever reasons may be suspended of their posting privileges without delay. Until the situation is resolved, my ruling stays. Please respect my decision, Thank you for your kind understanding, Achilles Tang Administrator, SRC

Fair dinkum, mate!

This is cute! *deep in the sandbed* "G'day mates! I'm aerobic bacterium from down under! " "Hallow? Apa itu? Le kong simi? Wa si Singapore eh aerobic bacteria lah!" "Fair dinkum, mate! No need for an argy bargy! Show me to some barbie and footy, mate!" "Siao!"

So even if you can get Temasek Holdings to give $10 mil of funds to the school, the issue becomes moot? The issue is not about funding as BH has already said that money is not a problem for his school. I just want to know how advanced is the curriculum for secondary schools these days and be convinced that its within the scope of this 'Propagation for Research & Conservation using rare & exotic corals' project.

I do. But its with my home PC. Farnie man!!

Its not from the sea. It's from a lake.

Just read up on aerobic bacteria and you'll understand why bioballs and coralchips are used.

marinecraz, I am hoping that BH can clear my doubts. If he is asking for help, we must know exactly how, why, when and what the help is required for, the goals & objectives, the motives, the timeframe etc. Having the funds is one thing and using it properly is another. Misguided use of public funds should be everybody’s concern as we are the taxpayers. Not every teacher is schooled in the marine sciences and not every teacher is a marine hobbyist to understand the difficulties in supporting a project that has a very long-term process and difficult goal. Precisely what many of us are trying to find out. If the facilities, resources & expertise of dedicated marine faculties of universities around the world can be found in local secondary schools to facilitate deep-level research into gene manipulation of corals, its time to send these marine biologists to Dunman secondary school instead! Undoubtedly. My dad could only afford me lego sets at the same age when today’s kids have playstations. Well, being constructive and being innovative are too different animals. Measuring results is another aspect too. So is the motive. Precisely. I am sure help will be extremely forthcoming from the Reef Club once he can convince us why we should give him our frags and have him ‘lead’ his secondary school funds into buying exotic corals only so that he can do research and propagation into saving the coral reefs by growing corals fast enough to repopulate the reefs with exotic corals. To be realistic, many of us are much older & wiser than BH. Many of us have been to higher schools of learning. Many of us know how things work and the level of effort it takes to achieve something. Nothing wrong with Damien or Giantbicycle giving links to projects done by college students but I am sure we can give far more ‘substantial’ input than this. Anything in this world is possible. Almost.

Link me to the thread plz... like to read the discussion.

Damn! I was a Starcraft top 50 ranked player before!! My Zerg rushes were unbeatable!

The two OR6500 pumps I got before all died within days or weeks of operations. I had a very bad experience before, during and long after I bought these accursed pumps. They were also extremely noisy then. Then again, it must be my personal very very bad luck as I still have not gotten my replacement yet. Sigh.

Chill.

The only reputable brand of locally made chillers now are from Pacific Coo. Pls check out the our sponsor's forum here. He is the online rep for Pacific Coo.

Is it DHTML? Javascript? Flash?

Deepblue, pls include me into the suspension list if I go too far! Sometimes, my impatience gets the better of me too. As much as I tell everyone to chill.... sometimes I heat up too! But I'm basically harmless...

I think someone should learn a little bit more before commenting too much. I see enormous holes in his logic so I am not going to comment further as other people have already pointed them out. Let there be peace.

WL, u have fought & triumphed over a nasty 'fish' and now a little boy has irritated you even more enough for you to feel this way?? Come one man, take a cue from me.... I have faced far more interesting characters since Day 1!

You used up one whole tube??? There's a technique in using epoxy where you can use a small bit but it should hold something big. Tip: mix well.... wait for the epoxy to harden slightly before pushing it into the rock and the intended 'stickee' (hee hee). Dun wait too long or you'll have a piece of stone in your hand!

Your school is sending you to hobby conventions and hobby meets for frag exchange??? Our tax money is to support teenage hobbyists? The school is willing to pay up to $300 for rare specimens??? I'm speechless.... *faint* Is there another school wanting to breed rare dogs in the name of research.... I can volunteer my dog... I just need help in importing a bitch into Singapore, shouldn't cost more than $15,000 per dog!

I can tell u that your research involving halogens will come to nought. Coloured halogens merely add a colour tinge which disappears when u switch off the lights. I hope you have some better research objectives that are more credible and beneficial like growing coral strains to be more adaptable to rising water temperatures, turbidity and better resistant to viral infections etc. that will help salvage the worldwide danger to corals from human activities & global warming. Unless your school is under direct supervision from a world-class coral research institute like the ones in Australia, I don't see what the outcome will be like in terms of research goals. Wanting to start off with ‘nicer strains or more appealing genetics’ is pointless. The reef isn’t made up of 100% ‘gems’ or corals with colours or shapes that we reefers hanker after. There are thousands of species out there. What will your research lead to? I suggest your school start with propagating easy to keep corals like softies first. After all, the vast majority of students will not share the passion unlike us reefkeepers and they lack the basic understanding of the reef inhabitants in an artificial environment. Chances are, mistakes will be made and needless deaths of more sensitive livestock like hard corals in the name of ‘research’ is pointless. Not trying to put you down but enthusiasm alone doesn’t float the boat.

Hmmm, at least you are honest enough that there is a commercial angle to this. So who profits from this or is it meant to subsidize the school project? The only conservation angle to this has to come from: 1. Ensuring that the corals do not die in your school's safekeeping over the months and years. 2. That they are transplanted back into the coral reefs 'around Singapore?' and then monitored for growth and adaptability throughout the years. I envy how this was never allowed in my schooling days.... Then again... we were too busy playing marbles, football, police & theives, catching spiders & frogs etec. AT

It's an ECA?! Brood stock?? Research??? Are you propagating for commercial purposes or for educational purposes? Who's leading this project? Who's funding this project? What kind of scale are you looking at? How long a term is this for? What happens when the year is over, do other students take over? What's the final outcome?

There's a lot of red tape involved from the authorities, so it may be an easier route if you order in from a LFS with import permits. Curious... which school are you from? Is coral propagation part of the learning syllabus now? The students should start from propagating soft corals as a start.

Believe me, GHA is 2nd on my list of most hated reef problems.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all our Muslim reefers here! AT, On behalf of all the moderators of SRC!