SubzeroLT

Looking forward to updates! Welcome to the hobby. However, I would suggest starting the thread in another section of the forum under "Members Tank & Specs". This is the best place to document your journey into this fun & interesting hobby. (https://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/forum/34-members-tank-amp-specs/)

Added some new fish recently. Flavo anthias And a couple of blue eye anthias Cultured baby brine shrimps to feed the flavo anthias. Just to get them to eat something for a start before weaning them over to LRS Frenzy. Added a 2nd chamber of sulfur to keep nitrates down. This is also in prep to cycle some media as I plan to wash the original reactor/chamber soon.

Full tank shot to kick off 2021 This is the current light schedule for the AI Hydra 64 & 32. In the past weeks, I received several queries about which light to buy for their tanks & why I chose AI Hydras. My feedback generally centers around a few points : Get as much spread as possible. Multiple sets placed apart will minimize shading In my opinion, lights & pumps are 2 equipment you should be willing to invest a little more on. Very important is to have good local support in case things break down (both within & beyond warranty period). You don't want to be left stuck with faulty equipment that cannot be repaired quickly Other things to consider : Factor in brand, quality, good user reviews & watts per dollar. Though not so critical, resale value should sometimes be considered. In my case, AI Hydra ended up in the sweet spot. Very happy with them so far. Enough PAR & corals are doing OK. Ecotech Radions have higher performance (and price point). Maybe for the next tank/upgrade. Some corals pics. Taken with Olympus EM5 camera with 60mm macro lens + yellow filter. Indo gold torch(Left) & Aussie gold torch(right) Aussie gold torch(left) & Holy Grail (right) Euphyllia paradivisa Ricordea from fellow reefer Law88 (thanks!!) Birdsnest The pink/gold hammer & blue hammer from Coral Fanatics SG. Lobo from reefer Azil

Several LFS do water collection occasionally. Follow their facebook page for announcement - ReefmarketSG, Iwarna or Reefing Reality. Price range from about $60-$110 depending on the vendor (i.e. Fauna Marin, Marinlab or Triton). All are about the same.

The water parameters shown is just part of what's measurable with hobby test kits. In reality, there are a lot more parameters that's important. Suggest to send the water for ICP test to get the full picture. There is a possibility of pollutants or even some elements that could be zero ppm and hence limiting cell function. At first glance, 0ppm phosphate is not good. If unsure, another option is just to do a lot of water change (eg. 30 to 50% water change every 2-3 days). This is to refresh the water parameters and not start adding additives blindly.

Saw many blue/red harlequin shrimps at Coral Farm on Tuesday.

I'm now running around 2000/hr.

An alternative is to cover the entire tank with plastic sheet (from SKP) & masking tape gaps. For day time when renovation happens. Remove the cover at night. Reverse lighting period so lights come on at night.

Back in June, I pasted several zoa polyps on this 3D printed honeycomb frag plugs. Each hexagon bit is held by thin tabs. Easy to cut off with a pen knife. Now they have grown & spread out over the entire rack. Its easy to frag the zoa now with minimum risk of damaging the polyps. Particularly good for expensive & sensitive zoanthids.

Trachyphyllia looks happy after a meal of Nyos LPS pallets, DD paste food and a dash of Fauna Marin MinS All puffy this morning This pair gets along well The harlequin shrimps having a meal as well.

Seems like urchins wearing a hat is all the range recently. Several reefers like Simon & Chun Wai highlighted this & I decided to jump on the bandwagon & 3D print one as well. Merry Christmas:) Plan to re-do some light settings & equipment DIY over the long weekend. But for now, here are some recent corals pics. Got 2 hammers from Coral Fanatics SG recently. The corals look much nicer in person. Purple/gold on the left. And blue hammer on the right. The corals there are extremely nice. Need to make space. Hard to capture the colors with the bluish light. In any case, this is a good article written by Willy about reef photography : https://www.sgreefclub.com/home/reef-photography-tips-tricks/. Need to try his white balance technique. Recent addition In an earlier post, I mentioned about reducing the light intensity of the AI Hydra over the gonio garden after discovering the PAR levels were too high. Gonio appear to prefer the lower light. Fiji pink birdnest growth is still very slow. At least the pink base starts showing. Not mine. Hosting a chalice for a fellow reefer. Need to mount on a larger frag plug soon. Sunset millie loving the strong random flow in front of the MP40 Zoas from SRC's "Stay Home, Stay Safe Reef At Home contest" back in July. I'm not really a zoa's person but glad all 5 types are surviving. Think I need to space them out more so they grow out more evenly. From Supreme5 on 26th July '20

This is a good reference. https://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topic/142386-picasso-clown-breeding-journey/

Came across this chart on the internet (posted in 2014) on how designer clownfish come about. +1 on what others mentioned, as long as you like the patterns. Pricing depends on shipment quantity & source. Generally the 'newer' creations are more expensive.

