lizard44

hi bro muar_chee what i have showed you is only a sample. not my tank. i dont have that money to fully setup one like that. but the basic look and feel is correct. BUT no lights, no corals, no protein skimmer, only 30 kgs LR, what you see in the pic is 40 kg LR, fully setup skimmer with corals and MH lights. i have ordered the lights coming after the chinese new year. might be getting a sanders skimmer, still thinking hard .... it seems to me, the tank although slightly stinky is fully "cycled". i have no more LS deaths. every one of my prawns have changed skins. only the flame angel is not feeding. looks like i got a dumb flame angel because it just stucked between some silly rocks and i have to rescue it from misery. hi bro eric i will watch my temperature during transport. maybe the trip back is stressful (temperature-wise). there are quite a number of LFS that packed LS together. just today i cheong again, this LFS also packed the firefish and jawfish together. so looks like it is a common practice. or maybe i got my stuff real cheap, so LFS dont need to provide raffles class service, just basic economy class will do. newbie lizard

oh ... i forgot to add (because they are kept in a box in the refugium, forgot to count them): i got 1x harlequin prawn (0.5 in), 1x 6-legged star (2 in) [i have cut off one small leg for feeding the harlequin, another pig], 1x feather star [health so-so] this harlequin costs $15 !!! deeply broke now ... newbie lizard

hi RAV it is 48x20x28 10mm glass, 40 kg LR, 130 kg grade 0 sand, 1260 eheim main pump, a small superboy power head, a over-flow tanks that is fully filled with bio-balls. with a lower sump, a coral chip nitrate factory, a cute 1.5 ft refugium. same looking as this tank except i don't have corals, only 30 kgs LR, no lights and skimmer. newbie lizard

thanks iori_del sorry typo ... flame angel is a damned "ex" fish for me. i typo-ed wrong about the fish. flame angel too much on my mind, so typo-ed wrongly. i meant the $6 coral beauty. bought some more veggie food today. my dear flame angel no give face. never feed. keep pecking at the green hairy algae. stomach is still flat but not ultra flat yet. fins have white dots. thanks muar_chee and yiling the four mandarins are very much alive and kicking. they are all 1 inch long. the rest of the fishes are 0.25 in to 1 in in size. most if not all are damsels. in the main tank, i have 4x false percula (0.25 in each), 2x 4 strip humbug (0.75 in), 1x 3 strip humbug (0.75 in), 1x bi-color blenny (1 in), 1x bi-color dottyback (1 in), 1x coral beauty (1.2 in), 1x green chromis, 1x dominoe damsel, 4x 3 dots damsel (non-dominoe), 2x pyjama cardinal, 1x cleaner wrasse, 1x cleaner shrimp (very hard to see it is alive, only every few days see once and alive kicking), 1x blue damsel, 1x yellow tail blue damsel, 1x beau gregory, 1x cloudy damsel, 1x marginate damsel, 2x true mandarin, 2x spotted mandarin, 1x yellow goby, (all 0.5 in to 1 in max), 3x orange legged hermit crabs (0.5 in), 1x brown legged hermit crab, 1x free brown-colored clam (1 in) and numerous snails (free, came with the LRs). super feeders. give any nonsense also eat. in the refugium, i have 1x purple firefish (1 inch), 1x flame angel (1 in), 3x ###### shrimps (0.4 in), 2x white legged dwarf hermits (0.2 in), 1x boxer shrimp (0.5 in) and 1x cleaner shrimp. so far, only 1x ###### shrimp UP-LORRY (supposed to have 4). these fishes are kicking for quite a while already, feeding well. finally i got to count: main tank: 29 fishes + 1 prawn + 4 hermit crabs + 1 free clam + many snails. refugium: 2 fishes + 5 prawns + 2 hermit crabs as for the skimmer, i am dreaming for a macro ... sigh ... i actually wanted to save a while for EV-240, but no chance now. newbie lizard

