southpaw23

When i had got him...there was no ich in the tank...not that i was aware of at least. Only other inhabitants were the 6 yellow tangs...but about 4 days after i got him...all the fishes were infected with ich I can't say for certain if the PBT was the source of the ich but i've been battling it for the last week and a half now and it looking better now. As for the YT...not sure what the cause of it's death, i suspect it was due to starvation and not the ich. Oddly out of all the 6 yellows...2 or 3 of em ended up being skinny as heck while the rest just continued to fatten up. Don't know how to combat this, tried enticing it with a variety of food but it threw in the towel eventually

Small update - The chilldown chiller coil has finally been hooked up! Takes less then 45 minutes to chill down the entire tank by 1 degree, and it takes well over 3.5 hours for the tank temp to rise 1 degree before the chiller kicks in again....not bad . But that's just an estimate. Will get a more accurate reading over the weekend. Oh and the itch situation is improving...i've had a couple of casualties tho...the PBT and a YT

The same one as urs is available at CF? Darn it...what are the chances of it still being around tomorrow?

That's for the info fishtalk...i assume ur talkin about AM at Jln Kayu? The one near Katong is just around the corner for me

Yeah...i think i know which ones you're refering to...was there last friday. forgot to ask the price tho.. Maybe there's still some around this weekend...altho highly unlikely i guess..

Awfully quiet this week eh? Anyone know where i can find some nice pratas? Missed the boat last week cos my chiller was hooked up Also, anyone mind sharing what the market rate for pratas are now with the current excess of supply? And where i can get good deals? cheers!

Thanks for the info Jervis....will have to make my way to CF one day to check stuff out. Oh and yes, do keep me posted if you ever come across another anemone like urs

What does a pair of true perculas cost at CF? And any idea when they'll bring in another one of ur anemones?...i wanna get me one!

This is a long shot but is that an RBTA in your tank? I'd be very interested if you're willing to sell it...

That should be about right....IMO, i wouldn't sweat the lack of skimate seeing that you're still in the midst of your cycling stage. I noticed that your air intake is throttled down a lil too which is fine and the water level appears fine as well. For wetter skimate you can raise the waterlevel while drier skimate the level would be lowered. It'll take u some time to come to terms as far as what kinda skimate you would prefer. But generally, with wetter skimate, you would be required to top up with salt water more often while drier skimate would require you to clean the collection cup more often as scum tends to accumulate at the neck.

Hey MAG, Lemme try and answer some if not all of ur questions to the best of my ability. 1. I wash the collection cup approx once a week and have not much problems removing the cup, just hold on to the base of the skimmer and twist the cup till it's free from the locking position. You may just need to put a lil more strength into it But i've heard from others that there's a type of grease you can apply to smoothen this process...haven't tried as it's working fine for me thus far. 2. There will be some skimate that collects at the inner side of the collection cup, that's a given, but that also is largely determined by how you tune your skimmer. Mine's set to semi wet, meaning the waterlevel is raised up to the top of the neck on the body, the part where it tapers in and connects to the collection cup. A lil difficult to describe i guess. Lemme see if i can get u a photo. Oh, it's important to tune the air intake as well, at this stage it may be a good bet to throttle down your air intake for the skimmer pumps to just below full capacity then adjust accordingly in future. 3. Initially i wasn't pulling out much skimate due to the lack of livestock and the fact that the tank was still cycling..but now that i've got the 5 YTs and the Sailfin, i do get decent skimate (also due to the medication i'm dosing to solve my itch problem). Rest assured the skimmer is more than capable of pulling out gunk when it needs to. The lack of skimate you're facing now could be a result of 2 things, one being the lack of livestock and low bio load. And the other possibly being that you're skimmer is tuned to dry skimate which explains the gunk buildup at the neck and lack of skimate in the cup. Your skimate is probably thick and smelly eh? 4. Will see if i can get u a picture in the coming days. 5. No, not currently running ozone on the tank, altho it's a serious consideration for me with the itch problem i'm facing currently 6. IMO, i've had no problems with the gravity feed to the skimmer but there is a condition to this and it's how the gravity feed is setup. I currently have two dursos running to the sump tank and one durso is set slightly lower in level that the other. Now naturally, all the tank water would just be directed at this lower durso so it needs to be adjusted/restricted (via ball valve) so that the waterlevel in the overflow raises to the point that it starts overflowing into the second (higher) durso as well. When this happens, the first durso (being completely submerged) starts to only pull in water and not a mixture of water and air and this is the critical part for the gravity feed to work. I found that the presence of large air bubbles fed into the skimmer lowered the efficiency of the skimming and when that problem was solved, i didn't face any more issues with the skimmer and it skimmed fine after that. I guess it's a lil confusing to explain in words, perhaps you can check it out in person someday. hope that helps. cheers, Kenny

To identify where your water level is at, turn off the skimmer pump and leave the feeding pump on. You can then access where the water level is at and adjust it accordingly.

Yep...it's a biggie! Abt 5 inches or more i believe

Hi MAG, To be honest, i've yet to check my parameters I've just been careful not to overstock and allow the system time to adjust to the new bio load. With the exception of the 6 yellow tangs going in at once...which was a necessity, i've pretty much stopped or slowed down on my stocking thus far. Do note that i had a couple of things going for me as far as getting the tank stabilized. The use of livesand helped with the cultivation of bacteria and the rocks used were semi cured which meant little or any die offs. And the skimmer was able to take care of the rest. I am by no means condoning not testing tho...it's good to test...i just haven't gotten around to it As for regular/favorite fish shops...don't have any one in particular but i visit most of the LFS in the east for my shopping runs..

Thanks The house is still pretty bare tho...haven't gotten around to the actual decor etc... As for the caves....well, there are some spots that are less exposed that the tangs can take shelter in, but they mostly hang around the big cave/swim thru...and they're together when they do that. *touch wood* still no major aggression among them thus far.

Last shot for the night...blurry overall shot of the living room...

Different angle..

Full tank shot from the living room..

Full tank shot from the bedroom..

Cleaners at work...

Cleaner station...

Another shot of them hangin out in the big cave/swim thru...

The 'big daddy' sailfin hangin out at with the YTs

Couple of the yellow tangs munching on red bamboo...

My powder blue hangin out in his 'bat cave' Good news is that he's finally feeding on the frozen brine and mysis