pweesng

Yes, i am pretty sure it can be done. the problem is moe with evaporation as well as the musty smell that evaporated salt water leaves behind. I top up my tank using distill water that is packed 500 ml each bottle. it is hard to leave office with 10 bottles each day without looking damn suspicious! hahhaha a chiller cut the number of bottles from 8 to 2, sometimes 4

do you mean that the temperature shown on the chiller is actually degreeF? if so, i better go back and recalibrate!

Hi guys, I intend to have a blue and yellow tang each in my tank. questions: 1) Will they live together peacefully? 2) Do i have to introduce them together? 3) i don't have a quarentine tank, can i put them in the last compartment of the sump instead? Currently in the tank (3 by 1.5 by 2) is 3 clown about 1 inch each, and 4 fire gobies (still hiding in the cave) Thanks in advance Pweesng

Chiller's recommended flow rate is 900l/hour to 3000l/hour. The pump is 150l/hour to 1000l/hour. As the chiller is set up to "transfer" one portion of my sump tank water to the return portion of the sump tank i cannot afford the flow rate to be too fast. If the insump portion is not filling up fast enough, there won't be the "splashing" effect which i want, to keep the oxygen level in the water higher. anyway, with this set up, i am cooling 1 degree in about 15 mins... and my guess is that the chiller comes alive every 2 to 3 hours... which is reasonable....no? hear from you

Hi All, I just want to start a simple thread, hopefully it will be helpful for new entrance into this hobby to be decision. Some of you might remember that i was struggling with the decision whether to have a chiller for my tank or not. Even after i bought a chiller, i was struggling with the idea. Now, I am sold! Reason:- my 75g tank without fan was running at about 30 to 31 degrees on the average each day. Temperature at night doesn't drop by that much. I was topping up about 2 litres to 3 litres of water each night. Also, i notice that due to the large water body in the living room, couple with the evaporation, the living room has a "musty" smell when i reach home at night. Anyway, to cut the long story short, after i install the chiller and reduce the temperature to 28.5 degrees, i only had to top up max 1 litre of water. I top up with distill water that comes in 500ml size, so can you imagine the amount of water i had to stock up at home just for topping up? Now i can stock up less. Not only that, i realised that the "musty" smell is no longer there. I have to admit that while the signs of my clown fish becoming more active may not be linked to the water temperature at all, but as long as they look happy, it is good enough. I am using a Arctica 1/10 chiller coupled with a ehiem 1000 compact pump on my 75g (65g main tank and 10g sump). I don't monitor how often the chiller kicks in, but i have only caught it in action once, after i first calibrated the chiller. But the chiller is not that quiet, i can hear it when it kicks in, so it can't have kicked in that many times each night. But that aside, the fact that water evaporation is reduced by half and the disappearance of the "musty" smell is good enough reasons for me. I am keeping a FOWLR tank at the point of time. I might add a couple of anemones later on, so i will probably keep my water temperature to 28.5 degrees lowest... Hope this helps.

Hi Peter, Thanks for the advice. I was at ReefDepot over lunch. The SCWD idea, although woudl have been a perfect solution, it won't work. The SCWD is supposed to be sitting on the floor of the tank, directly connected from the Return pipe. unfortunately my return pipe is all the way up at the top of the tank. Coupled with that, the device is also too heavy to be hanging in the middle of the tank. Will have to resort to other methods, such as a T or Y split.

No i haven't. I'm keeping FOWLR, so i can afford the nitrate to go a bit higher... I'm looking at this product call Right Now! Bacteria. It claims to be able to cultivate bacteria that seems to be able to remove Nitrate and Phosphates... its not expensive. I am just wondering if it is available locally.

Borrowing will do unjust to Jerry... plus i am selfish, i want to keep the whole 10 seasons as well... I grab it off ebay a year ago, they are not too expensive... Thanks for the offer though.. appreciate it!

hey Ketchup, Well, I think it should be completed given that Ammonia and Nitrite are both down to 0. As the ANN cycle ends with Nitrate, it is unavoidable that Nitrate will be high towards at the end of the ANN cycle. That is why it is always recommended that water change be carried out at the end of the cycle. In any case, there is only 5 small little fishes in the tank now, which was added in the over the course of 2 weeks, so i think it shoudl be okay. Probably won't be adding anymore until i'm back from my business trip and after CNY... I need my lights to come in also, kind of tired that i need to shine touch light to see the fishes every morning and evening... hahaha

Nice looking stuff Kramer... I suppose you are a Sienfeld fan too? hahhaha remembering those days i used to rush home so that i can catch its run!