blue damsel x1 thanks yiling and RAV cheong LFS today to get cyclopeeze lah ... bro wayne is maximum correct: my LR stinks for a day, now not so stinky liao. happy to report no LS deaths yet yes ... i wanted to buy skimmer, but first i heard many noisy stories and also too many types. i really don't know who to listen to. some are $1000+ some are $40. some even asked me not to have skimmer during the cycling .... wow of course i listen to the no-need-money option. actually that reminded me of my poor blue damsel ... i started with a small piece of LR 0.5 kg. because of a mandarin i added 2.5 kg LR. later, scare of not enough food for the mandarin, i added 4 more kg (because i have no lights, i can only try to buy food for the mandarin). that night, the qui lan blue damsel went UP LORRY. i never felt disappointed, because i have always wanted to catch this qui lan bully damsel and give back to LFS, as it was terrorising all my other damsels. i even bought $6 fish trap to get that nasty bully, but too clever for me. now that you mentioned, i felt a little saddened. since that time, i had purchased more LR about 30 kg in all. this time, i add these LR piece by piece, the rest i put in styroform and cycle with air stone and power head. hope i have become more responsible liao. i am now a proud owner of 40 kicking and violent fishes in my tank. newbie lizard

yes ML is shiok i also bought 3 orange and 2 micro hermits .... shiok shiok newbie lizard

nope my boxer don't bother no body. just hide and eat like a pig .... aggressive towards all kinds of things, but only for show only. so no prob for me there newbie lizard

thanks RAV since my early days of dying LS, i have adopted a 2-stage approach to intro LS. first, i will acclimatise my LS through dripping. second, i will put them in the refugium away from any fishes (flame angel being so silly expensive, is in this stage ) third, i will try to feed them in the refugium until they feed well before intro into the main graveyard for the survival of the fittest. in the graveyard, every damsel is killer when it comes to feeding. the flame angel being cheaper was dumped straight into the graveyard. so far this method has worked well for me (no deaths yet ). my tank now has 30 kg LR now (managed to buy some stinky ones at $5/kg), no lights (booked already from a LFS, but not coming until after chinese new year !!!) and no skimmer (no money, budget hobbyist) please suggest something to do to the flame angel (my special food to flame angel is $15 per bottle, big blood letting man... no more dole liao) newbie lizard

thanks yiling help, help, help ... my $40 flame angel not feeding for 4 days already. stomach grew from fat (at purchase) to super flat now. have been trying all kinds of food dry, wet, live, frozen, algae on stone, but to no avail. but my $6 coral beauty feeds like a pig. lesson learnt: price of stock is inversely proportional to survivability i just don't want to have another RIP. newbie lizard

also one more thing: i dont know if you had this. my refugium has lights, so from the onset, brown ugly algae (some called these cyno, i also don't know what it is really) grew everywhere. i don't even bother to clean them. very dirty looking. like a beach after an oil spill. they are on the sand, on the glass, on the macro plants. the macro plants (rosamere) died a few branches, after a while, they all disappeared. now i have green hairy algae taking over. and i still don't what these green hairy algae are. enjoy ... newbie lizard.

hi glad to know that you are coming on fine. frankly i only start on 29 dec 04, just days before you. i had far less equipments to start with. right on, i don't even have a skimmer nor lights. the nitrate i measured the other day was only 15. every one of my LS are kicking and busy chasing each other round the tank. they feed like pigs on dry food too. i have no LS losses for a while already. i guess reefing is not an easy hobby: i had spoken to many hobbyists (very new ones) while cheonging LFS. they were busy buying LS from day one. sigh ... i was also guilty of such an act. newbie lizard

