haroldfock

Thanks again for the kindness and well wishes. I will be back.

Dear Bro Thanks for taking over the tank and bringing the trolley over. Helps a lot. I am sure my pets found the right home and thank you for helping so that I don't need to strain my back. You are the best! Harry

Dear Reefers The deal is sealed by a kind bro who needs it for a smaller tank. And thank you for all the kind wishes.. Lesson learned - ALWAYS take care of your back. And see a doc when there is pain. Harry

Dear Reefer Bros, I injured by back recently (nothing life-threatening nor long term) and the doc has recommended no bending down. So it is with a heavy heart I am giving up the 5-year hobby and thanks to many bros here who gave me excellent advice over the years. For SGD200: 1. Fluval US 5 Gallon EVO Tank (the freshwater version but converted to seawalter) 2. The AI Prime light 3. Artica Chiller 1/15 (i think) 3. Eheim Canister with half a tank of porous membrane 4. SICCE canister (used once as a backup) 4. Aquatic Life Twist-In 75 GPD, 4-Stage RO/DI Water Filtration Unit (used like 15 times) 4. Tunze wavemaker (a bit old but functioning) 5.. The livestock - 1 clown fish, 1 fire shrimp, 2 smaller shrimps, three small anemone. 6. Two IKEA large storage boxes with test kits, supplements, plus all the accessories collected over the years. 7. IKEA cabinet. The only condition is I do not want to sell it piece by piece (and that means getting into the storeroom and risk my back). The pets have sentimental value and I really would like them to survive in the new owner's place. Everything to go at one time. I dont care if you buy and then re-sell the items as long as there is a nice place for the fish, corals and shrimps. I am looking for a responsible new owner who cares about livestock or someone who wanted to start a hobby but felt it was too expensive. So please dont text me if i can sell this item or you want that item specifically or ask me to open the box to take detailed pictures as that means bending down which is bad for my back. Hope you understand bro! I know there are alternatives like auto water changer but I think my back recovery is more important. Will miss my tank and I hope it finds a great and kind owner! Thanks for listening! And we have to figure out how to transport these. Harry

Dear all, it has been some time since I updated on this site. As I have previously written, one of our companies is in water purification technology business for human beings. Out of mischief (really thinking out of the box), we decided to apply the same technology meant for humans to the reef tank. To our stunned minds, the technology killed all the bad bacteria, READ this- my blue tang no longer catches the infamous white spot diseases, it stabilizes the water parameters, suppresses algae and yet not harmful to corals, shrimps and fishes. This is not a marketing stunt. We obviously signed a deal with a reefing specialist company in this business to make it commercial. The truth is we are not in the reef space, plus I am just a newbie hobbyist. And thanks to all the elders here who gave me tons of great advice, reefing became a fun hobby. Little did we know the tech can be used here. I have signed the NDA and it will be up to my business partners to announce it. I understand this is not the right space to make such announcement. It is just an accidental experiment that works. And my tank is happy. And I hope to invent something that makes reef keeping as simple as possible. I am a lazy reefer. I had two tank "accidents" before this experiment. My chiller pump failed and I came home the next day to a cooked tank. Another time was getting harlequin shrimps which died and polluted the tank. Now I just keep things very simple. Using the tech, the tank is fuss free. I also installed a Seneye to prevent mechanical failure like chiller pump malfunction. Happy reefing Sirs!

Dear Santa Monica, Your idea is brilliant and thank you. You should manufacture it in China and sell this. Here is an idea based on your concept. I use the Innovative Marine Nano Reactor in my Fluval Edge. And it already turns brown. There is a little bit of algae. Why there is no massive algae is because there is water flow pushing upwards and there is no rough surface. So all i need is to insert a roughed up plastic piece inside. Get an airpump and a small airstone. Now you have dual function. The reactor still works because the water flow will move the pellets inside. The air bubbles will move them even more. And algae can grow inside and all I need is to wash the tube. The best part is there is already 4 holes at the bottom of the reactor so I can just shaft an airstone in it. Of course it will look ugly in the tank - a tube of green mess. But I can always build an opaque container around it. Comes maintenance time, I just pull the tube out. Come to think of it with your upflow algae remover, I may not even need the reactor pellets. When I got the bandwidth, will work on this project and thank you for sharing! HF

Thank you! I never thought of artificial rock!!! I often wonder who will buy such rocks! Now I do!

You guys are right. I poured 6 cans of soda water. One came out and died. The other is still inside the rocks or escaped while I lifted the rock out of the sand. I know I can leave it in the sun, cure it and put it back. But I hate the idea of a hibernating alien. And the rocks started to smell after the soda water soaking. Had to throw the rocks. If I hear knocking on the glass tonight. It means Alien 2!!!! By the way is there any shop that sells live rocks with no monster? I know can't guarantee but minimal chance or it is too good to be true? Boy I am exhausted doing this pest removal.

Found out another live rock has the other mantis shrimp! So now two live rocks in the pail. I really need help? What else can i do? Thanks reefers!

