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Caught it myself. Knee deep low tide. I thought it was a sea snake heheh.

Please add me 408C Fernvale Road I have some....will harvest after christmas off.

In my experience, guppies should be ok. My pet eel had superb colorization. Appetite is crazy. like 4 guppies a day. Though, I noticed it doesn't like the orange colored guppies for some reason. It prefers the standard grey guppies. This is the species of my pet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophichthidae Always stays under the sand, and you can only see either its snout or head. I know its excited when the moment I let it sniff the guppy using a chopsticks of course, it will try to go at it like a cobra snake. Really fun to watch. It really scares me though, when it get too excited that it comes out of the sand and swim like a snake around the tank when I excite it too much. Anyway sorry for the digression. My personal golden rule is, feed it what it likes but make sure the food is healthy, fresh and disease free.

Actually, guppies are brackish meaning, it can live in fresh and saltwater(slightly less salinity) environment. Though other than that, I tend to disagree with your conclusion. I think even long term wise, it wouldn't really hurt that much. As long as these animals have the protein they need plus amino acids, etc. they should be good. My pet eel was pretty healthy at that time(2+ years). I only lost him(or her) due to tearful accident. Health wise, I just make sure that what I fed it with must be without defect or visible diseases. Though I agree on the cooked vs uncooked food.

Nope. Plus I think cooking them usually brings out the prawn's natural oil that could have been ingested by the eel instead of floating on your tank. I feed mine with fresh water guppies. (It's a bit barbaric though) I scope a fish or two using a net, and swing the net against a surface, say a furniture or floor. That will instantly kill the fish and then use chopsticks to feed the eel. That way I know it's eating fresh meat.

Extremely, super-nice project! Just a quick question, from outside, would you be able to see the tank room through the tank glass? or you're planning to put some moveable backdraft at the back of the tank?

I think it's ID is between awesome and wow! Did I say wow? Where did you get it?

Hi, you can try to search the forum for similar issue. Or you can start a new thread in the forum as to not hijack the current topic. But to answer your question... There maybe several reasons why your water is cloudy. Here's a few I can think of... - recent death in the tank that causes a bacteria bloom (symptoms: smell of death in the tank) - new tank syndrome, which could also be a bacteria bloom (symptoms: same with first one) - spike in carbonates that precipitates the calcium ions into calcium carbonates, usually caused by change in pH or tank recently received heavy dose of Kalk or carbonates. (symptoms: pH drastically changed from usual readings) - caulerpa going 'sexual' (symptoms: almost all caulerpas are melting)

Good question. In my opinion, they(restaurant operators) couldn't careless as long as they make profit. Maybe, hopefully, not all of them are like that. It could be a good study/survey to those who are interested and has the time.

I think we still need some picts of the brown algae. It could be the brown algae diatoms or red slime. Both has two different solutions, one of which is pretty dangerous. So, I'll refrain to advise any such before we can ID which type of algae. Can you take some photos of the affected area?

(Sorry for somewhat hijacking the OP) I think that's your problem right there, lighting. Is your LED rated for planted aquarium? Because for sump and algae scrub, you will need lighting that we don't normally put on reef or FOWLR. We need to have the proper spectrum for growing the algae. This is about 6500K-7000K or even lower. Ignore my suggestion with iron suppliments, at least for now. Lighting is the culprit. I know this based from experience. I used to use LED for sump, one good lesson learned, sump lighting deserves greater attention if not as equal as our main display lighting. If you're not opt to pay for some special LED for growing chaetos, I suggest you do as I did... go extreme cheapo! Fluorecent light which you can buy in any homefix store. Go for Cool Daylight thats around 6700K or 6500K color temperature. Just make sure light doesn't leak to the main display. As to going back to OP, having a nutrients transporter such as growing and harvesting cheatos, does a great deal in maintaining a good water quality and be more forgiving in not changing water too often. My 2+ year without WC can attest to this. As we feed the fish, phosphate, sulfur, nitrate, etc accumilates and has to go somewhere. Having the chaetos or caulerpas will help to transport these excess nutrients out of our water column. However, I will suggest to remineralize your tank. When I 'upgraded' to reef, I adopted the same of laziness, not changing water. But to balance this out, considering the enormous requirement for corals (critters, and fish) availability of good ions+minerals, amino acids,etc, I need to remineralize my tank. Through WC we automatically remineralize. Without WC, then we need to put back the lost or consumed minerals. Seachem Marine Trace could be good for FOWLR (I havent personally use). For my current reef tank, I use Tropic Marin Pro-Coral Mineral which claims putting 70 minerals back to tank. In my current office 24L reef tank (Ocean Free Reef 2), for its 3 months of existance, I have replaced 5-10% WC only two times. Currently, both LPS and SPS are happily growing. Algae growth on main display are kept at bay. I converted the intank sump into a mini refugium by removing partially the black sticker from the back of the tank and put a 24hr fluorecent light pointing towards the exposed glass on the back. Cheatos growing like crazy. I also dose Tropic Marin Pro-Coral Organic daily, except on weekends of course. I think with all of these components together have helped me and my tank to further my level of laziness to WC to new heights .

