Achilles Tang

Photo taken by one of RC's moderators... a good photographer. More information on this Doctorfish Tang here.

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showt...2254#post932254

? what are you referring to, old wise turtle?

Looks totally inefficient to me. I don't see how such a short and weird neck could function as a foam riser section in a normal PS. The foam needs enough space to 'cook' and be pushed out. Tanzy's rite... there izzn't enough bubbles in the body. It should be almost white with bubbly foam.... to maximise interaction with organic molecues in the water for them to 'stick' to the air bubbles that goes up and out. I don't see that in this DIY skimmer.

Does the tiny hair-like particles settle when you turn off the water circulation? Or do you see movement? It may be some kind of zooplankton (unlikely though)... could be a bacteria bloom. Could be just suspended detritus or even dead hair algae. You could do a small water change or filter the water with wool to remove them. If the ammonia and nitrite peaks are gone... and nitrate is zero... your tank has cycled. Stock slowly just in case you get ammonia spikes... give the respective bacteria time to adjust to the dissolved waste nutrients added. Check other parameters like PH, alk, phosphate and calcium to ensure that your LR, new corals will be ok... you may prefer growing coraline algae rather than hair algae if your phosphates are high! Good luck! AT

I didn't say to do it. I said 'for those in the habit'. Sometimes, heavy detritus will pile deep into nooks and crannies and may be better to/easier to vacuum out rather then waiting for it to decompose/be eaten by sand fauna as it may quickly contribute to water pollution. It may be done by those who see a distinct lack of sand fauna and having poor water circulation that doesn't see detritus being suspended and caught by mechanical filtration or skimmed out. IMO, if sandbed fauna cannot process detritus in big quantities fast enough... get rid of it yourself if your filtration system can't.

Use phosguard in a mesh bag. Put it in an area of sufficient water flow. When it turns yellow, it is saturated and must be disposed. As for Polyfilter pads, yes, I use them too. But I don't regenerate them. I dispose of them when they turn dark brown/blackish. Seachem Phosguard is also available in 4 litre buckets for RRP S$135.

Sad to say, in this hobby... size does matter (for the long term health, stability and ease of maintenance)

Not much experience with wrasses as I gave them up a long long time ago.... they are extremely troublesome fishes... always chasing and killing my cleaner shrimps, snails and attacking other small fishes. Definitely not reef-safe if you include inverts. My wife used to call my lunare wrasse Lucifer and my green wrasse Satan... so what do you think? I caught one using a fishing hook and I caught the other by tearing apart my tank just to get him out (that was how much I hated it). As for fairy wrasses.... I LOVE THEM!!!! They are reef-safe, docile and beautiful!

Actually, guys... you will not be totally ich-free if you don't practice quarantining your new fishes and even corals for another month.... coz they may be carrying the ich cysts or parasites on them and you may re-introduce them into your 'ich-free' tank. So would you have the discipline, and space for another QT tank? I am talking about a QT tank with established filtration system. You must have a separate treatment tank where you can give FW dips or perhaps one with medication. Be aware that your new fishes could not survive your QT tank as they will probably feel stressed. IMO, stress is the killer coz it lowers the fish's resistance and ich will then be responsible for finishing the job. I find that if you provide a tank large enough with space to hide and non-aggressive tankmates, fishes will adjust faster and recover from stress and begin eating. So even if they get ich... they will overcome it and live.

When you say filter media... I assume you don't mean just the amount of mechanical filtration like wool rite? You probably include stuff like phosphate removal and GAC? Well, those usually come with recommended amounts to use to effective clean X amt of litres, so you can't really go wrong even if you add more (actually, the amount of nutrients or waste produced in every tank is unique). If you mean filter wool... errr... it should be thick enough to strain floating particles. Once dirty, dispose. Or wash and reuse. If you are talking about biological filtration... then you are talking about bio-rings and stuff like that eg. DSB in sumps... well... the more the better. I believe you can't go wrong providing as much material surface for bacteria to process nutrients. As it is.... it is a balancing act....

#1 sand is the finest coral sand available and should be more or less the best we can use as oolithic sand is unavailable. If you go for even finer grains, sugar-sized (oolithic), you will get a mud-like sandbed which tends to blow up a lot more with currents which may irritate or even kill some corals should it cover their openings. It would also make vacuuming of detritus an impossible task (for those who are in the habit) as your sandbed will lift off too! Aragonite sand sold in LFS are ridiculously expensive. A full DSB with aragonite sand will be in the thousands of dollars. Believe me, I was considering that...

If you really want to let the ich parasites' life cycle complete, you have to ensure that no fishes are in the tank. It's ok for inverts as they are not affected. It would be very painful to go fishless for at least 2 months to be safe (for me!)

