albinosage

There are many ways to increase the efficiency of a chiller. Can insulate all hoses to make sure there is no unnecessary heat gain, use an external temperature probe for more accurate in-tank temperature readings etc. I selected "every >1.5hr" for kick in and "45min-1hr" for chill down (actually it's about 40 minutes) by the way

Oh okay okay thanks for the ID! I tried to ID thru the web but the site I found differentiate them by the byssal opening at the bottom and the shape of the shell.

Hahaha, I had to resist adding a machine gun and exploding helicopter.

New clam, not very good at identifying species cos they all look the same to me - end up choosing based on suitable size hahaha. Should be t. crocea right? Maxima and crocea both look very close in appearance. Will be moving it up progressively closer to the light once it settles in.

Hahaha, too much trouble for something that's uncertain. UV doesn't kill all parasites completely, and I think the amount of suspended free swimming parasites in water is nothing compared to what is found in live rocks or live stock. If that is the worry, the whole tank should be treated with UV and not just newly bought water. There is no way to make sure your tank is completely sterile, so no point worrying so much. My personal opinion is that the benefits of natural water far outweighs the risk of parasites. I just practice proper quarantine procedures now and make sure that my fish are well fed and healthy.

The new marble star is really adventurous, loves crawling all over the place and hanging from difficult positions. This one looks like an action movie star hanging from the edge of a building. Couldn't resist a priceless photoshop

Colour of the RBTA recovering, seems quite happy now, has grown quite a bit in size.

The stronger lighting now really helps this difficult zoa to sprout new buds.

I buy my water from T95, Reborn and sometimes Iwarna. I don't treat them before using, what kind of treatment are you talking about? Anyway, any LFS that sells sea water should have a proper and dedicated storage facility/tank that is separate from the display tanks with the proper filtration methods employed to keep the water "fresh" and free of sediments.

I think you should move the pinkish leather coral and soft corals to the right side of the tank with 44 LED, keep your more light intensive corals on the 66 LED side. Of course if you are testing the effects of the light on an assortment of corals then different story la

Wah going into planted freshwater? Nice... What's the tank volume and what you intend to keep inside?

Here's the NEA advisory for water quality: http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_rwq.aspx In general, I think as a very dense city, the waters off our shore is very dirty, just think of the longkang water that streams into the sea, the sediments left behind by ships, the factories at Tuas and refinery at Jurong Island that uses sea water for cooling or cleaning According to the NEA guidelines, I think Sentosa has the cleanest water, Pasir Ris the worst.

Wow, cute little tank bro, how many LEDs you gonna use for this? . 12x12x12" seems like 6 gallon, but since the name is Cube 7, then I guess it's 7 gallons LOL.

Depends on where you buy it from, and who supplies them. Better to ask them where their water is sourced from. Also check out how they store the water.

I think there was an NEA circular some time back warning against swimming in cartain beaches right? LOL! The water from the beach would usually be nutrient rich and full of pollutants like industrial run off. Remember we have heavy industries like off shore oil refinery, reclamation projects etc. Water that is collected further out at sea is cleaner.

The LED is 3.6 times more powerful than my stock lighting, use for 3 weeks liao. Your frag or metallic pink now got 5 baby heads in all

I'd hate to end this update on a depressing note, but I'm sad to say that my pair of tiger-tail seahorses and yellow wrasse have died over the past week. It's almost as if I woke up one day to find that Mother Nature hates all things yellow. The sudden deaths of the 3 fishes kinda crushed everyone at home, especially when I was rather proud of the fact that I spend considerable effort and time keeping my little tank "death" free since it started. There was no disease break out, no new tank syndrome, no aggression or killing among tank mates (okay, I rescued the purple goby from being eaten, but I sold the offending blotchy anthias away after that). RIP. Tiger-tail seahorse (Male) - Died 24th July 2009 from external parasites. Tiger-tail seahorse (Female) - Died 26th July 2009 from loneliness and heartbreak Both have been with me for more than 8 months, residents from the previous tank. Yellow Wrasse - Died last night after miscalculating a jump into the IOS and ended up on the filter wool.

Finally, my RBTA has found a good tenant to move in It was severely bleached previously when the porcelain crab hosted in it and stressed it. Doing much better now, but nothing like the deep red when I first bought it.

Further proof that corals thrive under LED lights: My metallic pink zoas which didn't grow at all under the old tank lights for more than 1/2 a year have started sprouting baby polyps. I returned home last night 12 hours after the photo above was taken, and found an additional 2 baby polyps forming

A picture of the top piece of rock with hair algae growing (and producing bubbles) on it. The top half of the tank is now a barren landscape, the light is simply too strong for soft corals, which have all been moved down. The precious real estate on the penthouse level of my rock scape will now be reserved for either SPS or clams hahaha.

Wow very nice nanocube you have going there! I used to own a 12G too, couldn't be as disciplined as you when stocking, when I bought my 4th fish, I decided to get a 24G haha. The lighting as I recall is 4 tubes, 48 watts in total right? When I bought it brand new, it was super bright. That's 4w of PL light per gallon, much brighter than the 24G stock lighting which is 72w, 3w per gallon. What's the PVC pipe doing in the tank by the way? I see a mushroom growing on it haha.

Hmm... what about lighting period. did you shorten the period the lights are on? If your water parameters are okay, light never change, then the rocks shouldn't bleach. How old is the tank by the way? Was coraline algae growing even before they turn white? I do know that water movement plays a great role in the growth of coraline algae, so I occasionally move my rocks around to let the purple coraline grow evenly haha.

This one i dunno... This one a bit obvious right? Hahahaha...

The Thortek fixture uses 1W LED right? Seems a bit weak especially when the LEDs are concentrated at the centre of the fixture, then left and right side is low powered blue LEDs. The sample pics of their customer's tanks look very bright cos most of them are using at least 2 fixtures. Quite economical to do that still for $900 a piece, even if you buy 2 it's cheaper than Lumenaqua (but then that's 3W per LED). Damn funny how they translate their company name, Thor = Lei Gong (God of Thunder)