clee123

Thanks for all the concerns and suggestions... It's back to normal now... the staghorn is slowly changing back to its normal colour... but lost one nice green stagnhorn suppose to be most well positioned under the MH with the best wavermaker flow.... The issue I believe is mainly due to the low KH (about 5 dkh} and a high PO4 (0.12 ppm) ...as I using dosing pump for my KH... I always ASSUME the dosing is working properly until I discovered that the dosing channel was struck due to un-disolved KH powder... Sometime good reefing practice doesn't work...here the reasons why: 1) Dosing channel got struck brought the KH below normal level (my normal reading usually maintains at 6.8-7.0) 2) Observed that SPS ploys extension not as "lively as usual" - particularly the milli... 3) Did a "more than normal" 15% water change from normal supply of NSW from LFS 4) Instead of "normalise" the water parameters it worsten the situiation by bringing down the KH further and other normal parameters such as CA/Mg due to abnormal NSW parameters (kh=4.3 ca=320 mg=900)..the recent ranining days may be the cause???? 5) Couples of my fishes and a clam died which brought the PO4 level up (due to suddent change in KH??? or the NSW) 6) Brought some Chaeto to try to bring down the nutrient level but debris collected by the Chaeto and the dying Chaeto bring up the nutrient level instead My BIG assumptions: 1) Always assumes the dosing pumping is working properly 2) Always assumes the NSW is in good parameters (I usually keep a record of the various NSW parameters by various LFS as they are quite constant) 3) Assume that changing water is always good 4) Chaeto is a good nutrient export but the problem is, it never successuly grown in my sump and ended up nutrient importer 5) Assume constant is always stays constant 6) I always tot that the green staghorn is the most stable and handy staghorn among other SPS...

I notice these couples of days that most of my green based staghorn (about 5-6 types of green staghorn) suddently changing colour to brownish and lying... I have checked my waterparameters and it seems to be within the constant range... my other colour SPS still looking good and growping except green sps.... anyone encounter this before or can share some advice on what going on? thanks,

sure..bro ... let's catch up when I am back next week...

Thanks Bro/Sis for all the complement and encouragement... A "Tank with Tangs" surely cannot miss out this little fellow: It has grown from a size of 20 cents coin to bigger than 50 cents in just 8-9 weeks... A very hardworking algae eater and cheerful fish

Thanks bro LemonLemon for the great knowledge on AT... I guess it's just my luck to discover these two ATs at the rigth time and right place.. I notice one of them is darker colour than the other and behave a bit different... However, have no luck in seeing them having sex yet... hope is legal to upload their love making pictures here...

yeah...long long time ago... now too many tangs ...

No horse run.. I love it..

Thanks sis, If you like fishes.... you will like the following show.... Over the past few months, been no luck in keeping AT in my main tank mainly due to the following factors: 1) been acttacked by purple tang, bule tang, and power blue tang, etc.. 2) suddenly change in water parameters and tempeture 3) easily contracted fish sickness such as white spots (particularly in the fisrt week) 4) limited food source and stress My first AT (about 2") only managed to live for 4 days after being attached by the purple tang... My Second AT (about 3" big and fat ) managed to stay in the main tank for 3 weeks and died after a major swing in water parameters as I adjusting my MG, CA, and KH from CR to dosing pump.. My Third AT stay with me for 2 good weeks, after being chased by PBT of the same size for 24 x 7, stressed and refused to eat.. My Fourth AT, pullets eating on day one... survived for 3 weeks and was sent to the lord due to a breakdown of my chiller and a wavemaker for 2 days... So, decided to take a different strategy this time.... 1) They are a pair and healthy - this makes those big bullies run for their money 2) They must be able to eat pallets already...saw these two in LCK after 1-2 week of shipment and eating pallets...I think this is the key for survival... The following are some interesting dog fight in the tank (or should I say fish fight): Two on one ... Two on Two Two on Three Keep up the good work..attack.. The emenies are running away ... stay in formation.. Team work...good job..

The little blackie has become a young knight now... I think it has doubled or tripled it size I had just released it to the main tank in x'mas night from the sump and kept my fingers crossed... luckly, after 3 days of hiding, it finally mixing well with the rest of the big brothers and sisters.... BTW, the ABT has been with me for about a year now...the body colour has changed already..

