comycus

Words of the wise... I'm into week 3 of my rehab and feeling cold turkey effects. Zorden, I'm sure words like Walt Smith SPS Shipment, Exotic Aussie shipment and the like will make it v. hard for you to stock slowly.

lol ure clowns v. cute! Makes me want to add a pair of skunks just to see it happening.

lol +100

lol already have sis poomoon. Wonder how their tank is coming along. Have not heard from them in quite a while... btw Jacky the rics should open up nicely since the jawfish's no longer ard. They don't look tt bad to me.

Think he's using Tamron 90mm. Can share what are your settings when you shoot at normally? like ISO, shutter speed, aperture, WB mode?

lol I think I understand how you feel about the other half not liking your fav fish. But you will have to manage her expectations. In my experience, girls normally like fishes that are too aggressive to put into your tank (damsels), not reef safe (angels and butterflies), or too big for my small tank (like sohal tang). It would be good to go down to LFS/search online on the various kinds of fishes that both your wife and you agree on and then plan when to add them. No point going to LFS and falling in love with purple tang and once you add it in as your first fish, realise you can't add other fishes coz it bullies them to death. Of course that also gives you a good excuse to add grouper since it will be one of the few fishes tt can stand up to PT

This is a good read for those interested in LED technology. Underdriving or Overdriving LEDs: Coralsky’s Jeff Littlejohn explains LED drive current I have often heard comments about the apparent underutilization of the maximum rated drive current of an LED. Phrases like “underdriving these LEDs at only 350 mA doesn’t allow them to reach their max potentialâ€, or “you need to drive these LEDs at 700 mA or higher to make them useable for coral growth/reef environmentsâ€, or “underdriving these LEDs means you have to add more LEDs, which amounts to money wasted†are prevalent around the forums. So, I would like to take this opportunity to clear a few things up. 1. A drive current of 350 mA for a Cree XR-E is not underdriving. This is the nominal/normal/standard drive current for these LEDs. Cree reports the light output of each type of X-Lamp LED at this drive current. So, when you read that a Q5 XR-E puts out 107+ lumens, that intensity is reached at the nominal drive current of 350 mA. While this current may be just a little more than a third of their maximum rated current of 1000 mA, it is the “sweet spot†for Cree LEDs, which means that the LED is operating at its most efficient state, in terms of power consumption and heat generated. To illustrate, if you overdrive an XR-E to 700 mA, you do not get twice the light output from the LED than when it is driven at 350 mA. In fact, it takes nearly 1000 mA to achieve double the light output from 350 mA. 2. For an industry that is trying to push the limits of efficiency (lumens per watt), maximum light output is not the pinnacle achievement. In the example given, it takes about 2.6 times the energy to produce 2 times the light output. If energy efficiency is not one of the reasons that compel you to switch to LED, then you can stick with metal halide. 3. Heat is the bane of LEDs. Cree LEDs must be kept below 150 C at the solder junction. If they get hotter, their lifespan will be adversely affected, or they may fail. Increasing the drive current over 350 mA greatly increases the cooling requirements (it’s not a linear relationship…driving an LED at 700 mA takes more than double the heatsink capacity than an LED driven at 350 mA). Additionally, and apparently this is little known among the self-professed LED “gurusâ€, a hotter LED produces LESS LIGHT! An overdriven LED, running near its maximum temperature produces only 68%* of the light output! (*For white LEDs. Royal LEDs produce 78% of the light at maximum temperature.) So, to continue with our previous example, let’s assume that the LED driven at 350 mA can be kept under 50 C, and it is producing better than 95% of its rated flux of 107 lumens (let’s say 102 lumens). Now we’ll overdrive it to 1000 mA. Cree says we can expect to achieve about 220% the rated output, but this assumes that the junction temperature remains at a very cool 25 C. From our experience, this is impossible to achieve at this current. Even with very agressive cooling and a large heatsink, you can expect to see junction temperatures of 75-100 C at this current, reducing your 220% expectation to a less compelling 176% increase. If you decide to cut your cooling a little short (heatsinks can be expensive, fans can get dusty or fail), at maximum temperature, you will only achieve 150% of the light output of the nominally driven LED. Now, you’re paying the power company for 2.6 times the energy for only 1.5 times the light! (…and, you’ve spent more money in heatsinks and fans…and, if a fan or two fails, kiss your LEDs goodbye!) In short, while you could certainly expect more light out of Cree LEDs by overdriving them, if you are not extremely careful with the heatsink design and provide active cooling (fans) as needed, you will end up shortening their useful life or may cause them to fail. Also, especially if you are causing the LEDs to run hotter, you are not getting as much extra light as you may think, and you are certainly not taking full advantage of the efficiency of this technology. http://reefbuilders.com/2009/12/21/underdr...-drive-current/

