roidan

must open champagne and celebrate liao.. 1st water change ceremony

just did my first water change with the largest toyogo kind of tub after changing the water, realise tank became a little cloudy due to the ionic imbalances, but clearing up quite fast..within minutes the water became clearer and clearer hope the fishes have a fresh breath of water now

in short, anything AP uses, surely good.. except for AP's stupid refugium

yeah....i am sure alfa hooks his ozoniser to the ev240 also...hehe ev240 + ozoniser = ev400 performance? hahaa

yeah...it is said that an ozoniser can improve skimmer performance by 30%..dunno real or not..hehe i also have my sanders ozoniser hooked to the ev240 now and then, dun use them all the time now...

may want a barebottom to let debris fly around and get trapped by the skimmer either a small calcium reactor or simply just letting my current calcium reactor work for both tank as the 6ft tank not too many calcium demanding stuff there... how? in the day, CR effluent for the 6ft system.... at night, CR effleunt for the 2ft sps.... share share...dun fight...

yeah it may be a problem netting out your chromis especially with the vast rockworks... when your net hits the water surface, some of them may just dart for cover already...i had to resort to some trickery to fool some of the queens into getting netted u mean anthias ah.... not really...i do use long tools in my tank to arrange corals quite often and not to mention changing veges on the vege clips for my tangs....but the anthias are not scared....the tangs are the ones that will hide instead... the anthias in my tank got used to my hands/tools in water already... but anthias are indeed sensitive when they are newly introduced, more so when you dunno if there has been enough harm done along the shipping process.... what harm done along the shipment, you can't undo it..... but the moment you step into an lfs to choose your anthias, that's when their fate becomes tied with you.... a keen eye for details, movement, looks...will be an important first step in choosing good specimens.... sometimes you just know if this fish can make it or not, sometimes something tells you not to buy although outrightly there aren't anything terribly wrong with it.... 6th sense? spider sense? i dunno....probably fish sense since i am a pisces

as for the equipment above, any sps bros with suggestions or comments?

yeah..i figured you will accept the suggestion of another RSB classic much much readily and easily than trying to push another brand or type of skimmer to you.. or else will end up with testimonials from you again about the prowess of your RSBclassic again have already kinda figured your kinda reefing methodology and mindset already no problem lah...just voicing out my frank opinion and suggestions as a fellow reefer, experience not vast as yours definitely, i better go check my birthdate, maybe you started reefing while i was still teething so gotta respect that no matter wat the real experts out there are the ones not commenting, i am just a casual reefer farting around with my posts

seriously, anthias are a group of very rewarding fish.... if u dare and can feed them well, they will reward you with schooling behaviour that even a school of chromis or cardinals cannot match.... and they will not hide when they are in a large group...the leaders of subpacks will always lead the shy ones out when you go near the tank if u feed often...because they think u are going to feed them. it's rewarding, i netted some queens out to reduce bioload when the AT came as ATs require not just good water parameters, but pristine water parameters.....but when i upgrade my skimmer soon, the shoals of anthias, not schools, will be back your tank will be nice for schooling fishes as many places to venture...but not so much for tangs especially adult tangs...because everywhere they turn, they only got about 4ft of tank length to sprint before changing direction whether 90degree to the next plane or 180 degree uturn back... but i am sure an adult Acanthurus pyroferus will be pretty comfortable in there

seriously with a generous water volume of your tank size, i will head for a count of 100 or even more anthias if i have such a tank ...with very good skimmer... and forget about watching marine documentaries on TV, a living ocean right at the balcony

anyway AP, you did mention that the near tank crash from the refugium failure gave you alot of stress... actually seriously, objectively stating, if you had a bigger and probably better skimmer, you may not reach the point of near crash no matter what happens in your refugium i am sure along the way, stocking and setup of my current 6ft tank, there are mistakes that could have crashed my tank if not for my skimmers...just that the skimmers exported the *crash potential* before i even noticed my tank going to a near crash crisis i seriously believe that if you stock the way and the speed i do, u will have a lot of nutrient problems... i know you feel strongly and heartily about your RSB classic, but just a suggestion, you can add another RSB classic and run 2 RSBs together...i am sure it will buffer you against more near crash situations in future

but anyway, it's hard for someone to have a nice 6ft sps reef and not take any pictures of it even using normal non-digital cameras... if there are no digital cameras invented, i think i would have opened a photo processing shop myself to develop my reef photos cheaper with a normal camera maybe the thought didn't come to your mind, but i am sure somewhere in your family photos, there are some with the beautiful 6ft tank as background or tucked away in a corner of the photo... and can share with us the beauty of your previous reef

that's why everyone's system is unique...wat works for others may not work for you... if what you have done in your previous 6ft has been great, why bother to be distracted by all these other methods, stick to what is tried and tested, by yourself for me, my refugium works, never crash probably coz i have the right kind of macroalgae, or watever factor that keeps the system stable... you are one that feels strongly about your methods of reefing and let others know that you have a vast reefing experience of many many many years ...from what i read in the earlier parts of your thread as well as the RSB skimmer thread other reefers like me will have doubts over some issues..eg. your skimmer, but i believe if you stick to your method garnered from your 20 years of experience, u will show us it can be done even with a small skimmer. i think by allowing yourself to be sidetracked, you are just doubting yourself and your proven method that's why i believe you should stick to what you know best, and i know you can do it

yeah lor.... that's why i suggest you stick to what you did to your 6ft sps tank... coz u may end up introducing things like refugium which nearly crashed your tank like you said...and those things that u never tried in your 6ft... since your 6ft has your method of achieving your target...why sidetrack from your own tried and tested methods? and u end up adding more unknown variables to may lead you further away from what you have achieved in your previous 6ft sps nirvana stick to what you have acheived success the way u gotten from your 6ft sps tank...and u wun go wrong wat...tested and proven by yourself one... other suggestions by other reefers...may not work in your method

never mind lah...just tag them a name only lah...hehe anyway, here's what i have in mind for my 2ft sps cube... start building air castles liao 2ft cube (10mm glass or maybe full acrylic --->IAN are u listening? ) 400W SE MH with spider reflector BLV 10KK bulb or 20KK...but since it's 400W, probably i can use 20KK while maintaing reasonable PAR in a 2ft cube... Tunze TS7 (6000l/hr controllable) Remora Pro skimmer Teco RA200/240 chiller hmm...wat have i missed out

yeah...tat's why you placed them 2inch under the water like you said.... definitely u can keep them alive this way...and reasonably happy but nothing beats providing a MH for them, you can keep them even on the sandbed if you want if your tank is not too deep... i also kept clams with PLs when i started or even tried 3x54W T5 lights with them within inches of the water surface also... but nothing beats the point source of light like a MH, the clams will love the intensity from a point source more... but if you say that PLs also can keep watever kind of clams, yes, i agree, been there, done that

never mind lah weileong, let AP do it the way AP knows best.. Ap's previous 6ft tank with vibrant SPS also never use tunze streams wat... so AP can just replicate what was done on the 6ft tank lor..

bro weileong: tot for you liao SaintSeiYa Surgeonfishes how about it?

yeah lor..... just like weileong's, so small and cute, can watch it grow up...like a proud father...lol.. i dun care big or small AT ....as long it makes me hold my breath, especially with the lovely orange teardrop, i want it. hope the gem tangs that come here will be small, so i can see a raw stone slowly becoming a real GEM I am establishing my League of Extraordinary Surgeonfishes while bro deepblue is establishing his Justice League of Zebrasomas waiting for more leagues to be formed... weileong, got a collective name for your tangs or not? come out with some japanese anime names leh