shoelevy

psst guys, would my comments bring me a law suit from straits time ah??? haha

thanks AT, i was at first unsure of what i did but seeing that you approve of it, i'm glad i did it thanks AT!

i've written a response in to straits times don't worry mods, i didn't mention SRC's involvement just incase. i'm going to write my response for you guys to read and hopefully comment on it. PLS DON"T FLAME ME! i just want straits times to know our views here it is Dear Sir, I am writing with regards to an article i came across in today's straits times dated 6th March 2005 on page 8 regarding a new solution to changing water problems. I am a marine hobbyist with experience of about half year and have read extensively for another few months before i started on this hobby. I have discussed with my friends with years of experiencein this hobby about this article. Our views have triggered sending this email to you. Before i continue, let me first say that we do not mean to insult/offend anyone but would like to enlighten you to certain facts and mistakes in the article. 1st of all, the article claims that the students developed a new way of filtrating the water and that is to make use of bioballs and bio-rings to allow bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate flourish. While i agree that this is the way most hobbyists deal with ammonia in the system, i DO NOT agree with the fact that this form of filtration is new. This form of filtration was already employed by the Germans at least a few years or even a decade ago. Their method is called the Berlin filtration system. The only difference between the German's system and that of the students is that the Germans use liverocks for the bacteria to grow on instead of using bioballs as the students did. However, the berlin system requires alot of liverocks which is expensive to acquire, as such, the bioballs method has already been developed by less wealthy hobbyists locally and abroad.Pay a visit to any reputable fresh or marine fish shop and you should see this method already employed on their display tanks. Hence, it is definitely wrong to say the students developed it because technically, thousands of hobbyists already use this method and it is not new. Next, if the photo featured in the newspaper shows the fish tank that the students developed and they claim the water in that tank is already a year old not requiring the slightest water change, then let me explain to you why they have been successful. (For this next part, i assume nitrates are not gotten rid of since it was not mentioned in the article.) The system that the students employed removes ammonia and the end result is nitrate. As time passes, ammonia constantly generated from leftover fish food rotting and fish urine will be converted to nitrates by the bacteria and lead to a build up in nitrate. There are methods of removing nitrates from the aquarium but i assume the system is incapable of removing nitrates as it was not mentioned in the article. Under such a system, not changing water for a year means nitrates have built up to tremondous amounts, usually in the order of 80-100ppm. From the photo, i see clownfishes, a huge clam, and a few leather corals. 1)The reason why they are successful is because fishes can tolerate high nitrates, 2) clams need nitrates to survive and 3) leather corals are soft corals (soft corals in general are very tough and can withstand nitrates) Had they been keeping hard corals like lps and sps, they would definitely NOT have been successful with not changing water a year. The reason is because hard corals require water that contain less than 10ppm of nitrates to flourish. With the system the students use, hard corals would most certainly have either perished or be extremely unhealthy. What i am trying to say here is the article should have mentioned not having change water for a year is only acceptable IF: the hobbyist intends to keep ONLY fishes and soft corals(even i would not recmomend soft corals under such extreme nitrate conditions) and not sensitive corals like sps and lps. With such high nitrates, even invertebrates such as snails and shrimps and star fishes would perish. The article should also have mentioned that: 1) if the hobbyist intends to be successful with more sensitive creaturess, then he must employ methods to get rid of nitrates.(one of the methods IS WATER CHANGE on a regular basis) 2)nuisance algae flourishes when high nitrates are present which explains the greenish hue seen on the rocks in the photo THESE CRUCIAL POINTS should have been mentioned. Imagine readers after seeing this article thinks that marine tanks are easy and rush to buy the setup, putting in lps,sps,shrimps and starfishes only to find that a few months later, all but their fishes are dead and their tank is overwhelmed with nuisance algae! Such a grave failure on part of the reader is undesireable as it only fuels the hobbyist to buy more corals to "try try" only to find that he is unsuccessful. He has not only wasted his money but precious coral lives. Marine creatures as of this moment are all harvested from the wild, such a grave failure on part of the reader is undesireable as it only fuels the hobbyist to buy more corals, causing higher demand and thus more destruction of coral reefs during harvesting for the corals. Whether I have made a mistake by assuming that nitrate reduction methods were employed by the students and Coral Reef Aquarium, who is incharge or manufacturing the system developed by the students, i do not know. But what i do know is straits times shouldn't have been careless in: 1)omitting nitate reduction techniques employed by the students if they were indeed employed 2)if the methods were not employed, straits times should have cautioned enthusiasts against sensitive coral specimens by explaining that even nitrates, even though less toxic, if allowed to climb to high levels over time can be toxic as well. Thank you for taking time to read this Yours, Mr Wong

i would love to write in what's stopping me is the fact that the article doesn't give detailed information on how exactly does the system work. also, it isn't a system come up by a lfs, it was a system developed by students from singapore poly...as such, i don't think there's a commercial reason over the development of the system

eh but if it doesn't drop at the end of 6weeks then sth is really wrong so don't wait wait until cows come home

if water is back siphoned into the reservoir am i right to say that the water in your reservoir is salt water?

