Achilles Tang

Generally... hard corals do not do well with soft corals, esp. leathers. Leather corals exude toxins which affect hard corals.... its a form of chemical warfare.

A 6 inch cuke can expand up to 24 inches long.... just to let you know!

Kenting? Where's that?

Please be more descriptive in your title and descriptions.

Common. Dieoffs contribute acid into the water, lowering PH. Get a PH buffer to bring up your PH levels slowly. Dosing kalkwasser also helps to bring up PH levels.

Yes, they take up space, trap detritus and contribute to higher nitrates. If you are referring to them being used in a wet/dry where water is allowed to trickle past the coral chip layer... yes... these will help to reduce ammonia and nitrites to nitrates. Full STOP. If these are soaked in the water.... they serve no purpose in the sump except trap detritus and take up space... that space can be better used by water to increase the system volume. If you have your DSB properly setup... to about 5 inches to 6 inches.. with grade 0 sand... this will function as your natural nitrate-reducing biological filtration system. Crystal clear?

IMO, if the coral chips are used in the wet/dry filter like bioballs are used... yes.. the surfaces of the coral chip will house aerobic bacteria and help reduce ammonia and nitrites but WITHOUT addressing the nitrates problem as they will help PRODUCE nitrates. In Ban's case... I think they are used in the sump.

Ahem.. also... next time.. pls be more descriptive in your topic title and description.

If I can't get rental equipment, then the last resort is to use our own. Laptops carry a risk of being carted off unless there is a wire lock on it bolting it to the table. Wouldn't want that! I prefer the LCDs cause they are low-profile... the CPUs can be hidden under the table. Thanks Yazid, will let you know soon!

UFO, You can do regular water changes to bring down the nitrate levels. Do it soon before nuisance algae takes advantage of the high levels to overgrow. Your DSB will take a couple of months to mature... but it should begin to slowly process your nitrates to harmless nitrogen gas very soon. Just stock up slowly so you don't push the nitrate levels too high. As pointed out by some people, the use of a refugium to grow out & harvest macroalgae to export nitrates is a good step to take. Just a tip from me... if you see a single strand of hair algae in your macroalgae... NUKE IT QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it's painful to take out your coral chips, making you can give it away to some freshwater cichlids keeper? Coral chips are better used as a very cheap calcium reactor media (danger: high phosphates may be released as a result if the coral chips are of poor quality). As a substrate, coral chip are useless and do not serve any biological filtration purposes. In fact, as I have pointed out many times, they serve to trap detritus and contribute to higher nitrates. Just grit your teeth, dig everything out... and replace with nice clean #0 sand. (make sure that your sump compartment is not a flow-thru type but a flat bottomed one where water only flows over the top and NOT through the sandbed). Hope this is crystal clear... AT

Actinics have a peak at 420nm (nanometers) in the light spectrum.... which causes flourescent effects in corals and other creatures... and makes viewing more interesting. This peak at 420nm actually aids in photosynthesis so there's a big function to play here and not just aesthetics. The blue colour of actinics also help to balance off the yellower lights that usually give a wider range of light spectrum and PAR values.

Tongue drip method is suitable for PH testing... gargling adds CO2 into the water, affecting the PH test results. *shake head* - what do they teach you in school?

Sounds ok. A tank with a heavy dissolved nutrient load will benefit some corals but the reefer will have a hard time trying to stave off nuisance algae overgrowth which make a tank very very ugly. Sensitive corals may not take too kindly to such algae overgrowth. I have lost a good many corals like my bubble and sea fans to hair algae when they decide to cling on and overgrow over their branches and exposed skeleton.

Please be more descriptive in your title.

No harm.... as it may keep some of the coralline algae (light reliant species) and any other living photosynthetic creatures to survive. Some people do not switch on their lights to prevent nuisance algae and bacteria from taking advantage of the heavy overload of dissolved nutrients in the water during the cycle to bloom and overwhelm the LR. But usually, it's a futile exercise as immature tanks will still undergo such algae cycles during the months leading to a matured filtration system (around the 1 year mark).

Regardless of how much water changes you make, every tank has a different filtration system, bioload and uptake rate of cal, alk, ph and other trace elements. Test kits are an essential part of a reefer's husbandry tools. Unless you can dip your finger into the water and report the various levels of PH, alk, cal, NO2, NO3, phosphate, etc by tasting the water! As far as I know, only the Senior Reefers in SRC are able to do that!

Look for the Fromia and Linkia species... they are proven reefsafe.

True true... actually many marine creatures do better in species only/specific habitat tanks. Like how some LPS fare poorly in SPS tanks due to the increase in water circulation and nutrient-poor water that SPS thrives on... and how SPS will suffer when mixed with soft corals due to chemical warfare... and how some corals like elegance, gonios, dendros do much better in lagoonal conditions tank setups where little/no skimming is done.

Interesting! Approximately 50% more prefer the minimalist design! #1: 22 votes #2: 44 votes

OK... updated list: 1. Coralife #1 white M. 2. Shieldk #1 white M 3. Shieldk #1 navy M 4. Clownfish #1 white M + #1 black M - 2 in total 5. Stinger #1 white L + #2 navy L - 2 in total 6.dispar_anthias #1 navy M 7. bwilly #1 white M 8. davwong #1 white M 9. JC85 #1 white L 10. NgaoCi #1 white XL 11. Yazid #1 White XL + #1 Navy XL - 2 in total 12. Cleartank #2 White L + #2 white M - 2 in total 13. eprouve #1 Black L 14. planetg #2 Navy L 15. Terryz_ #1 Navy L 16. kenzo #1 White L + #2 Black L - 2 in total 17. Fireclown #1 White M 18. Tanzy #2 White M + #2 Black M - 2 in total 19. [P]owder Blue #02 Black M 20. FuEl #1 White M + #2 Black M - 2 in total 21. junyong84 #1 White L + #2 White L - 2 in total 22.Reef_LoVeR #1 white M + #2 Black M - 2 in total 23. acce #1 Black XL + #2 Navy S - 2 in total 24. bum #1 white XL + #1 white S + #2 black XL - 3 in total 25. jd_n #1 white M + #1 Black M - 2 in total 26.seahorse #2 black L 27 seahorse2 #2 black S 28. Cedric #1 White M + #1 White M - 2 in total 29. Atreef #2 Navy M 30. estan #1 Navy S

Need help in getting 2 x PCs + 17" LCD screens... know any place where they can rent it cheap? I used to borrow equipment from them before... Tech Rentals or something.. at Paya Lebar.... ? Also perhaps a Shelve to borrow where we can display two LCD screens above eye level? Knowing how busy it can get... it would be ideal to have the screens easily viewed from afar. AT

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Gonios are attractive but they are also acknowledged as an extremely difficult to keep coral. Most don't last more than a few months before dying. They are not hardy and require specific conditions to thrive (which will usually bring down a reef tank in a few months!)... ie. too clean a tank is not extremely good for them as they require lots of dissolved nutrients and planktonic material as in the wild... they are most often found in silty and lagoonal areas.

I also highly recommend you read the New to the Hobby links that have been pinned up.