Oprime

Hi Its not recommended to have fine white sand as your substrate. Crushed coral bits are the best. However, from an aesthetics point of view it maybe a good idea to have an inch of white sand with crushed coral bits on top. It's a good idea to have a fine mesh netting between the fine white sand and the crushed coral bits. The benefits of having a primary substrate of crushed coral bits are so that:- a) Sand doesn't get blown about by your water circulation easier to do a gravel vac c) Most importantly you don't get bits of sand blown into your LPS' which can damage them. Happy Reefing & I hope this helps

Bro, use an Algae Scrubber - cheap! You can then eliminate your fluidizer!

Hi Guys Just read this enlightening article by Chris Jury on Reef Central (Renaming our Corals). I am going to have a 6 foot reef tank installed soon and I'm concerned about the following:- How best to avoid chemoreception (where the corals sense "intruders")? How much space should we leave between them so that we won't have chemical warfare! Apparently this is the cause of corals mysteriously dying in our tanks. When there isn't enough space and they start getting territorial. It is advisable not to use a protein skimmer and just run an algae scrubber (phosphates and nitrates get removed) so that the tank is not robbed of important nutrients that will feed the coral? Bearing in mind that my tank will be 2 feet high, will the use of T5s be sufficient? I am not concerned about having all sorts of SPS' and LPS' in my tank. All i want is for it to be colorful and peaceful and some anemone for a group of clownfish. Looking forward to your replies. Regards G

OKAY!! Its all been finalised, 6 feet x 2.5 feet x 2 feet. Once the drawings are done I will post them here. Crystal on all sides!! Chengai Wood....electric pink tempered glass for the cabinet!!!

For sure bro! All who wish to come are more then welcome! There will be food & drink!!

Thinking of the Teco TR 15 Chiller - any views?

I think a lot of us dont know this BUT its important to make sure that all our electrical switches should be turned off when we are not using the appliances as even though its not in use, if the switch is on and the indicator lights are on we are still burning electricity. ESPECIALLY your cable TV boxes. These suck more electricity then your ACs when its not in use but the switch is in the on position. My two cents worth!

Hi Guys I've decided on the tank dimensions. 8 x 2 x 1.5 feet:-) It will be rimless and open top. Crystal on 3 sides - 15 mm thick. Works out to approximately 680 litres. Considering that the volume of water has been halved, i don't have to go for a drop in coil chiller right? What would you recommend? Cost? Will i still need 2 x 1264 Eheims or can i use a less powerful model? cost? Whats a reliable and effective skimmer for a tank this size? cost? will 3 x 250 watt MHs be enough? how much would this cost? 2xVortech MP60wES - how much will this cost Thats all i need right? Anything that ive missed out? Regds G

Hi Guys (desideria, AhSiang.....) Thank you for all your views and interest. This is pretty exciting BUT it's scary as well cos we really need to get this right. Will split up the issues as follows:- Lighting Now im told that LEDs don't cover the whole light spectrum and they last only 3 years so im wondering is it worth forking out 4k just for the light? I have to do set them vertically to maximize lighting. If i do it lengthwise two units wont do justice apparently. It depends on what i want to have in the tank yes, but dont we all want it ALL! lol LED Brand - Orphex - IMO AND in the Opinion of a good friend 5 years should be no problem and the spectrum is not an issue. Skimmer No Issues here Tank Dimensions No Issue here - will do it either 6 or 7 feet long / 3 feet wide and 2 feet high - any advice against this - glad to here your views - Rimless more ex though!! decisions decisions. Pump This is where the headache lies. I want the best for this tank so what do I do? Sump & Eheim pump thats it? Any views on the fancy schmancy computerised system which replicates high tide and low tide and periodical calmness? Adyzz Pump - Model no not sure. Eheim Pump as back up. Thats about it i guess!! PS Just got a Skunk Tilefish for my nano. What a beauty! Pic attached

Hi Solo Thank you for your reply. To be honest I want a good reef tank, again what is good is subjective but the whole idea is to a bang out of the buck. Will be going for LED lighting but on the other stuff what would you guys recommend? Filtration, skimmer etc

Thank you for a lovely reply comycus. Looking forward to get more input!!