Two months missing in action....here are the pictures of my two tanks: 6 footer Full view Left side view Right side view Back side view 4 footer

Bro Wilson, Thanks for sharing the info with us! Top of my head, I think point 10 in particular related to point 3, in my experience, is the most chanllenging part of keeping SPS. In addition, I think "Patient" (and a lot of waiting) is the key to achieving all of the above mentioned. 1. You need to be patient for the tank to mature (In my case > 9 months of waiting time) - No panic, No rash, No shortcut 2. You need to wait for the system to stablised - No itchy hands, No messing around, No confusion 3. You need to wait for the right SPS - No implusive buying only insist on good and healthy SPS.

yeah...that what I tot....

If the skimmer compartment water dept is at 10" and Refugium compartment water depth is at 14", how are you drawing the water into the refugium compartment from?

My answer: 1) 7500L/H is the pump specs NOT the actual flow rate ... the actul flow rate should be slower with the baffles and bubble trap amoung the compartments..the general rule for getting a return pump is 10-12 x the net volume of the tank (e.g. if your tank volume is 750L you should get the pump with 10x750L/H = 7500L/H) 2) If you are referring to the bubbles trap from the frag compartment to the return compartment, the grap is about 4-5cm between the two baffles..

It's all up to you how you want to design your sump...one good thing about filter sock is that it saves space and reduce the bubbles... For me, the pre-filter box allows me to include Live Rocks (in addition to filter wool/cotton) as part of the filter media as I believe this is a very important factor in the whole filtering processing... I even sack up LRs in the baskets of the skimmers/FR section few months later to enhance the filtered water. Some mistakes I learnt from my current sump design : 1) Water level of sump (in particular the filter box compartment)was too high which may cause waterflow if the wool are filled... so make there is engough gap/buffer between the max water level and the sump height. 2) Consider give enough gap for full sump height and the max water level can contain when the return pump is off...otherwise, you will end up clearning the whole flour when there is a power surge... 3) Give engouth space for the Skimmer/FR to cater for future upgrade of equipmements (e.g. to bigger skimmer or additional FRs)..

So far, the flow rate from the skimmer/Fr section to the refugium/frag are ok... it's also depend on mainly on the flow rate of the return pumps you are using... for me, it's a 7500L/H flow..

My current 3-in-1 Sump/refugium/frag tank for your reference... good luck to your sump..

1) Determine the desired KH (dkh) you want to achieve from your existing KH reading based on your net water volume.. you can use the following link (http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html) to help you calculate the amount of baking soda needed.. 2) mix the calcuated amount of baking soda (e.g. 2 tablespoon) with distilled water or RO/DI water.. 3) Dose the mixed solution into the sump or high flow area slowly in different time interval to minimise impact 4) Do not dose all at once and monitor the PH while dosing. Do not allow immediate impact of PH to be more than +/- 0.2

my 2 cents: 1) Cause of low KH - "Alkalinity" (KH) is linked to calcium (CA). Usually, there is a balanced ratio maintained in the reef tank. When you used up some CA you in turn also used up some KH. Like Calcium, KH were used by corals to form their skeletons (a process called calcification), which are composed primarily of calcium carbonate. 2) Efffect of low KH - affect the calcification process and hence the growth of corals. KH also linked to PH. In general a low KH will result in a low and unstable PH value - which in turn impact/stress the fishes and corals. In worst case, isssue narcosis and dealth.. 3 Optium range of KH - based on my own experience, it depends on the nutrient level of your reef tank a) for ULNS (Ultra Low Nutrient System) like Zeovite the good range will be 6.5 - 7.5 dk Low Nutrient / standard reef tank , the accetable range is 8-11 dk 4) Lesson to learn - keep an eye on your water parameters (mainly KH, CA, MG) and maintain them as constant and possible.. Reading the following for general and immediate problem solving... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

I have a CL 450 selling at $80 if you are interested.. about 1 and half year old ... currently not use...

I am looking for 1 unit of used double ended DE MH with ballast .. Any kind soul want to let go..please pm me for sms at 98177568..

I am looking for 1 unit of used double ended DE MH with ballast .. Any kind soul want to let go..please pm me for sms at 98177568..

I am going there tomorrow to pick up something... will do a field report if possible on where to get from here... Anyone has any suggustion what they would like to look out for over here (equp/fish/coral) that not available in Singpaore or cheaper to buy here..

I were there just now...rushed over after the meeting... most of the shops are closed (not for the day but for good)... or converted to furniture shops and beauty shops .. So you got less place to cover now...just focus on the old fish street... Well, at least still got two Marine LFSs there...but not much "special" things.. what you want?? any of these in your radar range??

I actually have 2 "U" pipes connecting the skimmers section to the frag tanks by use of gravity (on the left side of the frag section)... there was actually another water outlet directly to this section from the Zeovit Reactor but had changed the outlet to flow near to the new skimmer ... Do you think I should change back??