yellow goby x1 hi bro muar_chee thanks for the kind words. i will try to get tank photo up once i get my camera back. it is now with a girl. wondering why she took so long to finish her photos. indeed i will continue ... the first yellow goby was UP-LORRY before i could do any-thing. the kind LFS then charged me cheap cheap for the next yellow goby x1. i itchy ... i bought another one with it. they are all 0.5 inch long. both stomaches were super flat (inexperience i guess). i try to feed them with dry and wet food, but they just don't bother. i even bought live food, but they still don't feed. after about 4 days, they started to feed on dry sinking food. now the problem starts ... one of the yellow gobies turned bright yellow in colour while the other turned light pale yellow. the bright yellow goby chased the pale yellow goby like hell, preventing the pale yellow from feeding. imagine 2 small fellow chasing across a blank 4-foot tank. quite a sight. 3 days later, pale yellow goby went UP-LORRY. the remaining goby is now quiet and feeding, but very lonely. lesson learnt: never buy same species? i might be giving up soon ... hahahahahaha newbie lizard

banana wrasse x1 (mia) thanks bro moxa i am coming to that. since the first mandarin died on the way. the kind LFS gave me a free mandarin as part of the new LS package. my tank is a 4-footer with life sand but only one 0.5 kg LR. so i bought a 2.5 kg LR for it. hey ... it worked. i got the formula right: mandarin x1 needs 3 kg LR to survive. i have since gotten 20 kg LR and 4 very happy mandarins. but my banana wrasse not so lucky. i acclimatised it well and the wrasse loves to hide in sand. it will disappear the whole day only to come out for a brief moment in the morning at 0900h. i tried to feed it with dried food and frozen b shrimps. the wrasse try to feed but badly. after 4 days of trying, the wrasse no longer appears. wondering why? lesson learnt: never buy ultra-flat tummy fish

cleaner shrimp x2 mandarin x1 yellow goby x1 i bought 1x cleaner shrimp, 1x mandarin and 1x yellow goby from a LFS. the LFS packed all of them together. by the time i am back (2 hours later), all have UP-LORRY even before i open the packing. i went back the next day, the kind LFS gave me discount for another batch of the same LS. another time, i again bought 2x damsels and 1x cleaner wrasse all packed together by the LFS. reached home about 1 hour later, the cleaner wrasse almost UP-LORRY (luckily saved by simple air bubbling). i have since concluded that ... lesson learnt: never pack LS together and must go home fast. the second cleaner shrimp was acclimatised by adding water (50% one time) from the tank to the plastic bag. the cleaner shrimp again UP-LORRY. it took me almost 1 week before plucking the courage to try cleaner shrimp again. i bought one first. this time, i used a bottle cap to add water from the tank to the plastic bag. i only add water again when the cleaner shrimp is running around the bag. i did this until the entire water in the bag is increased by 3 times. i then released it into the tank. it has survived since then. i since have also added another cleaner shrimp with the same happy result. i have since concluded that ... lesson learnt: prawns are very VERY sensitive, contrary to what most reefers said about easy cleaner shrimps. newbie lizard

hi all, i am new to reefing. as a newbie, i have made many mistakes. some were due to lack of understanding; but, most were due to impatience. this thread is therefore dedicated to those lovely creatures who have died. i hope you all could add to this thread: to prevent further deaths caused by lack of informed advice. newbie lizard

hi bro, sad to hear your cracked tank. i am keen to have 90 kg of your LR. if not too much problem, please kindly sms me your selling price. thomas hp: 9067.5740

okie, bro some other times then ... (better chance i hope) thomas

hi bro, i would like to have your branch rocks. where can i collect them? thomas 90675740 (time: 2133h)

hi bro, i am keen in your LR. How to collect? I am free anytime. thomas 9067.5740

looks like a good idea. start on cheap salt first and improve along ... thomas

just one curious question: one step back, how did you arrive at the brand of salt to use. does the brand really matters .... for a tank like yours (so big). thomas

hi shoelevy newbie here ... nice to know that you are really busy setting up your 5 footer ... and yet still have time to offer help to me (a new tankie). really appreciated that ... keep it up man ... thomas

hi danny i am poor but am keen to start a humble reef. hope you could help me along by selling me your tank and cabinet and anything that is important to start. can i view today? thomas ps: i have never kept a tank, fresh or salty, in my life.