yikai

1) Harlequin Mania ( Larry ) 2) Jackywongto (bringing satays!) 3) LemonLemon 4) Ketchup 5) Desi --> contributing Tiramisu 6) iskay 7) jyoon (tentative - if come will bring Sake) 8) Ray 9) Qiang 10) Gouldian (Tentative will come and will bring some alcohol as well, but not safe to dose into tank ok) 11) Binosage 12) bugattilambo(tentative) 13) Clam Chowder (Mervyn) - 2 bottles of vodka 14) peacemaker 15) Kikobananas (Tentative . Confirmation by 19th) 16) Onizuka (Tentative) 17) StevenKoh08 +1 + 0.5 18) Sherman (tentative - might need to work) 19) kanegan and spouse (Tentative) 20) Cedricang - Most likely going 21) Terryz - Will try to bring something along too but will avoid alcohol drink, so many ppl bring liao. 22) Poomoon + 1 (Tentative . Confirmation by 21st) 23) Ahsiang 24) FuEl 25) MarcoVan (Tentative) 26) ReDDEviLs (bring myself) 27) DUCADOS

sure!! will be nice to talk to you about reefing on the 28th! if you don't mind, have added your name to the list below hope to see you there bro!

are you a great follower of GBD too?? i permanently pinned it in my safari lol. yeah it's good to see gonios being captively grown now. These are very difficult corals and hopefully will be easier now!

Hi justin, this is an encrusting goniopora. They grow and encrust on rocks rather than grow out in large calcarous masses like the usual gonios.

This is commonly know nas the bullseye rhodactis. Scientific name, Rhodactis Inchoata. It is a mushroom coral. The reason why you see different colours when looking up or down, is because of the glass. The iron or for that manner, minerals in your glass distorts the colour. If you are using crystal glass or low iron glass, this will not happen.

Hello matthew. Please take a look at the date on the thread. It is june last year and i'm very sure that bro ahsiang does not have it anymore. So if you are interested, please drop him a PM and don't bump up old threads.

Ok thanks! Actually i'm not a fan of copper and will not use it unless ultimately necessary. There are many many species of fish that cannot handle copper well even in the correct level of dosage. There are some fishes that cannot handle copper period, like mandarins, lions etc. Knowing what fish you are dealing with is just as important as knowing how to use copper. Copper isn't expensive, if i forsee the need, i will just get one and keep it. Or i could take vtec's one since he suggested haha.

Not everything on the internet applies to real life! maybe you may want to list what fishes you are interested in, along with your tank size? Some might not be suitable due to certain reasons that the internet does not specify. anyway if you would like any help, don't hesitate to ask or post! I will definitely render my services and advice whenever possible and i'm sure many of our members here will too! As for now, let's not continue to discuss in this thread. This thread is a pinned topic on cycling. Any questions on carbon, fish etc that is not related to cycling should be posted in the other sections appropriate for it.

If you are growing maiden hair or shaving brush for nutrient export, i will not suggest them. These are one of the tougher macroalgae to keep and are more demanding. In fact, i will even say that maiden's hair is not easy to keep. If you are keeping them for ornamental purposes, and only have like 1 small rock of it, then if it goes sexual*, it will not hurt the tank. as the colony is just too small. i once had an entire sump of ulva go sexual and nothing died. * btw, the act of releasing spores to potentially crash your tank is called going sexual, not asexual. As gametes (sex cells) are released, the term sexual reproduction is used. asexual reproduction is for example, fragging of macroalgae and letting the frag grow into a new colony. where the new offspring is a clone and not one with new genetic material.

A dying anemone is very obvious. as a rule of thumb, never dictate where the anemone should go. You can put it at your preferred location, but ultimately if it does not like it, it will move. and you should always let it move. Anemones need time to adjust. I would suggest not touching it or touching the base rock it is on. Let it be and let it decide on what it wants to do. As above, a dying anemone is very obvious. Big gaping mouth, foot not attached and spewing its guts out or starts disintegrating. When this occurs, turn off all your pumps and gently suck everything out with a hose. NEVER blow the bits around as it will just contaminate your water to the point where it may crash your tank. However, if your tank is very big, very stable and have good filtration, a small dying anemone may pose no harm at all. it all boils down to husbandry and tank size. that said, i will advice you to leave it alone now since it's not showing signs of death. Anemones regularly expand and deflate to exchange fluid within their body. This is normal and should be no cause for alarm.

The use of carbon has always been a topic of discussion everywhere around the world! Some say it's not needed and it's just for a sense of security. Others swear by it. carbon certainly does have it's advantages like removing staining of water, odours etc etc. For me, i use carbon and swear by it. Afterall, doesn't hurt to have some lying around in your sump

Vanuatu shipments will be very very difficult to come by. It has been like this for very very long and likely to remain like this unless the situation clears up at vanuatu Like you, i've been waiting for my vanuatu hooded wrasse. But i can assure you that it won't come even after my new tank arrives and finish cycling. let's hope shall we, and i'll let you know if there is news with regard to this.

