Achilles Tang

He aint got the beans... j/k.... actually if he is really gonna nuke the tank... would you help him underwrite his tank? Any livestock goes... and you'll compensate him... haha! But it's gonna be a hell lot of work... unless we mobilise quite a few of us to go down and help him!

The most recommended test kit in the market is Salifert. Expensive but considered the most accurate.

Yup... that's exactly what I have now.... my DIY plankton culturing station....

Magic mushrooms... mostly! LOL! Shhh.....

Sad to report that gals there are mostly lians... I have some pix I took today before the crowds came in!

I guess cool water would be best... heh! Some of them are from deep water, esp the non-photos. As for DTs, golden pearls.. you have to import from overseas. You can get Instant Algae (frozen phytoplankton) from Reef World... but I bet that batch I bought 1 year ago is the same batch.... and probably have lost its nutritional value a long time ago. They have to unfreeze the lot to scoop them into little 'chilli' cups (like when you buy chicken rice) to sell... and once unfrozen, they last only a couple of months. I have Golden pearls and live plankton which will last me a very very very very long time... maybe I can sell some of it to you guys if you want. At least to help cover the cost and fund this site. AT

As you wish!

B B O O O O O M M ! ! ! !

And i love you too, Rrrobt!

Plans are already underway, my friend...

I heard from RC that some have poor results with this... and their corals were affected. What kind of corals do you keep? If there is a magical cure for ich... it would have been long announced but none of the anti-ich solutions are totally reef-safe.

Anyone going down? I will be there for 4 days... work-related... or dunno... at least got cars and babes to ogle at... or worse... lians! More info at: http://www.motorshow.com.sg/ Gonna be pooped... so guess you won't hear much from me these couple of days.

Hong, that's right... the brown ones like the colt are easier to keep...

Try to place it near in front of a powerhead.... they should prevent algae from settling down on them.

Seems like there are portions of the tank that are darker.. any ideas why?

Ahh... Gorgonians and Sea fans... I LOVE THEM! They are very common when you go diving.. and some of them can be even taller than you and can come in twirls! In general, difficult to keep if you do not provide the right food for them. If not, then you will starve them to death. Feeding: live plankton, live rotifers is best. Substitutes: golden pearls of different micron sizes (eg. 20, 60, 80 and 100 microns) would be excellent or DTs. Bigger polyps may take pods or BBS or even crushed flakes (target feed) Current: plenty needed for feeding, blowing away of 'shedded skin', prevention of algae growing on them. Place them perpendicular to the current. Light: depends on whether you are getting photosynthetic or non-photosynthetic. Usually the colourful ones are non-photosynthetic, the brown with tan polyps are photosynthetic. Non-photo requires feeding of the appropriate foods or they will die quickly. Fragging: easily fragged. Note: Gorgonians are like soft corals... they produce some toxins which affect hard corals. Don't place them too close to any. Check out this article on them. I intend to keep a lot of gorgs and fans in my tank... and therefore am going through all the effort to provide live phytoplankton and rotifers for them.

Hi Morg, Your gift of strombus snails is appreciated!... they are both in the refugium and main tank... very hardworking snails... I isolated them for a day... and no flatworms were hitchhiking with them. Believe me... I shook, rattled and rolled them to make sure! I guess I am gonna have to buy the whole shop again come payday coz my tank is really half empty... till I buy up a few shops... kekeke... or Robe donates his tank but that will only fill up my top shelf! Hint hint! My wife also insisting on holding an office gathering in my house... so she's pressuring me to beautify it...

Caution is advised... I added some new liverock given up by my friend... and that week I got marine velvet that slowly wiped out a few of my fishes. I am sure if the rock is not well-cured, it will be rotting in some way and you'll have an ammonia spike that may stress some fishes used to an established tank condition.

