comycus

wow bro! your stocklist glad your mandarin's feeding. heh think you can start planning a bigger tank soon, you already started with the skimmer upgrade! I see you're planning sump next... When will we be expecting the new 'baby'?

v. nice looking tank bro! Thumbs up to Dr. Evil

Hey Lemon, really feel for your loss. Know how much u loved it, can remember the days we went rhomboid hunting and when u ended up with digi's rhomboid and it stabilised in your tank. Cheer up buddy!

Bro quite frankly, if the objective of this thread is for beginners to do planning and set up budget, then I think this is the wrong approach. When I was a newbie, I also thought there should be a thread like this to help beginners plan budget, and help so I don't get chop by LFS. Most of our LFS have v. reasonable pricing, a quick search on this forum will tell you which LFS ask for higher prices and why. For example for fishes, I can buy a powder blue tang at LFS for $30, and then due to white spots, lose it and try countless times. So eventually maybe the cost of powder blue is actually $90, coz 3 times lucky. Some bros prob wouldn't mind paying up to double (or maybe even more) for one who is stable, feeding in somebody's tank. The same goes for corals. There will be factors for the same coral to command a better price. Maybe more stable, maybe brighter colours etc. Maybe to help you more with your planning, a better approach would be to fix a monthly budget on spending fishes/corals. Trust me, it's better this way or you might end up spending alot more than you wished for. This way, doesn't matter what corals or how expensive they are, you already limit your spending. I would say $100/mth would be a reasonable amt to start off with. You can start off with less, but more often than not, you will find that u would be overspending every month

6.30 would be good. Latecomers will come in time to foot the bill

1) Comycus 2) Desi 3) Digibee 4) Jacky 5) Justin lol i will just add their names and see what happens

TGIF lunch tmr anyone? meet outside starbucks entrance. 1) Comycus 2) Desi 3) Ketchup 4) Jacky haha just whacking names

Good to know that you have done some research. I'm not really an expert here, so my 2 cents worth... 1. Tangs like your blue tangs and sailfin tangs will grow rapidly and require lots of swimming space. That's why they are normally recommended to be kept in at least 4 ft tanks and above. 2. Even if your tangs seem to have enough swimming space, it doesn't mean they are not stressed as these fishes travel miles in the ocean everyday. Not to mention you have 3 of them squeezed in a 2ft tank, they will be fighting for territory. Highly stressed environment can result in many things, from torn fins to white spot outbreak in your fishes. 3. As peacemaker has mentioned, your tank's pretty new, so it will lack pods for your mandarin fish to feed on. Mandarins are known to be finicky feeders, and most don't wean to processed food. What this means is your mandarin is probably going to starve to death unless it is already feeding on processed food. 4. Your clownfish sounds like it died from Brooklynella. Common in clownfish and can spread to your other fishes. Suggest Formalin dips for your fishes. Pls do a search on the forum first to find out the ABCs. hope it helps!

Bro your 3 tangs will not do well in such a small tank. I don't know how big they are now, regardless how small they are now, in no time they will be out of swimming space in a 2ft tank. Strongly suggest you either sell them off or upgrade to a bigger tank. I do hope you have cycled your tank, and have read all the basic reefing stuff.

+ many many many tiramisu for me! Jacky ure craving for seafood tt's why organising dinner izzit? lol Dunno why botak jones suddenly popped into my head... don't mind me

Yes it can be done, I have seen this being done before. Actually the plate is not needed for the skimmer to function properly. It was an add-on by Deltec due to initial complaints of microbubbles by some users. Some find it useless, others have reported success in reducing the microbubbles at the outlet. So you might want to watch out for microbubbles if you mod the piping. My suggestion is instead of a 90 degree elbow, try to see if you can get a 45 degree elbow or something to that extent to reduce microbubbles. For me, I like my plate. It has become my tank's algae scrubber

Lunch outing at CF got alot of scenaries? lol bro u go too many LSB n mixed up the places eh?

lol gratz on your beautiful purchase! Yupz, really get a kick when your wrasses start flashing for the first time

Nice FTS bro haha I didn't even know u went BB already... so

I would suggest you buy a new set of test kit to test again. Remember to check the expiry date! If you do indeed have high NO3, I would suggest 10-20% weekly water changes, and clear your coral chips/bioballs gradually and add live rocks or biohome in the process. Remember to dose bacteria after every water change. Like what Gouldian has mentioned, you should have proper mechanical filtration first to filter out detritus so they don't clog up your LR/biohome. If you realise it's a test kit problem and u actually have good parameters, might still wanna consider the above. I personally don't think highly of bioballs or coral chips. But remember to be patient and hardworking and do all changes gradually. You don't want your tank to crash due to drastic changes.

wah piang... comycus syndrome!!! lol

gratz on the RBTA purchase bro hope your lights are strong enough! they require v. strong intensity lights if I still remember correctly.

For the benefit of the lazy: Iron is added to the raw material that makes glass (mostly sand and recycled glass shards) to give color to the glass so that it absorbs heat better. This causes the raw material to liquify quicker so they can make more glass per day. This is also why low iron glass costs more. If your energy costs per day are the same but you are making 30% less glass you have to charge more. The amount of iron (2 lbs per 1000 tons) is negligible and has no effect on the hardness of the glass. Low iron glass does not scratch any easier than regular glass. What it does do is show scratches better. This is because the optical clarity is so much higher that very tiny scratches that would go unnoticed on regular green glass stand out. Consequently you have to be more careful when cleaning the glass. I think it sounds v. logical to me And if he's right, those building pico tanks would be better off paying for acrylic for clarity? or does he mean normal glass would be equally as clear?

yeah fts bro! Let us enjoy your beauty!

wah your master/visa really coming out ah? lol is this gonna be a dinner only or are there after dinner activities?

Plate showing skeleton most unfortunately is dying. Was it stung by other corals? or not enough light/food fed could also be a contributing factor.

If you look at any of our tank threads, the stones/rocks that you see in the tanks are live rocks. Just trying to troubleshoot for you, hope you don't mind. 1. How much and how often do you feed? I am assuming you keep them in a 3ft tank, having less than 5 fishes in the tank should be low bio-load. 2. Has your tank consistently been having high NO3? Or it NO3 built up gradually over time? 3. Did you conduct massive water changes after your cycling period long long time ago? 4. Coral chips are also detritus trappers and can contribute to NO3 levels. You will be surprised how dirty your coral chips are. 5. Have your test kits expired or are you testing your NO3 correctly? SPS thriving and growing in NO3 >50ppm environment sounds too good to be true. Anyway, if you really want to reduce NO3, Gouldian's advice on de-nitrification is excellent.

Sounds like an awesome product! Just the top of my head, some considerations for Plexiglas: 1. Is it available in Singapore for hobbyist purchase? 2. Is it comparable in price to low iron glass or acrylic? 3. Does it warp easily? Maybe we can have another tank glass entering the aqua-marine market in singapore! Although I'm pretty sure it will be a toy for the rich

Great exposure for you bro Glad you enjoyed yourself there. keep the photos and your 'diary' entries coming, good for all of us to see the world and appreciate our lives back home!

Starphire's like a brand of low iron glass. Sometimes marketed as better than low iron, but it's the same.