dtdream

Haha yea I’m going to slowly think about the UV. It’s part of the hobby, enjoy the waiting and the thinking. Cool, if you have a tank thread please share, always nice to see pics. I have one but not updated, been really lazy. Will try to update soon.

I certainly hope so, if my Varios fails then I gotta go buy 4D lol. While I would agree SAS fishes are generally healthier than other LFS, the risk of white spot/parasite is not zero.. I believe they do use therapeutic copper in their tanks too, which suppresses but not necessarily kills all ich and other parasites, etc. Then if suay and actually the fish has suppressed ich, etc, when you bring home it all comes out. In fact I got one fish I bought and QT with another reefer for 2 weeks, still kena I *think* some kind of parasite. Very minor and it seems like on and off though. Plus the fish is healthy and doesnt seem to be affecting other fish. So just monitoring for now. Actually if you have another tank it would be nice to do QT, for QT-ing fishes only you don't need a chiller. I do understand the hassle though. But then again your tank running UV should be added insurance too, I've been thinking of adding UV to my tank too but still thinking. And yea for equipment I want to buy, I usually google the model for reviews first. So can see what other users say in the other worldwide forums too.

Yea I've heard good things about the Jebao actually, but I did not get it because I read some other places that from time to time it does fail (but very, very few cases to be fair). DCP-6500 imo overkill for the Red Sea Reefer Nano though, its 6500 LPH! I think for Nano the DCP-4000 should be more than enough even considering head loss. I went with the Reef Octopus Varios 4 as I read pretty much zero bad things or failures on it. It is quite a bit more chor though, so while it works perfectly, I'm not entirely convinced it's worth it, but maybe 90% sure? hahaha! And yea I know what you mean, this is hobby really feels like bottomless pit.. SAS is a great place to shop, a lot of nice stuff, but it is a slightly more expensive place for livestock. They do maintain their tanks pretty well though, so give and take I suppose.

Yay! Yep if you do end up geting another return pump, you could consider to get a slightly stronger pump that allows you to adjust the flow a little, so you have some margin of error. Just try to keep in mind the the head loss factor when you buy. If you are very "ngiao" on noise like me, don't get pumps which are too oversized too, because it will produce more vibration noise, especially the AC pumps. You could consider the DC pumps which are much quieter, but also much more painful for the wallet unfortunately. In any case, generally speaking higher tank turnover rates up to a point, is good for overall tank health. eg. 10x your tank's total water volume. (absolute turnover without head loss, interference, etc.)

No worries. Yea you can try as above, but if still find too much head loss with the UV attached, you can try putting the UV + Chiller together on 1 pump, then the main return pump to you DT no interference with anything else. If you find that that works, and you still want to keep your UV attached to main return pump, then probably time to get a stronger pump.. Good luck!

I own a red sea 350, using stock valve, I agree not so easy to tune, but with some patience, not so terrible. My overflow is almost dead silent after tuning. My 2 cents: Most probably your pump is not strong enough. Please remember that there is always some head loss whenever you add things in series to your pump. Based on what I can see on the Red Sea Website, even Nano they are recommending a 2000 LPH pump. https://www.redseafish.com/aquarium-systems/reefer/#data So if you are using 1200 LPH, even with no head loss, its still slightly underpowered. I guess the reason you found it ok at first, is because if it is connected only from sump to tank, the head loss you experience is only head loss from height, which is still ok I guess. But once you add things in series like your chiller and UV, then you'll experience too much head loss. I'm not sure what pump you are using, but just as an example, if you have the Syncra 1.5 which is rated at 1350 LPH, at 1m height (sump to DT), it effectively only is a 1000 LPH pump. Graph below. So you need to check what is the height from your sump to DT, and then check the head loss graph of the pump you bought. If no graph, you can use the below as a rough guide I suppose. And if you are working with effectively only a 1000 LPH pump, then you add chiller and UV in series, it maybe become only a 800 LPH pump or even less. My opinion is that it will best to set up a different pump just for the chiller/UV. Don't think you need to worry about the efficiency. I run a separate pump for my chiller that returns to the sump as well, my water is chilled just fine. If you think about it, assuming a 1000 LPH main return pump, it's still relatively quite a lot of water. So even if the UV/Chiller pump returns back to the sump, a good part of the water from the UV/Chiller pump will be recirculated back to the main DT by the main pump. Also, please double check, but most likely your chiller and UV water flow requirement is different from your return pump requirement. So if you run them in series to your return pump, then its not going to be very efficient for your chiller and UV too. If you wish to investigate in more detail, you can "agar" how much head loss you are currently experiencing by doing a simple experiment. Take a bigger measuring cup, a timer, and time how fast the water coming out of your return nozzle in your DT (with your current set up) fills that cup. Then, go to your sump, disconnect your pump to measure directly the time it takes to fill the same cup without any head loss or interference. You should see a pretty big difference.

