iantoh

ah.. well, you can try using fresh seawater instead of mixing your own, then you can save on that, and just use distilled for top up. salt mixes do contain higher levels of trace and retains its buffering capability for longer, but if you dose kalk and alk, and monitor things from time to time, fresh seawater works really well. and its cheap too. by the ways, i live at upper bukit timah, which is close to you.

hi there Derek, pls do check out this great article on calcium and alkalinity maintenance as it explains how to correct almost all situations of ionic imbalance between these two parameters for almost all situations. for your problem at hand, heres an excerpt from the article. like bro mismarine said, it cites commercial PH buffers as the primary cause, do stop adding commercial buffers to bring up PH if thats what youre doing ya. theres no real need to change the water if you dont wish to, but since your tank is only one foot, a change with two bags of nsw will quickly solve the problem. From "CHEMISTRY AND THE AQUARIUM by RANDY HOLMES-FARLEY" http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm Corrections for Zone 3 (very high alkalinity) Zone 3 problems are a little harder to correct, and are fairly common. It is, in fact, the problem in the real question posed at the beginning of this article (it doesn’t say so there, but the alkalinity was 3.2 meq/L). This problem is typically caused by overdosing alkalinity RELATIVE to calcium, but does not necessarily imply that calcium is either too high or too low (though it is almost always too low). To correct problems in this zone, monitoring of calcium and alkalinity values during correction is especially important. One more word about this zone before getting to solutions: Many tanks end up here because aquarists are trying to correct pH problems by adding “buffer.” In my opinion, one should not try to correct any pH problem by simply adding an alkalinity supplement. If you are low on alkalinity, it is a fine course of action to raise the alkalinity. But if alkalinity is OK, or even high, adding an alkalinity supplement to alter the pH may simply create a worse problem. Better solutions to pH problems are discussed in this recent article6. If this problem is extreme (i.e., you are far from the line at the right hand edge of zone 3), then water changes may be the best way to correct to the problem. In most cases, however, water changes aren’t necessary. I would advise correcting this problem by adding a calcium chloride supplement until you have moved into the target zone (or zones 1 or 2 that you can then treat as described above) as shown in Figure 4. Almost any brand of calcium chloride will do (Kent Turbo Calcium, Kent Liquid Calcium, ESV, etc.). Certain other calcium supplements may also be OK (such as just the calcium component of the two-part calcium and alkalinity additive systems), but you do not want to add any alkalinity. You CANNOT use limewater or a calcium carbonate/carbon dioxide reactor to correct this problem. Any of the balanced calcium and alkalinity additive systems will move you parallel to the line at the edge of the zone, while you want to move over to it, and cross it. Figure 4. A graph showing how to correct values within zone 3 by adding a calcium additive, such as calcium chloride (the blue arrow). If calcium is less than 400 ppm, I’d suggest using this handy online calculator7 to determine how much dry calcium chloride is necessary to move back to the target zone. Note that it is a minimum estimate because it does not know how much alkalinity you have, so it cannot know if you are only raising calcium directly (which it calculates) or are also precipitating calcium carbonate (when alkalinity is high this will probably happen, but is typically not a problem other than that it uses up some of what you add). If the calcium is above 400 ppm in this zone (unlikely, but it does happen), then you can safely either do nothing until it drops and you need to add more calcium, and treat it as suggested in the previous paragraph, or you can add some calcium immediately, move into zone 1, and then just let it drop on its own.

thanks hobbes!

hi all. found another pic- a small frag of unidentified xenia species given to me by sis venezia after she spotted it at an lfs. im actually looking out for some cespitularia, that looks like this (pic by anthony calfo from some online mag) but ive yet to find anything that looks like this. anyone?

hi there! nice crocea and rock work scaping! all the best with your tank! cheers, ian

hi the prec, nice setup. the blue lollipops look great, though not so blue in the photos. do post up more pics of them ya. and did you get them from reborn or pasir ris farmway? i saw some really nice ones in the display tank of the aunty shop there but they werent for sale, and the ones at reborn, by the time i got there, two weeks after shipment, their heads were falling off already. cheers

this is my 2.7 by 1 by 1.2 feet nano!

