nicholas_yeo

saw some fake corals (plate coral, tube anemone) in flourescent color at the aquarium in Bendemeer. Its located close to the POSB at boonkeng MRT. U can check it out there.

This is my coral layout. I arrange it based onweb data of its requirement (lighting, flow rate, level of placement). Pls comment if any questions.

Tank stats as of 28 Jan - 5th wk into ANN Cycle - Nitrite : <0.3mg/l - Ammonia : undetectable - KH : 10 - Phosphate : 0.3 mg/l (still trying to go down) - ph : 8.2 - Temp : 26degC I believe tank is ready as of next wk. The 1st fish will be a Percula Clown 1st set of corals will be a mushy and a toadstool leather.

refugium snapshot - I put in a caulerpa (bought from sealife). Growing pretty well under 12 hrs of light.

isometric view of the tank

full view after everything is installed. I use black cloth from market to cover the iron wrought stand. Hee.. cheapo but looks okay to me.

A seperate view into the 1st column of Bio / Mechanical filter

Initial Rock work (total 15kg) during ANN cycle. Got them from Sealife (all cured) according to the boss.

2nd problem I encountered is I forgot to cater 'features' to hold the damm light hood. So end up buying acrylic rod from dama in ubi to build up a bar to hold the light. Not very nicely done coz acrylic buffering is very ex.... best from my current budget.

After spending the wkend reading thru the web, I design a baffling 'system' to allow air bubbles to break to the surface while water return to the sump compartment. 1st trial was pretty good, about 90% of bubbles are breaking to surface. Need to tweak and improve alittle more.

one big problem I ran into: Micro bubbles from the skimmer outlet was all pushing thru the return pump..... sigh....

cramp the skimmer into the last compartment... nearly no space... whew....

Skimmer Trial - looking good on its performance.

side view of the tank

here is the tank in general

Hi all, still new to the forum. I restarted a new nano tank. Plan to keep some general corals (LPS, mushies and leathers). Here are some pics and stats to share. All comments are welcome. I design & DIY the tank and an Iron wrought stand from a guy in Sungei road. Pretty cheap - those interested in the guy can PM me. He makes alot of tanks. Tank Spec size: 2 x 2 x 1.5 (H) Build in IOS system with 3 compartments 1) Mechanical / Bio filtration 2) Refugium wtih 6" DSB 3) Return PH and Skimmer Compartment. Equipment & Material 1) Return PH: Rio Pump (~1300 L/hr) 2) SKimmer PH: Rio pump (~2400 L/hr) 3) Circulation pump: Seio 620 4) Lighting (Daylight) : Atman PL x36 W (1x 720k and 1 x100k) 5) Lighting (Actinic) : Atman T8 x 15W x 2 (2nd hand from fellow reefer Danny Lee) 6) Lighting (Refugium) : PL x 11W x 1 6) Skimmer: Macro ASF 500 (75 gallon) 7) Grade 0 & 1 sand: 5 bags from reborn 8) Salt: Marine Environment Research: I spent many mths reviewing products and specs on the web b4 concluding the list and budget that I can afford. One challenge on the nano tank is it is always too small to fit everything in (of coz a 3ft tank will be just nice but I like it small) Rio pumps: Found them moderated pricing with very low power to high flow rate ratio. Got them off from Reborn. fit nicely into my compartment. Estimate 10-15% drop in flow rate after lpumping 1ft in height with all the bends. Will maintain 10-12 times overturn in vol. Skimmer: I wanted a Macro needlewheel originally but can't find ASP100. Always sold out. Got ASF100 - venturi style instead. I cramp this baby into the tank with much diffficulty. Have to saw part of the piping shorter in order to fit the sump. I choosen a larger capacity on purpose so that I dun have to worry about organic overload. Pple tell me there is no such thing as over skimming so get the biggest one u can fit in there and there is what I did. Salt: Check numerous websites and all seem to indicate marine environment is one of the best. Dissolve very quickly and my water was straight at 8.2 pH after settle down (Fresh water source measured 9.7ph). I luv this salt. Much better than red sea salt that I previously bought. Temp: I couldn't afford to run a chiller so no MH is consider. I run my tank in my office as the room temp is always 24degC except on the wkend which can spike to 28degC. I guess I am the only one here who has to use a heater to keep the tank at 26degC. Otherwise, it will dip as low as 22.5degC on rainy days in the office. Lighting: I uses 2 x PL (36W) with 2 x T8 (15W). Run the PL on 8.5 hrs and T8 on 12 hrs. I wanted to plan for T5 lighting but back last yr, DIY T5 still quite ex. Verysad when Janet from AquaMarine bought in the new low cost T5 after I bought mine. Miss the opportunity. Refugium: 1st time I tried a refugium. Plan to keep Caulerpa and some critters in there to help on the nutrient export. Use a 6" DSB with grade 0 sand. Filter Media: Use quite an extensive of variety here. a) Wool / poly filter on the top layer 2nd layer use a larger density size of foam c) Use PurII from aquapharm (recommended by Janet at aquamarin, so give it a try) d) Use Aquaz Activated Carbon and Rowaphos at 3rd layer d) Use as much coral chips that I can cramped in. Place it from large to small from bottoms up.

