Achilles Tang

That's dedication!!

Agreed. Unless you have someone at home who can monitor and deal with emergencies, you should just simply close it down. After all, looking after a marine tank requires a good husbandry routine. There is no such thing as a self-running tank. Even if you have full automation, things CAN and WILL go wrong and require immediate attention. My 2 cents.

There goes my bank account again...

To everyone who comes to SRC.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Depends on your capability to provide the kind of water conditions that SPS will demand for. Basically, clean nutrient-poor water with stable water temperature, calcium & alkalinity supplement levels, good water circulation, very strong light. How you achieve that is very much to how deep your wallet is OR a lot of time and effort in husbandry skills. SPS keeping is not for the typical new reefer without the financial commitment or the knowledge. We're talking about higher electrical bills, higher-end equipment like skimmers, calcium reactors, phosphate control measures, high-end lighting, good pumps for circulation etc etc. After that, its species and specimen-specific factors on colour changes...

I hope another family I know are fine.... no news yet.

Glaaol laa, my friends... Abu and Brahim. I remember the good times out at sea. Rest in peace. "Kun Suung" They were also brothers of my good friend, Khai, who luckily stayed on shore. He lost his entire fleet of boats (his livelihood for years), his home is damaged. His life is upside down now. I can't imagine what his household is going through now. Do something to help the victims of the Killer Waves.... click here and respond!

Oh I get them quite often in the past when my peppermint and cleaner shrimps spawn every fortnightly. Tried to rear the fry but its very difficult. It's very cool to watch.

Maybe I can even tweak my skimmer plumbings to go for slow turnover but extra thorough skimming using recirculation with MD55 with lower costs! And with a turn of a few valves, then swop over to MX-70 and have normal beckett operations for emergency fast turnover skimming?

Brian's custom made skimmer didn't even work in the first place. The GEO venturi was because of a mismatched pump? I think they should redo the tests for the first bracket of skimmers.

Zoomed in shots. LP also has a light rail system so its pushed away so no direct light was overhead when he took the shots.

Asian disaster toll surges past 55,000. The latest as of 29/12. An excerpt: In Aceh province, a lone SOS call from police in cut-off Meulaboh said looting had broken out and starvation loomed. "If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths," chief police detective Rilo Pambudi said in the e-mail, released by officials in Jakarta. Another excerpt: "We need antibiotics, bandages, IV fluids and things like that," top relief co-ordinator Lalith Weeratunga told AFP. "Our challenge is to get a well co-ordinated system, things are slowly falling into place." Do your part to help... http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...topic=27070&hl=

You refering to *i***h's skimmer? He was using a Resun MD55 then right? Was it teed-off?

more photos of the aftermath at Phuket

DSBs do work. Just that over time, it may slowly lose some efficiency. Anyway, ample LR WILL provide enough denitrification effects provided you team it with conservative stocking and feeding combined with a good nutrient export system eg. good skimmer and regular water changes.

Now that I got your attention. Pls donate generously to the Tsunami victims around our region! Click here for SRC Fund-Raising Effort Seriously... after the human tragedy is over, the environmental impact will have to be assessed. Offhand reports put the figure close to 70% damage to the reefs around the coastlines of all the affected areas, not counting the damage to the mangrove swamps around (which is well-known as the nursery habitat for a lot of coastal sea life species). It could take up to 10 years for these reefs to recover. The impact on tourism will be hard hit. Eco-tourism like diving or snorkelling will be badly affected. Food fishing will be affected. The irony of it is that mother nature has wiped out in a flash what the environmentalists have been trying to prevent - the destruction of the reefs by human activity including pollution, commercial activities and traffic, overfishing, shore development and harvesting of livestock. It could take a year to 3 years for these coastal communities and businesses to recover. In the meantime, I fear that the hobby trade will be badly affected, once CITES steps into the picture and put a stop to harvestation of corals from our region -especially indonesia. What's going to happen tomorrow?

The full horror of things has yet to come. Many of the living are badly affected even as we sit here in our air-con offices and comfortable homes. Disease and lack of proper sanitation, medical supplies, food and drinking water is the top worry now. We are talking about A MILLION homeless here.... imagine if you are there, grieving, hungry, sick and homeless... it will be anarchy soon unless aid is given quickly! Please donate to the SRC fund for these victims. It will be given to SRC (singapore red cross) which will then determine how the money will be best spent. Do all you can now as an individual. Collectively as a group, we can make a big difference to at least three times more people! There must be a few hundred kids who have lost their entire family... no hope... no future. DONATE TO THE SRC TSUNAMI DISASTER FUND-RAISING PROJECT NOW

Here's some horror stories I got off some diving boards. this british couple was on a big ferry (100 seater) to Ko Lanta. 5 minutes from ko lanta, the boat captain saw the wall of water, calmly positioned the boat to face the wave and then yelled life jackets!!! the boat went like 90 degrees and then slammed down, people were thrown all over the shop. There were total 3 waves, the first one was the biggest. The long tail boats in the area had no chance. Zero. The ferry stayed in the area hidding behind an island for the next 5 hours, the captain was afraid to leave.. they plucked survivors from the sea. Many were missing their friends. Those who were our snorkelling, were never seen. As i'm typing now, the pick-up ambulances were zomming away. I guess another boat just came back from the island. Inside the trucks were 2-3 white bags. damn..

