dragon1188

Any comments from brothers who use NSW? How is the quality in terms of KH, Ca and Mg?

Will be scheduling a water change in nov 2014. Will try NSW from irwana or pacific n engage them to suck n replenish. Mixing n sucking out 200 liter water is really too back breaking.

I also believe in the "no change water" philosophy. I change 60% water every year since 2008. Recently too busy...last water change was Oct 2012. My setup: 4x2x2 with 150watt t5 lights Sump tank with 4" plenum and algae scrubber. Use activated carbon to remove yellowing by algae every 2 mths. 20kg live rocks n thin sand bed in main tank 2 tangs,3 clowns, 3 butterfly, 2 wrasse, 1 damsel No3 is abt 20ppm. Po3 is almost undetectable. Kh abt 10. Mg too high to measure. Ca abt 450

This is no murder. Just plain "feeding my empty stomach"

My advice is dont collect so much on 1st time. Collect a few types n see which ones your fish love to eat. Then collect more next time. Put the collected seaweed in hospital tank to ensure no hitch hikers. Feed some at a time.

Bro...you can also feed ypur tangs using seaweed collected from our local sea side. They are still clean when just washed ashore. There are a few types usually washed ashore. Choose those soft fleshy green or brown types.

Sometimes I collect the seaweed from our local sea n feed my tangs. I choose those soft n fleshy green and brown types. Dont put all into tank at once else tangs will eat all in one day n pollute tank. Keep them in hospital tank n slowly put in some over a week. Tangs will love fresh seaweed

Bro BomBom, Thanks for the pointers. I could not see the option "add to post" as shown in your circle blue after I "choose file" and "attach this file". Very odd. The one image file is jpg 4Mb size. Its taken by my galaxy s4. Not sure why can't upload it. Will try to resize it smaller n try again. If still cannot then will go bang Admin table...hahaha. Thanks anyway bro.

Still nothing uploaded. Giving up

Try again

Uh...what happened to the files I attached? Can anyone tell me how to post pictures in the thread? I press button " choose file" n then " attached this file" n then post reply. Is tis correct?

Took some photos of my tangs n butterflies. Its so difficult to take a good still shot of the tangs. Not sure if I uploaded the pictures correctly. Here goes.

Also I have been scrapping off coralline as so they grow on the glass. Those growing on rocks I can't do anything.

Within a week my KH started to rise. Now my KH is 10. I had stopped dosing kalk or mg or carbonate since 1.5 yrs ago. KH is still 10 today. So watch it if you had problem with KH n your coralline is thick.

Agree tat KH is important for FOWLR so that PH is stable n fishes are not stressed by ph fluctuations. However KH is related to Ca, Mg n carbonate. I used to have problems keeping my KH above 7 and calcium above 350. Had me puzzled for 2 to 3 yrs. I just keep dripping kalk n carbonate on alternative week but no avail. One day I decided to check Mg level n found its extremely low. No wonder CA cannot go up as Mg is low. Both has to be up in tandem. So I dump in Mg but still no results. Then I realised its my coralline algae is the culprit. I had very thick growth of them in my tank. Almost 70% of my back glass were covered in 4mm thick of coralline. About 2 yrs ago I scrapped off the whole wall of coralline. Took me 2 weeks n back breaking effort. Then I collect n cured the thick pieces of coralline. Then I crushed them with plier n mixed them into my deep sand bed in sump tank.

Nice...they should grow thicker in time. Keep them rolling for optimum growth. Good luck

To keep temperature so low at 17 Celsius require bigger chiller n hefty electric bill. Better to keep such tank in aircon room.

Cost is dependent on how big is your tank n hence what size of chiller u need to buy n how much electricity bill

Use chiller lor

Yellow tail damsel are fine but don't get them in pairs. They will squabble till the day they die.

Damsels are super bullet proof. My pair of yellow tail damsel was bought in sep 1999. One died in 2012. The other is still alive today n still same size. Its almost 15years old.

Agree. Maroon,tomato and fire clowns are very aggressive. I had a fire clown tat grew from a cute 1 inch to terror 4inch. Even my fingers are not spare.

Important that it must eat. No eat, no live. This principle apply to all fishes and whether they hide or not. In my tank all my fishes grab their food. Any fishes that can't grab enough food will not survive long because I can't afford to throw so much food for the weak fish. The other fishes will eat more than they need. My filtration can only cope tat much.

My current 4ft tank started in 2002. Been using algae scrubber like tat of santa monica since 2009 n been super stable. Before tat its a 3footer from 1999 to 2002. Most fishes were transferred from old tank.

Bro Oceanviper...can also share some pictures of your cheato sump tank. Can the chaeto cope n water quality ok?