sparks1107

haha no worries im still new to marine hobby so im kinda open to all comments and feedbacks. in fact, the more the better! well my tank is already been up for at least 1/2 a year. im still thinking whether should i replace my filter & skimmer to a 2nd hand skimmer + filter. however, still unsure whether the fishes will survive after buying them. ok will try to feed them more often at lighter meals. however, can only feed them when i reach home cause im serving the nation now work commitment!

the fishes i bought from are all from pasir ris fish farm. i bought from different shops though. so i think it should be my water thats causing the death of the fishes. as for those dead fishes, some of them doesnt even eat at all, some do eat pellets and frozen mysis shrimps. nroamlly i feed them once a day during evening time. (either 1 cube of frozen shrimp or few pellets at a time for abt 3mins) am i overfeeding them? I realised that whenever i spot that the skin of the fishes is not in good condition after introducing to my tank, it'll nroamlly die after afew days. and during the night, i find that they're sleeping in awkward positions because of the high water flow. could this be a reason for causing stress to them? as for the coral i bought its doing quite well (already with me for 1mth), blooming really big whenever theres sunlight shinning on it or when i switch on the lights. as for the clam, i tried to place it at many positions such as on top of the LR, but whenever it closes and reopens again it'll drop off. however, ill take take note and will remove them once they're showing signs of dying. Im only using PL light at the moment. and im only switching on the lights at night when i reach home. during the day, the window is left open so theres some sunlight shining on them. as for the water parameters, im only checking for pH, salinity, temp, nitrite. do i have to buy calcium and kH test kits too? and ammonia? do i have to add anything else to my filter media to improvise the water parameters? thanks for the prompt reply kalib!

heres the picture of my jebo waterfall filter and my low-end skimmer. any improvements that i can make?

guys.. sad to say my new batch of fishes died again followed what senior reefer kalib had told me but my fishes still didnt survive. im really kinda jaded in keeping fishes already, tried to keep bicolour, cardinal and lionfishes which khalib recommended but none survive. im really eager to find out what is the problem and determine to solve it. hopefully with the help of u guys. after the long and lengthy posts from khalib, i tried to do acclimization with all the newly bought fishes, bought new anti-chlorine for topping up of evaporated water & buying at most 2 fishes per visit. but none of the fishes survived still. however, i bought afew more hardy corals which are doing relatively well at the moment. im thinking of buying a 2nd hand skimmer + hang-on filter but i dont know if my fishes will still die after buying them as ive already spent so much on my initial setup. really hope that u guys can help me out and resolve my problems asap. Heres some pictures of my tank:

ok. thanks alot. hope to see more healthy fishes in my tank now.

The reason why i add the solution to the tank is because the amount of tapwater (for evaporated water) i added is kinda little. so i was thinking it might be better if i just add directly into the tank. probably i should wait for the vol of the evaporated water to be higher so that i can add and treat the tapwater at one shot? actually now the water movement of my filter is kinda high cause at night some of my fishes normally hide behind the skimmer cause the movement too high for them to slp peacefully. and the clownfishes that i used to have often have a hard time swimming at night and sometimes i even lower the flow so that that can slp peacefully. should i stick to highest flow and let them struggle to slp at night? or shift to highest during the day and lower at night? or it doesnt matter at all? wheres the location of spotlight? guess ill just pick shells from beaches! haha! anyway, i was thinking of giving my hermit crab away cause it is really very irritating and i saw him ripped another small crab alive and ate it! lol. and at times he often moves my corals away. lol. just hope that he wont create any more problems for me. and hes been quite quiet lately. actually the shell of the crab is really very big, think shldnt have any problems for now.

For the topping up of tapwater, I didnt use any anti-chloramine to treat it before adding. However, I did use the API stress-zyme which says it can kill chlorine as well. What is the proper procedure of adding the evaporated water? For now, I am just adding untreated tapwater whenever I see a dip in my tank's water level. Can i just add the API solution into my tank after I added the tapwater? Or i have to premix them before adding? Thanks for the recommendation ^^ actually im having 1 cardinal fish (the other 3 died zz) and firefish in my tank now. haha. however, the firefish seems inactive and havent been eating since i bought 2days ago. tried pellets, mysis shrimps and even baby plankton. doesnt seem to work. they normally feed on mysis shrimp right? I will look out for the other 2 species maybe will get them at a smaller size at least they wont attack my other bigger fishes haha. will take note of the points u stated too. thanks again. As for the weekly change of water, whats the proper procedure? Right now, im extracting 10% of the water in my tank then slowly pour the newly bought water from a pail. I think the rate im pouring is relatively fast, however, i just make sure that when i pour the water it doesnt hit the sandbed. Do i have to do it really slow? So that the fishes can better adapt to the new water change as well?

