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I really hope it wun be raining during my trip... somehow i just dislike the feeling of rain during holidays. can't do anything at all. cant go anywhere. btw: i wasnt serious abt romania. that's definitely somewhere that i would not go now. if there's one high way to try, it will be the infamous speed limitless Germany Autobahn!

visiting my cousin who migrated to holland. Will be F&E. First to amsterdam, then to my cousin's house abt 2 hrs drive away from Amsterdam. Will be there for abt 6 days, after that will be quite hectic, Barcelona, Paris, Brussels then back to Amsterdam. I may even visit Romania to find Dr. Ionescu. Lol. Can't wait to get away from work and the very hot weather. Apparently I was told Barcelona is going to be even hotter than here. but bo pian lah, my cousin in law (dutch guy) wants to have a beach holiday. Will be bringing the Dslr to try and take some good pix.

thanks ketchup. Hope u guys will get the nitrates under control soon. Try the algae scrubber and some chaetos. They do help quite a lot. Hopefully with all the corals in, can break the rock shape and look more colourful.

Thanks bro. See you guys in 3 weeks time. And errr no magic mushrooms for me. Hehe. Ray, hope u like the Bams. Thanks again buddy. I've done the cleaning of both skimmers and water change. Will be feeding mysis later before I fly. Labelled all the power points too. If u can, help me bump up the lights at main tank k. Kum Sia many.

buddies... it's about another 10 hours before i leave our sunny shores for some really cool weather. Boy, i'm glad that the EUR$ is at a low x-rate of 1.83.... Great to know that my tank(s) will be in good hands of Ray... again, he promised me that he will help me sell some corals when i'm away... how nice of him... so please PM him for whatever you like... (we can always settle the bill when im back. lol) - JOKE NIA! please don't kaput my rics hor! Update for today 30Apr: Have been progressively transferring some corals back into main tank... seems like it's pretty stabilised now. No fish yet... am considering maybe i should get some really low bioload fish (like pipe fish, since i've been pretty successful previously) Here's the frontal shot and side tank shot. Btw: responding to some feedback to my earlier scape, i've removed that twin towers and shifted them to the side, forming a bridge. still have half a tub of corals to be placed back into main tank... many mushies, some big rocks of zoas (sian), rhizos (5)and 1x super sun (surprisingly, all polyps open in the blue tub! guess they prefer low flow with almost no light. feel free to comment/suggest/criticise... and oh yes, do look forward to your guys to keep my thread alive while im gone...

i was just merely trying to do an online checkin and reserve my 'preferred' seats for Friday's flight... and now i see raping raiding of my tank. Muffins to break my lock?!?!? anyway, thanks people for your wonderful support... Hopefully (or otherwise), when i return, my tank thread will hit 100 pages... (we're close now... @ 86) By the way, i just did a stock check of all my corals (every single polyp!)... (and price list attached). hehe. and er, safe... no safe lah, i also dun have anything valuable at home.. the most expensive stuff are already in the blue tub! Today, i put more stuff into the main tank, still have quite a lot to do... will try to transport as much as i can by tomorrow.

And i'm going to miss another of this fun outing... sianz! Im kinda kicking myself in the butt for missing the outing at Desi's and Ketchups... This Friday will be busy preparing for the trip, will be flyign off at night, thus doubt i can make it. why am i always missing out on the fun!?!?

oh yes, forgot to account for my casualty list: 1) Kole Tang - died due to constant bullying from Atlantic Blue. Damn Sad, coz this piece was in such good condition prior to the rescape, one of the most hardworking fish. With the Atlantic Blue waiting for the new owner's collection, i guess i will be out to hunt for a new Kole or Clown Tang... 2) Pipe Fish - kept it alive for a few months, always see it actively feeding when it was in main tank... currently cannot see it in blue tub... hope it's there... somewhere... 3) SPS, pink birdnest alllll gone! fortunately, the monti plates are still ok, radioactive birdnest in good condition. But most of them are now brown in colour. 4) bubble: not dead yet, however, one of them is opening at half the original size. ;( 5) feather duster: 2 died, left only 1 piece. Hopefully the list will end here...

