jervismun

In case u guys are curious what the Osmolator Controller Panel consists of.

This is what I call candy floss foam... nice huh? And my tank is not even stocked.

See how hard the skimmer is working for my tank... he is quiet, but he'll bite! lol

Yupe thanks to a fellow SGReef member. Once I saw his thread, I quickly went to his place at Pasir Ris to collect. Cancelled my gym, lol. Really really have to thank him if I manage to setup a successful tank

I bought mine from ReefDepot together with other stuff.

And guess what I found at the back of my LR? I keep on discovering new things every now and then... that's what so amazing about keeping a reef tank 3 specimens in the pix, 1 zoo and 2 shrooms.

Wow! Even got yellow flower! So nice

New addition... more macroalgae to help reduce Nitrates and hopefully Phosphates. $3.00 each, bought 2 pieces.

Like the shape of the window, like looking thru a submarine

Lol! Yeah a bit confusing...

Oh cleaning it frequently I shall... stop using sponges I wont... buying better sponges I will... lol! I always thought some reefers avoiding sponges coz they can be bacteria factory (just like ceramic, bio-ball and what not). I thought the sponge will fight with LR in terms of bacteria spawning, hence once we remove the sponge, it will cause a lack of biological filtration hence crashing the tank! I will clean my filters every 1 1/2 weeks (with no fish feeding). Should be ok right?

I heard that adding filter medium like sponges will do more harm than good to the tank. Can you guys enlighten me the theory behind it? Thanks.

Yeah, DI water in 5g container (those came with dispenser). So I just have to bring the whole container home and fill up my Tunze Osmolator bucket, lol. But very heavy la. What if I just go with tap water (with proper conditioner)? Transporting water is too much for me. I know there are harmful metal in our tap water like copper and such... u think I can add another piece of sponge that can remove toxic metal? Saw it at reefdepot.

The RowaSponge seems quite good, but I don't think I'm the best person to give a review on that. My tank is still cycling, so very hard to be certain of its ability. Reviewing equipment is much easier

Wow Madmac you are a real expert! I am having high Nitrates and Phosphates (2 week tank). And no algae yet. I guess that's not too bad a news after all. I added a piece of RowaPhos Sponge to reduce Phosphates and to stop any algae outbreak as the box claims to control algae. So Richard, you might wanna try that. It's kinda exp though, $40+ for 5 thin pieces.

Hondaker: I really hope the money I invested will make a difference... lol! Yeah I can consider getting a RO/DI unit, but the plumbing will coz problem. I don't wanna mess up my kitchen by adding something underneath the sink. My other half will kill me. Hehe actually my office is drinking DI water in round container... what about... hehe no need to say out lah I added a piece of RowaPhos sponge two days ago. Let's see if it will kick-in tonight. Will test the water again. That's why my water is so crystal clear... almost can drink, lol.

I think the most critical right now is the Nitrates. 100 is kinda over the limit I think (despite Hondaker's posting earlier). I will make sure the Nitrates is almost undetectable before I consider adding a hardy fish or something. Don't wanna get flamed, lol.

Hondaker That is really helpful. The high Phosphates can be a result of using tap water right? I am a bit reluctant to buy water from somewhere and adding those filters (+ all the plumbing work) is also quite troublesome... Must I use DI/RO water? Is there anything I can do to balance my use of tap water? I did put in a good water conditioner by Denrle (left over from my FW tank) to remove chlorine and such...

What about adding some plastic sunken ship and treasure chest? Just like Finding Nemo (the dentist's tank) lol.

Confirm it's some kinda snail... it was "stuck" on my glass surface for a while this morning.

The auto water top-up feature still amazes me everytime it adds water to my tank... like a "maid" doing her job well, lol.

Day 13 : Skimmer is running full force, 24/7! I've also added some Chaeto (macroalgae) into both the back compartments and main tank. I heard they can help reduce Nitrates and Phosphates. 1. How true is it? 2. I also read from another thread that longer MH light will also deplete Phosphates, can you guys explain why? 3. No algae bloom yet! Could it be the mature cured rocks I introduce play a positive role in the whole cycle process? Those rocks has been in the reefers tank for more than a year and the transportation to my tank took less than 30 mins. 4. I do have a hermit crab in there already (came with the rocks). And some tiny shrooms and a big feather duster (hitchikers) they seems okay to me, looking beautiful. Is that a good indication? 5. Should I add in more cleaning crew? 6. Should I introduce more macroalgae like the "grape"? I really like my tank looking green.

I just started my tank 12 days ago. It's a 24g Nano Cube (with mods). Day 4 : I threw in 2 pieces of small LR (given free by Reborn) into the back compartments and hence the cycle started. The smell and the ammonia hikes as predicted. The were bristle worms blown out into the main tank, removed later. No sand. Day 6 : The smell is gone (thankfully) and the water begins to clear up quite a bit. Protein skimmer is running full force, removing a bit of yellow liquid. Temp 29ºC. Day 8 : Bought around 12kg of cured life rocks from a fellow reefer (with healthy red coralline and very small amount of green algae). I also added 3 cup full of matured sand (from the reefer's tank) to the tank floor. No smell at all! And the water is constantly crystal clear. MH light as usual. Temp 30ºC sometimes. Day 10 : All equipments were added into the tank and rocks rearranged. Added Chemipure & RowaPhos sponge. Started looking at water parameters seriously. Day 12 : After 2 days of running Chemipure and RowaPhos sponge, no big improvements to the water condition despite the extremely crystal clear water Ammonia - <0.25 Nitrates - <0.25 Nitrites - 100 Phosphate - high My BIG question is... ... is my tank experiencing the end of the cycling process? Or everything is screwed?

Firestartz: Now I know where u got your "Be Patience" advice from, lol. But something very funny happen to my tank. I don't think it is cycling normally as the ammonia hike and nitrite hike just passed by so quickly. I will start a new thread to find out why... link down at my signature.

Black background is good coz so many of our equipments are in black, so when you add a pumphead/wavemaker at the back, it will not be so obvious.