Gouldian

Hi Lin, Thank you for the invitation. What I have observed is that your are not actually plague with Ich but rather "new tank syndrom". This is due to the fact that we Singaporean always wanted things fast and in doing so sacrifice the time needed for nature to take its due cause ie cycling. Thus as per suggested, you should ensure that you slow down on your stocking for the time being to let your system have an opportunity to mature. After which, you should practice good acclimatising and preventing dip whenever you add new stock to prevent introduce unnecessary parasites into your tank. Wish you all the best!

Actually can just tie a filter bag with some filter wool to the exit to dissipate the bubbles. It is the bubbles bursting that causes the noise. Thus with the filter bag, you will notice it noise are be cut down significantly.

Coralife Twister 12X. Cost effective although not the cheapest.

I used to have a Long Finned Pseudochromis (P. longipinis) very nice and shy fish. Ignore all inverts, only go for prepared food constant hunting - dunno its for benthic inverts or bristle worms. But the beauty died on me when I upgraded my tank...... sigh.......

They will spread to great proportion and eventually consumme everything in its path. It is one of the most "feared pest" in our hobby!

Actaully, Dispar is quite right here too, I myself am not too concern with bristle worms unless they start to multiply out of proportion. What I am worried is the Fireworms or flatworms. For Flatworms there is still a certain Nudibrach that will eat them or we can use Flatworm Exit from Salifert. But for Fireworms, "jiak lat" liao!

ML brings in orchid quite often, will let you guys know if I spotted any. From what I know orchid are pretty safe with ###### and arrow shrimp - check out henry's display. But do not confused orchid with magenta, magenta are known to be more aggressive. Daibolous: Haven't leh, must see your specimen first. But from your pix - superb! Hope to get my hands on one.

Bro, those are the two dotty species that are good for controling brostle worms and yet safe enough for most other inverts. I am looking out for an orchid too.

Bought extra...100% not used. A must have for those who DIY fish food. Kent Garlic Extreme - LFS selling $24 Kent Zeocon - LFS selling around $8 I am letting both go at $25. Self Collect at Jurong East. Do not PM. Just leave name here and I will PM you address and time 1. Gouldian

There is a ceratin kind of nudibranch that feeds primarily on flat worms. It is black colour with neon blue marking - can't remember name liao. Henry of Marine Life periodically bring them in, you might want to check with him. But as they only feed on flat worms - once all your flat worms are eaten up - they will die........

I also encounter the problem getting another tank to treat my fishes until I read a past issue of Reef Keeping magazine, the author stress the important of having an Quaratine Tank and gave several suggestions. In the end, I ended in Carrefour buying one of those plastic tub from Toyogo. As per suggested, the QT can be clean and kept away from sight until needed. As for nitrifying bacteria, the author have suggested to keep one simple air filter constantly running in your main tank sump so that when needed to start up the QT, all you need to do is to transfer the air filter into the QT and it should have enough bacteria to sustain the tank. The most important reason why I decided on a plastics tub is of cause pricing and the fact that I can use it as storage with I don't need it. Another thing about having a QT is that after you having to go through so much (Tearing the tank down, catching out all fishes) to ensure that your tank is Ich-free, you keep it Ich-free by have proper QT to your new additions.

If your circulating pump is still running. It should be alright. In fact there are some reefers overseas that runs that cycle their tank in darkness for more than a year to build the masive amount pods and coralines. But on the safe side you might want to show us a pix of your tank now.

Hi Reefers, I spotted a Mantis (1' plus) in my tank. Do not know which rock it is hiding thus have to use trapping method. Can anyone bro or sis lend me a mantis trap or teach me how I can trap that bugger? Thanks in advance...

thks for the advice.. u noe wat, i really dun have confidence in doing hypo

Hi Lin, Sorry to hear that your tank is still infested with Ich. Seriously, I reccomend you to do a Hypo-salinity treatment to your fishes in a seperate tank and leave you tank fallow (fish-less) for minimum 1 month. I have tried several off-the-shelf reef-safe medications but it has never been able to effectively eradicated ich. What I feel is that "this" medicine can only suppress ich to the extent that your fishes have some form of immunity to ich. So that is why when you add new fish or you have fishes that are very prone to ich, you will find that ich will re-surface. Another thing to note is that when we do not see white spots on the fishes it does not mean that your tank is free from ich. This is because, ich have 3 life cycle - dormant (hidden on subtrate), free swimming (looking for host) and attach on fish (feeding). That's why sometimes when you think that you have overcome ich - it returns with a vengeance. If you need help, please feel free to PM me....