I think the new seawater's salinity level could be too high? cause i normally dont check the SG for newly bought seawater. if it happens to be too high i just add tapwater to it? and my temp should be quite stable cause the shrimps are already in my tank for quite awhile. normally its 25 to 28 degrees. for the evaporated water i use tapwater to top up. i will try to acclimatise new fishes from now on. thanks guys. ive already cylced my tank for some time already. in fact my tank is more than 4mths old already. ANN? care to elaborate on that? any hardy fishes that are pretty =) to recommend? other than damsers and chromis. yea bro kalib indeed shared alot to me and really appreciated that from him. thanks for your reply anyway.

ok will take note. the charcoal bag is bought separately from LFS for marine usage. so not to worry. thanks anyway.

by the way, what does the charcoal bag do actually? dont think i can do 100% change cause theres livestock in my tank at the moment and i dont have any spare tanks to house them. guess ill try to change my filter more often as well. thanks for recommendation.

normally the fishes i bought are quite small. smaller than 2.5inches. as for my filter it comes along with 1green plastic sponge at the bottom, a charcoal bag i bought many mths ago and 3white filter sponges which i have to cut myself and i change it like once every 1-2mths whenever the cotton is dirty. anything i can improvise on the filter?

-think the prawns might be jumping because i didnt aerate my newly bought seawater before doing a water change. because the prawns only jumped like mad after i do a 10% water change. -guess i have to heed your advice and get 1-2 fishes at a go. -ill try to get seawater from another LFS and aerate the water for some time before doing water change. how long do i have to aerate the newly bought seawater? -i did empty all the contents in the bag before throwing my fish into my tank w/o doing acclimatization. -guess will try to make the same bottle as yours to do acclimatization. thanks heaps for your time spent in teaching me. your post really helps. and your explanation on acclimatization is really good. thanks for your time once again. hope my tank will do well now.

im using API stress zyme for bio filtration boosting atm. i use it whenever i change my water. which is like once a week or every fortnight.

My first corals and the irritating hermit crab!

Blue sea fan + 2 "blurr fishes" 1 of them died =(

My 2ft tank!

my first corals and hermit crab. no joke the hermit crab is a nuisance in my tank.

just did a 10% water change ytd and 2 of my fishes died again. =( and the algae eater fish jumped out during night time but i managed to put in back in time before it dies. the prawns were jumping like mad during the night. any reason y are they behaving like this? - dont think its the species i bought. cos i bought many different species before but none survive. had bought before clowns, antieas (think not the right spelling), ah goh goh (thats the way its pronounced) lol, gobies etc. none of the clowns i bought survived zz, think at least 20 clowns died in my tank. really love the clowns but too bad =( really jaded to keep them already. - normally i buy at least 5 fishes whenever i go for a trip to pasir ris farm. cause the journey is too far, buying more will make it worthwhile. =) is ammonia and nitrite spike be the main reason y my fishes died? nitrite shldnt be a problem because i do check my nitrite once in a while. but i dont do ammonia checks. do i have to buy a testkit for ammonia? or just stick with weekly water change? but whenever i do water change at least 1 fish will die and the prawns will jump crazily. so im always hesitant whenever i do water change. - dont think the water will be polluted because its at one corner of my room, but will try to take note of this concern. - the fishes either died of red markings or white spots. for clowns their skins normally look like peeling (with webby thing) on their bodies before they die. any reason for that? - last question, normally whenever i bought all the fishes i will just empty the water and throw them into my tank right away. shld i be doing anything like acclimatization? however, i donno how to do it even after reading much on it. can some1 tell me how to go about doing it? thanks. thanks for the replies guys. really appreciate it very much. hope to solve my problems fast so i can keep healthy fishes in my tank!

btw, any idea how much will a prism skimmer cost? price of 1st/2nd hand?

thanks for the reply. nitrate and phos is a must have for FOWLR tank? im a NSF =( low income. already bought this skimmer so was thinking it'll b a waste if i buy another skimmer. ive already cycled my tank for quite some time (few mths). and been doing 10-20% water change at least every fortnight if not weekly. with seawater bought from pasir ris fish farm. is the seawater healthy for waterchange? or do i have to buy marine salt and mix myself? btw, my temp is 25-28 degrees with a fan attached. any other reasons y my fishes will die?

Hi guys I kinda new to marine hobby and my fishes keep dying in my 2ft tank. pH & nitrite is fine. and got no idea why the fishes keep dying. currently using berlin airlift 60 and a jebo waterfall filter