Edmund Koh

Haha mine 1 month Liao still hide inside a Cave in the rock. Cute thing is that the cave has 3-4 entrances so I never know where they will come out from.

I designed my tank to have a display refuge. After a month, that became history and now I have an empty compartment in the tank. Before and after decom of the refugium didn't cause much difference in my DT and water parameters. Biopellets has since been doing a better job at keeping my water parameters stable.

Haven't tried too but it's always been on my bucket list. From what I have read so far, seahorses need to be kept in a species tank as they are really slow eaters and would find it hard fighting for food with other tank mates. The tank should also have plants like mangroves or branching macro algae that will act as support for the seahorses. Wave should also be minimum in the tank.

Yups they are are your firefishes always hiding? Mine only comes out when its time to feed. Wonder what they do for the rest of the time

Love your scape. Haha! I realised we have almost the same fishes. Jiayous! I should go update my tank thread soon too.

I share your thoughts about the shallow tank having just 10" of viewing space after sand is added. Facing the same regret with my own tank but I think I shall live with it for now Your new scape looks good but wouldn't leave a lot of good spots for sps if u intend to go that way in future. Also got to make sure the rocks on top are tightly fitted to the ones below. Else any addition of big fishes might cause the rocks to topple.

Cloudiness after adding of a dead shrimp is usually normal as particles from the dead shrimp will be all around in your tank. Then we come to the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate part. I would say it is normal for Ur tank to have nitrates in just 4 days as U have started out with live rock and live sand which would have contained the necessary bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrite and than to nitrate. Another factor that is bringing down your ammonia would be your skimmer as it is skimming off the unwanted particles from the tank. So I think the question now lies on why is the skimmate clear. The foam from the neck looks really good and that amount of skimmate after 8hrs is not too bad. My take would be there really is nothing much for it to skim out currently. I would suggest turning off the skimmer, lights and chiller at least for the next 1-2 weeks as U go through the cycling process. This will allow ammonia to build up, allowing for the cultivation of enough bacteria to handle your bioload when u start adding fishes. One thing to take note though is that with the skimmer off, water will get slightly cloudier than it is now and your tank will start to smell. Cloudiness should go off within the first couple of weeks so do not worry too much about it. Ventilate the area well so that the smell wouldn't build up in an enclosed area.

Sis, how's the wavemaker so far?

I think he meant Atlantis. Hmm.. Well I think enough have been said about them. So I shall not add on more. Snoopy .. The picture of the compartment Under ur tank is the only compartment available or are there other compartments? My suggestion would be for u to take the chiller out of that space and use that extra space for a bigger sump tank. This will solve Ur skimmer placement issue. Budget may be tight but since cycling will take at least the next 1-2months. Use that time to save money for a good skimmer. Can camp at pasar malam for one too. Skimmer is not needed during cycling so no worries about that. Place Ur chiller outside of the cabinet and pipe it through the ventilation holes in the cabinet. I'm sure the thing covering the slot in the wood can be removed. This will give it a lot more ventilation and honestly, way better cooling power.

Wah .. Twice a day is quite freaky. >.< Yups The Hailea is not too bad. If a JBJ Arctica goes on sale at pasar malam. It is also a good grab even if it's secondhand. There's never a chiller too big for the job. The bigger the better my 1/10 is powering my 50L and takes 5mins to bring down 1 degree. I think for Ur tank size 2-3mins enough Liao. Which is good cos that means Ur chiller don't need to be on as often.

Hmm .. I think u gotta ask them exactly what they did to the sump and the back of the tank. Better to know what goes into your tank than to leave it to fate. Actually to have a marine system running in perfect balance without any mechanical filtration is not impossible. But it takes a lot of patience to cultivate the right amount of bacteria to break down each of those chemicals and then lots of self-restrain when adding livestock.

Looking good bro Hmm .. I would suggest u to get a mini chiller to replace that fan blowing from the top. As yours is a small tank, the fan will cause water to evaporate at a really fast speed, worse when you do not have an ATO to top off water the moment it evaporates.

Ya man... thats a pretty big tank to be going without a skimmer lei. Even if you change 20% water weekly also cannot keep the water at optimal parameters. On a another note, the hole on the side is really small and its not aligned to the ventilation of the JBJ chiller. This will cause alot of heat built up in that compartment causing the chiller to become inefficient in chilling the tank. I would suggest getting a few small PC fans to suck out air from that small hole. Overall it still is a very nice looking tank so dun be disheartened by the comments. Just want u to be moving on the right foot instead of waiting for something bad to happen than panic. Cheers!

Ya man .. bro .. I think your chiller will need more ventilation than what it already has currently. Starting to feel jealous about your new tank =X Hmm .. Ever though of connecting both islands together? This will also provide a lot more hiding holes for your fishes.

Any pictures?

Bro, Sailfert kits are at 25% off over at AM. Super worth it

Anemone likes to have their body covered from light and water movements while preferring its tentacles exposed to moderate light and water movements. So it is pretty common for it to move under a live rock and when ur lights are on, it will extend its tentacles outwards. Do not try to move it back to where it came from as it will only move again. Doing so many times will also cause stress to the anemone and its hosting fishes/crab

I think the worry comes when night falls and a day time 7.9ph will drop to 7.5-7.6ph. But honestly.. I have given up on trying to bump up my ph. Was on Red Sea salt for 3-4 months and ph was always 7.9 in daytime and 7.5 at night. Just changed to Skimz salt and shall see how if affects the ph after my 3/4 water change.

JBJ ATO is quite readily available at most LFS. Madpetz has it, farm behind nanyang Seaview also has it. AM also has it. Tunze will be harder to find. But if u want then go Freshnmarine. They having good discounts on their Tunze items. If I remember correctly, 20%.

Here u go

Think most reliable brands are ok. So far Smart ATO and JBJ ATO are pretty common. Make sure u have a sump compartment that has relatively still water so that u can place the sensor there.

Bro, love the cleanliness of your tank. Sorry for the loss but I'm sure u will bounce back

Bumps for Snoopy! Bro .. U got pictures? Think it will help the sales

Looking good Ur Rockscape really make full use of the space in the iq5. Hmm.. Mind sharing how's ur evaporation rate like?

Not sure if Madpetz still have any Par38. Got to look around. The Par38 bulb is a E27 (big screw type) socket. So any IKEA lamp that has a E27 socket and suits Ur needs U can use.