Durian... Durian.... Lelong... lelong....... Got D24????? I have tried control them last time with Blue Stripe Pipefish. They are considered the Doctorfish in the SH world. Wish you luck.

Bro, according to Anothny Calfo - can use. Got Lobang????

Most iodine available for Marine consist of Potassium Iodide - even lugol. "Lugol's Iodine (also called "Lugol's solution") was first developed by the French physician, Jean Lugol, in 1829. It is a transparent brown liquid consisting of 10 parts potassium iodide (KI) to 5 parts iodine to 85 parts of (distilled) water" Most iodine we find in pharmacy are Povidone Iodine which is a more potent form of Iodine. Look at the write-up below and decide whether you dare to dose into your tank. "Ophthalmic surgeons have come to appreciate the possibility of reducing post-operative infections, including endophthalmitis, by effective pre-operative preparation. However, even by the 1980s, pre-operative preparation of the eye had not been scientifically validated. A series of investigations were then conducted to evaluate various aspects of this preparation - to reduce the bacterial flora of the eye. By far the most effective measure was to place a drop of 5% povidone-iodine ophthalmic solution on the eye before surgery. Bacterial colonies were reduced by 91% and species by 50%." I have tried very hard to look for Potassium Iodide from pharmacy for very long hoping to buy bulk and save some $$$ than buying those commercially packed for Marine trade. But to no avail, if got lobang, let me know.

Great Job! Your Back! I am still waiting for your invitation.

Hope all is well after tonight. Actually AT is still manageable comparing to Black Tang and Gem Tang!!!!! A black tang will set you back about 250 while a Gem is 4 figures!!!! Do small but frequent water changes before you add in hippo tang. Good luck.

If you can't keep hippo tang (A. Hippatus). Don't even think about other tang, very jiak lat man...... Generally Hippo tang and the Zebrasomas (Yellow tang, Purple tang, Scopas tang etc) are easier to keep due to their hardiness and their "happy go lucky" attitudes. White spots are cuz by Ich and Oodinium (the latter is smaller spots but covers more areas). Ich has three stages, the stage that is visble to us is when they hitch on fishes for nutrients. The other 2 stages are 1 - swimming freely and 2- buried amoung substrates. Thus if your fishes does not have white spots does not means that you are free of ich. The only effective way is to do hypo-salinity treatment to your affected fishes while you leave your tank fallow (without any fish) for 8 weeks to eradicates ich. You may want to read more of about hypo of the disease / treatment section of this forum. Me, I am now doing the above treatment after my second failed attempt on a AT (one of the more difficult tang to keep).

Signs of tangs not making it will be loosing weight and sunken areas behind the eyes. If you see that, you really have to pray hard hard.....

Actually if the Blue tang you are referring to is the A. Hippatus, it should be fine cuz they are one of the more hardy species. Unlike Poder Blue or Atlantic Blue.

Bro, you still have not lost your first love! Hope to see you bring back your old glory.......

Hi, What kind of carbon you used for the tank? Most GAC (Granulated Activated Carbon), will initially leeched some PO4 due to the manufacturing process. Thus, you will see most reefers either soaked their GAC overnight on another tub of water before adding into their tank. Or put Rowa after the the GAC to absorb the leech PO4. This could be the reason of the bleached Hammer. Other reasons includes fluctuation of water params such as Salinity, Temperature, Trace elements and polutants. If however, you suspect it could be due to parasites, you may soaked the hammer with 1l of water from tank with 5 drops of lugol iodine. It does wonders. But I suggest you find the root cause first and then fully understand the treatment before doing it for fear of adding another unnecessary stress to your hammer.