R0B

Looking good. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Welcome. If you have any questions feel free to ask. So tell us about your tank? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Pm'd you. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Just PM'd you. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

So sorry to hear about this. I am sure it feels bad, but with a little effort you can solve this. You need to do two main things. First you need to treat your pet fish. Capture and place all fish into a quarantine system. The ideal here is having two tanks/tubs to allow you to follow the tank transfer method. You can also treat the fish medically during each of the stages to improve their health. (For more info on quarantine checkout Humblefish's post on reef2reef or watch reefdudes latest livestream on youtube) Secondly you need to eradicate the ich from your display tank. As already suggested by the fellow reefers above you need to 'fallow' your tank (ie remove the fish). By removing the fish the parasite has no host, so will eventually die. The longer you leave the tank the better. At 3 weeks you will have a c.66% chance of eradicating the parasite, but if you leave it for 6 weeks this goes up to c.95% and c.98% at 9 weeks. The common practice recommend is 76 days. The good news is once you go through all this you will have all the skills and equipment to fight off any future issues with your fish. Good luck! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Kalk will certainly help you supplement calcium and alkalinity for sure and is valid part of a reef keepers arsenal of tools. Kalk does have a naturally high PH so one way is to dose this in reverse cycle to your lights, similar to how you would run a refugium light sequence. As your ph naturally fluctuates during the day, add the kalk when the ph is lower (at night) to avoid any ph shock. If you decide to run Kalk via your ATO you can do what Mike Paletta does and only use your ATO at night. Personally I would not recommend that but rather use a kalk stirrer and dose in the evening. (Although who am I vs the great Mr Paletta). By dosing you can control better and keep in balance adding the right amount of calcium and Alk thus limiting the risk of overdosing (which can happen in kalk+ATO applications). A really great alternative to Kalkwasser is Carbocalcium by Tropic Marin. It won't impact your PH (nor salinity) and is highly concentrated so a little goes a long way (i.e. Kalk you need approx 5.5ltr of saturated solution to add 1g of calcium, carbocalcium can add this with just 25ml of solution). Note Magnesium and trace elements would still need to be supplemented separately. (If you have a small tank Tropic Marin's 'All for Reef' is another great alternative) As your are dosing manually I would recommend purchasing a doser as you can spread out the dosing across the whole day to avoid shocks. https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ph-and-the-reef-aquarium.7/ this article is great for understanding all things PH in your reef tank and will help you if you feel your PH is too high (or too low). Regarding co2 limiting ph. I would simply run your skimmer air hose from an external source and see if your ph goes up. Although I see your worry is more about PH increase so maybe a little co2 is helping you. My bad for reading your post late at night haha. Good luck. Hope this helps. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

To me I would ask why do you need to raise your PH? The ocean has been growing corals for millions of years and its PH is 8.1 . Sounds like you tank is stable, and stability is the key thing we are aiming for. Sounds like you are doing an awesome job already. That said I read sometime back on reef2reef that adding 1% of tank volume with saturated Kalkwasser will increase PH by approx 0.5, (1.25% for 0.7). Have you checked if your PH is limited by co2 first before you play with lime water? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

What a beauty! You clearly have the golden touch. Well done. What do you attribute your success to? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Nice!! Looking forward to seeing this build. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Off to a good start with the refractometer, keeping salinity stable is important. Noticed you are not running a sump, but rather hang on equipment. If that is the case I would personally forego a skimmer and just place a wooden air stone in the tank on a timer. The bubbles in the tank will act as a sudo-skimmer and lift some waste. Then just do weekly water changes. Honestly water changes mean you can get away without loads of gear. The Tidal is fine as you can place a bag of carbon, or a bag of chemi-pure. The biggest problem I find on smaller tanks is keeping the temperature stable. You may want to check out Aaron's Aquarium on youtube as he just started a new series of setting up a simple reef system. Good luck. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Welcome to the salty world of reef keeping! Flow is important so suggest you figure out the type of corals (sorties, LPS or SPS) you intend to have and equip yourself accordingly. That said the main equipment you need is knowledge, so feel free to pick our brains and go from there. All the best. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Awesome. Good luck sounds like a great build. Keep posting. RSR just launched some new tanks so check those out (xl300?), slightly more width in the tank which also means more room in the sump and equipmemt area. That no doubt will always be welcomed. Do you plan on running an ATS or Refugium? Convert filter sock area for Roller Mat?? Either way good luck. Looking forward to seeing how you progress. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

So how does this work? You have to add a float valve? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Good advice from Littlenat. Simply if your Nitrate is still high then your tank isn't cycled yet. As you cycle the Ammonia oxygenating bacteria grow fairly fast and have multiplied to take care of your ammonia in tank, as a byproduct they are producing loads of nitrite. However, the Nitrite oxidising bacteria do not grow as fast and thus your Nitrite can start to rise. If it gets too high (above 5) the Nitrite will inhibit the Ammonia oxygenating bacteria stalling the cycle. (If you test and find your Ammonia is going up after it initially fell this indicates a stall in the cycle). So what to do? Well, best way is a substantial water change. Remember bacteria live on surfaces, very little bacteria is in the water column. Removing water will reduce the Nitrite but give the autotrophic Nitrite bacteria a fighting chance to grow. As they live on the upper surfaces of your substrate or bio media do not disturb your substrate, rocks etc when cycling you need them to host the bacteria. If you have little of the correct surfaces available for them to live, that is something you will need to address. There was mention of the refugium. Yes these are great (ATS even better for size), but not on a new tank. Wait a fair few months. All organisms even bacteria need micro nutrients like phosphate to live (this is why it is also best not to run the likes of GFO at the start. So again give them time and a fighting chance to establish. Also do make sure you have good flow to bring the Ammonia and Nitrite to the bacteria. Poor flow can lead to organics burying the Nitrite Bacteria. As hetrotrophic bacteria start to consume those organics this can slow down the nitrification process as the ammonia rich water doesn't get to the bacteria. Remember we a talking about microscopic layers here. It is just about balance and taking things slow. Get a small controllable ammonia concentration, get the best autotrophic nitrfying Bacteria, have the correct surface and good flow. Keep salinity low and temperature highish (if cycling without fish) to help the bacteria grow. Then it is time to sit back and enjoy. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Really Lovely. Thanks for sharing. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

