comycus

Beautiful tank bro. Just wondering, any reason why you added sand in after 1 month of cycling? I also notice your mazzara mounting brackets bending a little bit under the weight of your fixtures. You may want to add some support in the middle?

Can't go wrong with sgbros

Its actually 6 rocks. This is by far, the easiest scaping I've done. CF rocks are indeed beautiful and fully cured. Cost a bomb though... Been getting a few queries on tankmaker. We decided to take the plunge with CR Aquarium after hearing good reviews about them. In short, awesome experience. Dan was very patient and accommodating to all my requests and last minute changes, great customer service and a winning business attitude. Tank, cabinet and sump were well built. Also had the opportunity to go down to the workshop to preview the build to prevent any unnecessary surprises on delivery day. Neat silicone work.

Just to share some design ideas for the cabinet and sump. Chose to go for simple sump design. Huge Skimmer compartment to cater for future upgrades. Also have 2 removable acrylic sheets to serve as 'betta boxes' if we need to house fishes temporarily in future. Side compartment of the cabinet to house electrical switches to prevent possibility of water spillage. Thanks to Eniram who got the French Cleats all the way from US for us! much easier to work with than hinges for easy access. Lastly, FTS of tank and sump with skimmer installed. Do note from gf's pic in last post that the Orphek was mounted a good 2ft away from water level. That was just a temporary setup, we have since hanged the lightset on the custom built aluminum brackets by our sponsor, DE Lightings. Great service from Razali LEDs are mounted around 15" from water surface. No PAR meter to test, but my eyes tell me its super bright

wah... 5 pages and still no tank photos!!?? But v :wub: thread Let me help out, sneak pics of some of the goodies we bought over the past month... Have not changed the RO filter in ages, and didn't want to mess up the place, so decided to go with this solution instead... Images all taken with iPhone, too lazy to drag out the camera for now

bro your 3 monti plates Another great looking tank and inspiration to us

First off, great choice on tankmaker bro. Black and white drawings are great for visualisation and tweaking of ideas. Some feedback on your tank design: 1. Seems like you have catered some form of underflow into the overflow box. I assume you will be going bare bottom? Keeping sand would not be a good idea with underflow. 2. If you are using underflow, suggest to add a baffle in between the overflow box and underflow to push the water back up. Not sure if water can flow through with this design. 3. Have you considered using durso standpipe method instead? I personally think durso is a quieter option. 4. Suggest to go for bottom bracing. It is not reflected in the drawing. 5. Don't really understand the enlarged base board in cabinet. Why don't you increase your tank width by 100mm if your base board is 550mm? 22" width is definitely better than 18" width (my mind thinks in inches). Gives you more space to scape and create a more 3 dimensional feel. You can never go wrong with a deeper (width) tank. 6. What is the additional height of the first compartment in your sump? will you be using filter sock or sponge? If going filter sock, suggest to ask tankmaker to build some form of bracket for the filter sock or mount to mount those commercially available filter sock holder. 7. Do you have sufficient space in the sump to put skimmer, 2 FRs and chiller coil? looks abit tight to me. How are you going to power the 2 FRs? If using pump, will need to cater extra space for the pump. Do remember to leave working space for you to do maintenance easily. If the 2 FRs are placed in sump, you may have difficulty accessing them/skimmer as they will be 2 levels deep. 8. You could hang the 2 FRs by the side to avoid clutter, then you would be taking up space that could be use for ATO, or future upgrades. Which leads to my next point... 9. What kind of tank are you thinking of keeping? SPS, LPS dominated? Mixed? Will you require future upgrades such as Ca, Kalkwasser reactor or dosing pumps? Need to cater space for these equipment in future if you intend to upgrade. 10. My personal preference if you want to build a refugium inside sump is to black out the compartment to prevent light from straying out and encouraging nuisance algae growth in sump. Just food for thought. 11. Do consider adding another baffle in between refugium and return compartments to eliminate micro bubbles. Also, suggest to extend your return compartment all the way to the right. That small space in skimmer compartment is wasted space and a dead spot anyway. Better to have more water area in return pump to cater for evaporation loss. Hope I didn't bore you with my long post

some pods would be killed, but since its a refugium it will always be a safe haven for them to breed more. no worries in harvesting some cheato regularly for nutrient export.

