albinosage

FTS as of 6 June 2010: I managed to stack them without epoxy for now, and still managed to get the kind of scape I was going for. Will be back with a vengeance (and a box of epoxy) next week to fix the top a little bit, so I can place the SPS properly. Top down pic of my little zoa garden:

Aussie zoas: Eagle eye frag from Siang: Purple hornet: Sunflower zoas: Metallic pink paly: RBTA: Hermit crab from Lemon: Rics and Yuma: Super suns: Clam:

New fishes: 1 inch naked clown, which kinda paired up with the existing black clown. They have even started to sleep together in the anemone Splendid leopard wrasse.

Big update (cos 1 week without posting is considered "very long never see you post" according to somebody hur hur hur... ): Did a rescape yesterday finally, after 6 weeks of planning. Each step was sequenced and timed with military precision, because not only would I be epoxying the rocks, I would also be sieving the sand bed to remove the large pebbles from the Carribean live black sand (some as large as grapes!). Here's how it would have gone, as planned in my head: 1. Mix 1 box of epoxy for 20 minutes, with secret kung fu technique as taught by Henry from ML. Confirmed to be hard as nails when cured. 2. Within the next hour, drain out 90% of display tank, put all sensitive corals in the sump and leave the chiller looping. All rocks out. 3. With a large netting sheet, bring it to the bottom of the tank and start sieving the sand, stirring it up a little to clean it of detritus at the same time. 4. Drain out remaining 10% of tank water. Muddy water is removed to the last drop, with a large syringe, so as to minimise any ammonia spike. 5. Within the next hour, epoxy the rocks. 6. Replace original water (90%) + 10% new salt mix in to the tank. 7. Introduce livestock back in to the tank. 8. After running the water for another hour, replace the filter sock to remove the detritus collected. 20% water change with new salt mix, and dose bacteria. The whole thing would have been over in 4 hours, and with the pre mixed epoxy and careful draining of muddy water, the water won't turn cloudy! As expected, murphy's law took effect. I hit an obstacle at step 5. The epoxy turned rock solid after 1.5 hours!!! ^*(^#^#%$#%^@ That was my only box of epoxy and they have all been pre separated into the amount needed to epoxy each rock joint... well, at least I know for sure that the technique works now. The epoxy when cured is as hard as golf balls, and can even bounce off the ground without cracking lol. And I have finally removed about 1kg of pebbles from my live sand, the sand bed is super clean now.

Hi Aloysius, glad to see such great thoughts put into the planning of your tank. Would like to point out though, that the PAR 38 LED lights would not be enough for your tank if you are planning to keep corals that demand a lot of light. I believe the PAR 38 spotlight has only 5 x 3W LEDs, might be enough for a 1ft cube, but definitely not enough for a longish tank, especially with the spotlight effect. You should look into getting two of them or reconsider your lighting, a good example of this set up is FuEl's 5G pico tank. As for the idea of exporting nutrients with macroalgae like chaeto, make sure you hang them in a high flow area with light... but that would be a prime location for your corals also and would disturb your view of the tank as well (assuming you are putting it in the display area since your tank is sumpless)

You forgot to add: Unbelievably yellow! Feeding on pellets, mysis and Henry's food!

Pump and wavemaker will do. You just need to get the water circulating and let the bacteria colonise the rocks and filter media.

All sound advice above, only 2 points to add: Maxspect 110W will be too much for a 1ft to 1.2ft height tank. On the other hand, the 60W model is squarish and will not provide sufficient light coverage in a rectangular tank. You can go for the AquaRay, the number of LEDs in the 2 strip combo will be just nice for that tank size IMO. Regarding the budget of $600 for the whole tank, it would be a bit hard to keep to it if you are going for LED, the 110W Maxspect and the AquaRay both cost around $500 if I'm not wrong. Jacky, Grotech part A, B and C are not coral food, they are trace elements, not necessarily just for SPS.

LOL since this thread has caused you inconvenience already, maybe you might as well move it to the correct sub forum. It is under FOWLR now.

Jacky, the forum doesn't resize pics if you hotlink it, I think it is one of the measures to save bandwidth. The pic above is hosted on another website.

Relax Eniram, I think Ray's idea of shopping is this:

YOU WANT TO GO SHOPPING TOMORROW?! ME TOO!!! Anyway Jacky, nice FTS, I like the rolling hills of zoas in the scape. Would love to do something like that but can never find large enough colonies hahaha.

1000l/h is fine, that's what I use for mine too.

Me? Irritating? To add on to your general guide on how corals are priced, those with exotic sounding names will fetch premium prices also. Like the million and one zoas with fancy names, that's why those US websites love to discover and name zoas so much haha. Brown and dull coloured corals are less desirable, but you can call it Kinder Surprise and put a high price tag on it. Learn from MOSSrope one haha.

It has been mentioned my lemon, the nicer the colour, the more it will cost (most of the time).

Depends on how much you pay for it. A lot of money = expensive. Less money = cheap. What kind of question is this??? Edit: Sorry if my tone sounds harsh, but seriously the value of your corals is determined by how much you like it. How much you pay at the shop is another matter.

There are cheap yumas too, quite common with indo shipments. As I said, prices depend on a lot of factors, mainly colour and demand. $5 for a rock of yuma is not unusual.

$20! Nice zoas, seen them in person 2 weeks back.

LOL at your captions Glad to see your deep sea north korea communist rbta is coloured up a little bit. Must be blessed with the magical properties or Kim Jung Il.

How to ID... Ricordea Yuma: Many many small "bubbles" or "tentacles" all over, including tiny bumps around the mouth. Ricordea Florida: Many many small "bubbles" or "tentacles" all over, but none around the mouth. Mushroom: Depending on which species, can be virtually smooth or have bumps and ridges. See pics above for reference, this is just my own layman's understanding. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Bro, the 1.5 cube includes the sump, altogether is about 31 or 32 gallons.

Ricordea Yuma (Yumas): Ricordea Florida (Rics): Mushroom: Ok just kidding... Corallimorphs (Mushrooms): Can see the difference? Prices vary according to market demand, availability, colours and where they originate from.

Jacky, I've seen 1ft cubes with 1/15 or 1/20 chillers. IMO, an iceprobe with an external temperature controller added is sufficient.

Haha heard you talking about your kopi maker the other day. Hopefully you will get back into reefing after striking it rich as a world class barista

Hey it was great meeting you guys too! Thanks Larry for making this event a success. Also, thank you Lemon for the Sony™ lemon custard tart, Desi for making the tiramisu instead of charcoal muffins, Gouldian for stationing himself at the BBQ pit with cooking duties despite the humid weather and other reefers who brought drinks and makan. It was nice meeting you guys