You're very welcome and hope everything goes smoothly for you. Having a little more patience always help! And don't worry about temperature during cycling too. The nitrifying bacteria we're trying to cultivate has quite a high tolerance for a wide range of temperatures. Cycling might be slower at much lower temperatures, eg. below 20C. But we don't really have this problem in SG

Hi bro, don't worry about nitrite actually, nitrite is not toxic in marine tanks even at fairly high levels. But since you are monitoring nitrite already, then also since you are still cycling your tank, it is not a bad thing to see nitrite! That means that your cycle is moving on nicely. As for nitrate, it is also very good to see it now, as that means your tank is almost completed its cycle. Just let is be for a few more days and wait for ammonia to go to zero. Once Ammonia goes to zero, then your cycle is essentially complete. I would do the water change only once cycle is complete, maybe even up to 50% since your nitrates are fairly high. Once that's done then congratulations, you can add fish!

Assuming the white spots on your fish is "Ich".. 1) LFS usually use therapeutic copper in their tanks. It suppresses white spots so you may not see it in the tank, but usually does not not kill it totally. Even other reefer's tank may have itch, but because fish is healthy, can fight it off. 2) Yep if your fish is healthy and no stress, should be strong enough to fight it off. But your tank will forever have white spot parasite unless you keep your tank fallow for something like 9 weeks? 3) You can try polymedic as above. Most people says they are reefsafe, but I've read other forums not 100% success. Some use UV. Or both polymedic + UV together. Some people like to add "vitamins" to dip their food before feeding, eg. vitachem. Not sure if it really works, but at least shouldn't harm anything. Ich is not so scary, just try to keep fishes healthy. Velvet on the other hand..

If both nitrates and phosphates are very high like yours seems to be, it’ll be good to do a bigger water change first. This will buy you some time to look into the other methods of nutrient export that JiaEn mentioned . And actually, a source of nitrates and phosphates (among other things), is our tap water. It is much more preferable to use ro/di water if you are not already using. Good luck!

No prob. Waiting is probably quite sian, but try to endure. Use the time to think about other stuff like what fish you want to add! Salifert should be good! Good luck!

What testing kit are you using? Some say API have some slight accuracy issues for ammonia. Cycling ammonia you should be able to get at most marine fish store. FnM has for sure, looks something like this: https://www.freshnmarine.com/products/drtims-aquatics-ammonium-chloride-2oz would recommend removing the prawn if you use this though, so easier and more accurate when monitoring the changes in ammonia level.

sold to a nice bro

tentatively reserved

Bought wrongly. Magnet too weak for my glass thickness Used once. Selling at $10. Pick up: Tai Seng Area.