imo, if seller doesn't state price can also lead to potential scammers. Imagine I want to sell a black tang and do not reveal price. I know... willing buyer, willing seller... so can sell for 2k? ok seriously, its these cases that we want to prevent which is why I suggested mods looking at stating a RRP. As mentioned, giving actual price may be sensitive sometimes, like maybe sponsors give good discount but only for initial period or to reward loyalty to repeat customers. So why not just post RRP as a good practice? up to you guys to decide whether to implement just my feedback

How are your lifestock doing? Stability is more important than lowering your ph, if your tank inhabitants are all doing well. Has your test kit expired? or is your ph meter properly calibrated? You may be worried for nothing if the values you have been getting are wrong. Otherwise, you may want to read this excellent article to understand reasons for high ph and lower it GRADUALLY http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/

Just wondering... what is the purpose of this forum? is it an open community to share info between hobbyists, enthusiasts, sponsors etc? Would I be frowned upon if I always reply to questions asked "PMed you the answer to your qn"? Reason is v. simple. Find it a v. weird practice when we have sponsors and reefers alike who get enquiries on how much is a particular item and its always 'pmed'. I understand fishes/corals may have different prices due to seasonality/locality, so its not a fixed price. Even for equipment, we do get discounts due to a variety of reasons, and different circumstances, may also not have a fixed price. So maybe due to all these reasons, we don't post prices. Wouldn't it be v. frustrating if we post on pasar malam "WTS XYZ, pm me for price"? Would Pasar Malam section even survive if everyone dealt with prices in this manner? I find these practices just contributing to our own red tape. A suggestion to the mods to consider: why can't sponsors and reefers post the RRSP (Recommended retail selling price)? When I buy a Nikon camera and go to the official Nikon website, I can always find the RRSP. Yes, the RRSP may not be an accurate representation of the price, but at least I know I would not be able to buy a d5100 new with $100. Nor would it cost me $10k. If discounts were given, yes pls convey through PM (or keep to yourself) due to sensitivity issues. If livestock prices fluctuate like prices of lobster at Jumbo Seafood restaurant, yes pls do feel free to give reasons for not stating price. Otherwise, perhaps the mods can draw up some guidelines when to reflect prices and when not to? The forum should be a place to share information to all, and not only to a select group unless necessary.

bro, high end equipment only have these few brands. At this kind of price range, performance/reliability/warranty issues should not be an issue. So my advice is to just go with whichever your wallet and heart goes with. Some minor details to take note for your tank setup. What glass thickness? bottom bracing? internal/external overflow? if Black Oyama background >>Black silicone your external overflow or Black acrylic internal overflow. Acylic cover for overflow? sufficient working space for your hand to stick into the overflow for maintenance? How large is your overflow? Overflow pipe size? using durso method or other ways to ensure relative silent overflow? Tank flushed or sit in cabinet? sufficient ventilation in cabinet? Sump glass thickness? consider height of water level when using skimmer to determine height of glass in skimmer compartment. Sufficient baffles? consider water flow of the sump, try to minimise dead spots unless planning a refugium. use eheim flexible hosing where possible for pipings to reduce 90 degree elbows. consider return outlet location vs overflow compartment vs placement of wavemakers. lol... hope i'm not making you confused, but like Desi mentioned, v. v. fun times indeed

bro you may want to check with AM whether they still have stock for these skimmers. If I'm not wrong, they are preparing to launch their 'leopard' series and may have stopped production for this series. Have you decided on your equipment list?

Congrats bro! Beautiful tank and deserving winner

check expiry date of Salifert Ca and how long have you been using the current set? have you callibrated the Hanna checker? suggest testing on quality pre-mixed SW @ recommended temperature where manufacturer has given set parameters to give you a clearer idea which tester is accurate.

if the min. post is increased to 50, 100 posts, we may get even more new members posting randomly to hit the required number of post. Logic is if I need to post on 100 threads to sell something on Pasar Malam, then I will just do 100 times. IMO increasing the min. post will not alleviate the problem. I quite like kiko's idea, I define 'active' as posting a minimum of 2 posts everyday over a period 2 (or x number of) weeks?

This looks fantastic. Thx for sharing, the reefcentral one is long outdated. Excellent calculator for anyone looking to estimate their flowrates.

