soggycookies

same here! glad to know there are still other fans of softies around. what sort of kenya trees do you have? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

what are you planning to upgrade to? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

looks like some kind of hydroid species to me Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

simple, effective and very cost-efficient. thanks for sharing! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

i don’t have experience with API quickstart but from what i’ve heard it’s not as effective as some other bacteria implementations for cycling new tanks like microbacter-7 or Dr. Tim’s One and Only. personally i would roll with either or those instead. but yeah phantom feeding consistently and testing for ammonia nitrite and nitrate should work fine for cycling your tank Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

always exciting to setup a new system! for the media, if you’re getting the blocks, personally i find that it benefits greatly if you can fit marinepure in an area with low flow. it’s very porous(which is better for more bacteria housing) but also brittle, so imo it’s not ideal in an area with generous flow. marinepure media are more brittle(both spheres & blocks) than maxspect’s from what I know, so perhaps a combi of maxspect nano biospheres in an area with higher flow and marine pure blocks in an area with lower flow? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

personally i’d run them after cycling as soon as i get my livestock. the nitrates and phospates during cycling ideally you’d wanna remove them via staggered waterchanges Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Woahh. that must have been quite the experience. thanks again for sharing the not so glamorous parts of this hobby that everyone should be aware of too. Thankfully it’s never happened to me before but yeah, stuff like this is more reason to wear gloves while handling coral. I’ve never been infected by touching coral/through an open wound/cuts but I’ve been bitten by my cowfish on my forearm before while doing maintenance, and it drew blood hahahaha Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Some photos of an assortment of coral from my old mixed reef setup after converting from FOWLR teal anchor euphyllia pink-tip frogspawn pocillopora sps Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

A miliaris cowrie, one of my favorite algae grazer CUC. they have a very peculiar mouth that has an appendage that resembles an actual human tongue that from my observations is used to literally “lick” algae off surfaces Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

An algae turf scrubber. works in a similar way to a refugium growing macroalgae with a light source except it grows algae on a piece of plastic with a light shining directly at it. the plastic sheet is submerged in the water to uptake nutrients and every now and then you’ll have to remove the ATS to manually remove the algae that grows on it to remove the nutrients it absorbed from your system permanently. great option for those without the space for a typical refugium Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

if you are just starting out with corals i’d suggest avoiding sps and going for soft corals like leathers and toadstools.. i would avoid stuff like zoas and polyp-like coral like zenia or gsp though, since you have a porcupine puffer. it’s hard to stock up on coral when you have larger puffers in the same tank. they might use sps and hard coral to grind their teeth and eat soft coral.. so frankly it’s not ideal. but no harm trying out with some cheaper ones to see what they go for. a lot of times with fish stocking for stuff that aren’t tangs, damsels or smaller wrasse... whether the fish is “reef-safe” or not is largely subjective(except for fish that must have coral in their diet like some butterflyfish species). for e.g. i have an 8” annularis angel in my reef tank with all kinds of softies except zoas and it’s been a model citizen for close to a year now. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

simple and effective innovation! like how it’s cost-efficient and a good recyclable choice as well. even “single-use” plastics can be recycled if we just try! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

One of the things I miss the most about my old FOWLR setup was being able to keep members of the puffer family, like this Map Puffer back in early 2018 Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

thanks for sharing even though the experiences weren’t all rosy bro. it takes courage to show the side of this hobby nobody tends to share out of fear of judgment. we all make mistakes along the way. what is important is that we learn from them and come out of it even wiser and with improved aquarium-keeping Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

i think investing in a better skimmer would be more ideal. the ones with the wooden blocks are less reliable. you could go for one of those HOB options or smaller skimmer models that operate with their own internal pump. the better skimmer types generally have a needle-wheel impeller. Bubble Magus and eshopps are some of the brands you could try. more affordable imo cheers Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

found some old photos of my older system back in 2017 Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

always happy to help! if you don’t already have a skimmer installed, getting a good one suited for your overall system volume will definitely help a lot in the long run. if you already have a skimmer and have the space for a refugium, it wouldn’t hurt to have a section for it that is appropriately lit. if you have space constraints i’d say an algae turf scrubber or a macroalgae reactor would be more efficient. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Earlier on I used the same aluminium bars as a way to suspend and support the remaining mangrove plants I transferred over from my decommissioned mangrove setup. it was a challenge initially because I had to move well-established specimens that were grown in a deep sandbed from non-budded propagules. I had to let go of more than half of my mangrove plants due to space constraints in the new display(cause there’s also a 9” batfish in there) but thankfully it worked out in the end. Many leaves dropped off due to the change in environment but they’re growing back. Eventually when the roots take hold in the rockwork below(which will probably take quite some time) I will probably remove the aluminium bracing. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

i never tested magnesium in my mangrove setup but you’re probably right about it taking in elements like that. only kept softies in the same system with them Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

i’ll take more photos soon. been using these aluminium bars to great effect for a number of things. really good budget option. just some screws on the interior of a hood secures even some pretty heavy equipment. would prolly not work on rimless tanks though Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

lovely bird’s nest colony and love that toadstool. where did you get it from if you don’t mind me asking? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Kinda looks like a bomb was deployed here but I tried using aluminium bars cut to fit the laminated wooden hood/frame of my 300gal and it turned out pretty well so far. Lights have also been mounted this way 8-9” above the surface of the water Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

at this moment most if not all of the LFS are restricted to delivery of supplies and equipment.. doubt you’ll be able to get livestock legally until 1st June Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

doesn’t look like a hydroid to me. more like some type of aiptasia Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app