My nitrate, although no in the dangerous level yet, I would like to take steps to control it soon. I know that water change is probably the best and most effective way to control nitrate. I am just wondering what else can i use? looking for a lazy man's way out, hopefully i can eventually lengthen the WC duration to eveyr 3 months or so... haha

Hi All, been testing my water condition. Ammonia and nitrite is still at 0, but nitrate is at 25 ppm.... over the weekend i added a couple of LS... 1) Banded Starfish, This is a real ugly thing. but i've been told that it is really hardworking in cleaning up ft over food. Threw it into the water, and within 5 sec, it managed to snug itself nicely under a piece of rock, hasn't seen it since then. 2) Columbus Snail (sic), was told that this snail is good as a cleaning crew too. Threw it in the water, it crawled for 5 inches, hasn't seen it move since then. It looks like the "la la" we get from Newton.... 3) 2 Fire Dart Gobies, my niece got a bit excited when i bought her to the LFS. She insisted that she needed to buy some fishes. Anyway, LFS owner confirm that these are hardy little things. So she bought a couple of them. Threw them in the water, they swam around a bit. found caves and started hiding in them. I think the current is too strong. Coz when i turn off the return pump this morning's feeding time, they actually came out of their caves. Here are some pictures of the Starfish, the snail and the Gobies.... not mine, took from the internet

Any recommendation? what kind of shrimps should i get? also, for a 3 footer... how many shrimp? 3? tia

Hmmm... my rocks are not exactly very securly epoxied together, coz i might still wanna rescape... so i think better skip turbo snails. I did hear that they are nasty rock mover. Are gobies part of cleaning crew category too? they will be a nice option. I was also thinking of some shrimps.... abalone sounds like an interesting idea... how much are these huh? Sally light foot also sounds good... can some one confirm they don't eat small fish and don't topple rocks?

Hi guys, first of all, thanks for all the help you guys have been giving so far, without you guys, half the joy of the hobby is gone... Anyway, i got 3 clown fish in my tank. They don't eat alot. There are usually a some food left over after they loses interest in their food... I need a cleaning crew. Eventually i will be getting either a carpet of some anemones, so the cleaning crew has got to be safe with them. Appreciate if anyone can make any recommendation... a picture will be really useful too. I'm new to this hobby, so am mostly unfamilar with these creatures. thanks in advance

Thanks! Can recommend a good one that i can look at? for a 3 feet only tank... Thanks in advance Peter,

hee hee... thanks... will have to check it when i get home... office blocks all streaming videos...

Thanks LaW, Actually i was looking at it, but i am not sure how it works, and from what i read, there wil definitely be some restriction in the flow... have you used one before? can review? Pweesng

Hi, can you share how to keep your nitrate at 0? i am also trying to do that too... AFAIK, live rocks doesn't do that... does it?

ha ha.. actually true... since i got the tank from him, might as well seek his advice on this also... good idea... thanks!

Thanks to all, I shall go grab a T or Y joint. I assumed it can be found in C328? I am reluntant to change the pump because at this point of time, i gather the turnover for the tank is probably about 9 to 10 times per hour. If i change the pump to help the current, i might inadvertedly create another one next time. Thanks again....

Hi Guys, Need some help. My tank is an approximately 300 litres tank (Main and sump). Currently the return pump is an Ehiem 1262 which should be aroudn 3000 litres / hour before headloss. the flow returning to the main tank is too strong. The difference between a wave maker and the return pipe is that the return pipe is a lot more concerntrated and forceful. This resulted to current at the front of the tank being too strong (IMHO). The fishes are struggling to keep themselves at the same spot. I am curious why they are not hiding in the caves and shelter created by the live rocks. But if i want to reduce the current but not slow down the turnover rate for the return pump. Is there a "return pipe" diffuser that i can use, so that the current from the return pipe is more uniform or more diffused? Thanks for any advise thatis forecoming. Pweesng

I retested the water parameters yesterday and this morning. Ammonia and Nitrite is confirm to be undetectable using the tetra test kit. anyway, my niece was screaming and we succumb. bought 3 clown fish for the tank. now we have 2 problems. 1) when the fishes are let loose at the tank. They kinda stay in a corner or the tank and no move. It seems that they are swimming hard to keep up with the current of the tank. Even though there are areas in the tank with less current. 2) the fish doesn't seems to be eating. I net them up and place that in a betta box with some biohomes in it. they seems to look better as there are less current. But they are still not eating. Its been 2 days. So i am wondering how long can they go without food? Slightly better luck with the skimmer now. This morning it was still full for water. But i managed to adjust it until the cup is almost falling out of the skimmer body, ie it is only in by 0.5 cm. I'll check tonight to see if i can get some dry skimmates. The lights will only be in March. So i guess no FTS until then. Without the light, the tank looks quite bad

thanks Peter, Let me play around and see what i can do with it! hahahaha i bet you never met anyone so dumb...

I did... but the instruction is unclear.... First set the water level to 50mm below the top of the skimmer body, Okay, i can move the weir plate to achieve that. Second, set the cup to about 3/4 above the skimmer body, no problem. set the foam to reach screw A. even if the air hole open fully, the foam don't reach there... i do get some smelly liquid in the cup, but is full of water also... But thanks Peter... i just need i need more time to play around with it...