It really depends on quite a number of factors, like how big your tank is, temperature, what kind of rocks you are using, dosage of bacteria. But in any case, if you’re using bare rocks and your tank is average sized, eg. +/- 3ft, generally should see ammonia within a week or so if you are using prawn. There is a slight possibility that your tank is already fully cycled if you are very heng with your batch of bacteria, and/or you are using cycled media and/or rocks. If you’re not sure, start to ghost feed, or buy some cycling ammonia to add, then see if you are able to test for any ammonia. Another clear indicator is actually for you to start testing for nitrate as well. If you ghost feed or added cycling ammonia, you should start to see your nitrates rising as well, which means your tank is pretty much cycled.

Don't be shy to just stand in front of the LFS's tank and observe for 10mins or even longer too. Watch out for unusual behavior like swimming erratically, scraping off surfaces, breathing too quickly, etc. Usually if swimming properly, no visible aliments and eating at LFS is good. If they chase food will be best. But again, you could be unlucky with cyanide fishes or maybe some hidden disease. Best best if you can QT, but I do understand why many in SG don't. So yea best bet is just observe closely at LFS.

Generally clowns and chromis are considered easy fishes. Which LFS did you but them from? Did you check if they were healthy and feeding before you bought them? If corals are doing ok, "easy" fishes should be well, easy. No need to wait longer, especially is Ammonia levels are 0, which it should be if your corals are doing ok. Unless you're just unlucky and got fishes caught by cyanide and the cyanide levels were too high. Just have to try again. Try to get fishes which look stable, no visible aliments, and feeding (ask the LFS to feed and show you, most will assist with this).

I have a Red Sea 350 and it's honestly quite well built. I don't think I could get similar quality (glass + cabinet + sump) at the same price if I went custom. The sump is designed well as the other reefer mentioned, especially if you just want the basic gear like skimmer etc. But if you want to put more gear in, then it can be a little small. I would have got the XL version if I had more space, but happy with the Reefer 350 in any case. If you not exactly sure what you want and don't really want to calculate things like return flow, water height etc, then it'll just be easier to go Red Sea. I think custom is good if you need to fit your tank in a space with a specific/customized dimension. Or you have a clear idea on how you want to set up your tank with specific equipment (so you can fit everything in the sump, etc).

Sold and collected to a nice bro. Was friendly and not only punctual, but early. Thank you.

As per title. Bought I think $30+ new. Selling $15. Used for a couple weeks. RFS: Bought a longer one. Please see pics. WYSIWYG. Collection: Tai Seng area

The disadvantage of placing the chiller inline with the return is: (1) There's some head loss so you'll lose flow. (2) Flow required for your chiller to cool water effectively looks to be lower than the recommended return pump flow (5-10x tank volume/hr), so there's incompatibility there. (3) Single point of failure, eg. if return pump fails, then it's equivalent to taking out your chiller as well. You have no back up pump/return from chiller. The advantage of placing inline is that you'll just need 1 pump, so you can save some money on the cost of the additional pump and cost of electricity I guess. imo, disadvantages outweigh advantages, but your tank your call. Skimmer should not be required during a cycle, though the gas exchange does help, so you can consider running it dry (no skimmate). Lights is actually also not required, but if you want to turn it on that's fine as well for aesthetic reasons I think it would be good if you bought a cheapish but fairly reliable test kit(eg. Salifert) to test your ammonia levels before deciding if you need to ghost feed or not. You may not be required to ghost feed too, depending on your stocking plan. If you put in a hard-ish fish in first, imo you don't need to ghost feed once the cycle is complete. Just add the fish in and feed for real. Cycle is complete when ammonia is zero and you can detect nitrates. Should take anywhere from 2-6 weeks depending on your bottled bacteria (if you're using any). If no bottled bacteria I would say at least 4-8 weeks or more. Not sure if I was clear but please add the fish only when cycle is complete!

Alternatively you can buy something like this to calibrate. but I noticed that temp does make a slight difference (air-con set at 22C vs no aircon around 30C) https://www.freshnmarine.com/products/copy-of-brightwell-aquatics-refractometer-calibration-standard?_pos=2&_sid=fced461b1&_ss=r

Up! Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

Up, $140! Please PM if interested.