Dear fellow reefer buddies. Appreciate all your encouragements! I'm so glad that I am half way through the mess now, and hoping for the best after my upcoming 20 days trip. You guys have been more than kind to help me out during these dark days. In fact, a little advice goes a long long way! I managed to find a spare skimmer (deltec old skool model) from bro Starwars71 earlier, surprisingly, even though it's an old model, which is already discontinued, it is still skimming really really well! i believe the next few weeks will have to count on bro Ray and Eniram to help me 'jaga' the 2 tanks (holding + main) while i'm overseas. For those who like to get some LRs, kindly PM me for contact number, as i have a few pieces of flat + boulder rocks to give away. Collection @ bedok reservoir (by Wed night)

skimmer found. thread close. Thanks for Bro Starwars71 for the kind loan. works like a charm! Also like to extend appreciation to Bros Kiko and Maxz for volunteering their spare skimmers too... Maybe i should get a spare one too!

I wouldn't miss this man! U know I've been eyeing on that!! Thanks bro. I do have some half-golden cloves, nowhere near these!

Bro oni: I wanted to decom cos I was worried the blue tub can't hold the livestock for 1 month. For rescape, it's okie, but to cycle the tank again, everything will die in that tub man. Fortunately now everything is more or less stabilized. Buy I just suffered 1 fish casualty today. My beloved yellow eye Kole was bullied by the ABT in the tub, so bad that it didn't even come out during feeding time. Tried to take it out yday but it couldn't pull thru. Damn sad. Hey no worries abt te Beckett man. I try not to do too much mod on ur skimmer lah. Will just see how, worse case, go LFS to find a 2nd piece. Sure I can find something somehow. Oh actually, if I do decom, I guess I will take quite a long break. Cos I think it will be too heart breaking. Bro kiko: thanks for passing me the skimmer man. I also hoping it can work. Will try again tmrw, dun dare to use it outsump leh, in case of leak. Let's just hope everything will be okie tmrw. No worries abt the wavemaker, I still have a couple of small wavemakers. So lucky that I have not sold my 2x6025 and the nano wavebox. Again, thanks guys! This is what makes me so addicted to this forum. Casualty list will be published tmrw...

Bro, if can help me hold for 3 weeks, i can collect after my trip. But i guess if too much trouble, i can always wait for another batch.

It's my version of hell-week bro! this past week was bad @ work and reefing! I feel like decomming almost every day! Fortunately, wifey was quite understanding, though she was really hoping i can clear things up before we fly (but it's definitely not possible now). oh yes, i forgot to mention, i do have a tunze nano wavebox in the blue tub (my spare one)... a small pump is used to draw water from one corner -> chiller -> skimmer -> return to the other corner... i am still looking for a spare skimmer for my main tank though... but i know this is going to be a tough one... who keeps a spare skimmer anyway?? will share more pix next time to show the very classic old-skool chiller from cedric.. damn cool man! and it's super efficient!