Hi all, still new to the forum. I restarted a new nano tank. Plan to keep some general corals (LPS, mushies and leathers). Here are some pics and stats to share. All comments are welcome. I design & DIY the tank and an Iron wrought stand from a guy in Sungei road. Pretty cheap - those interested in the guy can PM me. He makes alot of tanks. Tank Spec size: 2 x 2 x 1.5 (H) Build in IOS system with 3 compartments a) Mechanical / Bio filtration Refugium wtih 6" DSB c) Return PH and Skimmer Compartment. Equipment & Material 1) Return PH: Rio Pump (~1300 L/hr) 2) SKimmer PH: Rio pump (~2400 L/hr) 3) Circulation pump: Seio 620 4) Lighting (Daylight) : Atman PL x36 W (1x 720k and 1 x100k) 5) Lighting (Actinic) : Atman T8 x 15W x 2 (2nd hand from fellow reefer Danny Lee) 6) Lighting (Refugium) : PL x 11W x 1 6) Skimmer: Macro ASF 500 (75 gallon) 7) Grade 0 & 1 sand: 5 bags from reborn 8) Salt: Marine Environment Research: I spent many mths reviewing products and specs on the web b4 concluding the list and budget that I can afford. One challenge on the nano tank is it is always too small to fit everything in (of coz a 3ft tank will be just nice but I like it small) Rio pumps: Found them moderated pricing with very low power to high flow rate ratio. Got them off from Reborn. fit nicely into my compartment. Estimate 10-15% drop in flow rate after lpumping 1ft in height with all the bends. Will maintain 10-12 times overturn in vol. Skimmer: I wanted a Macro needlewheel originally but can't find ASP100. Always sold out. Got ASF100 - venturi style instead. I cramp this baby into the tank with much diffficulty. Have to saw part of the piping shorter in order to fit the sump. I choosen a larger capacity on purpose so that I dun have to worry about organic overload. Pple tell me there is no such thing as over skimming so get the biggest one u can fit in there and there is what I did. Salt: Check numerous websites and all seem to indicate marine environment is one of the best. Dissolve very quickly and my water was straight at 8.2 pH after settle down (Fresh water source measured 9.7ph). I luv this salt. Much better than red sea salt that I previously bought. Temp: I couldn't afford to run a chiller so no MH is consider. I run my tank in my office as the room temp is always 24degC except on the wkend which can spike to 28degC. I guess I am the only one here who has to use a heater to keep the tank at 26degC. Otherwise, it will dip as low as 22.5degC on rainy days in the office. Lighting: I uses 2 x PL (36W) with 2 x T8 (15W). Run the PL on 8.5 hrs and T8 on 12 hrs. I wanted to plan for T5 lighting but back last yr, DIY T5 still quite ex. Verysad when Janet from AquaMarine bought in the new low cost T5 after I bought mine. Miss the opportunity. Refugium: 1st time I tried a refugium. Plan to keep Caulerpa and some critters in there to help on the nutrient export. Use a 6" DSB with grade 0 sand. Filter Media: Use quite an extensive of variety here. a) Wool / poly filter on the top layer 2nd layer use a larger density size of foam c) Use PurII from aquapharm (recommended by Janet at aquamarin, so give it a try) d) Use Aquaz Activated Carbon and Rowaphos at 3rd layer d) Use as much coral chips that I can cramped in. Place it from large to small from bottoms up.