Real Time quake monitoring at Sumatra epicentre. Not much help if you see a red box appear suddenly though.

I (and others) received this email from Jack Lim this morning; Dear All, It is wonderful feeling to have friends who are concerned about my situation and I am glad that you are all reaching to check on my safety. I am safe and we are grounded for the time being to let this sad event pass and help pick up the pieces here in Phuket. Phuket is truly devastated by the sudden tsunami that rock it's shores especially Patong. The event seen is hard to describe as I went down the streets and beaches today to survey the destruction left behind. It is taking a risk to go back to the beaches as it can occur anytime but I needed to witness this grim reminder that life is fragile and how these gentle people pick themselves through the ruins. Let me recap the event that happened for myself and how fortunate I am. Last day of our trip 21-26Dec, over Boxing Day. We did our first dive at 0630 on 26/12/04 on Koh Bon and the next dive was supposed to be at KhaoLak wreck at 0930hr. But due to some guests who are flying out the next day, we reschedule the 2nd dive at the same place in Koh Bon. Entering the water at 0940hr, we (2 diving couples + me) cleared the peak shelf at 26m but with some current against us... a bit stronger than usual. The other 2 groups could not clear this section as they were pushed back into the bay area that we were moored last night.. 20minutes into the dive, it became a strong drift dive..stronger than usual as we were practically flying and swirling through the underwater at about 15 knots. Then from afar, I saw like a sandstorm churning and coming towards us. I observed that the fishes were scrambling for safety and looking closely, I could see the fishes eyes and that they really running from something.. I never saw this kind of panic on the fishes. Before I know it, my charge of divers were dispersed and all were quickly separated. We were all in this underwater sandstorm, couldn't see anything but flying through blindly and trying to avoid slamming into any of the reefs. The best form of self recovery was to get out of this churning water as there were undercurrent that were spiralling one downwards deeper. After about 8 minutes doing my safety stop, I broke surface to notice the sea surface was gushing too but no sight of my divers. A speedboat from another dive operation came to my rescue. I sighted my boat at about 400meters and gave a signal which they recognised. They came for me but I told them to look for my divers that were found 250meters further down from me. Knowing that they were picked up safely, I jumped back to the water and swam back for my boat. The liveaboard then headed back into safety of the bay to pick up the rest. They too were rescued but other speedboats. It was then obvious that divers were being swept in different directions. I ended up on the northern side whilst my fellow dive guides and their charge were swirling up and down the depths on the south side. Fortunately all divers from the liveaboard are back safely. That's when we heard the breaking news of the tsunami. Heading back to the mainland pier, there were ruins of boats tossed up onto the shores including one huge Thai Naval frigate. The bay area was a mess with debris and occasional floating bodies. It took us about 2 hours waiting to dock but the currents were swift. Another speedboat came to offload our divers and bags as news came that the aftershock will come shortly and we had to scramble back onto the town pier. The town at the bay area was deserted. All it's people left for higher grounds. KhaoLak beach and town was badly hit and imagined that if we had done our 2nd dive at KhaoLak site! We managed to get our transport to pick us up before the any aftershocks and headed for Phuket town. The next day, I took to the Patong beach area to view the devastation and it is very bad. It is sad to see shoes lying in the sand on the beaches. Everything was tossed around like matchbox toys! Perhaps later, I shall send pics of Patong beach and shopping streets and Taplamu bay pier. Take care all and GOD bless the departed souls. Thank you for your caring thoughts.

There is also lower dissolved O2 levels in warmer water.

Metabolic activity will increase across the board. There is no way to just heat up the sandbed or LR where bacteria is and getting them to speed up reproduction & processing of nutrients and not heat up the surrounding waters where other more heat-sensitive livestock like corals and fish are. Ammonia toxicity also increases with increased temperatures.

Kembali lah! Sama sama!

Boss kata, di sini dibenarkan bercakap dalam bahasa Melayu asalkan ia terhad kepada kita-kita di sini.

It's definitely not sent by my server. This virus is on someone else's PC and is sending out to everyone in his mailing list or possibly spoofing an email name to a valid domain to make it look authentic. There is no email using *@sgreefclub.com except mine.