Nitrates & phosphates at very high levels are toxic to fish & corals. Some corals are more tolerant of high nitrate/phosphates (eg softies, zoanthids). So there is a 'good range' that is beneficial. And a limit beyond which it starts to stress fish/corals. Just like in humans, to quote one example, overdose of beneficial elements such as calcium can lead to renal stones, kidney failure and death.

Crazy busy with work recently & didn't have much time on the tank. Now to do some catching up maintenance. The Atlantic Blue Tang has grown quite a bit. And (finally) the bluish colors are showing up during the day time. Its also quite an aggressive fish. This is what it looked like in October 2019. About 1.5". Got it from Iwarna back in August 2019. I picked the smallest of the lot. About 1" even though the larger ones were the same price. Very glad it survived Did some minor tank maintenance recently. The Versa released a software update recently. Slight update to the interface such as Amount dispensed today. And also able to input the dosing container volume information. Using the versa to dose Kalkwasser to increase pH. 2L during night hours. 0.2L during day time hours Replaced the rowaphos. These wide mouth funnels are very convenient. Quick rinse with RODI water The CR secondary chamber was getting choked with fine residue. Dismantled it for a quick wash & top up. Fine mush I always use a fresh section of the tube during maintenance. This minimizes chances of fatigue & cracks over time. Snip off a bit with a tube cutter.

For a quarantine tank (no medication), I would put pre-seeded bio media, air stone & a wavemaker. If seeded bio media is not available, I'd do 50% water change daily. For a quarantine/hospital tank (with medication), I typically do a 50% water change daily and top up the medication to make it full dose. If you have smaller fish, you can probably get away with less frequent or smaller water changes. The 50% example was based on full grown AT or full grown square anthias in a 20L tank. In both cases, food will foul up the water very quickly. Feed less if possible. And scoop out all uneaten food within 5 minutes.

Actually torches especially the holy grail torch need relatively strong light. I reduced the right most one because gonios (which cannot handle too high light) is now placed on a rock where an SPS used to be located.

Did some minor re-scaping after trading away the large stylo colony. Moved the gonio garden from the sand bed in place of the sylo. But found that the PAR there is probably too high for goniopora (300-400 range). So I unlinked the Hydra64 on the right side to have its own light setting for now and slowly acclimatize the gonio to higher PAR over time. This is the current reading : Setting for all the lights except the right most Hydra64 PAR numbers at the gonio garden (located on the right side of the tank) Light setting for the right most Hydra64

Thanks. This is another stem of Bali Slimer that's growing quite big. I feel that SPS growth is more attributed to OK water parameters & sufficient light (in my case, using AI Hydra) Any specifics about 'feeding the tank'? For solid food, I feed fish with pellets (about 1 teaspoon) and minced prawn/fish meat (about 1 table spoon worth) daily. Much of the floating bits get picked up by the corals. Fish also get half palm sized sheet of dried seaweed daily. A teaspoon of Reef Roids on alternate days (target feed goniopora & millipora). And pinch of DD Reef paste daily.

Quick tank update Will be saying goodbye to this stylo colony this coming weekend in an effort to clear space for new corals. Grew from a frag of 2 knobs about 4 years ago. Trading it with a fellow reefer for a trachyphyllia geoffroy (Open brain) Close up of the stylo. Teal polyps with lime green/yellow base Other things going on. Hoping the gonio garden will do well. Added a female mandarin dragonet to the tank (with existing male). Placed it in an isolation box with a DIY 'pod hotel' and a bunch of hair algae. Fed it with fresh baby brine shrimps 4 times a day for several days in an effort to strengthen it a little before releasing it. All pumps off to stop water flow while baby brine shrimps are squirted into the hair algae during each feeding.

A sump increases total water volume -> tends to lead to better stability. A sump is also a place to place bigger equipment and more bio media. You can get away without it. But generally will have a higher chance of success with a sump compared to without one. To keep things simple a large AIO compartment can also work.

Almost impossible to keep in home aquarium unless you have a special setup. Tall, very deep species tank, no light and very cold water (~15degC) and able to feed live food regularly if you want to keep it long term. For a general home hobbyist, I'd suggest to drop the idea.

Generally a larger skimmer (i.e. in sump) will perform better to pull organic waste out of the water.

Looks good!!

If its manageable, easiest is to take the rock out to remove the GHA. You can kill it by dripping or brushing on hydrogen peroxide. Ensure they hydrogen peroxide does not touch your corals/hands. Not a fan of using additive if more straight forward methods are possible. Else the usual advice comes in : Reduce nitrates/phosphates. Have useful fish like tangs, snails/sea hare or algae blenny. Else use vibrant ($$)