samuel88

Hello guys, i need advice. so here's my tank details. 2 feet tank, 15 gallons with a 10 gallon sump. T5 lighting and the lights on the sump and tank and on alternate lighting. Tank is off/on, sump is on/off. Protein skimmer Deltec mce600 rated for Stocking Normal Stocking 700 Litres (155 gallons) High Stocking 450 Liters (100 gallons) my tank has been running for 3 weeks plus now and i have been cycling it using a bacterial culture. plus since last week (I hope that this is the right practice) i have been adding in fish pellets and a small capful of live phytoplankton daily to feed the copepods and corals and get the biological bacteria in my tank multiplying to get ready for my ultimate goal, a frogfish. Current livestock 2 mini maxi carpets. one BTA, one small hammer coral head and one leather coral frag. Current weekly maintenance 5 percent water change with bacterial culture dosing. feeding anemone's with a small slice of fish. calcium, alkalinity and magnesium additives, and a phosphate remover. Current Parameters (with all the test kits i have at the moment) API - Ammonia - 0 ppm, Nitrate - 0 to 5 ppm, Seachem - Ph - 8.1, Alkalinity - 4.5 meq/L, or 12.5 dKH, Salifert - Calcium - 320 ppm Salinity - 1.024- 1.025 Temperature - 26 degrees, using chiller. I have had a frogfish before however i made the mistake of - i think - not getting my tank's biological filtration up to speed, which caused a bacterial bloom and ammonia spike. because prior to the frog fish there were no fish at all, so perhaps the biological filtration couldn't keep up with the sudden jump in ammonia source. so my question is, what can i do to make sure that my biological bacterial in my tank will be ready for a frogfish? i'm in no hurry to get a frogfish until my tank is ready. advice from people who have kept a frogfish successfully for 3 months and above would be much appreciated. PS: I am thinking of adding a carbon source, like vodka dosing or some other alternative, so if you have some comments on that, feel free to let me know if its a good idea in my case.

erm, in case you didn't know anemones expand in the day and contract in the night. how long has your tank been running? what was its original color?

i've heard so far people have about 10x - 20x of the tank volume per hour, even heard of 70x before but..... i've never tried 70x so i can't say.

mushrooms more bullet proof than zoas, starburst polyps are a bit temperamental. so for a soft coral definitely mushrooms. i've had mushrooms survive a tank crash before.

well, i have kept corals at room temperature before, i wouldn't say its not doable, i have since gotten a chiller. the challenge is avoiding huge swings in temperature and whether your tank is stable enough. you can on the fan during the day time, during night time the temperature will be cooler so perhaps you can turn it off, but then again you have to monitor the temperature swings at night. putting a frozen bottle of water would cool it down, however for a 4 gallon tank a bottle of water floating in it would be very unsightly. and also you have to monitor how much the temperature drops after adding the bottle water. as you can see, its quite troublesome without a chiller, that's why many people recommend a chiller. however if you place the tank at a spot where the temperature is stable and/or manage to maintain the temperature somehow it should be alright.

Hi guys, I just set up a 10 gallon sump connected to a 15 gallon tank. And I'm deciding between mud or a dsb For the sump to add to the biological filtration as well as growing macro algae. Does a dsb really have to be 6 inches thick? It would really take up alot of space in my refugium I heard mud doesn't have to be 6 inches thick to achieve anaerobic bacteria. However it seems quite expensive. Will having substrate help the biological filtration? I don't want liver rock cause I got plenty in the tank

thanks guys.

that's true, but i have some really bad experience doing it, i always have to cross my fingers when i do top offs, haha. perhaps its the Ph, or temperature or amount, of whatever variable.

Hello everyone, i've been absent quite awhile cause i've been up to some DIY project, i've been building a overflow pipe connected to a plastic container that i found lying around the house which i'm quite happy with, i'll post pictures later on tonight.

Hi, i'm looking for a 2nd hand protein skimmer, something like the Tunze 9002, i have a slightly smaller than 2 feet sump connected to a 2 feet tank and i want a skimmer that can fit in the sump. Anyone who is selling a nano skimmer please PM me, thanks.

Thanks alot.

you can look at this really simple one

You're asking if can use tap water? Well I've heard of people using tap water conditioner but many people will recommend purified one

What about 10 to 20 %water change

Does anybody check the PH, temperature of the water they're about to add into their tank? i think adding water that has different PH and temperature is supposed to be bad right, but how do you make the Ph the same? and cause singapore weather is so hot, the water that you've been mixing outside your tank is bound to have a higher temperature than your tank. and also are there any other parameters i should take note of? other than salinity of course and the above mentioned

hi everyone so here are some pictures so as you can see, theres not much life in there, in fact the only thing i have are some mushrooms and an anemone, i didn't really buy the anemone but it was purchased by a family member. although i know they don't do well in unestablished tanks but i'm trying my best to keep it alive. The reason why there isn't much is because i'm still studying and not earning money yet, so have to slowly stock, and i lost quite alot during the last tank crash, so i'm not so eager to lose so much again. if i had the money i would definitely upgrade my skimmer but for now i'm sticking to the air stone, and as you can see cause i bought quite a strong air pump the bubble output is actually not that bad. the gunk you see was collected in just one day. i do weekly water changes with red sea salt, i avoid doing daily water top offs. because i feel the less i touch it the better off it is. cause of the limited test kits that i have, which were given to me, i only have a few parameters to share. salinity, 1.026 dkh 7.7 to 8.6 calcium, 350 ppm temperature 27 degrees

hi guys, ages ago i posted something about my 1.5 feet tank that unfortunately crashed, due to the irregular water changes (from weekly, to suddenly every few days and then bam! tank crash. i guess a nano tank really doesn't handle sudden changes well) whatever the reason, i'm back again with a slightly bigger tank that's been running for a month plus. Tank: 2 feet tank, roughly width 1 feet, height 1 feet, 15 gallons Filtration: Jebo 178, forgot the L/Hrs but its rated for 30 gallons. bought mainly for water flow and housing activated carbon, not protein skimming. Berlin airlift, a airstone skimmer that i bought when i was just new to the hobby. wooden air stone changed whenever not enough bubbles, driven with a 480 L/Hour air pump. and lastly lots of live rock and a few inches of sand. Filter media: Carbonit-P activated carbon changed once a month, a nitrate reduction floss pad that i'm considering removing soon. Chiller: hailea-100a, i think its 1/15 or 1/10 HP i forgot. driven by a 600 L/hour powerhead Lighting: Aquazonic, 2 x 24W T5, actinic blue and super sun 12000, with auto timer from 2 pm to 11 pm will post pictures another day, because my tank lights are already off. and with more details as well!

can you provide more details of your tank? like size, temperature, alkalinity, lighting, how long its been running, etc.

hi, i was wondering, i have read from articles saying that if you can't test for something don't add it in your tank. so lets say i don't have a calcium test kit. would it be ok to dose calcium and carbonate at half the doses to be safe since i can't test for them. or just do without them altogether. my tank doesn't have many hard corals, i just want it for the coralline algae growth, so i don't really wanna specially buy a calcium test kit.

Just wanted to know, how often do you guys top-off evaporation? once a day, once every few days or once a week?

I wouldn't say sexy shrimps are very reef safe though. Snails are great as well as hermit crabs, just becareful of them knocking over your rocks, unless you get smaller ones.