vidextreme

I had an ich infestation before. I suffered several fish deaths because of this. I read somewhere that its a matter of fish being immune with these parasites. To do this, the fishes must overcome the infestation. I fed them with pellets infused with garlic, such as Ocean Nutrition(formula one or two). This worked quite well in my tank. This is one of the Auntie/Uncle talk that we just usually ignore now a days. It's a common remedy even in first aid or jungle survival. Garlic is your friend.

Oh btw, this is the main reason why mixing Kalkwasser(Calcium Hydroxide) mixture or any salt base Calcium Carbonate or pH buffers such as SeaChem Reef Builder needs much care to not to allow bubbles to mix these solutions. Presence of Carbon Dioxide in the solution will precipitate in Calcite or Aragonite depending on the availability of needed ions to form their crystaline structures. That's why also, it's not so advisable to use aeration or airstone in salt water preparation. Hope this helps.

Actually, those are not 'residue' but precipated calcium carbonate. This happens when a calcium salt is exposed with carbon dioxide which is very common in our atmosphere. Add of a bit of moisture and you get aragonite or calcite. Unfortunately, calcite is not so desireable to saltwater tank as they are not dissolvable, meaning... useless in tank. Aragonite on the other hand act as good buffers for slow release of available calcium and/or available carbonate in tank, which means more stable pH upon presence of other helpful ions.

It's possible that it's some sort of pathogenic bacteria or virus that infected your friends fishes. Another possible scenario could be, the container used was contaminated with harmful chemicals. I'm pretty sure it's not because of changing saltmix to NSW. I trust NSW if I myself collected it. Ofcourse, the best practice when you do this is to filter the water first. Removing oil, possible pest, etc. Some may argue, but for me, the more natural it is the better (of course there are some risks to this). Plus, I don't do any water changes, works for my previous 2+ year tank.

I would suggest this... SKIMZ IBOX NANO IB8 2G mainly because of the over flow box. This prevents the algae film on the surface so its really a ++; I'm not sure about the lights though if its enough. This will depend what will you be keeping in the tank.

yup its available in one of our site sponsors http://www.madpetz.com.sg/ those things are awesome btw!

(Not really an expert but here's my take ) The answer is yes and no. No, cycle. Because the ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria if transported properly to the new tank should still be in both your water column and live rocks. Yes, you need to cycle for the nitrate eating bacteria. You see, these little critters doesn't like light and oxygen, hence their anaerobic nature. By moving them, you subsequently expose them from light and air. Of course, this all depends on your live rocks, how porous they are, etc etc. Under no circumstance that you allow your live rock to dry up. Move them as fast, and careful ofcourse, as possible. You can even consider moving them by using a small bucket filled with tank water so it doesn't get expose to air. The good thing is your ammonia and nitrite bacteria have already populated your tank. These two nutrients are the poisonous in certain levels compare to nitrate which can be handled later. So in short, you don't have to fully cycle it (some consider cycle stops when nitrite level drops but I think otherwise). Think of it as half-way cycling (mono-cycle ). Expect some increase of nitrate levels and some ammonia and nitrite level as you disturb and release some decaying matter stuck in the sand and rocks when your moving them. But ultimately, it will be fine. Hope that helps. Keep us posted!

Are you sure its the actual crab and not the shedded shell when it molted? 40% in my opinion is too much water changes and can shock some of your livestock. What's your alkalinity level?

check your alkalinity. Did you recently dose anything? or atleast before this happened? cloudiness can be caused by several reasons, bacteria bloom or excessive alkalinity that percipitate calcium, magnesium, etc ions into carbonate solid state.

better do a water parameter test? ammonia, nitrite, pH etc. How old is you tank? From my experience, coraline algae becomes white due to excessive pH drop. But just the same, do all tests you can, ASAP.

Are you sure you're getting your salinity level at a the same temperature? From what I gathered, salinity level changes in different temperature. Check this online SG-temperature compensation calculator http://www.hamzasree...yCorrection.php Considering I'm not doing any water changes too, I use Tropic Marin Pro-Mineral to replenish minerals. It got 70 trace elements similar to salt-mix but without sodium chloride(the most common salt in seawater). I'll stop before you think I'm working for them.

