[P]owder Blue

I used CoralLife liquid food before... I dun see the need to, if you are target-feeding your corals with the aid of the sringe provided.

Hi guys, anyone can advise me how to take close shots with it? I just got this digital camera on loan from my company without the manual. Have tried but the picture that came out always blur blur one ...

Your fishes are all waiting to get "scratched" ... but the cleaner wrasse will "scratch" them only when it is hungry or in the "rite mood to scratch"

I think I'm under stress !

Fully agreed Happen to receive this in email today, just wanna share this exaggerated story...

Mr Tan runs a business selling plastic toys. He hired managers Chan and Dick to help run the company. The production line has five workers: Ah Beng, Ah Seng, Ah Huat, Muthu and Ali. As the CEO, Mr Tan pays himself a million dollars a year. His justification is: "without a good leader, the business will not be successful; and you won't get a good leader if you're unwilling to pay for one." Mr Tan has never worked in another company before. Chan had won a government scholarship twenty years ago while Dick is an expatriate from America. Mr Tan thinks very highly of them and pays them each half-a-million dollars a year. As an expatriate, Dick also gets housing, transport and relocation allowances amounting to a quarter of a million dollars a year. The production workers each gets $1,500 a month with $300 going towards a retirement gratuity that the company would match dollar-for-dollar. The business hasn't been going too well. In fact, business has been downright awful for the last few years. Consumers seem to prefer the cheaper plastic toys from companies across the street. Mr Tan is furious. "These consumers are a bunch of idiots," he said,"don't they know that the companies across the street are not managed by talents like Chan, Dick and myself?" Mr Tan has always been deeply impressed by Chan and Dick. Chan has the remarkable ability to use words like "synergy" and "paradigm shift" in every sentence. And Dick? Dick is white. So Mr Tan got down to some serious discussions with Chan and Dick. After many hours of brain storming, they decided that they know what's wrong with the company. "We don't have enough talents," Mr Tan declared, "we need to hire more scholars and white men." And he did. So now, there's Ang, who was Chan's best friend when they were in RI, and Brad, Dick's brother. They are hired on the same terms as Chan and Dick. To reward themselves for coming up with this visionary strategy, Mr Tan gave Chan, Dick and himself a 10% raise. With the raise and the hiring of two new management staff, Mr Tan figured that he had to cut cost. So he laid off Ah Huat, who's about to retire and receive his retirement gratuity from the company. The remaining four production workers now have to work 12 hours a day to cover for Ah Huat. They didn't get any compensation for this extra work because Mr Tan told them that this is a difficult time for the company and all workers have to make some personal sacrifices. "Luckily, we now have a world class management team and business will pick up in no time," Mr Tan proclaimed. However, business hasn't picked up at all despite having a world class management team. On the contrary, business seems to have worsen quite a bit. Mr Tan is now even more furious. He has no doubt that he and his management staff are world class. So the problem with the company must surely lie with the blue-collar workers like Ah Beng and his gang, who hardly have any paper qualifications and speak dialect and Singlish. But just to be sure, he engaged the services of a management consultancy firm to confirm his belief. The management consultant cost Mr Tan an arm and a leg but he identified the problem: "Your labour cost is way too high. Do you know that the average annual wage of your employees is more than $400,000? That's ten times the amount for the companies across the street." "Ah ha! Just as I thought," Mr Tan congratulated himself on arriving at the same conclusion as a world class management consultant, "Ah Beng and his gang are overpaid." So Mr Tan reduced the salary of his production workers to $1,000 a month and abolished the retirement gratuity scheme. Sounds familiar?

there must be a way to guage the .25ppm you're talking about before i add the copper in the tank right? for example...determine the amount of water in the tank, and add a certain ml of copper according to the volume of the water right? eh...btw, i do appreciate your response

I am refering ppm (parts per million) to the concentration level of copper in the water - you will need a test kit to determine that. You should not be associating ppm to ml/l. The instruction that you have have for your solution tells you how much to add (1ml for your case) to bring the copper level up, measured in terms of ppm. Please do not get confused ...

To note that the minimum copper ion concentration recommended for treatment is 0.25 ppm. In some serious case such as parasitic infestations, it may be necessary to increase the copper concentration beyond the minimum dosage. Further additions should be made in increments of 0.25 ppm. For example, if your tank is treated with the minimum dosage of 0.25 ppm, and within 24 hours an improvement in the fishes condition is not observed, additional copper solution should be added to increase the concentration to 0.50 ppm. A test kit will be needed to monitor the level of copper to prevent it from reaching toxic levels ie above 1.5ppm.

a rough guide, depending on the brand you use will be 5ml (approximate) for a dosage @ 0.25ppm. Hope this will help

euphoria, You might need a test kit from Seachem to monitor the copper level, as too much of it will be toxic to your fishes. Try the Seachem multitest - for as far as I know about copper level, it should not exceed 2ppm. Anything higher, your fishes will need to report for guard duty above.

eAquaNature is selling the i-box. You can click the above link to see the products there.

Copper solution works for me in my hospital tank. Clears white spot and parasites fast.

You can try the following Tangs : 1) Purple Tang (but not compatible with YT, always fight) 2) Blue Tang 3) Sailfin Tang 4) Kole Tang (only buy those that started feeding in LFS)

dankoo, is your tank still in the cyling period?

I normally brush it out from the LR and let my filter do the job ..

brineshrimps, mysis shrimps, flakes, nori and sea lettuce should do the job ..

Dodo, does it come with one switch or two?

Hi Cleartank, I have been to the shop myself. Two Internal overflow at the side of each tank, no sump. Saw the lightings - basically using FL only (The big display tank using 2 white, one actinic). The space restrict the use of a chiller, unless you wanted to connect it outside the display set. IMO, their tank is good for for FOWLR tank, considering the lightings used vs the height of the tank. Well, if you really corals, then choose those that doesn't need strong lightings. To add on, the widht will be quite challenging for you to build a reef tank. just my 2 cents.

ccplim, most will adopt the first method.

Your friend's worm is most likely a mantis. Do ask him to get rid of that "worm" asap. Bristtleworms are normally found in most LR - they serve more like scavengers for your tank, so you might as well leave it alone. As for the crabs, most people won't want them in their tank, coz when they turn larger in size in the future they tend to shift things around and mess up with your corals decoration. just my 2 cents...

I saw clownfish - they're from Marina Bay?

Hi Giant Bicycle, Maybe you should consider other filtration methods, as UGF is out-dated and meant more for FW use. I myself have started with UGF too, but under the advice of the seniors here I have already discontinued it, coz UGF is more like a nitrate factory in the long run. Since you already got the UGF, why not reuse the plates and convert them into a plenum system (comparable to DSB) for your tank - definitely better than to use the UGF as your filtration. For plenum system, you can refer to the link here : Monaco System You may want to try the canister filter or sump for your mechanical & chemical filtration instead. Matured DSB or Plenum will not prevent the problem of Yellow water (ie. water-tinting). Thus, you will still need a filter to solve this problem using activated carbon. The filter/sump can also serve to remove some debris from your tank. As for the pump you have for the overhead filter - yes! by all means. You can use it as a power head to add to the circulation of your tank water. Just my 2 cents ..

How about putting up a FAQ tread? I noted the following 3 "hot problems" recently : 1) Smelly tank during cycling period 2) White patches on LR during cycling period 3) Diatom bloom

it is getting off topic, but I must admit that that lobster is pretty long-living! The last time I went there is more than half year ago .. the lobster is already there that time. What about the mantis shrimp? is it still there?