Achilles Tang

livesand? NO WAY!! Bro, it's dry sand packed in bags!

Berlin skimmers have fallen by the wayside, far surpassed by Schuran, H&S, Aerofoamers etc.... designs are constantly improving... just like our handphones!

So... what's the feedback on this gadget? Everyone's waiting to see if it jams up under kalk! Seems like a good thing for those with small tanks.

Good point. Morgan's tank doesn't get consistent sunlight exposure. With the new layout ie top shelve for frag growout... he should see new growth soon, I hope!

Great! That shows responsible reef-keeping and self-discipline! You should have no problems later when it comes to SPS keeping next time... and oops, I left out consistent (low) water temperatures in SPS tanks... so I hope you guys would have good chillers!

hmmmm... hate to ask you this... but why did you buy this brand? I can hardly find any info on this skimmer? Can you post a pix? Is it new or 2nd hand?

Guys, Before you get acros or sps for your tanks, I suggest you read up more on them. They are a very demanding species, and you have to cater for every aspect of care for them eg. good lighting, good water quality via skimming via low phosphate, no2 no3 etc, turbulent water circulation, high and consistent calcium, alk, ph etc. Acros can RTN very easily... and could spread in an instant. It could take less than 30 minutes to see that your tank of SPS have turned into white skeletons.

To keep the thread back in topic.... (hint!) I am now showing you the difference between acro frags from the same shallow tank (with about 500 watts of MH lighting), just about a month apart, and in my tank with 300 watts of HID, and 4 inches from the water surface. I see good growth under my 10,000k HID lights but you can see the colour loss from a frag used to radiums! Perhaps this photo could be better used to highlight how diff color temp. bulbs could induce better colours. But to answer the original question in this post: Yes, you can keep acros with 150 watts. But there are many factors as Tanzy said that could influence growth and colouration. Many reefers keep acros under 150watt lights but would eventually upgrade to as high as possible to see colours come out (and burn holes in their pockets!). This hobby is a killer!

Gee Morgan!!! You are making me itchy to install my radiums asap! salivating so much over how the colour looks under the bluer bulbs! It's amazing isn't it? Are our eyes being deceived by bluer lights? In normal sunlight... that specimen was BROWN!!!

Yeah, to highlight the point below: "In conclusion, I am suggesting that diet may be as important, if not more important than lighting in maintaining coral coloration in the aquarium. As to what the actual constituents of proper diet are is entirely beyond me. I have seen relatively little research in this area, outside analysis of gut contents of Montastrea annularis, Acropora cerivicornis ( a brown species), and various other unrelevant studies of anthozoans and cnidarians. It would be interesting to gain feedback from hobbyists who are presently feeding their corals, or those who may begin to do so after reading this article." - Eric Borneman. Some hobbyists do not bother 'feeding' corals with anything else but light. Almost every coral has polyps and a polyp is a feeding mechanism. Just what diff corals eat is still under study... although for those who feed live phytoplankton and rotifers, it would be an excellent step towards observing increased healthy growth in our corals, even SPS. Of course, not forgetting about the 'unmeasurable stuff' like trace elements! The Germans and Japanese SPS reefers are strong advocates of dosing trace elements while some US counterparts disagree. Comparing photos of acros show great colours in acros from German & Japanese reefers but you can also see those from US reefers. My HK friend who has an acro/SPS tank advocates dosing good quality trace supplements from Germany. He actually says the US/Uk products are inferior... eg. kent, seachem etc. Oh well...

Wedgee, if I get complaints abt sexual harassment from our lady reefers here... I'll demote you to 'Scum of the sandbed' status! <_<

If you interested in fitting high PAR over your small tanks, you can either consider MHs (downside... high wattage/need chiller)... you can go with the current FL/PL lights... or you can wait for the next big thing to hit the marine aquarium hobby... T5 lights! Aquarists in Germany and UK have begun replacing MHs with T5 lights. Basically, T5 are like VHO (very high output) FL tubes, except it's much much thinner and much much more powerful. It runs on e-ballasts though. The newer T5-2 (i think 2nd generation) is what people are testing now... for example... i have seen a pix where a German aquarist removed 2 out of 4 x 250watts MH from one end of his tank and put 6 x 54watts T5 tubes.... and that corner looks brighter and whiter than the MHs!!! Unbelievable! And the SPS grows are growing and have fabulous colours! T5 bulbs for the marine hobby are improving... with blue and actinics on the way... I'll keep you guys informed as my HK friend is giving me more info.

