Achilles Tang

An experienced wine connoisseur using the sniff test can suss out the bouquet of the wine and guess the vintage of the wine and even the location of the crop. Oops! Are we talking about liverock? Oh! You can still do the sniff test. A good liverock should smell like the sea, tangy with a touch of zesty freshness. Slightly bitey, with a full body, well balanced and a good finish. Just like good wine! In other words... if it smells bad... it's liverock with lots of dying organisms on it! Sponges, worms, crabs, shellfish, algae and bacteria will perish if the rock doesn't get water circulating around it or if the water gets too hot or its worse still, out of water for a long time....ie. 1 hour! Treat liverock like you would any livestock. Good TLC!

A sump is defined as a connected tank of water which can be of any size. It is a place where equipment such as protein skimmers, submerged pumps, uv light canisters and other filtration stuff can be hidden away in. Imagine if all these equipment are in your main tank (like skimmers used in small tanks) or lying around in a cabinet and leaking water? Where is the output from an overflow going to go to? Not every pump can be plumped externally... eg. small pumps for feeding skimmers etc. So a sump is practical for the above reasons. A sump would be important for increasing the volume of water in the system as Phang said, making it more stable and forgiving with any fluctuations in pollution, heat, cold etc. And in case of a power cutoff, the backflow of water from the pumps/overflow may not result in an overflow of water onto your floor if your sump can hold enough volume to compensate! You may have a tiny 1 foot tank but if you have a huge sump, you will be in better shape than a 4 foot tank with no sump. Get the logic?

Babies Fight! Enjoy!!!

Yup... the 'infamous' Crap was me!! Hehehe! I guess I could outtalk a few of them to frustration! Show them that we Asians are not pushoffs compared to the loud overbearing rednecks that a few of them obviously are. Heh... so racist! I still get a lot of information from RC... just not a contributor anymore... it was something a few of the mods were working hard for.. but then a few of the mods had to destroy it! Hahaha! I hope the culture here in SRC would be very different.... and the way things are going on since we launched a couple of weeks ago... we are going to MAKE IT GOOD!!!!

It may not be very safe if you do not have supports for it. I'll post a pix of my external overflow box supports in my project update thread soon! We are out of topic here!

Looks like a top-of-the-range alumimium PC casing!!! Any PC overclockers here?

Just make sure the plastic doesn't go brittle and collapse or worse still... leach chemicals into the water!! It's a great idea though...

Here's the Teco website and a chart to help you quick select the model and the effective performance vs volume, ie. don't get a under-powered unit as it will be running all the time. Teco chiller selection chart The main website is www.tecosrl.com

No my friend... I hate to waste space inside the tank and a box inside hampers the water flow! It's also very ugly to see a box inside the tank!

Hey Phang!! You should be starting your own thread on your own reef project!!!!! :) Don't hijack Morgan's!!!

Yup it was me. The Tang Police gave me hell over there! For having 4 tangs! They insisted that only max one tang only be kept in a 8 feet tank or something. Just because of one photo where my Yellow Tang had a pinched stomach because it wasn't fed yet.. I was accused of starving my tangs! One of the mods couldn't believe my tank could look so good and accused me of lying that it was a new setup that was barely a week old as there was no visible algae on my back glass! Ridiculous! I have to prove my tank's age by showing him closeups of algae growing and explain that I clean my walls of algae often! I have a lot of compliments there and was even suggested for Tank of the Month... but then a few decided to spoil the fun by flaming me... and they haven't even seen my tank yet!! Some of my overseas and local supporters even got edited and banned for siding with me and scolding the mods for being too much! Things got too hot and it ended on a very ugly note. Now I just surf there, not even bothering to help anyone by answering questions. Let the founders/mods with the God-like attitudes do that! A lot of people told me later that they really felt some of the mods there were extremely high-handed and snobbish and that is why they seldom post there, just surf in. Oh... would you believe that there was once a mod in Reef Central who flamed someone for being in there for so long and never posting? Something about stealing bandwidth resources!!! It's a pity because Reef Central is the BEST board around... but why let a few rotten apples spoil the barrel? If I ever become so opinionated and high-handed like them... will someone please ban me!!! Heheheheheh!!! Seriously, the Singapore Reef Club is a small one... and the objective is to help people, not give them hell... I'll like to keep the atmosphere friendly and helpful... and SG is so small... !!! Just the other day, I found out that Hon's wife and mine are colleagues!!! Hahahahahhahahahaa!!!!

