soggycookies

One of my favorite GSP variants: Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

My favorite child having breakfast earlier today. Who’s your favorite fish in your system? P.S. pardon the potato quality phone camera photo, this was taken from the side of a semi-peninsula display tank. water depth makes taking good photos a challenge Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Pods galore! What critters do you have in your refugium? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

ah okay. my system always runs lower calcium at 420 and below (averages around 410 alkalinity is usually 8.) doesn’t concern me much considering i keep mostly only softies. these lower parameters reduce the growth of coralline too, so I don’t need to scrape it off as often. the downside is that if i did intend to keep lps and sps in my system they’d probably see very slow growth. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

if you’re keeping fowlr the sea salt should be fine, i read that AF’s reef salt has generally higher elements like calcium and magnesium strontium etc more beneficial for coral. probiotic yields the same parameters as reef salt according to them but contains additional bacteria that claim to reduce nitrates and phosphates as a bonus Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Ah okay. did you happen to test pH and alkalinity levels after using those 2 salt brands? curious to know if they had any striking differences in params Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

wanted to see if the “probiotic” factor does anything beneficial or not. haven’t used aquaforest products before so i figured i’d give them a try via the most fundamental application: their most premium version of salt mix Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

beautiful clam! love how the stripes contrast with the other corals around it Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

any particular reason for changing? i have not tried tropic marin before either. decided to try aquaforest cause i run my alkalinity 8 dkh or lower most of the time. would be great to learn from the experiences of others who might have used/be using AF’s salt too Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

recently tried using Aquaforest’s probiotic salt. What brands of salt are you guys using for your systems? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

that’s great, less to worry about compared to 100ppm hahahah. ime typically once you read nitrates your tank should be cycled. but of course the safest is to test 0 for both ammonia and nitrite with a visible nitrate reading Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

thanks! cowfish are very endearing, and will often spit water at the surface to ‘beg’ for food when they’ve come to recognize you. they do well in larger, peaceful fowlr systems with gentle but turbulent flow. i’ve kept them in a reef setting before, but they will bite fleshy corals and clams. so i wouldn’t consider them “reef-safe”, but ime they don’t touch stuff like gsp, xenia, zoas and clove polyps. unfortunately they aren’t safe to keep with leathers and hard corals due to their habit of biting at rock and coral skeleton(much like puffers) to grind their teeth occasionally Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Fish Spotlight: Parachaetodon ocellatus(Kite/Sixspine Butterflyfish) ^ yet another old photo from my old fowlr setup. ime this butterflyfish species is easier to feed than copperbands and can generally be kept in a small group(3-5) peacefully in a larger system(unlike the latter). Unfortunately they are also less reef-safe than copperband butterflyfish and will nip on coral polyps if not fed adequately- though they are not obligate corallivores so they do not require coral in their diet and don’t actively seek it. I used to train mine to eat shredded pieces of shrimp. It’s is a pretty species of butterflyfish that’s underrated imo perhaps due to it being commonly available in the hobby, and also common locally in our coastal waters. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

yup that’s perfectly fine, just remember not to run lights on your tank during this period cause it’ll fuel early algae growth unnecessarily. all the best! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

you could do staggered water changes or something like a full water change before getting livestock if you wanna save $ on the salt. also probably a good idea to reduce how much you feed the tank cause 100ppm in a tank without fish really is pretty damn high hahahah. 50% wc will still mean your nitrates will be at 50ppm Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

definitely a good time to do a major water change. at 100ppm it’s a good bet your tank is definitely cycled. if you have any sort of saltwater test kit for ammonia and nitrite, you could double check to see if the ammonia and nitrite levels are constantly 0 to be sure Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Another old photo of my cowfish just being a cutie back in my old system when it was still a fowlr setup: Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Removed a large clump of algae from my refugium and shook all these guys off. dumped them into my main display so my fishes had a field day. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

also uv filters are pretty pointless if the wattage and flow to match are not up to snuff for your tank volume. a 5w uv filter on a 140g system is probably just wasting your electricity Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

What are you planning to stock up on? I notice the small sunken pot in the substrate. I’m assuming it’s planned for a goby/shrimp? Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Still unsure of the id of this corallimorph. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

A Peacock Mantis Shrimp I kept for a couple of years in a separate system. It fed on frozen shrimp, but I’d occasionally toss it some live clams, small crabs and snails for it to eat. Molted several times while it was with me Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

An old photo of my favorite fish in my previously mixed reef 5ft system: Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

When I had to decommission my mangrove system earlier this year. Removing them as carefully from the substrate was quite a challenge since their roots had grown fine and established in the silt. Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

lovely softie dominant tank Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app