Undergravel Filter An undergravel filter is simply a slotted piece of plastic (undergravel plate) that sits on the bottom of the aquarium and lets water flow between the plate and the bottom of the tank. There is a tube that is attached to this bottom piece, known as the lift tube. Gravel is placed on top of the filter, and the filter, lift tube and gravel work together to provide filtration. Water is pulled down to the bottom of the tank, through the gravel. And then the undergravel plate, then flows back up to the top through the lift tube. The water is again pulled down through the gravel. This allows beneficial bacteria to thrive on the oxygen laden water flowing through the gravel. Note: UGFs are for FW tanks only.. totally unsuitable for marine tanks.

Agree with Tanzy... perhaps your skimmer isn't producing enough foam or maybe the bubbles are too big. You should look into producing very very fine bubbles for organics to bind onto the bubbles. You are using an airstone type skimmer? They are usable for the short term but require a lot of maintenance as you will have to change out the airstone everytime... get the wooden ones, they work better. They still do not give a consistent skimming result coz they get clogged over in a matter of days/weeks, and your water quality takes a nose-dive too. I used to use one a long long time ago! Have long since abandoned them. You will appreciate the increased water quality from good skimmers ie. pump driven ones. It's an investment you will not regret ie. good skimmers coz your livestock will appreciate all the dissolved organics being removed as fast as possible.

Junlover, You do know what a UGF is in the first place rite? It's not that green net. It should be plastic egg-crate/light diffuser-like, made of white plastic. I really think you go and read some basics of marine keeping so you can fully understand what we are talking about.

You know what irks me? In today's papers, they said they need 3 years to complete installing video recorders on all MRT Stations!!!! That's MORONIC!!! What? Are they installing one every 3 months or what?? Gee... first no one knows how that boy got dragged by the train, then the woman teacher who got killed last week... sigh.... if there is a terrorist act in a MRT station, no one will have an idea WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!!!! DUH?

Now we need a thief!

Hmmm.... well, try looking at pictures online and see if you can ID the specimen you bought. At least, once past that step.. it will be easier to find out the species' requirements... and for us to advise you.

Yazid, good for you then! Sounds like you got a fantastic deal. The only way to be certain is you look at the starphire glass pane sideways.... from end to end... you have a clear view of whats on the other side... and there is no green tint.. just clear glass. Refer to this thread here. A picture says a thousand words.. so perhaps you could post your starphire pane pix just to be sure.

Suggest that since you just started... pull out the UGF. It doesn't work for marine tanks. Go read up on the links for beginners. Get a filter canister instead, if you can't get a hangon overflow and sump. You need to buy test kits to test water parameters. Is your lights FL or PL? Lucky your tank is shallow. Sometimes anemones don't ship very well/may have been injured.... yours could be doomed already.. but try providing good light and see if it sticks to something. If it is rolling around the tank... not good.

As of this moment, FishFreak is the 294th VERIFIED member. We have 310 registered but they have not been validated yet ie. not activated their accounts via email validation request. The countdown begins!

Living in this high-tech edge means we are all nothing more than numbers... easily tracked wherever we go, whatever we do... even if you go out of the country... Big Brother knows which flight you were on, which outlets you go to when you use your credit cards, what your spending habits are like, who you call, what time you made the call and even where are you when you use your handphone, how much money you have in the bank, in your cashcard, in your farecard.... no one is truly anonymous... especially even on the internet... Like how BIG BROTHER AT here knows who everyone of you are... even if you use multiple IPs, proxy servers, ISPs, different login names, emails coz.... I know the tricks of the trade in tracking every one of you down.... Muhahahahahaa!!!! *evil laugh as I stick my little finger at the corner of my mouth* Your bosses will be informed of your active participation in this forum when you should be working... unless... unless... I'll PM you my bank account number... and you know what to do... Muhahahaahahahaha!!!!! *pets my hairless dog sitting on my lap* Seriously... won't be surprised if there will come a day when we'll be helpless without electricity and we can't do shit.

Yes.... Power compacts = PC or PL.

Yeah... some reefer buys lots and lots of expensive lighting pendants and bulbs and stores them in boxes at home, now that's very very weird if you ask me. How mad is that?!

Do a search on nudibranch here. I have a video of one swimming... very very cool.