Achilles Tang

Green turtle, I think! It swam very very fast! Had very little time to adjust from macro shot to zoom in on him! Shot a bit blur!

Very fierce clownfish protecting its home!

Green acropora!

hello dfstan! I am a diver too! Was actually planning a dive trip to Sipadan this month or Oct but will have to postpone to next year coz of my new reef tank project. I use my Canon G2 with Ikelite underwater housing. I haven't bought a strobe yet but am using the UK Lightcannon as a video light. Want to see some of my photos? I posted on AQ before but I guess I can duplicate them here too! Enjoy!

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Another view.

Hi everyone, to kick off our two day old forum board, I would like to invite you all to introduce yourselves and post pix of your marine tanks! It would your chance to share with your fellow reefers your own piece of the ocean! My current tank is a mess now because I had to take everything out to shift the tank into a temporary place and put everything back in a hurry. I can't wait to shift everything into my new tank but I have to have patience! But to start off... here are some pix of my old tank!

Spiff! Are you into phytoplankton culturing too? I am actually preparing to start my new Nannochloropsus and Rotifer cultures next week! Phang: I will posting an article on phytoplankton culturing to feed our reef tanks soon. But knowing how busy I will be the next couple of days/weeks... it could be some time! Roger: I will post more details tonight on the brineshrimp culturing procedures that I use to grow BBS. Did you check out the DIY section yet?

Hi Derf, Welcome to SRC! I sourced for the starphire glass myself and the custom-made tank is assembled by one of my contacts also. They are actually glass experts in the construction business. I think my tank is cheaper than the the tanks sold outside that big LFS in Serangoon North Ave 2 next to Petmart. My metal stand is custom-made by my father-in-law who is in the shipyard industry. He just 'ka-poh' raw materials and his staff to weld, paint and deliver it to my house, FOC!

The airline check valve can be bought at LFS. I think it's only $2 or $7 for the better ones.

Hi Morgan and Spiff! Welcome to the Singapore Reef Club forums!! Oh I forgot to mention that my tank is special that it is probably the first tank in Singapore to have a Starphire front glass pane. The Starphire glass pane is super clear optically, meaning that there is no greenish tint when you look through it, like ordinary glass would, especially the thicker it gets. It is also distortion free... so when you look at something at an angle... you won't feel dizzy. I wanted the Starphire because I wanted to appreciate the true colours of the reef, especially of my clams, which looks awful through ordinary glass. To see the true colours of clams you have to look down into your tank. I like taking photographs of my tank... so... I am prepared to pay the premium for it. The starphire glass pane is approximately half the cost of my tank! Will let you know the price later. My wife thinks I am crazy but I don't want to regret that I never put it in in the first place!

Here's the custom-made stand made of 2 inch square mild steel tubings, sandblasted with primer applied, then a layer of epoxy, then a layer of paint. It is designed to spread the weight out over a large area of flooring so there will be no stress points. It will sit on a piece of marine plywood to better spread the weight around. I have no worries about the weight of the tank anymore as I know that the tank will also sit against three load-bearing beams and a wall.

Here's the wall that was hacked to create the space to have an inbuilt tank that will sit in the spare room behind. Previously my old tank was against this very wall...

Here's a pix of my DIY BBS hatchery using a 1.5L coke bottle and an airline hose. Wash the empty bottle and dry it. Tear away the label. From the cap measure 19.5cm down and cut bottle in half. Invert the top half so it sits securely on the bottom half. Drill a hole in the cap so that you can insert an airline hose through it. Insert airline so that at least 0.5cm sticks out through it inside the cap. You can insert a bigger hose over this airline so it forms a lock so the airline won't come out. Remember, don't leave too short a hose inside the cap because you want to make sure that the unhatched eggs won't get sucked down when you drain the naupli out. Silicon the outside of the cap so it won't leak. Plug the airline hose with a check valve. It prevents water from going up the hose into your airpump and also acts like a stopper when you want to stop the flow of water when you drain. Bubbling away... the airhose will be gripped by the bottom half... but it won't restrict flow too much. Woah! Two seconds and I have enough BBS to swish in the tank to feed once in the morning and once in the evening... and the fishies go nuts!

