iantoh

wow. hi there decentkid. good explanation! thanks.

hey cool! hahah. maybe you could ask if you can personally tend your reef structure, place some frags from your tank.

hi there blueheaven, i'm not sure about the ions leeching out from the cathode. also, i'm not too sure about the exact ion exchange formulas that take place, but from what i know, the electrified steel structure basically just serves to attract calcium and other mineral ions towards it by means of a charged ion field. this draws all the ions from the surrounding areas towards it. and as the corals are attached to the steel structure, these corals then benefit from having elevated ca and st levels in the immediate vicinity around it, enabling it to grow quicker. well, something like that i think. i flipped through some asian aquarium magazine at the magazine stand at Ikea today too, and hey, theyre advertising for people who want to adopt a piece of artificial reef in singapore. around pulau semangkau and kusu. cool huh? i'm gonna try to find out more about that. if anyone knows more about this, pls do share with all of us ya. cheers, ian

hi there blueheaven and fellow bros, just some more thoughts... i think the primary reason why the electrolysis affects the rate of coral growth is because it makes calcium more readily available to the corals placed on the electrified steel structure as compared to without the electrification. corals obtain calcium through the water column by a process of ion-exchange in a fliud layer that exists within the area of coral tissue that is closest to the coral's skeleton- the extracytoplasmic calcifying fluid or ECF layer. now due to the mechanisms occuring within this layer (see linked article), where calcium is fused with carbonate to form aragonite that is the final skeletal material of corals, the higher the level of calcium in the region surrounding the ECF, the greater the ability of the coral to absorb and use calcium, and hence, greater rates of growth. at least, this is the rationale of mineral accretion. the electrification of the steel structure causes calcium ions, and other minerals like strontium, to be attracted and drawn towards the structure. this then provides elevated calcium levels in the water area surrounding the corals, thereby facilitating increased growth. thats the rationale for maintaining levels of calcium at higher levels than which occurs in NSW, because at 500ppm, calcium is more readily obtained and used by corals than if it were at 400, or 300ppm. and NSW's calcium levels can be as low as 200-280ppm. well, once i can afford the costs of starting another system, that is, once i start work, i'll give this thing a try ya. promise. just gotta get myself employed first. hahha. to those that might be interested, heres an article that explains the ECF thing and how corals obtain and use calcium. its quite scientific but really enlightening. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/apr2002/chem.htm i learned alot from that article, and hope it makes good reading for you too ya. cheers, ian

hi all! heres a photo of one of the two pom pom crabs in my tank. the male (pictured here) lives within the branching goniopora, whilst the female is less often seen, and hides in the large rock piece to the right of my tank.

hi everyone, just thought id link this: article:http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/invert.htm its a pretty good article about nerite snails that i came across today whilst trying to ID one of the snails in my tank. i think nerites are often overlooked in our hobby but may prove more useful as clean up crews than other snail species as their diet is predominantly comprised of diatoms and cyano, which are usually the two microalgaes that give us problems. hope youll find it informative. cheers, ian

by the way, other than black caps, does anyone also have experience with laboute's wrasse? seeing as i missed out on this shipment of black caps, i'm thinking about all the other fish i'd like to keep, and the laboutes wrasse is one of them. i havent seen them in person at lfs though, so would love to hear from anyone who has ya. cheers, ian

hi there madmac, thanks for your detailed and informative reply. i think i'll give the baking soda and washing soda mix thing a try. i actually have some supermarket bought washing soda and baking soda mixed already in 6:1 ratios in a bottle, since i found out about this diy ph buffer thing, but when it came down to using it, i didnt quite dare. i was like, aiyah, should ph ever drop below 8, say to 7.9 or something, then i give it a try, if not, i leave it. and as so far its always been a steady 8, and has remained so even when i tried raising it with store bought buffers, ive not been forced to yet. hahah. pardon me for asking but i thought BB tanks were meant to reduce PO4 buildup to counteract the tendency of sandbed tanks to accumulate detritus and thereby return PO4 to the system? probably the tap water. phosphates dont cost the PUB anything i think, seeing as theyre so generous with that in our tap water. you mentioned earlier that you remove some water from the tank and add baking soda to it then return that to the tank after two days. is that right? and thats primarily for raising your kh right? as in any ph effects are considered minimal? i was wondering then whether its ok for me to mix some kalk with tank water, mix it up, and dose that instead of distilled water because i'm not getting enough evaporation these days. will it cause any problems you think? and oh, i agree that natural seawater's ca levels are usually nearer to 280ppm than 400ppm in most parts and theres no great need for 500ppm ca, but i also learnt through reading this article on "how corals use calcium" (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/apr2002/chem.htm) that having elevated ca levels makes ca more readily available to the corals so i'm kinda aiming for that. actually, initially, it wasnt hard to maintain my ca levels at about 480-500ppm with a ph of 8 and kh of 8-10dkh, but now that coralline algaes growing everywhere and my monti and pocis are growing too, its really been dropping pretty fast. i think my best bet is to plan an upgrade to a ca reactor, but so ex! how to? hai. this is such an expensive hobby! well, parting note: thanks for the calculator link. its really cool. cheers, ian