Think you are getting the wrong idea here... U want to put in a prawn or basically anything tt can decompose into the tank when cycling. Purpose of Refugium cultivates pods and other micro-organisms. I have never seen anyone cultivating shrimps for food... Don't confuse between tank turnover and sump turnover. Sps reefs typically see at least 20x turnover within the tank. This includes all wave makers, pumps, closed loops etc that produces movement in the tank. Corals, especially sps, need these high turnover to simulate reef conditions. There are many reasons why they need flow: to get rid of the slime/mucus on their bodies, to feed off the water column etc. Sump turnover refers to how often your water is transported down to the sump for the various filtration mechanisms. 2 school of thoughts here. Some people believe that faster turnover "cleans" the water faster and better. I disagree. If flow rate is too quick into the sump and out, there is insufficient contact time for skimmer and FRs to do work on all that water. So technically, the same amount of water is skimmed by the skimmer and passed through FR, it just means you are wasting more electricity and producing more heat with a bigger return pump right? You have listed a few options, let me give you more to add to your headache Individual pumps for each FR and chiller Tee off your gravity pipe into sump to FRs (flow rate controlled via valves) Each have their pros and cons. However, the main consideration would be at what flow rate you need to run the individual equipment. Rowa, biopellets, chiller all operate at different efficient flow rates, so consider wisely.

Would be good if you can provide details of your tank and equipment. Did you do any research into this hobby before setting up your tank? Instead of confusing you with more jargon, read this very simple article first: Then maybe you can come back and tell us what went wrong. Fishes 'run here and there' is normal. I would be more worried if my fishes 'sleep on the sandbed all the time'. And they are probably just seeing their own reflection, tt's why they keep attacking the glass. Dude, pls read up more if you wanna keep marine fishes...

do take into account all the misc items you may need to spend on. Live rocks, electrical sockets, egg crate, cleaning magnet, siphon, flexible hosing pipes, airline tubes, betta box, epoxy/glue, egg crate, test kits, fish food, additives, sand, saltwater etc. not to mention after all these investment, your tank still doesn't have any corals/fishes! many of these items are cheap, may be diy-ed or re-use from common household items. but still will add up to your overall cost. I would ask for a detailed breakdown for the cost of individual items instead of a 'package' deal. That way, you know how much you are paying for each item. Since you are on a limited budget, you might want to scout around the local lfs/pasar malam section in src to find good deals.

bro what is the purpose of your refugium? nutrient export is already handled by rowa and biopellets, so the only reason for refugium I can think of is to grow pods. I would prefer cheato to using refugium mud, cheaper. In your case, I'm guessing you want to be extra kiasu and make use of refugium to export even more nutrients. Cheato does the job as well. That said, biopellets and rowa should be sufficient to keep your nitrate and phosphate levels down. If you still have trouble keeping them down, then it would be more a case of overfeeding and overstocking. I always wonder as well whether to calculate the true volume of water when calculating turnover, choice of skimmer and chiller etc. Most reefers typicaly just refer to the max tank volume. So a 3x2x2 is usually referred to as 90G, 4x2x2 is 120G and in your case ~135G. Do take into account your distance covered and number of elbows when calculating your flow rate. In your case, I would suggest 2 smaller return pumps than 1 big one. If 1 spoils, at least will have another one.

I like the sun roof concept! that's a brilliant idea Seems like you are employing just a normal standpipe concept for your overflow with a backup, very simple. Is it noisy? bro, also notice that your overflow is not covered, might want to build a cover just in case fish jumps into your overflow? or at least put nettings on your standpipes to prevent them from getting sucked into sump.

Based on what I know, asahi glass, Japanese grade 1 glass, float glass all refer to the normal glass we see, slight greenish cast. Maybe different brands from different manufacturers so all have different names. To me, they are all the same. Crystal glass, starphire glass, low iron glass refers to optically superior glass. Again may have slight differences between them, but to me they are pretty similar. I may be wrong, so if there are glass experts out there, can point out the finer differences to what I have broadly classified as 2 categories.

I have seen both grades before. As Larry has pointed out, not discernible with the naked eye at thinner glass unless you are building a big tank using like 3/4" thick glass and above. There is a slight yellowish cast in the Chinese crystal glass in this case.

zoas garden... :yeah: :yeah: