Achilles Tang

I use a lab-grade mercury thermometer which I calibrate all my other thermometers to. I think there is a medical supply shop in Balestier that sells them.

Depending on the size of the tank and the rotting mass. Once you achieve an ammonia spike, you can basically remove the prawn, especially true when you have a small tank and a large king tiger prawn... and u don't want to stink up the whole house or kill whatever microlife there is existing in your liverocks!

Yup, that is a Sallylight foot crab!

AVA has to be the one to approve any such importation. You can enquire with them but I think they allow only research institutions and marine ornamental traders to import in livestock. What's the objective of your school's propagation efforts? To restock coral reefs around singapore or to sell off to raise funds for the school?

Has your culture become darker as the days go by? You have to bubble your culture enough so that you don't get any 'dead spots' where algae cells will settle.

Hey... what's your plan? Quad beckett or Bubble King?

Until Argent Labs can give more information on what they mean by 'Biologically engineered', I don't think its necessary to jump up and down. A lot of things are tweaked and if it means putting more nutrients into food, I don't see what's wrong unless they are putting stuff in there like preservatives (which most food had anyway).

Moving it to the Softy forum!

Depends... light would be beneficial if you have coralline algae on it. Most species of coralline need some light.

Generally, if your LR is well-cured, you can add it into an established tank. To see if its well-cured, do the sniff test! It it stinks... you should cure it separately somewhere else. If it smells like the sea... then put it in! Boxfish.... a crash usually means that a wipeout. Usually happens when something bad happens to upset the water enough to kill all livestock, even bacteria eg. ammonia overload, poisoning, zero water circulation causing a drop in oxygen etc.

Survive? Yes... Prosper... No.... Corals need to feed too... just at different rates! The elephant ear coral is probably the only coral that eats whole fish!

bad bad bad... hair algae can cover and smother everything!!!

Try to be more descriptive in your topic titles... I am going to add in "Bartail flathead" for you.

If you have green hair algae (GHA) and its isolated on one piece of rock, try to remove the rock and kill the hair algae by brushing it off the rock and rinsing it off in a saltwater bucket (try to get any strands back in your tank). Worse case, you should dispose off the rock or bleach it in the sun and you can reuse it again to be recolonised by bacteria/microlife in your sump. If you are still cycling... you can switch off your lights to prevent it from coming back. Try to use good phosphate-absorbers like Contraphos Konzentrat or Rowaphos to bring down phosphate as its a fuel that GHA can use.

Moving this to the marine equipment forum. Pls be mindful to post in the correct place in future... thanks! AT

That's considered a nano tank! It requires a great deal of care as it has very limited biological filtration capabilities due to its lack of space. You also have to be careful not to overload the tank. Can you be disciplined enough to just stock it with one or two tiny fishes max? Not to overfeed? To change water regularly? If you can... then I suggest you start with a small clownfish and LR. Don't put any light-loving animals or corals in because you have to add in sufficient light and nano tanks tend to overheat quickly. Keeping pipefish and seahorses is not good idea for a newbie. Do read up on the pipefish/seahorse forum for information first! Cheers! AT

Its just a media for bacteria to grow on. The core is supposedly dense. You can probably get the same effect from coral chips or LR. Its simular to sintered glass bio-rings.

Used to put them in there a long time ago to reduce the water crashing sound from the overflow. But I found that it contributed to a higher nitrate level and also became clogged with detritus over time. Now I just use a Durso standpipe in my overflow chamber.

Technology is meant to aid and not be the entire crux of reefkeeping. Good biological filtration is the base of an ecosystem. A good example is that of the glass ball Biosphere where there's a balance between bioload, bacteria and algae to process nutrients and CO2, all in one enclosed system. To reduce nitrates in a reef tank: If you don't have enough LR, then add more in. If your sandbed isn't deep enough for a DSB's NNR effect, add more sand. If your algae in your refugium is not enough, add more in. If your skimmer isn't good enough, upgrade to a better one. If your tank is overloaded, remove more livestock. If you're overfeeding, reduce feeding. If you are lazy to do regular water changes, then stop being lazy. If you have a lot of money and all the above fails to work, then buy the biggest skimmer you can afford, buy a sulfur denitrator in addition to a normal denitrator, use AZ-NO3, Polyfilters & Zeolite and hire someone to change water for you once a month. If you have even more money, then move to a nice mansion next to the sea and pump seawater in continuously into your tank as a flow-through system. If none of the above interests you, then perhaps you can buy a plasma screen, get a screensaver with a marine theme and pay the electricity bill promptly monthly.

Definitely.

Good quality oxygenated water in a BIG tank with loads of small fishes like ikan bilis-type or live shrimps for it to thrive. It may eventually be weaned into meaty foods like frozen shrimp or mussels. I don't know why you bought this kind of food fish for a reef aquarium.

Well, I agree that Resun chillers sure are cheap and you can probably throw and buy a new one everytime it spoils... the same way I throw away a few casios (just snorkelling) but have been using my Tag Heuer for almost 7 years already including on deep dives. I think the china-made chillers have poor resale value because of their QC/reliability and the lack of good temperature controls. Resuns are good for a budget reefer starting out on a small tank. Anyway... chillers are an expensive essential equipment for reef tanks... reefers should do a search in SRC on general user feedbacks and not just from one or two users before deciding on a purchase. There are other brands that start out having good reviews by reefers and then gradually the true nature shows itself and problems are only highlighted a lot later into the game or not at all due to embarrassment. Hint: aircon-looking. and 'physician, heal thyself' chillers Good review BTW, although it does bear some hint of overselling.

Finally a positive review on Resun chillers! How long have been using one and have u used other brands of chillers or compared with other brands for a long time?

Flatheads??? Geez!! I catch them during fishing trips and they are delicious when big... The aussies love to eat them!

The paperwork involved in bringing in CITES species is one thing and the other is that most US-based marine websites do not export out of their country. In fact most Canadian reefers face this frustration because they share a common border.