comycus

Just new environment. If PT doesn't get too injured will display it's true colours once settled in the tank. Just got to make sure it's feeding well.

No choice la bro, have to clean up my own mistake or risk losing my LS. Just hope and pray for now. Thx Desi, haha I will take a FSS tonight full sump shot!

Bro in future when you add fishes would be good to add them after lights out. Also can do some rescaping to help in reducing potential aggression. How critical is your purple tang? If it looks really bashed up, I would suggest taking out the yellow and blue tang into the sump for the next 1-2 weeks to let your purple tang settle down. Or if your tangs respond well to mirrors, can use that method too.

lol i learnt it liao, just tt my gf has learnt to look at my eyes and not my head!

Not sure if we can find this in Singapore, but I think this is a really neat looking fan. Sits at the side of your nano, ensuring you don't cramp up valuable real estate and cooling your tank at the same time. For those interested, its the Dazs EX Power Fan.

You know I always loved the cheap zoas like the one in your first pic. Think I will get myself one of them when I decide to start stocking up. Good to start on the cheap ones first... So you mean she approves of you looking at chio buz now?

Thx for sharing bro! Care to share which dive company you went to and how your experience was? I'm looking at taking my open water course in June.

Maybe take this time to explain the sump in detail. It is divided mainly into 3 compartments. The first compartment (Top left where the black sponge is) is partitioned into 2 chambers. First chamber is mainly for gravity feed from the overflow to ensure I have good flow coming from the main tank. It underflows to the second chamber where I have placed my biohome. Dosed a double dosage last night to ensure I replace any bacteria loss over the last 2 weeks when my biohome was out of action. Currently, my tank has no mechanical filtration. Might consider placing a filter sock in the first chamber. Should I? It then flows to the second compartment which forms my display section. Really neat idea. I will be using this as a holding tank for the time being for future fish additions. Am considering turning this into some sort of pico display tank in future. Maybe house some gobies and shrimps. My MCE600 also draws water from this compartment, and returns back into the earlier chamber where my biohome is located. Lastly the water flows back into the return chamber where my 2 return pumps are located. 1 chiller pump and 1 main return. I have placed my activated carbon in this chamber. Will be buying Chemipure to put in this chamber.

Ahh... just saw your tank. Yes his silicon work is really one of the best in the market for those interested. Glad you got him to do your installation. Great looking tank in progress! Thanks bro! I hope so too. Actually the sump isn't tall, just that my dimensions are pretty weird, measuring 15"x19"x16". That's the maximum size I can go considering my center support and height of my deltec skimmer when hanged on the side. With these measurements, I already have to remove and tilt my skimmer slightly when I want to remove my overflow cup to wash. Update for the morning: Woke up at 6am this morning to do a mini water change with my RO water that was processed while sleeping. Managed to drop salinity to 1.026. Still can drop further, but I will have to do the rest tonight. Really exahusting past 24hrs.

*envious envious*! hope you're having fun there!

bro you have very nice scaping skills! I can start to see so many places to put colonies on! Will definitely be tracking your thread. btw, since you have no corals now, maybe just switch on your blue lights for 4-5hrs daily if you wanna maintain your coralline and let it start growing. They cycling begins!

Thank god I got Vincent to help me do the installation. I think I would have been in much more trouble if I tried to DIY (yes the idea actually crossed my mind initially). Really must say a big thank you to Vincent for agreeing to do my sump at such short notice, especially when he has ICT starting tmr. Full marks to Vincent when it comes to tank set-ups! The sump tank was well done, and attention to detail is really first class. To top it off, his pricing is v. competitive if you demand high quality work. Ok, I wished I had taken more pics but I'm really too tired... Turns out my salinity probe didn't need re-callibrating. My tank salinity has been hovering at 1.027 for the last 2 weeks!!! No wonder my PBT has white spots! sigh and through a series of schoolboy errors, I managed to increase it to 1.030 after adding water into my sump. To top it off, I dropped my salinity monitor into another bucket of saltwater... So I'm now waiting for my RO water to process so I can slowly lower my salinity back to more sane levels... It's down to 1.028 now, hope to get it to 1.026 before I sleep. Rushed over to my neighbour's house to borrow a refractometer. I really hope I don't lose any LS due to my mistakes... *pray v. hard* Here are some pics of the sump taken when I was in a much better mood. Essentially has a mini 'display' area in front which I can use as a refugium or holding tank or frag station in future. Notice my Deltec skimmer is almost reaching the top of the cabinet. All calculations were taken into account to ensure that everything fit. Thank you Vincent!

