Achilles Tang

Well, it's a lesson learnt now to buy stuff that you can't keep/don't know how to keep. lesson #2 is underway... subject: Gonioporas. Rhun, did you buy any books on corals?

Hi Rhun How are you? Congrats on buying a goniopora! It's definitely one of the prettiest corals around but also...one of the hardest corals to sustain long term without feeding live phytoplankton! Since you bought it already... well, keep it in moderate current, lots of light, away from other corals, on the sandbed and try to feed it with live or frozen plankton, but it's no guarantee that it will survive longer than 6 months as it will slowly starve to death. You should read up on coral species before buying them as some of them are pretty hard to look after or have high demands. So how's your two month old tank... it's two months already rite? Is the carnation coral you bought before still alive? AT

Hi Unicornis, We are still waiting for the answers for the questions we posed. Remember, we have the best intentions for you. Bluelipz, I don't think we appear to be condemning Unicornis, we are just concerned about whether he knows the consequences down the road. There is a chance that he can avert disaster if he takes damage control now, or he'll probably blame us if we know about it AND didn't bother to help him. He can take our advice with a pinch of salt if he cannot ascertain the basis of our argument... or we cannot provide the logic and explanation behind all the actions recommended. Ok, *coke bottle in hand* .... time to sing a song... "I like to teach the world to reef... in perfect harmony... grow acros many, and save money aplenty, and we'll all be very happy".

Sometimes putting your hand in the water or even feeding the tank will stop frothing. It's normal. Something to do with changing the chemistry of the water temporarily. Happens to all skimmers. DO NOT overclean your skimmer coz you will be in effect causing another break-in period. A biofilm will take about a few hours to a day to form over the micro-cracks on the walls, so water and foam will find it easier to 'slide' over. Dun panic!

Having a clear body can help you see if you get clogged media, excess CO2 bubbles trapped inside or just to check how much you need to top up.

The resun md55 (iwaki clone) has not been brought into Singapore for a long time already. I met the supplier and he told me there is no demand, so they stopped bringing it in. I was looking for that too.

My host is supposed to have backup. But I can never really trust them to restore 100% of all info lost. Happened twice already.

Bluelipzz2 Why do you say that we are feeding him with crap information? We are concerned because we learn from mistakes made by ourselves and other people and we want to see that he understands why! We have good intentions! That has to one of the unsubstantiated statements I have heard in SRC. A BIG tank is no guarantee that it is successful. Do something wrong, and a BIG tank or a SMALL tank WILL crash. My tank is 224 gallons/847 litres, EXCLUDING my 2 ft x 2ft attached refugium, my sump and my overflow compartment/mini refugium. I had cyano problems before and am still getting rid of hair algae problem, all because my H&S skimmer was undersized to cope with the feeding that I do. Who says that big tanks are an instant guarantee? The more 'effective' the system, the lesser chance of a crash. Unless you confuse an overstocked one-month old setup with a 10 year old tank crash.

*Touch wood* Hate for that to happen to us.... so much content would have been lost!

I have never used Resun products, actually... not any chinese/taiwanese products as they tend to be of lower quality. My previous pump was a Rena pump. French I believe. Powerful pump.

It was referring to a 10 gallon nano tank! LOL! Of course a DSB in a 10 gallon tank wouldn't work... you can only keep a tortoise in the shallow water left!

eeks, arcadia... I hate arcadia, they burn out fast. Used them before I switched to PLs.

I'm first in line!

You too Nivlac? I am happy to report that the clam disease has appeared to stop, leaving behind two big squamosas and 1 small crocea survivors. Touch wood, Harlequin... pray it never happens to you!

They made a suicide pact together and jumped. Sorry to hear that but wrasses are known to jump when they get frightened.

Wahahaahaha!!!

Ah... that's sad. Are you really giving up before you even started? Why? Izzit the wife?

Unicornis, Everyone agrees that what you are doing is kinda on the quick and fast track, similar to what a LFS would do up in a few hours and expected to run right away without crashing. Since what is done can't be undone, the only thing you can do now for the immediate improvement to prevent a crash is to: 1. Do regular weekly water changes to prevent an overload of nutrients 2. Do not overfeed 3. Do not get anymore livestock, giveaway as many livestock as you can, especially the predator fishes, or not reef-safe LS. 4. Upgrade your skimmer to the biggest/best one you can afford. 5. Do something abt the substrate. No matter if it is made of zeolite or some special absorbent gravel... it will become saturated soon and need to be replaced. Also, the huge grain size will end up trapping a lot of detritus and that will become a dangerous source of pollution. Even if it encourages the growth of nitrifying bacteria, it won't reduce nitrates faster than a DSB of fine sand would. You use a sponge to protect your overflow mouth?? Won't that clog and obstruct water flow?? What kind of test kits do you have and what are your measurable parameters now??

Not a good idea generally, because you should try to keep both filtration systems seperate from each other in case something contaminates it.

Hmmm... your overflows are unprotected! They need some form of 'gate teeth'/fence to protect the smaller livestock like small fishes and snails from going into your overflow! Do your coral chips trap a lot of detritus? You should aim a powerhead down at them occasionally to stir up the sh*t, so they will swept into your overflow where you can put filter wool to trap them. Is that an empty clam shell I see and yes, how long has your tank been running?

I have a starphire glass tank but I dun want to try using a iwasaki 6500k as sometimes using 10,000k on its own (depending on water quality) can look yellow sometimes. But when DOC/DOM is low, it looks whiter. With FL actinics, the result is a nice white with a tinge of blue. I doubt that even the sultan of brunei can afford a sapphire tank! Anyway, comments on the iwasaki 50k bulb is that is is too purple. Interesting peaks on some of parts of the spectrum. PAR is low. I highly doubt it can be used on its own. Anyway, we are both We can talk abt this in the appropriate thread.

Hi Unicornis, your tank looks nice but... I totally agree with Hong's concerns.... it just seems totally wrong, many of the species listed are known to create problems with other species... they are just not compatible. Just to add that dragon wrasses are notorious for being a nuisance too. It seems like your tank is due to self-destruct soon unless you do something... did you research before buying? Hong, I think the flowerpot coral refers to alveopora. I think the spider crabs is the arrowhead ones with thin long legs (not exactly reefsafe either).. only the decorator crabs are fond of decorating themselves.

I posted this in the Commercial Postings thread: So you're safe! --------------------------------- For now, True blue hobbyists (who actually own and have been upkeeping a marine tank for some time) and have been contributing to the Club and is in some form of home-based enterprise eg. DIY stuff, home culturing, home breeding of livestock can 'advertise' themselves. However, the term 'buyers beware' applies and anyone found deliberately 'conning' other members will be made to drink skimmate contributed by everyone. People who actually owns a business of selling commercial products, works for or gets a commission from selling products for their 'friend/boss/lobang'... I'm sorry... the rule stays. To serve and to protect, AT ----------------------------------

Thank you for your co-operation.

Strange that your KH should drop so much like that while your PH remains constant. Are you reading opposite? Usually PH is the one that fluctuates, a high KH should prop PH up. What is your calcium level?