You need a good light source as the key is to grow the macro algae and then harvest. The rate of growth will be proportional to the power of light you have. The faster it grows the more nitrates it absorbs. So go with a good light! Regarding flow. I think this is more difficult and is more subjective to answer. But keep in mind that a sump with a reasonably sized Refugium (20% of total water vol) expect to pump a c.3x tank volume through it per hour. So a 200L display you would need around 600L an hour of flow-through. Similarily many macro algae reactors recommend have flow recommendations. Tunze say 500L/hr to 1200L/hr. Reef octopus 300-800L/Hr. Which looking at their rated max aquarium size this tends to relate to a 2-2.5 turnover. In a sump set up my experience is too slow a flow and the macroalgea dies off. So I like to add in a powerhead to increase the water movement and keep it gently tumbling (meaning even spread of light). The aim is to have no die off of the algae (thus releasing of the nitrates back into the tank). So IMHO get a reaply good light to maximise growth rates, and keep to 2-3 times tank turnover and you should be good to go. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Cool. Note there is a new Aquaticlife hybrid fixture just out. It has a slightly new design with dimmable T5. Not sure it has reached Singapore just yet. Maybe have a chat with the nice people at Freshnmarine and see if they can import it. If not the old version still rocks! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

I would go with the aquatic life t5 hybrid fixture. With two Radion XR15 pro's and the ATI blue plus T5 bulbs. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Each specimen is different, but typically a CBB will help you control aiptasia. Getting them to feed generally is tough. But once settled they should help resolve. Note there are other solutions. Aptasia X or even lemon juice squirted at the Aiptasia. Good luck. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

A peppermint shrimp will do some damage to Aiptasia as well as a copper band butterfly. Copperbands are not 100% reef safe but that depends on each individual specimen. However, please only get one if you love this fish as they need a reasonable amount of care and attention to thrive. They are fairly shy fish so not great with aggressive tankmates Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Dama Trading on Ubi Road 3 right near the ubi mrt is a good source of acrylic. They will do straight cuts to size for you. They can also do laser cutting and fabrication. Not sure they are the cheapest, but they have great customer service (ask for yuki) and produce good quality work. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Space is always a premium and no matter what size tank you have you always need more haha. I would offer some of the following advice I picked up whilst building my own setups. Firstly if you can get the chiller outside of the tank/house that is always preferable. But assuming you cannot, and to answer your question, yes you can get away with a smaller sump thus creating room for a chiller. You can also think about removing some of the large footprint items from the sump too. But remember it is always a trade off. Here are a few ideas... firstly: Do you need a skimmer? No not always. Getting a roller mat instead of filter socks is a good start, the filter material on a roller mat is sometimes a low a 5micron (much better than a filter sock at 200/300microns) which would remove loads of particulate reducing the need for a skimmer. Also consider bioload, which is simple... Less fish produce less waste... Secondly Calcium Reactors: yes these are super cool, but using kalkwasser and dosing can add both the calcium (and with dosing) the trace elements you will need (the balling method may suit your needs). So you now have a little extra space so i suggest you use it wisely hahaha. Key is nitrate removal. An ATC is often smaller than a Refugium so would ask you to consider that. But even a small refuge is good if you give it the correct lighting. People often don't light this appropriately imho. The key is to grow grow grow the macro algae quickly so it absorbs nitrates and then you harvest it removing it and thus the nitrates from the tank. It's better to have a small area growing macro algae fast then it is a larger area where you just keep a huge clump of macro algae barely alive with a cheap light . So the money you saved on a skimmer can be used on a better light (and water changes). Other things to think about is tank turnover. You may want to consider feeding the chiller with it's own dedicated line and pump (as in a closed loop) Hence, you can keep you water cool, and not have to pump loads of water through your smaller sump. Nowadays you don't need to pump anywhere near the old school 10x through the sump and even 3x is enough. Hope this helps Saying that smaller areas do cause a few more swings and less stability. Anyways hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you need. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Looking great. So what is it you will be working on? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Looking good. Inspired to get mine back up and running as just moved. Looking forward to seeing the end result. Enjoy the build. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Is your tank new? If so then this is all part of the nitrogen cycle. There are some good videos on youtube explaining this (cycling your tank). But this is to be expected. Have you tested for Ammonia and/or Nirite this will help you guage where you stand in the cycle. Basically you have to wait for the correct bacteria to take hold. You can do a few things to help this along such as reduce the level of salt in the water (assuming you dont have anything living in the tank just yet). This gives the bacteria more energy to grow and multiply. Once they have the nitrates will reduce and you can slowly increase the salinity back to normal. You can also add beneficial bacteria. Highly suggest DRTims one and only. If your tank is older, and you properly cycled the tank, then you need to think about how you set up your nutrient export methods. Skimmer? Refugium? ATS? Also figure out where this is coming from (excess bio load?). . (note There are loads of test kits each slightly different, so purple doesnt mean much. Its good you are testing, great job this is a key element to successful reefing, but some numbers wouldn't go amiss that way we can help you more) Hope this helps. Thanks for reaching out Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app