You're welcome bro! Good to help new members get used to the idea of cycling as many people see little importance in this vital step putting charcoal is fine for now. Switch to activated carbon will be better. It removes stains, odours and certain levels of organics, as well as minerals and unwanted metals. Get better brands as the quality of carbon is better. Carbon contains many many many tiny pores inside and the better brands will have better quality carbon. Personally i like using Rowa. thanks! feel free to ask for help in the future

ups!

hey everyone thank you for the constructive comments. the principals of qt, basics and of course, individual fishes i know very well. Especially with regards to which individual fish from each genus or family and their ability to tolerate QT. sensitive deepwater fishes with special requirements eg cool water etc might not be suitable for QT. also there are many fishes that naturally are very resistant to disease and do not carry parasites as often as other fishes. these fishes therefore can do without QT. what i want to know is how you guys QT your fishes. I think bro stevenkoh brought up a very good idea on hypo. Although it's not for all fishes, it's definately good for hardier species. i have a 2ft empty tank that will be used to QT smaller fishes. as for bigger fishes, i have a 4ft toyogo box, and another 3ft toyogo box. at least i can QT more than 1 fish this way :-) thanks vtec for your offer on the copper! it's certainly going to come in handy! my tank will be ready in 3 weeks, then plus cycling time etc, maybe only ready by week 5-6. will contact you then if you still have the copper but don't keep it for me if you need to dispose of or pass to someone else hehe.

i've been to his place, and been into his room. seen it all it's really nice. anymore constructive comments?

Hello bro. 1st one is an amphipod. good to have in your tank. 2nd one is an asterina starfish. diverse family that eats detrisus, coraline, some corals etc. depends on species. they reproduce very quickly by dropping arms and thus you often find them with odd number of arms and of different sizes.

QT tank size will be 2ft.. yeah i know some fish cannot tolerate QT. but smaller fishes that do need QT, a 2ft tank should be ok?

thanks! PO4 will inhibit calcification in all stony corals. LPS even. Heard of the burnt tip syndrome but doubt i will be going into zeovit. never a fan of keeping nutrients ultra low. i believe they have a place in the system if managed properly.

Isit possible for a photo? haha. kinda confused where to cut ._. the thread posted quite confusing also.. .__.

Hi navy. In order to kick start cycling, a food source needs to be present for bacteria to start working. to put it very simply, there are three kinds of bacteria. I wont go into scientific details here to prevent confusion. Bacteria A consumes ammonia to form nitrites. Bacteria B consumes Nitrites to form nitrates. Bacteria C consumes nitrates to form nitrogen gas. however, bacteria C cannot tolerate oxygen, and thus can only live in places where there is no oxygen, like deep within the sand or deep in liverock. unfortunately bacteria C is very difficult to cultivate, and that's why nitrates are the end of the breakdown process in most tanks. Rarely does it get converted to nitrogen gas. To begin cycling, bacteria A needs ammonia to grow. That is why people put market prawn. As the prawn decays, ammonia is produced, and bacteria A can convert it to nitrites. This is where your question is answered. Instead of prawn, some people put damsel fish. Fish produce waste, and the waste will become ammonia. But as you can see, this is unnecessary and cruel. As the ammonia builds up, more bacteria A grows and then more ammonia is converted to nitrite. As nitrite builds up, bacteria B starts converting it to nitrates. and then, more bacteria B starts producing. Finally, a stable healthy population of both bacteria A and B will be achieved. And they will convert these harmful chemicals to safe nitrate for you to remove via water change or other nutrient export. Nitrates are safe but are toxic in very very high amounts, in the hundreds of PPM. so don't worry too much about it unless you are keeping SPS. Hope this helps!! This is the summarized, version of my original article above. Hope it's easy to understand and i hope it helps you

Hello guys! It's great that everyone is actively sharing, but please don't stray too far from the topic. To prevent all potential posts from starting into an off topic thread, irrelevant posts has been deleted. The kopi tiam is a good place to discuss other things if you want.

Hello reefers! In the anticipation of my upcoming project, i have given alot of though to my stock list. Most of them consist of delicate fishes and some of them being quite costly. I have decided to go with standard QT for my fishes. Just a quick question. Do anyone actually QT their fish? And if so, mind sharing your QT practices? I was thinking, QT set ups consist of just a bare tank with a simple filter with no decorations except maybe some PVC pipes. When you QT your fishes, do you dose copper straight away? or do you observe for any signs of disease, then treat? What if the fish is already carrying some form of parasites but it just doesn't show up? How do we know then if we must treat it or not? Hope to learn a thing or two from reefers with regards to QT. it's a livesaver and is very seldom used.

Hey! Hope you guys like my catchy topic title hehe. Am getting my new tank soon and plan to venture into SPS. Am quite good in most other things but when it comes to SPS, i simply don't have a clue! need to know a few stuff. What are the basic parameters for keeping SPS? i know the basics like stable consistant Ca levels. 380-400ppm? What about magnesium? 1300ppm? Kh? 8? 9? Ph? 8.2? NO3? PO4? Please share with me some of the parameters you guys have found that your SPS are thriving comfortably with! Secondly, would like to know if there are any beginner friendly SPS? Thirdly, what about lighting? My tank will be 3.5 x 3.5 x 2. 3 panels will be crystal glass. Am thinking of using 2x 250W MH. supplimented by T5s. Is this ok? And last but not least. Flow! Strong non-laminar flow? How do i know which SPS like's what kinda flow. and how do i know if it's getting enough flow! Thanks in advance for any help given. Please share any information and it will go a long way in helping me. After playing so many stuff for so long, decide to go for something new. Please engage in relevant sharing. I'm interested to learn.

sorry bro! sold!