albinosage

Bro, what's the dimension of your IOS compartment for pump? The Dymax pump sounds decent, you can use it and observe during the cycling period. Anyway since you are planning to keep just clownfish and soft corals, a temperature of 30 degrees and below will do, something a fan can easily achieve.

Kiko, prices of goods depend on several factors like demand and supply, origins of goods and quality. But my guess is high overheads, cos it is not cheap to maintain multi nicks and buy a prepaid phone line for each

Sorry what did you say, Desi? I can't hear you! BBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...........

Not acting humble, but seriously there are a lot of very nice nano tanks in this sub section. If you wanna single anyone out, then the 2 tank threads above are a great inspiration if you ignore all the tcss lol. Welcome to the forum btw, bro evo. From the corals you have expressed interest in, I think strong flow is not really necessary. Instead of adding a wavemaker, you can change the return pump to ~800l/h... double the turnover and the increased flow should be sufficient, save some space too. Invest in a better pump that generates less heat, cos the boyu stock pumps can really heat up the tank by a bit. I don't know the dimensions of your tank, but I think a Rio pump is cheap and energy efficient, the lower models are quite compact too.

Simple but effective method, I should try that too. Great recycling effort btw. A+++++

Bro, been a while since your last update... You can't complain that there's no time now, plenty of time between football matches to take pics!

My guess is that it is used to buffer PH cos shells are basically calcium carbonate. As for the cost per kg..... It'd better come with grade A pearls inside at that price

Aiyah you can one la, you are our resident SRC bookie

Slovakia vs New Zealand - 0 : 0 (7.30pm) Ivory Coast vs Portugal - 1 : 2 (10.00pm) Brazil vs North Korea - 3 : 0 (2.30am)

Glad to hear that... They did better in high light than medium depth in my tank. The alternating yellow skirt is the striking part of the zoa BTW, remember the zoa you saw last Saturday and said it looked like it is not doing well? It has opened up finally! (pics above) So happy

What a difference a day (plus higher alkalinity) makes... Candy red zoas before and after. It has been with me for a month but yet it was very bleached and only partially opened, one of my weakest zoas for some time. The polyps have fully opened this evening with improved colours, and the stunted ones are starting to open too.

My last remaining loose frags are reserved for someone liao, will wait for main colony to grow since it is very small now.. You will be first on the list Not discipline la bro... force of habit. You're a smoker you should know lol, things like changing water or dosing additives is like second nature to me by now. I'll break a branch of the birdnest for you the next time you visit

Nice luminous GSP, bro! Careful not to stare at it for too long, the radiation can cause cancer.

Bro, all his fishes and corals are sold, only equipment left. He hardly logs onto the forum now.

My strawberry crab is in my sump now with a "all you can eat" chaeto buffet lol. It doesn't get spooked as easily now cos it gets to hide in the shade of the macro algae.

I've had it only for a few weeks, and underestimated its size (as long as my index finger). The behaviour of the crab is exactly like you described, jumpy and timid. It only comes out when there is nobody around, and will scramble away at the slightest movement outside the tank. IMO it is not a good ornamental crab for a nano aquarium despite the beautiful colours cos of it's shy and ninja like behaviour - you'll never get to admire it up close after releasing it in to the tank. It is a good algae eater though, and I believe it feeds on detritus and leftover food too. Unlike your crabs, mine likes to scale the rocks and has even attempted to climb the full 18" height of the overflow compartment (but only managed 14" in the end before giving up.

I think Iwarna brought in some during a Hawaiian shipment a couple of months back. Either $25 or $35, can't remember liao. I think Ray meant they are able to "paddle" to a slow descent, not swim freely in the water column lol. Bro, I am thinking of selling mine, you want? But it is one single crab la, not a pair.

Wow, I guess it really missed the company of its mate!

Wah basket, Gouldian is a very good story teller... I kena trick too lol.

PO4 could be lower though. I didn't know it was so high at 0.1 ppm in the beginning! I never had an algae problem so I didn't bother to test, and assumed everything was in an acceptable range. I usually use the colour of my SPS frags as an early warning system to test the water lol. I have been using Marine Environment salt mix the past few months, except for the start up of this tank when NSW was delivered. No reason in particular, just feeling a bit lazy to buy NSW lately haha...

Yah your BTA is damn laid back one, quite easy to care for. I feed it once every 2 weeks and it is too lazy to move no matter where it place it lol. It is in an area with good flow and moderate light now, it was hiding in the rock for a while cos it was in the direct path of the MP10. Till today, it is attached to the same rock you passed it to me in.

FTS as of last night (13/6/10): Parameters after water change and adding a tablespoon of baking soda from my baking supplies, which Wilson helpfully pointed out that i could use: No3 - ~0.1 ppm (Good) Po4 - ~0.03 to 0.05 ppm (Moderate) PH - 8 (Could be slightly higher) Ca - 425 ppm (Good) KH - 10.2 dKH (Good) Alk - 3.66 meq/L (Good) Salinity - 1.025 sg Once I figure out the exact amount of additives to add to maintain my KH, hopefully I will see some real growth in my corals Forgot to add, this is the very helpful article from Reefkeeping where I read up on the basics: Reef Aquarium Water Parameters

Precious, precious frags which I begged, stolen and robbed from the various reefers: Ray, you have the first one on the left right? And Wilson, that's your Bam Bam on the right. Zoa frag in the centre unidentified but looks damn nice Sunkist zoa frag. Looks more pinkish from the side cos it is directly under the blue LED. Before/after shots of chilli pepper monti, nice and fluffy little polyps

Some coral pics: Sunflower zoas, pink metallic palys and a large colony of Bali zoas. Radioactive and pink birdnest, Green BTA with purple tips.

Some updates over the weekend... Did a bit of reading up on reef chemistry over the weekend, and decided that I should pay more attention to my water parameters since I am starting to keep more SPS frags. In the past, with just soft corals and a few LPS, I think it is sufficient for me to just rely on 15 to 20% water change weekly for all my replenishment of trace elements. Last Saturday, I noticed that all my corals stopped growing as much as they did in the past, so I decided to pull out all my test kits from storage. Results: No3 - 0.2 ppm (Good) Po4 - 0.5 ppm (Moderate) PH - 7.7 (Low!) Ca - 425 ppm (Good) KH - 5.1 dKH (Low!) Alk - 1.83 meq/L (Low!) Salinity - 1.025 sg All tests above done with Salifert test kits. I think the low PH and KH is the reason for the stunted growth in my corals. Getting a refractometer quite possibly saved me from a tank crash. Previously my Coral Life specific gravity meter (swing arm type) gave me a reading of 1.020 which for some reason I felt was alright. Recently I wanted to raise the salinity, but decided to test the water with the more accurate refractometer I got from Nigel, and it turns out that my salinity was at 1.025 all along! Since there is not much new stuff in my tank, I took some pics of the various food and additives I use (not regularly enough) for my tank. Test kits. Kent Marine 2 part additive and Purple up which I dose 1ml of each everyday. Mistake. Should have dose a larger ratio of part B Assorted coral food and supplements including PhycoPure and Reef Pods from Aqua Fauna Misc stuff, might as well take photos since I've already dug them out of the drawer hahaha. The refractometer is also used as a lightsaber in my other life as a Jedi.