I didn't know yumas can spit out black stuff... as far as I know, I've never seen mine done tt. And I've pretty much subjected mine to pretty extreme stress... Then again I seldom monitor my tank nowadays... maybe missing out such stuff.

lol hellboy... yeah! LFS shopping! countdown to my long awaited break starting tmr

I'm sure your tank will make it through la... somehow just can't imagine how u look like with satay skin... must see you this weekend le...

haha your copperband looks great la. Go collect soon!

The LEDs do provide shimmering effect, but it's very little as I still have my T5 lights on. When the T5s are switched off, the shimmer gets more pronounced. Hope I can save more $ and migrate to a full LED system!

lol dun start 'overclocking' your skimmer or pumps or something like tt...

Congrats on getting your new tank. Might wanna start planning that stock list and see what to add in first. Adding your grouper in as the first fish really limits your choices. Just like I'm still waiting for my tank to be ready for one of my dream fish.

How long have they been added into the tank and any signs of aggression?

Bro how's your LEDs? Managed to fix them yet?

Maybe just to clarify... My corals won't be eating most of the crab meat la... I bought it more for making breakfast (either salad or sandwich) than the tank. lol I don't use market prawn coz I don't go to mkt, and the only prawns I can get are the frozen ones that will prob cost as much, and I don't fancy prawn salad for breakfast. Here's a shot of yummy crab claw meat as promised. Looks cooked eh? Jacky, the splendid wrasse is reef safe and v. beautiful la... I just dunno why mine decided to be a brain/clam killer. I think your tank should be safe if you do decide to get it. I suggest getting a feeding one though as these wrasses are one of the difficult to feed kind. Another shot of the LEDs after taking out the protective layer on the acrylic support.

I believe salinity is the reading you should be gunning for, therefore yes you should compensate. Also, I would suggest getting a refractometer in future if your budget allows. It is a piece of equipment that comes in handy in this hobby Well worth the investment. Since you sound like me, who doesn't mind reading lengthy discussions/information to stay informed, you might be interested in this particular discussion: http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=49255 Should be worth your 10-15min And welcome to SRC! I'm looking forward to your project already!

I think we should just ignore unconstructive comments given by childish ppl.

My layman takeaway from my research done a long time ago is tt temperature doesn't affect salinity. It affects speciic gravity. Err does tt answer your qn?

What clownfish? Based on my research, the females are usually up to 2x bigger than the male (not true for all), and if they are paired the male will usually be following the female everywhere she goes. There may be occassional chasing by the female but the male will submit to her. Male clownfish are such a letdown to the male gender! Lol Our clownfish experts prob can explain more. I believe clownfish tt just laid their eggs will be aggressively guarding their eggs.

They are one of our sponsors... One of the Pasir Ris farms

The RC one has a v. user friendly layout that allows one to search within the individual thread immediately. I believe our search function can only search up to the sub forum level. Even if individual threads can be searched here, it will be burried in layers. Let's say I am reading X's thread and he mentions he follows a particular feeding method. If I want to know more, I can choose "search this thread" to find his posts on the feeding method in his thread instead of searching through 100+ pages. I can use the current search function, cilck on more options and filter it to a particular member and go through multiple threads (if he has mentioned it in different threads), but I believe the former is a more efficient method of searching. Can check out RC to find out what I mean.

my wrasses took a liking to it... bet they never said SPLENDID LEOPARD WRASSE NOT REEF SAFE Another wonderful example of an exception to the rule. Nipped my brains, nipped my clams, I caught her red handed in the act so many times... I'm going to try to diy a little bottle to drip into my tank every night. just need to mix and turn on the tap. Time to pay Daiso a visit

I'm actually not sure. I've read that they can usually do not bother clams. That probably translates as try at your own risk. If you ask me, I would choose to keep this 2.5" beauty over a nice clam any day. Maybe I should add a small clam in to test if he takes a liking to it