Achilles Tang

This is the first time I have ever heard anyone using a vacuum cleaner!! You dug him out of the dust bag?

If I install a 6000w, Raffles lighthouse can close shop!

I left out Rabbitfish... excellent algae eaters too.

Some species, yes. Recommended fromia and linkia.

Be warned. The green sponge used for scrubbing pots cannot be used safely in tanks. THEY CAN SCRATCH EVEN GLASS!!! I scratched the glass of my old fish tank when I used that! I believe they may have fused some metal or very hard compounds into the pad material for longevity/stronger wear and tear resistance. Mag floats rock! Get the biggest one for thick glass. DON'T get your fingers caught between them. You may even end up in hospital. Serious. Seperating the two halves can be a great workout though!

Not all hermits are good. Avoid the blue-legged ones. Get as tiny ones as possible. Just provide enough empty shells of increasing sizes lying so they don't kill each other for a new home when they grow bigger.

Some hermit species are excellent grazers. Snails. Abalones. Lettuce nudibranchs. Some species of sea urchins.

Coral island at Phuket sucks!!! Waste time... they brought us there at low tide somemore!

Ok ok! Your wish is my command! Pls reload your avatars to get the new sizes!

I hope that's not a dig at me! Tanzy's right about that too.... you have a lot more stuff to go hand in hand with lighting, especially for SPS corals. IMO, water quality is #1, that includes low dissolved nutrients, stable water parameters like cal, alk, ph, salinity and temp and good water circulation.

Chris, That's a good point I missed out! Light intensity is important... 150w is able to penetrate less deeper compared to a 250w and likewise vs a 400w. With a 400w, you can keep SPS on/near the sandbed in a 2.5ft deep tank with no probs as the light intensity is still strong.

as long as the bulb does not fall below 6500k in colour temperature.. it should do fine. You can browse the lighting topics discussed before on the various important factors like lumens, spectrum analysis and PAR comparison of bulbs of different colour temperatures as these are important for SPS growth and colouration.

Actually... I wouldn't trust a star fish if it wasn't from the linkia or fromia species. These are proven reef-safe species and will not prey on other inverts or fishes. Some starfish sold in the hobby are even able to pry open clams and other bivalves just to attack the meat inside! Some will ambush fishes when they sleep! However, since I have no idea what that starfish is... perhaps you can report back in a few months time on how it does in your reef tanks? AT

Ah.. that depends on how the other poll on design choices turns out! '3. Small logo in front with picture on back.' seems to be leading choice!

That sounds interesting! I'm gonna show my CBS spawning pix as well...

Terrestrial plants are not as nutritious as marine algae. I hope you boiled your vegetables before feeding because if you don't, no way your fishes can get much nutrition due to the undigestable high cellulose content. Blanching your veges in boiling hot water will break down the cellulose. You are better off feeding nori or some other marine seaweed/algae... the nutritional values of nori are extremely high. Try Ocean Nutrition Formula Two flakes... my powder blue tang and my mimic tang loves it! Come to think of it... they eat EVERYTHING I throw into my tank..

For long term coral health.... it is better to simulate cooler water conditions around 25C. In tropical waters, water temperature is usually around 25 to 26C and does fluctuates but never exceeds 29C for more than a few hours daily. Bleaching of corals and other inverts happen when there is sustained high temperature around 30 to 31C in the sea. Only a chiller is able to bring down water temps to 25C in our tropical weather. Cooler water also helps in many other ways: 1. Reducing the metabolic activities of all inhabitants and thus reducing an excess of respiratory and waste production by-products (a very good thing in a enclosed tank!). 2. Better oxygen diffusion. 3. Reducing the toxicity of ammonia. 4. Lower the bacteria and parasite count as they breed faster in higher temperatures. Evidence has been presented where parasitic flatworms breed a lot faster in warmer waters. 5. Prevents bleaching of corals as the zooxanthellae are not expelled due to excessive metabolic growth. Based on all these facts, there is a lot more to lose if we skimp on a chiller for our reef tank. FOWLR tanks can do without a chiller but miss out on benefits of lowered metabolic rate/respiratory/waste production/reduced ammonia toxity etc. My 2 cents, AT

Email pix to achilles_tang@yahoo.com. Remember about the pix resolution and max size! Thanks!

? sorry? what to do u mean?

Woah... it's a tough fight! #1 = 9 #2 = 10 (leading by one vote currently!)

Avatars... pls reload. The missing photos I hope to get back from my old host soon.. send them two emails but still no response yet.

Multimedia presentation preparation: I plan to put up powerpoint presentations and am appealing for photos of members reef tanks for use as a Display Gallery of sorts since it's silly to setup a real display tank to attract members of the public there! This photo gallery will show off the beauty of our home reefs and hopefully inspire more people to do a lot more towards the caring of our natural and home reef environments thru knowledge gathering and improving their husbandry skills! Please send in nice photos of your reef tanks and tank inhabitants (not more than 72dpi and 1024 x 768 pixels max). Once people are gathered to admire the slide show, the presentation will move on to tips on basic reefkeeping, our responsibilities, (supplemented by SRC members talking to the public and giving our flyers on such info). I am appealing to SRC members to help me as much as they can. Thanks! AT

You all don't see icons back?? strange... all the icons are there when I view them!

Tanzy.... how in the world do you know that the water with the rinsed out particles are binding iron hydroxide?? Can you actually see a physical change in colour or something?

Congrats! I resisted buying one yesterday at CF! Try cyclop-eze.... damn good food for anthias!