would like to thank the very supportive reefing friends here who kept me going during these very dark days! last weekend, during the rescape, it was such a disaster that i almost gave up the hobby... Thanks to Ray, Eniram, Cedric, JoeP and many other bros who helped, and spent time/effort/advice to help... i'm still trying to cling on to whatever hope there is... (and with my 3 weeks trip coming right up soon, really keeping my fingers crossed for the best!) Anyway, will try to share as much as i can here. 1) removed all corals and place into blue tub. 2) removed half of main tank water -> left half in main tank 3) removed all Live Rocks 4) try to catch all fish and transfer into blue tub (or so we thought) 5) took the chance to clean up the glass and detritus on sand. 6) after cleaning, tank water was totally murky, decided to siphon out all water. 7) remove entire tank water + sump + filter wool + everything (left only sand) 8) after cleaning up, found my mandarin and leopard wrasse (surprised that they are still alive) And the above, was still 'ok'... nightmare started when i decided to put water back into the tank... school boy mistake... as i didn't prepare enuff water, i decided to pipe water from tap and pump directly into the main tank. That's 1 fresh water 'bath'.... thoroughly washed the live sand (with fresh water!), stir up everything.. detritus and all... found many many worms! one was almost 2 ft long! Water's dirty by now, so siphon out again! With the sand now clean... went ahead to rescape live rock! (nice scape, thanks to Ray who actually did a sketch of how the scape should look like.) Next, another dose of fresh water, this time main tank + sump, and set the return pump to run... with both live sand + live rock in tank! Dropped in almost an entire pail of tropic marin salt into the sump hoping the salt mix will helped me reach the ideal salinity of 1.022, but end up, only achieved 1.010! -- At this moment, i didn't even think that i've done something totally wrong (believe me!) -- at 4am, you probably only want to quickly get the tank filled up asap! When we stopped to take a breather, until we see lots of dead worms and pods floating in the tank. It was only then, i knew this was game over for the tank... the only consolation was that everything has been transferred out to blue tub. we called it a night at 6.30 am, when both of us were totally physically and mentally tired. Totally messed up my living room. Spent another 2 hours cleaning up, and only managed to go to bed ard 9am. Couldn't sleep, so work up at 11am, it was only then, that i realised, i think i really screwed up. Immediately, called Iwarna to deliver NSW + bacteria... did another full water change, Now, i'm totally drained, and knew that its going to be another month before i can put my corals back in. So, ended up, borrowed a spare chiller from Cedric (thanks buddy!) who despite having a migraine, came over to my place with Ray and hooked up the chiller for me to ensure there's no leak of sorts! Eniram for dropping by and helping with the rescape too. Yes guys, Ding Tai Fung! or if you want, we can always try imperial treasure at T3! That's my fav dim sum place now. I've also transferred the apf600 from main tank to the blue tub, hopefully these measures will keep my livestocks more 'alive' for the next 3 weeks, am counting on the buddies to help with water change/dosing of 'supplements' while i'm away. So, i guess this basically summarises why my sudden "quietness" from the forum... A simple rescape (which i've planned for months), ended with a totally new scape PLUS new tank cycling too. Update for today: it seems like the main tank has stabilised, and i've added some zoas (quite a lot, including RB's purchase), yuma, mushroom and even 2 rics to test water... results seemed pretty okie... but will still monitor. Today added a six-line (in betta box)... still surviving also. Here're 2 views of the new scape, without the corals in place, the scape still looks weird... but have to bear with this for the time being. So, this is my story, school boy mistake... hope that this becomes a lesson... Goodnight world... now this makes me appreciate the forum a lot! it's so good to know that there are so many friendly and helpful reefers around!

looks like the small rock (right) is dragon eye (very nice rock) and the big one of the left has bam bam and possibly some dragon eyes too.

i think u need help to take pix of your gems!!! i think u have too many big rocks of zoas... let me help u clear some... (when my tank is ready)... haha.. forgot to add: i like 0832... good stuff justin. starting work tmrw???

Beautiful! I always shoot at iso800 or more! Haha. No wonder I dun get that much details.

During my recent rescape, I committed a school boy error that resulted in me having to restart the tank. Which includes cycling!! Thus, I have to now maintain my main tank setup plus a 4' tub containing most of livestock and fish. I had just placed some easier corals into the main tank today after last week's mistake. Long story short: I am trying my luck to see of there are any reefers who is willing to t-loan me ur spare/unwanted skimmer for 3-4 weeks for me to cycle the tank (plus I will be travelling out of town). Easterners will be very much preferred. Northern/easterners also can consider. Am willing to buy a pre-owned model if the price/model is right. Preferred brands : reef octopus/ hns/ skimz/ deltec. Willing to pay for any damages during t-loan period. Thanks in advance and hope to see ur reply here or via pm.

Jacky. U must visit Hwee. Take a look at his ultra nice gonio and superb GSP growth. And while u are there, can also pick up some big big rics from him too.

Quick update. Rescaping as a whole brings me mixed feelings... Thanks to Ray, (you're the man!) 6am yah. The tank now has a pretty interesting layout. But Murphy decided to visit us, and while catching the fish, we kinda messes out the entire tank. Trust me, we removed everything (except sand) from the tank. As a result, the remaining tank water had to be siphoned off and tap water was pumped into the tank to clean the sand. So effectively, I'm starting afresh again. Just hope the corals and livestock will pull thru. Does anything has any other suggestions?? Cannot tahan. Gotta go take a nap. Zzzzzz

Just did a Ph measurement an hour before lights off. Ph reading is a low 7.7 seeking for advice on how to boost to 8.3...

Indeed. Very nice. let me know if u r ready to share yes.

i suspect the only way to keep the fries will be to take the LR outta the tank and take care of it in a separate tank. will probably post in another thread, hopefully can get a detailed step-by-step....

For me, it's not the space, but the lack of knowledge + time. of coz, with guidance, it's a different story.