There should be no problems epoxying rocks together. As the connection can be easily broken later should you need to disassemble them. The key is to not do a rock pile but to use the rocks to support corals. Create ample spaces between base rocks so that nothing can be trapped inside.. eg. dead fish, detritus etc and most importantly for maximum water circulation. I am making LR racks for my new tank as I believe in good circulation for my DSB's health and minimal detritus trappage. More on this later in my project updates.

Dunno why they didn't update the site. The news is direct from the authorised distributor in SG... so its reliable news. So if anyone interested in the TW6 (old 680), can PM me as I can get special pricing for Singapore Reef Club members only!

Great review... now if only we got some photos!

Robe... I haven't seen anything like this in the market. Like I said... the joint is just a rubber flap. It bends easily.... so no probs with it being stuck.... like a metal hinge etc. It is attached to a plastic cap with an external rubber O-ring... when there is no water pushing the flap, it flops down and covers the internal pipe securely with the O-ring. I purposely got one that's transparent so in the event when my pump fails/stops.... there is no backflow into the sump as I can see if anything is blocking the valve and that immediate action to clean it by removing it via the true union joint. Anyway, thanks for the headup, Robe. Hey, you seem to have inspired Rrrobt in DIYing his own skimmer! He was scatching his head very hard when I saw him ordering the pvc parts! Any plans to DIY a Nilsen reactor? Hint! I did ask you in the DIY section!

Miracle Mud supposedly took the reefing world by storm when it was introduced. Reefers reported lowered nitrates and less nuisance algae, improved coral growth and even HLLE curing in fishes... and there are those who kicked themselves for spending a BOMB on dirt that is not even oceanic in nature... ie... taken from some location, maybe even somebody'd backyard! So... whose is a Miracle Mud user here? We'll like to hear your experiences with it!

Just to let you guys know... the Teco RA680 is phased out from the market already. The old design has the fan blowing out in front. The new one, redesignated as Teco TW6, has the same specs but now the fan is blowing hot air out the back. The front still has the water inlet and outlet there. With the current high Euro dollar.... Teco prices are adjusted accordingly. The distributor is selling RRP (recommended retail price) at : $1985. Anyone interested, can PM me. Ong, why don't you do a review for the EIDO chiller... in the Product Review section?

Congrats!!!! Looks like big tanks are the way to go (if you afford it!) Are you putting this outside or inside your home? Anthias too? Cool... looks like we have the same concept. You do know the difficulties of sustaining athias right? My plankton factory will be in commission soon...... !

Sad that you have to give up your marine tank bro.... I hope your FW baby fry will grow up and quickly move out... and the parents too... so that you can get a BIGGER tank and make it a marine tank! See you back in the hobby soon!

My house is a mess! I have 15 bags of #1 sand and 2 boxes of salt sitting in my hall... and my wifey aint too pleased about that! Am aiming to do the water test this weekend once my plumbing is ready (hopefully by Friday!)

Hi Damsel... i feel your pain. I just lost my flame angel and a few other fishes due to marine velvet. Every time I put in some new liverocks (in preparation for my new tank setup), I get an outbreak of ich or marine velvet... I wish I can just zap the parasites off with a magic wand or something! I think the only way to prevent a recurring cycle is to treat all existing fish in a Q tank, and if you have no corals or invertebrates in your main tank... to lower the salinity levels.... wait 2 weeks for any ich cycle to finish itself... before reintroducing livestock in. In the meantime, make sure your fish get fed with garlic-soaked food to build up their resistance.

I really hope I can see the true colours of my clams through my starphire glass! It's supposed to be optically clear... no green colour tint like ordinary glass!

Yeah fancy meeting you there! Thanks for the ride to Petmart! Good luck with your DIY skimmer! No worries about spelling or grammer here... we understand what each other is saying can already! I'll get you the RA680 at a very very good price through my 'power' ... heh heh! I'll let you know tomorrow can by PM okie? AT

In all factual reports... even those who do eat brine shrimp will eventually succumb and die. Max I heard is a few weeks to one or two months. What's the point?

I would recommend not to buy doctor fish at all. They don't last long in captivity. We are buying to kill them. Leave them in the sea. Don't fuel the demand. Cleaner shrimp on the other hand can live for a very very long time and can spawn regularly in captivity. Of course, good food also prevents ich infestation. If you want to kill free-floating ich cysts... use an ozone generator for effective control plus get a lot of other benefits, its very expensive though and the wrong usage will hurt your tank inhabitants. U/V sterilizer is effective provided the bulb gets changed often.