hi all, if you bring corals back and you get discovered, they just confiscate and take your particulars down for future reference i think. thats why so many people still illegally import corals for sale to our lfs and all. i drove past a huge lfs on the way to sibu a long time back but didnt have the time to stop there. anyone know the place i'm referring to? its like a two storey complex with huge fish picture banners all around. i tried to find my way there on another occasion but lost my way. anything interesting in malaysian lfs?

hi everyone, i think the voltage wont really be felt by the fishes and all. i mean, most of the powerheads and electrical appliances that we use on our tanks occasionally leak some stray current too, and theres little noticeable effect. as for the leeching of toxic metals into the water column, i think thats not an issue because the structure is meant to be made entirely of steel. furthermore, as the article details, the steel is entirely waterproof and rustproof within 3 wks time due to the calcium carbonate encrustations that totally cover the structure, so i doubt any metals like copper will leech out, because if they are even present, they'll be locked in. still, i guess we wont really now till we've tried it out. i think the method works for all stony corals, that is, corals with calcium carbonate skeletons. ive seen some of the photos showing gonios and lps and even soft corals. it probably doesnt affect non calcium building corals. and as for how it aids growth, this is a paragraph from http://www.reefhq.com.au/bts/electro.html, basically saying that the attraction of free calcium ions towards the electrical current makes the mineral easier for the coral to obtain and hence grow. "when corals grow in the wild, they extract minerals from seawater and use them to build into their limestone skeleton. After the discovery of electro mineral accretion, other scientists came up with the idea of attaching pieces of coral to the mesh (the cathode). They reasoned that if they put the corals on that surface, the calcium carbonate needed for the growth of their limestone skeleton would be attracted to the cathode and be much easier for the coral to obtain. The theoretical result would be that corals that are stimulated by an electric current grow faster than corals without stimulation. Evidence even exists that corals that are grown by the EMA method are less susceptible to stress and disease. These observations could prove important in future reef restoration activities." i think if its tried with a full sps tank, the ca reactor might find it hard to keep up with the ca needs though. what do you think?

hhahaha. thanks Xperiment!

hi everyone, just a little update. i was planning on introducing a new tank member today, but alas, it was not to be. i went all the way to lck110 this afternoon to get my long anticipated black cap gramma, but when i got there, they told me it was sold out. sigh... well.. till next shipment then. if anyone spots some black caps do drop me a note if you can ya. oh, and also, seeing as so many black caps from this and last months shipment were bought up, i was wondering if any black cap keepers could share some experience of their care with me, and perhaps show some photos? be really happy to see some lovely black cap photos whilst i wait for mine to realise. hahah cheers, ian

hi there madmac, as for cyano, i think its primarily fueled by PO4. so its more likely the tap water than any husbandry issue la, as i think you must make alot of effort tending to the tank already. i kinda figured PO4 was the case for my tank's previous cyano ooutbreak because all my other parameters were ok other than for PO4, and having switched from tap water to distilled, and having used some phosguard to remove the already present PO4, theres far less cyano now. perhaps borrow a PO4 test kit and check out your PO4 levels? i'm really interested to know more about your baking soda dosage. from what i know, baking soda increases both ph and alk slightly, right? i had a problem of ionic imbalance once when my ca was 550ppm but my kh refused to budge from 7dkh, and adding some baking soda mixed in water fixed it in a jiffy. but ive read so many different views about baking soda or washing soda being used for raising ph that i'm not quite sure what to think. do you remove some tank water for mixing with some baking soda, and then return it to the tank to maintain higher ph levels? ive been wanting to raise my ph from 8 to nearer 8.3 for ages now, but ive not yet dared to try the washing soda thing. what do you recommend? i know it sounds stupid but its like the more i research regarding ph, and how carbon dioxide, bicarbonates and carbonates all affect ph, and that it generally stabilizes back to an original level even after adding buffer that i'm not sure what to do. pls do give me some advice on this if you can ya. by the way, you also mentioned calcium chloride with baking soda. is that mixed together with make up water? and do you get your calcium chloride in powder form or in the commercial one part calcium liquids? presently, i'm dosing calc chloride in the form of seachem's reef complete calcium, and trying to push ca back up to 500ppm before resuming my kalk dosing. ive also set my six fan set back to running at 12volts instead of 7volts so as to get more evaporation and allow more top up with kalk. its getting a bit chilly in the tank though. haha. cheers, ian