and heres my frogspawn. its showing good growth and five heads have become seven heads. i'm thinking of adding some small rose shaped hammer corals, but am worried about their sweeper tentacles. my frogspawn has never appeared to extend any sweeper tentacles but all the hammers ive kept or seen has shown sweeper tentacles. anyone know their frogspawns to sting other corals? cause i superglued a yellow monti digi frag close to it and im thinking of shifting either the frag or the frogspawn if stinging is likely as theyre getting quite close now. and is there a difference in the sweeper tentacle behaviour between the rose shaped hammer corals and the normal kinds?

my small crocea. i think it does better placed on live rocks so it can spread its byssal threads, so i'm planning to place a rock beneath it sometime soon.

my former red gonio with violet tips! it abruptly wasted away a while back. when i got it, from another reefer, it had lots of small tube worms growing out of its skeleton. initially, i didnt think this harmed the coral as its tentacles and all were still fully extended, even when the radioles of the worms were out and visible between the tentacles. i thought they were symbiotic or something, but then, and i'm not sure why, the worms began spawning or spewing out some whitish stuff that caused the coral to severely slime over and within a few days, it was beyond hope. sigh. wonder if anyone else has such an experience before? all my other gonios dont have feather dusters growing out of them, so i'm wondering if other bros here have gonios with tubeworms living within them? i would really like to get another red gonio with prominent blue tips, but i shall wait till i find a good healthy specimen.

some of my suns. every half a year or so i break off some of the suns and either trade them or give them away. i first got this coral, or rather, its parents, a really long time back, when i first began the hobby, and its been with me through the initial bad husbandry, my ex-gfs six foot tank, it was even housed in a four foot rounded bamboo cat shark tank too. today, still around. hahha. may the bros who've received small frags of it from me can post up pics of how theirs are doing now?

another full tank shot. and a pic of one of my xenia colonies:

hi there rocky, your tank looks great. i just checked it out in the tank specs forum, and its huge too. perhaps you can try planting some macroalgaes within the tank to provide foods that the tangs can constantly forage on? i find it helps with reducing agression. cheers, ian

hi there blueheaven, i think your o'levels are important, so its imperative that you concentrate on those. it may sound prudish, but i'm not that much older than you (i just finished uni) so i can still remember that period. i mean, reefing, and frag meets can wait, whereas your o'levels wont, and further more, youll be judged hereafter on your o'levels when youre applying for poly or jc, so theres no turning back unless you repeat. pm me once your exams are over or when you know the date of your exams last day and we can arrange a frag meet for the day after your exams or what ya!! no sweat. as it is, bros gouldian and veliferum have said they'll be there to meet you, and i hope i'm not being too presumptuous, but i think bros rav-65 and AT will join in too if theyve the time, so we can all have a drink and talk-###### about reefing then ya. ive only made friends with sis venezia and bro hobbes since they live in my area so it'll be great to meet all of you. honestly, i'm really amazed at your patience and temperament, and how you return each day to politely reply the various "flaming" posts targeted to you. hats off seriously. cheers, ian

hi bro rocky, itll be hard to catch them out of your tank without shifting the rockworks i'm sure, but it needs to be done if you wish to prevent the death of one of them i think. i dont mean to be negative, but plenty of reefing accounts and research confirms that tangs and surgeonfish are very territorial, and acutely agressive to conspecifics (that is, fish of the same family). so unless its in a large tank, its usually impossible to get tangs to live harmoniously long term. they'll fight for dominance in the end, so pls do try to quarantine or house one of them separately. even if the smaller one manages to hide and avoid conflict, itll soon starve too, or succumb to an infection to its wound. cheers, ian

hi there bro dreamscapez. i think growing some macroalgaes within your tank is the best way to remove nitrates as the macros utilize nitrates for growth. they will also remove phosphates from your water column. as for concerns that the macroalgaes will go sexual and leech phosphates back into your tank, thats easily remedied. when the macroalgaes are about to turn sexual, they will start to turn white in colour from their previous brown. so when that happens, just remove all the whitening stalks. this usually happens over a day or two, so if you do look into your tank everyday, i think its pretty safe. if youre very worried about macros going sexual, then pick a macroalgae such as gracilaria or chaetomorpha that is less likely to do so. hope that helps. cheers, ian ps: regardless of the salt mix you use, even though they may contain some calcium, you'll need to maintain appropriate calcium and alkalinity levels to encourage coralline algae growth, because coralline quickly depletes calcium from the water column. try adding actinic lights too if you dont already run them. another good way is to introduce some coralline to get things started. you can get some scrapped coralline algae from someone elses tank, or borrow a rock with coralline to seed your tank, because sometimes liverock that has been stressed through handling or dry transporting might lose its viable coralline algae "spores".