Hi turnicate, Thanks for the advice. That would be a pretty cool looking tank. I spent 4 hours today speaking to some experts and doing some heavy research. These are the results that I came up with. 1. Its always a good idea to get a tank which isn't deep. 2. An ideal depth should be 22 inches (2 inches short of 2 feet). I have a 260 litre fresh water aquarium and its 25.2 inches deep and find it to be a bit of a pain during maintenance even though im a pretty tall chap. Lights will punch right through as well. 3. On the issue of width it all depends on how much space we have available and how much reach will we be capable of if its against the wall. 3 feet should be pretty ideal. The rest of what i am writing isnt relevant to the question i asked but i'd just like to share what i assimilated today. (a) the best lights to use would be LED. They are the brightest and heat emissions are very very much less compared to Halides and Fluorescents. And Halides will go kaput much faster. ( for a tank that size the best chiller system would be an artica or a custom made chilling system with a titanium rod. © the best system with regards to a pump / filter would be a computerised system, Apparently this costs around $2,500 bucks - i forgot to get the name of the system. (d) its important to have a back up filter and for this we can get an Eheim external canister filter (e) A good skimmer would be the Bubble Magnus Hero 320 Based on the specs it would be around 313 US Gallons or a whopping 1185 litres! (Have decided on 7 x 3 x 1.83 feet) It would be great to receive input and comments from fellow reefers. Regds G

Hi Guys, Im thinking of getting a 6 foot reef tank done. Rimless. What would the recommended depth be? Is 2.5 feet good enough? Looking forward to your input. Thanks G

Hi Guys I just had a chiller installed and its running directly via a Dymax Power Head which is inside the tank. My question is by having the Power Head submerged in the tank, will this have a counter effect? Will this produce heat which will have an impact or is the head produced negligible? Would it be a better idea to connect the chiller to the inlet and outlet of the Eheim external filter? The tank is a 2 foot / 63 litre. Half the volume has been displaced by live rock/ coral and a sand bed. Thanks for the help!! Regds G

My Clown is aye okay. Here is a picture!

Hi Guys. Sharing pictures of the tank which I took this evening. Everything seems to be on track. Next will be the chiller and some corals. Maybe a pair of small fish. There is a sixline wrasse in there as well as two blue legged hermits apart from what you see. All the best.

It was in broad daylight and the lights were on. I think it got badly spooked by the 2nd Percula I added. The second one i added was bigger as well. I was told by the LFS lady that these varieties are aggressive towards each other so it's not advisable to have them together. When I brought it back she told me to try with the black variety of clownfish but i humbly declined and chose the sixline wrasse instead. Didnt want to take any chances!! Well it seems that ive pretty much reached my limit here. I guess its safe to have just these two i the tank now - the sixline wrasse and the Orange Percula. Almost a third of the volume of the tank is live rock so i guess there isnt really much space left. I kept inspecting the tank - about 7 times after lights out and she seems pretty calm and settled amongst the live rock. I better get cracking on the cover!!

LOL Great Advice. problem is with the lighting and the hang on this and hang on that. I guess I have to get a wire or nylon mesh. Any ideas on what else I can add with the Wrasse and the Clown?

Added A Sixline Wrasse as well besides the two blue Legged Hermits. So its 1 Percula + 1 Wrasse and two Blue Legged Hermits and Live rock with a Green Goniopora.....

OH MY GOD!

Dude "dramatic" doesn't do justice to what happened man. Imagine your first fish going bungy on you! Not cool!

Hi Guys. My 63 litre, 2 foot tank has been running for 2 weeks now with live rock and I decided to add a Percula Clownfish yesterday - the Orange and White one. This was yesterday. He was doing great so this afternoon I decided to get him a companion. Another one of the same species. Merrily added another to the tank today and then TROUBLE. They started to take a go at each other. The one I introduced today was slightly bigger then the one I got yesterday. Initially i thought that it would be OKAY, that they were just mucking about then all of a sudden, the smaller one, the one i got yesterday JUMPED OUT OF MY TANK!. Needless to say I almost had a cardiac arrest. The Adrenaline set in and i managed to immediately shift the entire tank in a single bound and rescued my baby. Put her back into the tank and thank god she's doing fine. Even had to to a little procedure on her as when she landed on the hall tiles she ingested a fine nylon fibre which came from my carpet. Had to fish her out later and gently pull the fibre out of her mouth. She's doing good now and the other one was sent back to the LFS. I thank god that so far so good but to all of you out there who might end up with a similar situation PLEASE DO NOT ADD TWO Perculas into your nano tank. Life is stressful enough as it is. We dont need to give ourselves a stroke!. All the Best & Happy Reefing (added two blue legged hermits - amazing lil buggers)

Good Afternoon Mateys. Have any of you guys used sea water for your tanks instead of conditioned water? What are the results? Its not difficult for us to fill our buckets here in Singapore. Looking forward to receiving your views:-)

Hi Guys. 1. Isn't the airlift protein skimmer enough? 2. What is a FOWLR? 3. Will get more live rock this week. 4. Where do I get blue legged hermits from in Singapore? Regds G

Lightning fast reply dude! Thanks. Do black sponges have any benefit? It really looks unattractive? Should I just leave it there? Attached is a picture of the whole tank.