what lighting do you use for your sump? Try dosing Iron... but do this in moderation. Just drop a few at first, per 2 days atleast (don't follow the recommended dose, it could be dangerous). Iron is needed by anything that does photosynthesis. There is a danger of algae bloom if you have an elevated nitrate, phosphate, and silicate. If dosed correctly, you will see crazy... I mean crazy cheatos growth. I can recommend Ferrion by Brightwell Aquatics or Chelated Iron by Microbe-Lift. My recommendation for your setup is, you prefilter your water change water using GFO, that way you remove much of nitrate of tap water. That should be more cost effective than RODI.

I think you can still lower your nitrate with water change. Have you tested your tap water for nitrate level? Cause I know, tap water and even mineral bottled water have substantial nitrates, except for distilled of course. My suggestion use, RODI or distilled water when you do the next wc.

I didn't test at all. But the caulerpa was growing nicely. Surprisingly, no brown algae or hair algae.

can you post a picture of the brown algae from your tank?

In my opinion never ever reuse polyfilter.

In my opinion never ever reuse polyfilter.

Yes. I followed the recommended amount. Except when I dose Seachem Reef Plus, which also contains iodine which I every now and then. If I do, I reduce Seachem Iodide that week.

Seachem Iodide - twice, but most of the time only once, weekly Makes the crabbees and shrimpees happy and molt regularly. I heard it's good for any damages on creatures in the tank... fish, corals, etc. Color improvements, I didn't notice much. I notice color and extension become apparent when I dosed potassium instead(Brightwell Aquatics Potassion).

I saw IQ5 skimmers in Clementi too.

IMO, protein skimmer is a must. However, if the tank cannot accommodate it, you should have a good chemical and biological filtration plus a routine WC. For chemical filtration, my best recommendation is Chemi-Pure Elite (available in FreshNMarine, MadPetz, Clementi shops). For biological filtration, my suggestion is Bio-Home. WC should be 10% per week. The reason why majority of people considers the protein skimmer as the heart of the tank filtration is because it is the only filtration available that can take organic/non-organic compound that we don't want out of the tank physically and fast. Other filtration system, filters some stuff but is still exposed (if it doesn't work through chemical reaction) with the tank water. And some even leaks, back to the tank, if are over used. So without protein skimmers, the best bet is WC. My suggestion is you pre-mix your replacement water by bulk. This is to prevent water parameter change shock to the corals, critters, and fish in the tank every time you are dosing back water to the tank. You will have a consistent SG, etc on each replacement.

That's definitely Hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Hydrogen sulfide, is a natural accurance in a tank, unfortunately and it's part of the sulfur cycle in a tank. This is why tank needs sand sifters and live rock cleaners (snails, starfish, etc) Hydrogen sulfide is poisonous even for us humans. It occurs with decaying matter got trap in a anaraerobic environment, meaning no oxygen. Say, dead fish under the sand. Typically, hydrogen sulfate is released in safe amount in a working tank with sifters. You can tell by looking at the rocks or sands with black tint in color (metal form). They are eventually released in a form of gas and go out of the tank this way. Without sifters in the sand, hydrogen sulfide accumulate. And they can kill anything in the tank once released in dangerous levels. This is why, snails and chemical filtration are essential tank components. This can also be complemented with a good water circulation in the tank. Some readups http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/

No WC for 2+ years. I got some live rocks and a spotted snake eel (Ophichthus ophis). It could have been longer but I accidentally dosed some citric fruit juice into the tank. (I didn't know my father used my jerrycan which should only be used for distilled water). I didn't use any special filtration just live rocks and some growing caulerpa in the tank. Though I have a DIY protein skimmer (using a mineral water bottle, rubber bands, and an airpump). I fed the eel by using a long chopsticks. I knock-out some guppies and fed it one by one. I had also some critters in the tank, banded shrimp, some rock crabs and a green grouper. The grouper was fun to watch when it's eating... well you don't really see it, because the moment you drop some guppies it jets to catch its prey and jet back to the rocks. Unfortunately, it face its early demise when it jumped over the tank while I was away. I should have taken a picture of that tank. But that was 2002-2004, a time long ago when digital cameras are only for the rich folks.

Wow thanks for the complete details. It even includes fax... what's a fax? Just kidding.