hi there everyone, i saw a documentary on mineral accretion experiments in mexico on discovery channel about half a year ago, and recently went through a website on the subject again and wanted to ask everyone what they thought about it, and if the idea has potential to be applied to our reef tanks. mineral accretion, in short, is the placement of a solid steel frame structure into the ocean, with a low voltage electrical current connected to the steel frame. this electrical current causes calcium carbonate to form and entirely encrust and cover the steel structure within weeks, making it waterproof and rustproof. coral fragments that are then attached to this steel structure grow at an accelerated rate. this method is being used to restore coral reefs all around the world now, from thailand and mexico to papua new guinea. this is the website: http://globalcoral.org/Solution%20for%20Co...0in%20Peril.htm i was thinking that, because we have calcium reactors nowadays, that maybe this method of increasing coral growth might be experiemented on in our captive tanks. what do you think? any thoughts? cheers, ian ps: singapore has a greater species count of corals than malaysia, but the majority of our coral reefs have been destroyed by sedimentation and land reclamation. perhaps our reefs can be restored this way?

hi there hmkui, i think perhaps the bristle worms is a possibility though there are reasons why i suspect the tube worms as being the cause. i'm really quite sure there is only one bristle worm in my tank as i quarantine all my rocks prior to addition, and as you can tell from the pics, my tank is quite sanitised, in that all the crabs and bistleworms are removed and all my copepods or amphipods or mysids and worms are those which i reintroduced into the tank from other reefers tanks when they gave some to me. the reason why i think its tube worm spawning is because that red gonio is the only gonio i have that had numerous tubeworm tubes growing out of it. and i could see the radioles of the tubeworms out even as the gonio's tentacles were extended, which was why i was wondering if you noticed the brownish thin worm tubes on the skeleton when you handled the gonio. also, i distinctly saw the whitish secretions being spewed from the tubes of the tube worms that greatly resembled the spawning activity of my coco worm that has led to many small cocos in my tank. maybe its some other secretion and not sexual activity but from the tube worms i'm sure. still... it might really be some other issue, like the bacterial infection like you say, which is a very likely reason for gonios dying, or the bristle worms like you say. also, thanks for the thought and offer of refunding me half the gonios price as thats really generous. thanks also for your nice help in having sold me the gonio in the first place ya. as for the west side reefers meeting, pls do sms me about it ya. i didnt know there was such a meeting and i would love to meet more fellow reefers. cheers, ian

hi cirrrus, hehe. its a sabae i think. dont think the condylactis or doreensis will host maroon clowns, though i cant be entirely sure. me going to get my black cap tomm by the way, if theres still a healthy specimen at lck! yay! cheers, ian

hi there hmkui, its ok lah. of course i wont take half the money back. its not your responsibility at all, and all mine. i was wondering though, whether you noticed that there were many brownish tube worm tubes protruding from the gonios skeleton when its tentacles were closed. because i only realised that after i brought it home, and as initially, it didnt cause any issues, i thought it would be fine, but after a few months, one day i noticed lots of whitish stuff being expelled from the tube worm tubes and the gonio soon got in a bad way. i'm honestly not sure if its even spawning activity on the worms part, but i'm thinking so because ive had my coco worm spawn in a similar way and had lots of small cocos on the back glass of my tank that i had to scrape off. it could be because i feed lots of phyto that the tubeworms decided to spawn too, if in fact that was what they did. i'm sorry the gonio died in my care. i was really quite sad as it was such a nice specimen and had survived so long in your care. apologies, ian

hi madmac, just looked through your tank thread and it looks great. just wanted to add that i used to have cyano problems like yours and it only abated after i changed to using distilled water for top ups. i buy DI by the carton at only $5 for 17.5L or 12x 1.5L bottles from Shing Siong supermarket. and i use phosguard to remove the existent PO4 from my tanks water. so perhaps you can try that too ya. also, i add ca and alk by top up water everyday like you, but i find that not enough water evaporates for me to dose back the same amount of ca that is consumed each day, so now i'm having to solve the problem by adding calcium chloride solution along with kalk and alk. do you have the same problem? cause youve a full sps tank, and i only have two monti frags and some pocillopora and monti digita frags so my ca use should be lower than yours, but every day i dose half a litre of saturated kalk and one cap full of ca chloride and still from 500ppm it always drops down to 300+ppm after a week or so. how ah? short of getting a ca reactor. cheers, ian

