AREA51

hello, would like to find out whether to turn off protein skimmers when adding addictives like trace elements, stronium, clacium, carbonate and iodide. if you bros do turn off your protein skimmers, how long do u leave it off? will that increase huge amount of ammonia and nitrite?

by the way........ does a 2" deep sand bed considered DSB?

im looking forward to gettiing one as soon as my tank's ready for it. saw one about 1.5" in size at aquastar last sunday

hi bros, just to update my tank. tested for ammonia and nitrate yesterday and results are: (without checking the pH value of tank waters, just tested how many mg/l) correct me if my way is wrong ammonia = 0 nitrate = above 0, but not high yet. my prediction that my 2 damsels is that maybe the ammonia is too high and nitrates building up. is my mindset correct?

if you find it troublesome topping up everyday, why don't you go get a top-up system? bubble tips should be fine, but try to get those from indonesia, tempature agar agar the same as ours

so that means im wrong

ahahahaha 最毒妇人心

it is possible. but still try to use a fan to blow across the water surface. This can actually lower the temp to 27degrees im using a box fan , the one human uses and my tank's temp is 26++ to 27++

Thanks bro Kelman, i agree that damsels are not friendly but they are cheap and hardy. maybe i'll read about on more hardy and friendly livestocks to add.

but then, after more searching, i found out that this species of blennies, The Sand Hopper Blenny should be the one in your picture. The dark spots matches too:P wonder this has helped you. gd luck

picture is too big bro Maverick77 according to your picture, i don't think its a red scooter. Notice that dragonets species have pointy more for picking at liverocks. Your fish has a more rounded mouth like gobies and blennies my guess ---------------------------------------------- it could be this: The Orange Spotted Blenny

yeah, maybe i did interpreted their info wrongly but then again i remembered this: "if most of your 5 damsels are still alive, you may add more livestocks gradually throughout the rest of the cycle" something like that.

thanks for your information bro Muar_Chee i don't think i will be adding any livestocks for the next 2 or 3 weeks, after the recent departure of two damsels and im serious about the fish magzine, its a past year copy i picked up at aquarama2005, maybe i'll scan the pages and post it here for you to see.

but now with you guys' help and advice im not that confuse anymore, or just a little

|l' of course la but still thanks for your concern and help

to bros blueheaven, ciaolong and dreamzcape: thank you for your kind sharing of information, sure helped me alot. and i learnt that patience is very important. i will leave my sytem alone by not adding livestocks i will get nitrite and nitrate test kits too, just in case i added livestocks too early again

what about the damsels? do you the water parameters are still not safe to add in fishes?? isn't it true that i can gradually add fishes a a slow rate during the cycle?? sorry but im kind of confused due to lots of different information sources

thanks for your information bro. i was actually just following the steps written in Aquarium&PetsAsia magazine that to add in 5 damsels to feed nitrogen cycle. maybe it IS inhumane.i will heed your advice and use market prawn instead. and also about the anemone i bought, i bought it because the colour really attrated me

what about adding additional liverocks? can i do that?

gd evening to all expert reefers. i have set-up a 4'/2'/1.5' tank and was left with an empty sandbed without any liverocks for 2 weeks. after the 2 week i added a few kg of liverocks, waited another 1.5weeks and i add 2 damsels which will produce ammonia in the tank to kick off the cycling process. a suspected-to-be-bleached carpet anemone is added too, bought it cuz its so purple, which is a little wierd. i suspect its bleached because the wastes in my skimmer is purple!!! my problem now is both my damsels died this afternoon, three days lifespan should i get another pair of damsels to continue with the ammonia spiking? or other steps are required? so far i have added the vitamin packets included in the corallife salt and a bottle of nitrifying bacteria. can expert reefers share a little info???