is it a anemone carrying hermit crab??? I have one b4 and wasn't aware of it that it is not reef safe. Darn shop say it is okay. But it rampage everything in its paths. Coral, rocks, fish..... I have to donate it away to a FOWLR tank..... Yah, better put it in a sump or give it away. Not safe if u have shrimp, small fish and feathers, it is pretty destructive.... Otherwise, get an ID on it for us to see..... there are plenty of info on crabs from www.liveaquaria.com

it depends what u are looking for... 1) budget 2) Ability to extend to 3ft tank if future requires.... 3) Performance... expensive model are more efficient and quiet If u like good quality version, check out Teco chillers from Aquatechnic. Branded stuffs http://www.aquatechnic.net/micro.html If budget is modest, u can get pacific coo (locally made), Call derek Kwok at 90255562 to find out more If getting cheapo models, Resun chiller is for budget constraints pple like me. But can get quite noisy and may affect your enjoyment of your tank. Seperately, u can IceProbe from ReefDepot (http://www.reefdepot.com.sg). Very small but not efficient if your heat exchange is too high. Anyway, there are many others still. These are just a few that I was researching on for the past mths. So, others have to comment if it is good or bad. I hope this helps.

actually, I use silicon glue to get my acrylic sheets to stick together like a normal glass tank. So far, so good, pretty strong. Doesn't seem to be a problem. aiyah, if u need to make a sump, why not use glass? The glass maker can make it cheaper for u then the acrylic DIY. anyway, u need alot of clamps to hold the pcs together in order ensure good bonding..... just sticking them and letting them stay in 'free mode' is risky... u may have leaks or holes later.

go to www.dama.com.sg They are down at Ubi industrial part. I just buy a pair of acrylic rod for my tank. Pretty cheap by industrial standard. U can give fax them drawing and quote the price first based on your requirement. They can also make custom design if u want. I saw them sell Large acrylic tube - look like those used to make beckett...... next time will try to DIY a skimmer..... Look for a lady called Lydia. Very helpful.

UV Glass are mostly custom made for optical devices in the industry, I dun think u can buy just one pc. If it is small, u can use camera UV Filter. If u want a big pc, the alternative is buy a normal temper glass and buy vkool film to put over it. The film for is good up to 99% UV block - famous for car window... But quite expensive too, u have to call them.

funny mine was the other way round. My green wrasse bullied my six line wrasse all the time. Even got curfew to swim in the tank - otherwise, the green wrasse will peck it till it hide. My six line was pretty peaceful... I think some of the wrasses are very territorial /agressive species and it depend on which type u put into the tank first. Some websites seem to contradict alittle - some say agressive and others say peaceful. But my six line wrasse can really jump - mine pop out of the tank and end up on my printer.... think he was trying eat the pellet float and overshot its target...

yah u are right. Maybe it is more for fresh water plant tank. Couldn't find anything on the website that talks about usefulness of volcanic rocks.....

Hi all Anyone here try using volcanic sand or rocks in a marine tank b4? I saw this LFS in Pasir ris using red volcanic rocks for the sump tank. I thought that is a pretty good idea especially in refugium since volcanic structure has very high nutrient content. Maybe it will work well in refugium system. Any thoughts???