I haven't used this product. But I think its also because of your tank is aging. From what I've researched, as the tank matures, nitrate level also goes down to controllable level. One marine aquarium scientist, even consider this to be the ULTIMATE SIGN of aquarium maturity, if you are not doing any fancy nitrate filtration. He mentioned it could take a year or two to achieve this. I believe this is true to any good-bacteria housing media you have, may it be live rock, live sand, biohome, etc

Agreed with "Mini-reefer" get a glass aquarium. In my opinion, you stil need a good light source even if you wont be keeping corals. Even the cheap compact fluourecant clip on lights will do. I suggest you look for 7100K to 8000K(kelvin measurement) for lighting. I say this because from my experience it matters. My fishes seems to be healtier when I switched one of my bulb from 10000K to 8000K lighting. They eat more and more active. Even us, humans, we need daily exposure to sunlight. Another observationI had is the pH drops (even with just live rocks) after a few hours when light is turned off. Then again, every tank is unique. What works for me, could work differently from you and also others. I suggest you introduce your pets slowly to your tank. At least a week interval each. Protein skimmer is a must in my book. For me, it's the heart of any aquarium filtration or even the tank itself. Some would say otherwise. You can even make one. I made one myself with used mineral bottle and airstone, It worked perfectly for 2+ years in my older tank and it was the only filtration I had. That's why I strongly suggest and recommend this.

My sea cucumber even cleans the aquarium glass. When it does that, I'm reminded why I named it 'Mr T'. It's actively cleaning the sand bottom even the area of live rocks that doesn't have anything. I wouldn't suggest you getting a big cucumber as it has tendencies on 'throwing it's weight around' in the tank. Having one should be enough. From what I heard, it release toxic material when it dies. So if you're decided to put a sea cucumber l suggest you keep a close eye(looking intensensely, not closed eye LOL). Oh, just to share my experience, when I placed mine in the tank, it didn't move for a few days, not an inch. (at that time, I didn't know they do the toxic-death thing) But I let it be and all of a sudden it moved and start getting to work. It's active ever since. Also, if you are looking for critters to move your sand, I suggest you also consider snails, not turbo snails, a different kind. But sorry, I can't help you with the names.

I, too, liked the shape of your tank. You mentioned you are not doing any water changes. (actually, I'm doing that as well), but why are you adding in 'salt-mixed RO water'? From what I understand, when saltwater evaporates, the salt remains. Salt doesn't evaporate so it will accumulate through time.

I stand corrected. http://www.algone.com/aquarium-articles/aquarium-basics/cloudy-aquarium-water btw, I stopped trusting a swing arm hydrometer when I bought two of them, different brands and they both read differently.

thanks for the advice. What about the majano anemones, btw? The 'prata' corals I got it for a bargain. I guess its because it has some exposed skeleton already. And it looked worse when I first bought it.

I'm not sure how to lure out starfish. But I think eventually it will gain confidence to come out and play. My sea cucumber took around 1 month before it start climbing on my tank glass and feeding on the algae on it. Not fun to watch if they don't know what it is... It looks like a big t%rd, that's why I call it Mr. T. heheh

I've always believe that animals and plants can adopt to its environment. Although, this would not happen if the environment changes abruptly. Specially when crashes tends to cascade because of simple causes. Abrupt changes in your tank such as massive water changes, algae blooms, toxic chemicals etc. can affect the tank important but mostly ignored residents.... and these are the planktons. Try to kill those and you will get a crash most definitely.I think having a balanced amount of these will buffer your tank against crashes. These guys feed on microscopic bio and sometimes not bio debris. We know even if a tank is well oxiginated that doesn't mean this remove the carbon dioxide still present in your tank and excess carbon dioxide can actually kill(even for us humans). Phytoplanktons(and algae) transforms carbon dioxide to oxygen. Actually, the cloudiness you see on crashes are the not-too-happy dead planktons. Regarding your case. I think it is not caused by water top-offs. But something else. Maybe related to the algae blooms you mentioned. Algae blooms most often caused by excess nutrients in your tank, phosphate, silicate, nitrates, etc. Phosphate can leach from your activated carbon filter, silicate from a certain type of sand that also leaches this, nitrate from nitrogen process. Planktons also needs these nutrients. When algae blooms happens, there is a often reported drop of levels of these nutrients. Hence, this could shock some of the planktons leads some amount to die and causes your tank to crash. Anyway, sorry if I don't address your issue directly. I just want to share my take on the dynamics on tank crashes.

Hi. I top-off distilled water. I placed two markers on the side of my tank, one for optimal level and the other below it is my need-to-top-off level. Everyday, I check the level and top-off when needed. This isn't my first time to do marine and I've always use distilled water. But this is my first time to have reef aquarium. My first tank was 2+ years without water change. It crashed though when I accidentally poured some acidic juice when I was topping off half asleep with a container that I thought was distilled water but didn't know my father used it for that previous night party to make some cocktail drinks. t's kinda sad but it's my fault really. The lesson, don't top-off half-asleep.