hammy

so does that mean if i have a stable system running with tonns of live rock and DSB i can remove my coral chip and canister??

haha bwilly , u ar really cute ... call mi "honey " ... i like that haha... always wonder my no3 why always skyhigh... 40ppm to sometime 80ppm... huh!!!

thanks tanzy!! still thinks that ur tank is really cool !!! but why pple always say what canister is nitrate factory ... always lead to high nitrate ... or it is a myth??

hihi reefers, wondering how many of u use coral chip as bio filter , and heard from many that it will lead to high nitrate ... is it true ??? from my understanding , nitrate is converted from NO2 and NH3/NH4+... only when there is the presence of ammonia , then nitrate will be high ...but i dun understand why for the same system if i use coral chip or canister filter , the nitrate will be sky high than those using overflow system ?? can anyone cares to share ?? thanks!!

hihi reefer , recently i just build a sump with a FUGE ... the FUGE compartment also house a DSB ... 1) wondering does DSB required light to work ??maybe just DSB in my FUGE with no macro algae ... will it work?? 2) it is the deeper the better ?? or 4' to 5' can liao ?? thanks in advanced !!

pm u ....

Glare/Mini Labor test kits..... heh , where to get this ....

wow, roidan! ur pic is well taken, like those in the marine guide book... is that a rose BTA ??

hee , my precious shrimp die b4 i do the 50% water change .... haiz , my heart ache ar !!!

my elegance is in the sand and it is doing very fine in my tank ... but like u have been battling nitrate , always hover around 40 to 50 ppm now , using canister as filteration , probably why my nitrate is high ...using DSB and FUGE too , but still like that , but 1 thing that amaze mi is that all my LS and coral are doing fine and opening big big... suspect that my tetra is spoil so buy sera , still the same , so is my water prob too , i mix water using red sea salt ... there is even one time i desprate that i change 50% then one dae later , the stupid test kit give mi same result.... so i have a conclusion that i will faithfully do my 20 -30% water change weekly and stop playing the number game... spoil the fun in marine but of course the testkit do tell something about the water. never let it go beyond 100ppm maybe u can tell us more on ur feeding habit and filtration system u are using ??

it happen to mi once and when the power resume, the water that flowed out from my canister seem to be cloudy and my nitrite went up , do a immediately 50% water change .. but all my shrimps go to heaven by then ....guess the bacteria die of suffocation ... just to confirm with u that 5 hrs is enough for bacteria die off in the canister...maybe battery powered pump does help dunno?

wow, 1 feet is super challenging ... what LS do u plan to put inside ?? jia you and do update us again ... i love nano but too difficult for mi ....

for the first compartment u can basically put anything u want ... okie biohome is a type of sintered glass and function as a biological filter... it is best to put them at the final stage of the filter, they home our valuable aerobic and anaerobic bacteria ... yes for the first compartmen right, i 'll advice u to put ROWAphos ,phosguard not too sure as never use before ... DSB is one of the way to lower nitrate and personally i have a DSB in my FUGE and it is working well , i will advice u to have at least 5' for that .... biohome can be bought almost at any good lfs,so should be no prob getting them ...

a FUGE is a compartment where u intoduce some macroalgae or live rock to lower down the excess nutrient and nitrate , no3, in the main tank ... it is known that algae absorb no3 as a source for their food and of course light energy is needed for them to photosynthesize ... overall the main tank will not have irritating algae due to high nitrate and nutrient ...

and of course the light for the macroalgae hee , left out such a impt detail. and if u are thinking where to get the sump ###### FUGE tank , u can pm mi as i dunno whether can reveal the name of the lfs a not actually i have a lot of qn on sump and FUGE last time too , but a lot of friendly reefers help mi along the way and i think it is impt to pass on the knowledge .... hammy

yup , actually it depend on what u wanna put inside the tank ... as for the tank i divided it into thre compartment the first compartment is where the water flow down from my i box to a filter pad removing the bigger debrius then go down to the bio filteration where i put in my biohomes.. the second compartment is where my FUGE is ... i put microalgae and some live rock to absorb the excess nutrient and maybe lower down the nitrate too... then not much algae growth in the main tank....or ya i put my prizm skimmer and temp reading indicator there too... my seachem ammonia reading kit ...basically all the artificial stuff that u dun wanna display it in the main tank.... the third compartment is where i put my return pump ... this space is where i drained my ten percent water for water change every week ....whatever addictive i put in, i put into this compartment then the return pump will deliver all the addictive to my main tank .... overall the sump and FUGE have a numbers of advantages.... will post pic in for u as my sump ###### FUGE is 2 feet too ...but now lazy to take pic ... sorry ar my 2 cents...

yap i use to have hair algae grow all over the place .. what i did: buy 4 snail( for 2 feet) do frequent water change intro ROWAphos in to my canister everydae manually pluck them create a refulgium... decrease the photoperiod in the main tank... now my live rock are clear of nasty algae except coralline algae... sandbed are white and clear too.... u are in UK, then no one to maintain the tank?? think ur nitrate level is beyond the acceptable level liao....

ROWAphos did wonder for mi , as for mi my phosphate level is near undetectable after two days ... will advice u to put in ya ... use to have algae boom like urs , but clear liao /.... now got nice nice white sandbed without irrtating bubbles and brown stuff... hope ur nitrate level will be down first as ur coral and fish might suffer ...yes though they are not as toxic as NO2 and NH4 but a high level still affect them... jia you, can one ,as i think all reefer will come across the same prob as u .

well nitrate above 40mg/l contribute greatly to algae growth ... i can see a lot of diatom and cyano on the rock from the pic u post ... not to mention a lot of reefer here are trying to maintain their nitrate level below 10ppm... do frequent small water changes to lower down the nitrate level and ya starve the algae ... hate algae !!!!

haha i try ur method before but it is not going to work lah ... firstly , even if u get two similar pump with the same flow rate ... their actual flow rate will be different due to construction error....then it will result to flooding , secondly , even if u adjust the flow rate till jun jun with valve...with time, the flow rate of the two pump will be different again then what happen , flooding again ...the worst is happen when u are not at home ... thirdly use two pump increase heat unnecceassary , maybe u using chiller la. to help u solve ur problem, get a ibox from our sponsor and only use one return pump, everythin will be solve ... not to mention flooding as it work by the principal of gravity.... just my 2 cent , maybe it will work for ur present situation but not for a long run .......

yup starve the algae ... follow justink's advice and u will see a improvement in ur tank ....

fan reserve for 19percular , thread close ... thanks s for all who are interested and pm mi ...

thanks for all the interest ... changing with bro angry at the moment because he is staying near mi ....thanks for all the interest .... bro reddevil, really wanted ur combination but u stay too far , then very ma fan for the both of us since i am not driving ... sorry

er , i on my light for min seven to eight hours a day .... and all my corals are doing fine ....ya i think i will be better if u get the 55w pl instead of 28w ... brighter better

wow, since u are in canada with the blessing of lower room temp, i think it will be better to get pl rather than fl... with pl u can get to keep more light demanding coral rather than just mushroom .... but i think t5 will be the best if u worried a lot about heat problem in due time ... get a fan to blow across the surface of the water surface , temp should not be a prob... i use 2 x 55w pl with 2 x 20w t5 for my 2 feet tank ... temp hover around 27 to 27.5 with a big fan blowing across the water surface ... imo, fl is very inefficient.... actually depend on what u wanna keep lah...