Haha then pump up your speakers and enjoy

Any plans on sandbed? Plenum? Hmm... I dunno if LEDs are tried and proven technology for SPS, but maybe can explore that option too? Great build coming up!

Haha Lemon ure a trancehead?

Check this out. nice sh1t. nuff said http://lamebpm.wordpress.com/

Yeah I agree with you, and actually I think Eheim pumps look better But then again my Eheim canister pump also spoilt on me. I'm using RO water bro. Slept at 2+ last night due to it

Just some random shot of the pumps... I hope the combined flowrate is not too powerful for my overflow box. The published flowrate for the overflow is 4500l/hr but mine has an additional 4" of acrylic plate, so the flowrate would be reduced. Latest update: the 2 boxes have passed the water leaking test! Overflow box,check Pumps, check mixed saltwater, check Patience... err... checked

Think PBT's stressed... better not meddle with my tank for the next 2 weeks to let it settle down. Guys with your tanks I'm sure you will be able to add in powder series! Just let the tank mature. Anyway I'm super impatient. Waiting for my sump to arrive The wait is killing me! So decided to take a pic of some new hardware. I know Eheim is the preferred pump but I chose to go with Aquabee coz it's cheaper and has lower wattage. Hope my decision is a right one! Also bought a tunze magnet cleaner to clean my dirty tank walls. My cheapo china magnet cleaner wasn't doing a good job at cleaning algae... Unboxing! Pumps side by side, got myself an AB2000 and AB2000/I err of course I smudged away the warranty seal #

Yeah I agree, have seen many experienced reefers doing it right. And for newcomers, the reason why not advised to do so is that you wanna start off in the swimming pool first before going into the deep ocean

Don't worry bro. Cycling normally takes 4-6 weeks. After your tank has been fully cycled, you can start adding your fishes and corals SLOWLY. The idea is to introduce a small amt of lifestock at spaced out intervals to allow for the bacteria to grow and accomodate with the increased bio-load. You will also want to start off with easier fishes and corals which are hardy. Reason being your tank is still new and the parameters are not stable yet, so harder to keep LS are a no-no for the next 6 months to 1 year. The list of LS you can keep is already long enough, so be patient and wait for your tank to mature before adding those powder series tangs or SPS corals and other harder to keep ones. Hate to spoil the party but 3 months is like a trip to the school park. lol

Anyway, I took a shot of my prized powder blue tang. Hope this bugger survives in my tank for a loooong time! Should be quite stablised already since it's been in the tank for ~2 mths? Not too sure actually... Feeding ferociously. Can see abit of white spots which just developed coz I have been meddling with the tank for the past week, hope it disappears soon.

Bro my tank left with almost live rocks only... lol hope to build it back up with my upgrade! Nah I already have a whole bucket of salt to mix. Buy NSW = waste more money in my case. Although I must admit there are times I really feel lazy and wish to use NSW instead. Thx bro, hope no more murphy after tmr!

I decided that the plate sticking out of the outflow pipe is getting unsightly with all the algae and coralline growing on it. Went down to RD to get a pipe to mod the outflow. Works really well and looks great! Yes there are still bubble issues when it flows out but I find that if I tilt the pipe to a side, it will minimise the amount of bubbles coming out. It is a rather easy and satisfying modification to this great skimmmer! Here's how it looks like in my tank now. Will be shifting it into my new sump tmr.

Lastly, a closeup of the workmanship for the acrylic job. Overall my first impressions for this customised i-box is good. Hope I don't have much trouble installing it tmr!