i believe that's the zooxanthalae algae the coral is expelling due to stress although i don't think your Ca is the cause but do boost your Ca to 400ppm have you done anything strange recently? my corals do that once in awhile when i stress them from let's say major water change, or accidental overdose of not so lethal chemicals i read somewhere that holding zooxanthallae is a stressful thing for the corals so in order to reduce stress, they may expel the algae (correct me if i'm wrong about this part) you should only be worried if its a continuous process...otherwise i think its alright because for my corals, when they expel the algae,they close up, do it for awhile (few mins) then they stop and recover once everything is stable

haha bro, its a starfish leh...u expect it to be roadrunner fast?!? meep meep! phew! normal to be slow my sand shifter the brown colour type takes 15-30s to flip back btw, starfishes cannot take high no3, i think by that it means above 30ppm (not sure on this value though because the highest no3 i ever had with the starfish is 30ppm) so do watch out for your no3 i know 2 friends who had their starfishes killed by 60+ppm of no3 cheers

oh my goodness i think i've found my god!

haha, i bet if they had a guy from SRC working on the research project with them, then they wouldn't publish sth like that or they'd probably show a tank with lps or sps inside... i feel so paiseh for them...no offense to anyone

prec and barnacle, you guys speak my mind

ok so now that people can see the article here. appreciate all comments on the article thanks!

here's the article how's the size? everyone can read?

here's the picture beside the article please hold on while i scan the main article mods, if the picture is too big pls forgive because the words are too small so the picture has to be alittle bit oversized so that everyone can read

the article was extremely vague, providing very few details as to how their system actually works, but frmo the looks of it, this is what i can say when i was reading the article, i can't help but feel they're talking about what we already know...bacteria to convert nh3 to no2 to no3. i don't really feel that their system is in any way superior to the existing systems we use in our hobby and also if u look at the photos, they only have hardy and easy things to keep like clownfishes and leather soft coral if they were keeping lps or sps,with the system they're using, i bet they wouldn't say no change water for a year but like i said, the article is very vague, i feel like calling them to clarify on the system they're using...too bad no number provided to call for the benefit of those without newspaper, give me a couple of minutes to scan the article please wait

i'm going into nus this yr i can't gif you specific answers on the psychology course since i'm not in it yet and will not be studying it but this is what i can say first, i'd agree with those of your friends who say nus has an established psychology course since its been around longer....this is prob why its very popular and diff to get in like you said for NTU, one advantage is they let you major it once you register successfully. although this is beneficial if your a level results aren't good enough for nus, but u must remember they just started this course, so it maybe easier to get in but you'll be taking a risk since you don't have anyone to tell you how good the course actually is you say NTU course is recognised overseas but i'm sure this is also true for that of NUS?...cannot be NUS course not recognised overseas right? i suggest you check this up by calling NUS...i seriously do not think its degree is not recognised overseas considering that its the only uni to provide psychology courses for the past few yrs what were your a level results?...if u wanna know more i can help you ask a friend of mine studying psycho in nus. i can help you ask her about admission percentage rates and requirements. just contact me if you wish for my help hope i've been helpful

without the outside box it'll not auto start and stop when there's a black out i think if you see the design already you would understand what me and hermit are saying regarding this pt sell cheap cheap? how cheap?...asking cos i got one planning for sale soon... i selling about 90 if you interested pm me pls

if i'm not mistaken this will create a full gravity siphon, one of the problems with this is the traditional toilet bowl sound so i do not think u can do without the outside box

hi all i've got 3 bottles of chemicals that i don't use anymore. they're not expired yet 1st item: Kent Marine Expert Series Rx.P for parasit treamtments for marine fish and invertebrate 95%full, selling for $15/- next 2 items: Aquapharms 2 part pro series sea balance for maintaining Ca and Kh levels. Bottle A maintains or boosts Ca and Bottle B maintains or boosts Kh these 2 bottle preferably sold together 90% full $7/- each if sold seperately $13/- if both bottles taken together. pick up pt is my home near reborn (towner road) pls contact me if interested thanks for browsing

bro try using po4 removers i have friends who have high nitrate problems like you but they tell me they control diatoms by using rowaphos and increasing flowrate btw, u've got a superb tank!...i like it alot

what algae are you keeping? i keep caulerpa species, can on 24hrs no problem

did you just buy the coral? my guess is photo shock

alexgan, this new place you shift it to, what qualities does it have in terms of flow and light?

i had one sand shifter star before and its leg got shorter. later i discovered a crab munching on its leg so chances are there's a crab in your tank doing this

hi guys, came across this brand of test kit call lamotte frmo another forum users there claim it to be very very ex and accurate as well any of you guys have heard of it before?