hi there madmac, beautiful regal there! i love angels, especially the koran and cortez, but the koran that i tried keeping once kept picking on my xenia that i had to pass it on to a friend. i think a thriving sps tank like yours makes a great habitat for angels, because even if they do pick on the sps, the corals should be able to withstand a little grazing, seeing as sps tend to grow so quickly in such tanks. your barebottom tank looks great too. it looks so much cleaner and brighter than your earlier sandbed photos. honestly, even though i believe in DSBs, looking at your posts and others whove gone BB makes me think about having such a system. i mean, the dirty colours about one inch down my sandbed look so bad aesthetically, but for my gonios i think the bacterial activity and diatoms are necessary so maybe in the future when i'm employed and have more money i can have another BB system. i also read your explanation about how the sandbed's decomposition and bacterial activity causes more variations in ph and i think thats really so logical. i guess in the end each system has different pressures and needs so we must adapt to them. last note. your monti caps look really nice too! cheers ian

hahhaha. to humour the kids- that'll be nice though youll need to allow some detritus to build up as i find they reject all other food offerings and only ever evert their stomachs over dirty stuff (for the fromia that is). you could get more spiny astrea snails from henry for the cyano i think. thing is, after initially introducing them, perhaps youll need to up the flow round the bottom areas to dissolve their shit and skim it out, or phosphates will creep up again, or just suck the shit up like i do sometimes. i had a bad cyano phase a few months back but i guess that was due to my previously using tap water. ive since changed to bottled distilled though. perhaps try adding some macroalgaes to outcompete the cyanos? barebottom sounds great for a pure sps tank. how long have you been running barebottom? cheers, ian

small note about conchs. any one have any experience with them? are to share with us? http://www.2cah.com/pandora/S_alatus.html

hi there madmac, thanks for the compliments. am really glad to hear you enjoyed the video clips. i'm not too sure about the fighting conchs yet. ive been trying to research more about them, but most of the info ive managed to come across are divided, some saying theyve found their conchs standing over shrimps, not knowing whether the shrimps were already dead before the conchs arrived or there was active predation. i also discovered my fromia starfish consuming detritus that collected on filter wool the other day so im thinking i might let more detritus build up on the surface of my sandbed to feed it. what sandbed cleaners do you employ in your tank, and how do they do? as for feeding my gonioporas, i feed about 50ml of a pure strain nannochloropsis phyto culture that i get aquacultured from a reefer that lives nearby me. i use a syringe and just sort of disperse it randomly over the gonioporas. the dosage kinda varies depending on how often i'm at home and all, but i only feed phyto during the light hours so as to minimize settlement, and maximize reproduction and nutrient removal. i also add iron and manganese supplments at one fifth of the bottle's recommended dosage, that is, where they say 5ml for 20gallons, i just put 1ml. here are two great articles on gonioporas that ive found useful and which exerted alot of influence over my tank design. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/invert.htm http://www.amdareef.com/news_2001fall.htm as for my top up containers, the one on the left is for reefbuilder. this is the primary mode of supplementing alk to my system. i dose half a flat teaspoon of reefbuilder in half a litre of distilled water each day into this container. occasionally, i dose a pinch of baking soda in water to raise the ph and kh relative to calcium too, but seldom these days as my ca gets depleted faster than my alk. the container on the right is for kalk, and i dose half a litre of saturated limewater daily here. my ca needs are higher than what dosing kalk with make up water allows me to put back into the system, so i also add calcium chloride in the bottled liquid form sometimes when ca gets below 400. i learned the most regarding ca and alk balancing through this article. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm and oh, the containers are not kept airtight. i seal two of the four edges to prevent dust settling on the make up water, but keep the lid slightly open for air to enter and help regulate the dosing rate. they were made quite cheaply. $5 for the microwave containers, and $3 for the drip. cheers, ian

hi loster, no i got mine from pasir ris farmway but yeah ive seen them at henry's too, just not a small enough specimen for my tank. mine is only 2inches across. hows yours doing? observed it feeding on anything? i'm really afraid it'll starve in the long run. cheers, ian

thanks lester. heres some more pics. one of my blue sea squirts from ml: my starfish managed to crawl into my side refugium today, and proceeded to evert its stomach out onto my filter wool and ate most of the detritus or bacteria that built up there because the filter wool was brown before it was there, but now, distinctly whiter. so i'm thinking now of placing a few more filter wool pads in my HOB to let it collect detritus and then periodically take it out and feed my star in the main tank. anyone else have a fromia star? and has managed to feed it some food items? in my tank its rejected mussels, clams, scallops, and algae pellets.

hi everyone, thanks for viewing my tank thread. pls feel free to leave comments, suggestions, etc ya. cheers all, ian