a pic of my pink coco worm's tube. the whitish top area is new growth, over which some coralline algae is starting to grow, whilst the dirty greycoloured lower parts are old parts of the shell that were there when i got the worm. im not sure this is due to growth though, cause previously, when my coco worm was in my old tank and placed with no other corals in contact with it, it didnt grow a longer tube despite my daily feedings of around 50ml of pure strain phyto, but when i shifted it above the branching gonios, with the same phyto regiment, it began quickly to grow. think its trying to peer out in front of the gonio beyond the reach of the gonios tentacles.

a bud growing on my goniopora. this colony has been with me more than a year now, and i didnt really notice the bud growing as the extended tentacles usually hide it, but i noticed it a while back when i was hunting for a bristle worm and caused the tentacles to retreat fully. i'm not really sure whether its a confirmed sign of growth, or if its a stress response as ive heard of corals budding when exposed to environmental stress. even if its growth though, its taken like a year to grow just this little bit. has anyone else experienced this? sometimes, i wish i had a beckett skimmer and a phytoplankton reactor. that way i can continually feed phyto whilst continually having super clean water. sigh. is anyone out there running a phyto reactor? and is it possible to run a constant drip of phyto into the water column without causing phosphate buildup and other such problems with time? or is my idea of continual phyto feeding just not feasible regardless of how powerful the skimming?

hi everyone! thanks for checking out my tank thread. im really having fun putting all these photos and all now. ive been meaning to do so for so long, but didnt have a digi cam. pls do feel free to give suggestions or comments ya. heres a photo of my gonio stokesi after one of the flow trials when i tried placing more powerheads to create more flow in my tank. my gf says it looks disgusting. and this is what it looks like fully extended:

a pic of my drip containers. i diy-ed them using the hospital drip apparatus that you can get at pharmacies for two dollars and melted a hole in the tupperware with a soldering iron, then slotted and superglued the tubing connecting to the drip. one is for dosing kalk, and the other for alk.

my overflow box. i diy-ed this using acrylic bought from art friend that i then cut into pieces to fit, and siliconed it to the glass sides. youll notice that i have a small sort of in-tank "betta box" thing to the left of the overflow box that spans the whole back wall area of my tank. that was one serious design flaw to the tank i think. i was thinking that if i built in a smaller area at the top back of my tank, i could have a large permanent betta box to house the harlequin shrimps that ive always wanted to, but the idea wasnt so good in reality. sigh.. i wanted harlequin, but after much thought, i think the harlequins are better left to other reefers who can provide them more space and all, plus there's the problem of constantly buying starfishes to feed them. grr... to think i spent an extra $30 to build that area when its now compromising my overflow box. \

and heres my balanophyllia coral! it looks like a super sun i think, but its occurs solitarily, unlike super suns that are colonial. i first knew of them through books on coral reefs, and was super excited when i found one in a small lfs in the live rock section. and i bought the piece of rock for only $3! good deal! ive seen one or two polyps at coral farm on their live rocks too but i didnt manage to buy those then. i'll definitely go scouring round the lfs live rock sections more though, once i can put aside more money for corals.

close ups of xenia polyps; for pulsing motion and whole colony view pls do check out the videos on page one as i only have the pics my friend took for me to post, and he didnt take any shots of the full colony. ...also, i think the videos really nice, so must encourage everyone to check it out! and my pink dendronepthya colony:

some more pics. of my sailfin:

another video! heres one of my starfish righting itself after it has fallen upside down. it was climbing onto my branching gonio and suddenly fell off, and it was timely too, as my friend who came around to help me take the pics was on hand, and we took a video of it. fromia_turning_.zip