Wow! I like this thread! For me, I was in FW stuff for years... on and off... but harboured a yearning to keep a marine tank. I could finally fulfil that dream when I got married and have my own home... but before that... I was already researching as much as I could, buying books and surfing the net. I consider Reef Central my home for internet information, till one day, when I decided to show off my tank... I got many compliments but then got attacked by certain individuals there (who are still moderators) who accused me of lying about my old tank eg. that I set it up just a week old and photographed it and then lied that I had it for more than a year... and that my tangs were ill-treated because I had a pix of my YT with a shrunken stomach* coz he wasn't fed yet... it got really ugly when I stood up for myself and out-talked some of them... and I got banned when I didn't realise that I re-edited what one of the mods edited.. thinking it was a bug. (Well, I did use the word 'shit' in there.. like "I don't give a shit what some of you think, but my tank blah blah blah is real!!". Well, it was the excuse they were looking for to shut me up... heh!) *On a side note, those of you who came to my place can verify that my YT and PT is fat and healthy... in fact, Kelstorm has even complimented the shiny coat on my PT that he has never seen before. I take pride in taking good care of my fishes! I was so angry for a few days coz my wife and friends who defended me on my behalf also got banned.... what kind of culture is that??? Oh the injustice of it all.... or was it just plain racism? I know they have a very bad impression of asian hobbyists... esp. our HK bros coz one or two posted a pix of an overly-crowded FO tank. Then I got mails from several hobbyists who posted their support and said that was the exact reason why many of them are just surfers in there (like me now) and don't want to contribute anything or risk being flamed... which is a fact now coz in a recent post in RC, they found out that: 8380 members have not posted in 2002. 6370 members have never posted a message (33 %) ! Inactive members (8380-6370) 2010 (10 %) Those members with less than 10 posts make 59% of users ! The regulars (more than 500 posts) make up only 1.7 % of the members Only 8.6% of members have more than 100 posts To me, that's a slap back on their faces!!! I have moved on from that ugly episode with those arrogant Americans (a few are really nice though) and decided that if I should one day start a specialized forum for us locals (which there never was)... I would not abuse my authority or shove my opinions down someone else's throat eg. like the RC Tang Police. I dun consider us local hobbyists any less inferior to them and we should prove it to them. We are as educated and dedicated as many of them. Just not as loud and opinionated... heh! Anyway, today, the Singapore Reef Club has grown a lot since Sept... and I am pleased at the knowledge shown, activeness and friendliness of our members! Keep it up, folks!!! Raise the banner high! AT

I think in the interest of free speech and that some very true facts on both LH and Marine keeping and the environment are mentioned... this thread will remain undeleted. Of course, our personal bias and opinions about the other side of the fence will remain our own.. heh! Perhaps in LH forums, you'll see them laughing at us marine aquarists spending a huge fortune on our hobby, rushing around looking for smelly rocks, lugging sand & salt, buying expensive bottles of stuff and lamenting at how fragile our marine livestock is and requiring replenishment, how expensive our electric bills are for lightings and chillers etc etc... and sniggering how easy it is to keep hardy LHs, can even partition their tanks and keep a few at one time, how intelligent their pets are in chasing their hands, and how 'a few' of them are luck-bringers and how much money they make by selling their fishes etc. Oh well... live and let die!

Actually, I kinda dig the flying saucer behind the Tanzymobile in the first pix!

Wow! A Tanzymobile!!! COOL!!!

CO2! CO2!!! <_<

Hey, I used to do that too... It worked for me!

Hi Robe... is that Sin Ming company still there? And whereabouts did you get the needle valve and regulator? I did ask my Dive Instructor uncle where I can get 03 cylinders and he didn't know.. wondering if I can use an scuba air tank to mod!

as usual, take it wif a pinch of salt... Six Most Important Men in a Woman's Life THE DOCTOR because he says "take your clothes off." THE DENTIST because he says "open wide." THE HAIR DRESSER because he says "do you want them teased or blown?" THE MILKMAN because he says "do you want it in the back or in the front?" THE INTERIOR DECORATOR because he says "once it's in you'll love it." THE BANKER because he says "if you take it out too soon you'll lose interest." NICKNAMES If Laura, Suzanne, Debra and Rose go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Suzanne, Debra and Rose. If Mike, Charlie, Bob and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy. EATING OUT When the bill arrives, Mike, Charlie, Bob and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller, and none will actually admit they want change back. When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators. MONEY A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want. BATHROOMS A man has six items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items. ARGUMENTS A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. CATS Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats. FUTURE A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. SUCCESS A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. MARRIAGE A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change and she does. DRESSING UP A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals. NATURAL Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night. OFFSPRING Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Actually, on the 35th day of the month as stated by you... I'll be swimming in my personal reef lagoon in Fiji...and all the time in the world to do what I want.

hmmm... this 'invention' of yours seems to be rather... *ahem* not very unique... but it's ok... keep it up! My comments: not very practical... get a chiller for constant cool temps... not a temporary plunging temperature drop like ice exposure would give.

Since this thread isn't technically a DIY thread yet... I am moving this to the Marine Tank Equipment forum. Robe... when ever you are ready with your pix and DIY descriptions... pls post!

At this point of time... I can't really say.