$3 for live BS. From feedback from hobbyists overseas, yeah, its not worth the effort to grow adult brine shrimps. Took much effort for too little benefit. Unless you have commercial growing vats.

Hey Hon!! finally you arrive and must say some #$(&! words! Yes, euro bracing is the horizontal panes that sit on the vertical lips of the tank to strengthen the tank. The centre brace is the one that sits in the centre of the tank and that is to prevent bowing/warping of the tank especially when your tank is very long or very wide. Actually, I think my tank could have done away with the euro/centre bracing as it is siliconed with very high-strength silicon eg. Dow Corning 795 building silicon. But I would rather be safe then sorry... plus I see an advantage of having euro-bracing (besides the added strength)... is that it functions as a water-spillage protection as water can't slosh out no matter how much waves I make. Also, it would handy to place my tongs and other stuff on them. The only downside is that I have to clean the underside of salt creep once in a while. I have my euro bracing/centre drilled to allow my return pipes to be secured. Now you know... hon... so when are you gonna be free to help me setup my new tank? You got experience doing up PVC piping or not?

Hi Roger! Welcome to the Singapore Reef Club!!! To answer you, yes feeding BBS (Baby Brine Shrimp) to your marine tank provides a source of natural food that triggers the feeding response of all fishes, especially those who do not take frozen foods or pellets. I have photos of my BBS hatching station and it something you can DIY yourself! Hmmm... I'll put it up in the DIY section tonight, so you can check it out later! But in the meantime, here's a pix of newly hatched BBS that I took through a magnifier!

I think a lot of people are wondering about the sand size commonly named '#1 sand' sold in LFS. From my analysis, #1 sand would be efficient for DSBs as the sand grains come in different sizes eg. as small as < 0.5mm to as big as 2.5mm. But the common diameter size is in the 2mm (at least 40% from the sample taken) and 1.5mm (at least 50% from the sample taken) with the remaining percentage ranging from 0.5 to 1mm) Although a higher percentage of oolithic sand size would be excellent, very fine coral sand is rarely available, unless you would willing to settle for quartz sand taken from our beaches. The prefered oolithic sand grain size is 0.1 to 0.25 mm, which would enable a much larger surface size for bacteria to grow on (eg. more efficient biological and more nutrient recycling) and for sediment dwelling amphipods and copepods to move about happily in.

The completed tank with the external overflow! 1600 (L) x 920 (w) x 700 (H)

Yesterday's work.... putting the 2nd layer of silicon to cure an additional 7 days and to install the euro-bracing and external overflow compartment.

Sure thing!

Oops... guests can read but can't post or search. Yes, we will add a gallery feature later for all marine tanks.

if you note the time seems to be wrong.. it's because you have not set the timezone to +8 GMT if you are based in this region. Go to the top left hand corner of the forum page, next to your login name, you will see 'Your Control Panel'. Click that. Click board settings under Options. You will see: Time Zone You may adjust the base time zone The time (including your current adjustment) is: Sep 17 2002, 11:34 AM (whatever time you may have now on your PC clock) scroll down till you get to +8 GMT: Beijing, HongKong, Perth, Singapore, Taipei. Click the button 'Change my account options' to finalise the changes. Cheers!

Hello everyone! This thread is to chronicle the work-in-progress of my new tank that is being setup right now in my home, to replace my 2 year plus marine reef tank below: My old 2nd-hand tank is 5.3ft L x 1.57ft W x 1.90ft H. Approx 117.5 Gallons or 445 liters excluding sump volume) My new custom built tank will be 5.3ft L x 3ft W x 2ft H. Approx 224 gallons or 847 litres excluding sump volume!)