Ahhh guys... I should have been in here earlier... Did you know that snails and shrimps need to be acclimatized longer than fish? That's because the way they osmoregulate themselves is very different from fish. You have to take a longer time, maybe 25 to 30 mins to get them used to your tank water... There are many factors that will shock them, especially salinity and temperature... So pls don't just dump them inside your tank straight from the bag... you have to either drip or use the pour out old water, pour in tank water until it's almost all tank water.. then you release them into your tank. In my newbie past, I bought like 3 or 4 cleaner shrimps and dumped them into my tank... to see them spasm and float down stiff and very much dead by the time they hit bottom. Snails too.

PBT at $80 or $90??? You mean the AT? That's the normal price.

Frontal views are hard to ID. Can you take a full body length shot? It looks like a blenny or wrasse... it's a sanddweller from the looks of it. Maybe a sandperch...

Sea Horses Given Protected Status by U.N. Body Wed Nov 13, 8:00 PM ET By Louise Egan SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - The tiny sea horse briefly stole the spotlight at a U.N. meeting in Chile on Wednesday when delegates agreed to protect all 32 species of the sea creature from a lucrative global trade that threatens to drive them to extinction. The decision by the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) does not ban the sea horse trade, but instead forces countries to better monitor and control cross-border business to ensure that it does not pose a risk to their sea horse populations. Each country, with help from CITES and other international organizations, must take steps to certify that all sea horse catches and sales are legal. Seventy-five member nations voted for the measure, proposed by the United States, while 24 opposed it. The U.N. body had no immediate comment. During debate, CITES delegates said scientific evidence demonstrated the sea horse trade threatened the future survival of the species. There is high global demand for the marine animals and the population has started to decline. Sea horses, which range from fingernail-sized to one foot (30 cm) long, are sold mainly as aquarium pets or dried and used in traditional Asian medicine. People have been fascinated by the quirky creatures throughout the ages. HIGH PRICE "They reach values that are much, much higher than the price of silver, approaching the price of gold per kilo," said Amanda C.J. Vincent, a marine scientist and director of Project Seahorse, a backer of the proposal. "The parties must now ensure their trade is not detrimental to wild populations ... This is a very big issue and is going to raise enormous challenges for the parties," Vincent said. About 105 countries have sea horses in their waters and 69 are involved in trade. Asian trade alone in sea horses was about 70 tons in 2000, up from 40 tons five years earlier, according to research led by Vincent. The biggest live sea horse exporters are Indonesia, the Philippines and increasingly Brazil. The United States and Western Europe are top importers of live sea horses for the aquarium industry. The United States says it supports only limiting the commerce in sea horses -- and not banning it outright -- because fishing communities in poor "range states" where the creatures are found often depend on the trade. "Developing countries are range states for these species and it's pretty important to them," John Field, a U.S. delegate to CITES and fishery specialist, told Reuters. Dried sea horses -- used to treat ailments such as asthma and sexual impotence -- are supplied mainly by Thailand, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Mexico. China and Hong Kong are the biggest markets. "Traditional Chinese medicine industry considers it one of their mainstays, having a role perhaps similar to that of aspirin," Vincent said. Conservationists stressed the need to support the many fishing communities in the developing world, especially in the Philippines, that have grown dependent on the tiny animals for their livelihood as other resources are depleted.

Another article on HQI vs single-ended bulbs of the same wattage... and the importance of reflectors for single-ended to match an equal HQI. here

You guys may want to bring in the Spiderlight reflector, it will increase the efficiency of your MHs by a lot! Check out the review on it here.

In my old tank.... I used bioballs in my overflow compartment... with good results.... Your bioballs should be NOT totally submerged in your OF.... water should be trickling down through all your bioballs... so they are always wet but not submerged. If the bottom few inches are submerged it's fine. You will have no problems effectively converting ammonia and nitrites to nitrates... the only thing you have to take care of is how to deal with potentially high nitrates produced by bioballs... maybe have a DSB in the sump or something or more liverock.... Inspite of the 'old school' method.... of wet/dry filter system... it would work best for FOWLR tanks. BTW, I have a big bag full of bioballs that I wanna trade/sell... any takers?