The title is just for fun but removing the mantis shrimp has been painful and without success. Thanks to the reefers here who adviced me to get rid of two Mantis shrimp piggybacker, I decided to take action. First I did the inverted water trap. Failed. I bought this trap from a LFS. (See picture.) Tried it in the tank. Failed. Thankfully I saw the live rock in which the shrimp was residing. I took the rock out and placed the trap in it with food. (See picture) Failed. This morning, after reading some articles, I tried to put cold freshwater. Failed. Poured non-sweet carbonated water. Failed. My last resort is to pour away the water and leave some puddle of water inside the pail. When the live rock loses moisture, the shrimp will come up and hunt for the puddle to keep it alive. So the theory goes. Of course I thought of pouring boiling water into the live rock or smashing the rock to hunt for it. But these are too drastic an action. This is my greatest fear - while lifting the live rock out, the mantis shrimp swam away from the hole and is now laughing at me from the tank. Like a scene from Alien 1,2,3 and 4. Maybe Sigourney Weaver with her blowtorch gun might help haha. Any better solution? Thanks!!! Harry F.

Thanks Patrick for the reminder that it is an experiment and no heroics.

Is everyone who tried this ok? I mean the tank not you . I just changed to the fluval edge tank due to fengshui reasons (resistance and argument is futile) and there were some casualty. (See member tank posting). New tank syndrome despite the same filter medium, sand, water etc. but the surviving ones are doing fine.

I did my own trap. Failed. Bought a proper trap from a LFS. Put mysis shrimps inside. When submerging the trap, the knob came off and all the shrimps came out. Another meal time for everyone. The short answer is no. Haiz

tried building my own trap did not work. Caught the cleaner prawn instead! Bought a trap and trying. It is tough catching it.

Dear all, can identify what is this piggybacker in the tank? I think it is hitting the tank once a while. A pistol shrimp?

Chiller is Arctica. I think I am the third owner. Noiseless. I sent it for servicing and the repairman uncle told me it is still good for years to come. Love it. It is the smallest in the series. Thanks for the reminder on IKEA wood. No delusion of its longevity. Will custom make a better stand someday. But it won't be as cheap as 100 plus

And yes sir.. Running a car over live rocks. The things we do for our beloved reef tank!

Chiller is Arctica. I think I am the third owner. Noiseless. I sent it for servicing and the repairman uncle told me it is still good for years to come. Love it. It is the smallest in the series. Thanks for the reminder on IKEA wood. No delusion of its longevity. Will custom make a better stand someday. But it won't be as cheap as 100 plus

It is sold in IKEA as Nodli or close to it. For some strange reasons, it is not listed on the online catalogue in Singapore but I think they still have stock. The drawer is perfect to place all your plugs. If you take out the inner horizontal board, you can place it at the side to hide the chiller. It is almost perfect. If only there is a bit more space for all the food, calipers, feeding tube and test kits. You can but I don't want to put damp stuff above the electric sockets inside the drawer. The set even has a rubber tube to hide the cabling. Caveat. I don't know how much weight this table can sustain I used a Miccke (wrong spelling) side console previously which fit the old 1.5 ft tank perfectly but I can't hide the chiller unless I do some carpentry work. This is just perfect. 50cm by 30cm. For nano tank obviously.

Not at all. It is a transfer. All the sand, live rocks, filter medium all moved over.

With the hood on to hide the mess of water tech. Notice it does not close property because of the thickness of Micmol Cree lights. The second photo shows the black spinal column hiding all the wires and chiller tubes. I can probably rely on a single tunze filter but let the new tank cycle first. The IKEA console side table is perfect. There is a drawer for all the plugs. And the bottom can hide the chiller and yet permits ventilation for the chiller.

I was very happy with my last tank but for Fengshui reasons had to shift the tank next to the sofa. I have Fengshui a pinch of salt (bad pun in saltwater aquarium forum) but I had to comply. My first choice was the Nuvo 10 nano tank but I could not make it in time for the fortune hour. So I picked the Fluval Edge and converted to a marine tank. I know all the disadvantages of the small opening but I needed a small enclosure. I made the mistake of filling it to the brim to create the infinity pool effect but there was not enough areation and my yellow tank and one half colored fish (can't remember the name) died. One cleaner prawns crawled into the Vortex wavemaker and had its tail minced. One disappeared and was probably torn to shreds by the fire prawns. And then I realized the live rock can't squeeze into the tank small opening. I packed the big piece live rock under a cardboard and ran my car over it and the pieces worked out fine!!! I am now figuring a way to squeeze a skimmer inside. The Tunze 9004 is a tad too big. The plus thing is all the ugly tubes, cables and wires are all hidden in a black spine structure. I removed the Aquaclear 20 hangon filter. The submerged tunze filters now look like underwater speakers. I had a close call last night. My favorite two clown fishes were dying in the morning but I had to leave to do some errand. I was expecting the toilet flush burial when I got back. To my surprise, both clowns were still alive but barely. I decided to give the tank a CPR blast of tidal wave and bubbles. And the clown came back alive. It is the best joyous occasion in my short fish keeping journey. That is why the tank is not full. Maybe with a skimmer then I can top up the water. But I don't want to risk my two favorite clowns.

It is more than three weeks since i started the vitamin pills treatment. The tank is still doing well. I have to move the corals further apart as they keep stretching out to claim their territories :-)

Project completed. After a one year journey. Thank you all another forum!

Just stick to the aquarium additives but I wish there is a Hacker Guide out there the moment you step into an aquarium shop and he hands out a water parameter sheet of paper. You want all fish, do this. You want coral and fish, do this. Read and sign before you make any purchase haha