Search the Community

Thanks to Conch Aqua for supporting us with the prizes. The next TOTQ winner will be able to be the first in Singapore to test and receive two set of the ConchAqua RR4W Wave maker for free ! Want to get your tank spotted ? Start posting more pics under your member tank thread now.

We are proud to share with you this quarter showcase of Darren's beautiful reef 3 feet reef tank. Congratulation !! Brief introduction of tank setup from Darren First up, I am delightful about being nominated for Tank of the Quarter. I never thought my tank would be worthy for this title but other hand I am thankful to have the opportunity to share my experience with the community. I have always looked up to those previous Tanks of the Quarter for inspiration and I am honored to be part of the list. I have kept freshwater tanks since I am young, but I was always was intimidated to try salt water. However few months ago I decided to give it a shot and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have gone through most new reefers experience trials. I started with a 3x1.5x1.5 crystal glass with a canister filter that I used for my freshwater aquarium. After 1 week I find out it's hard to maintain a saltwater tank with just a canister filter so I decided to go bigger and gotten a 322 tank with sump and cabinet from a reefer in Sgreefclub for affordable price. After several weeks I realized that the tank with 2 feet height is too high for me. I have to tip toe on the top of a chair in order to reach the bottom of the display tank to do my maintenance. In order to prevent any unnecessary accident from happening my last resort is to change a lower tank. After several days of considering, I went on to customize my own tank for my room. That's my current 3x2x1.5 tank from AA. That's when my journey started!! Within 2-4 months I changed 3 tanks so I advise reefers to plan properly ahead before committing to the hobby because I really didn’t do much research before jumping to saltwater. Read more and seek more advices before jumping into this hobby. Tank specifications Salinity: 1.022 ~ 1.023 Temperature: 25.5 Degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) Ph: Never measure Calcium – 420ppm (Salifert) Alkalinity– 10dkh (NYOS) Magnesium – 1260ppm (Salifert) Tank: Hardware Skimmer: Skimz SV203 Oval Mechanical filtration: Filter Sock Calcium Reactor: Skimz CM122 Chiller: Hailea HS90A Biopellet / reactor: Skimz RR113 Recirculating Chemical filtration: Activated carbon Biological filtration: 2x Marine Pure block, Biohome, Bacterial king, Siporax medias Main return pump: Jebao DC 12k (Main return), Eden 135 (Chiller pump) Wave maker: Vortech MP40, MaxSpect Gyre XF 150 Lighting: ATI SunPower T5 06 X 39W Lighting period: 10am – 9.30pm (3x Blue plus, 1x Purple plus), 1pm – 7pm (2x Coral plus) Addictive used So far I am only using Aquaforest Pro Bio S for bacteria growth. Dosing 3 drops a day at my medias section of the sump. Tank maintenance Daily - Feed my fishes twice a day when i woke up and during dinner time. (Each 5 cubes of mysis, 1-2 drop of goldpods) - Clean the tank glass - Drip 3 drops of Aquaforest Pro Bio S - Check for any corals that drop on the sandbed Every 3-4 days - Empty my skimmer and clean it's neck - Give my filter socks a good scrub Weekly - Check all my parameters Monthly - Water change around 40% and suck out the dirt on the sandbed and sump - Change the carbon Every 6 months - Check for clog in my RR113 biopellet - Wash my wavemakers Every 8 months - Change all the ATI tube Live stocks – Corals To be honest I really don’t know most of my corals name except for those common ones like Rainbow stylo, Strawberry short cake, Green and Purple stags. These are the names I know. Normally I will buy corals by looking at their colors. If their corals strike my eyes then I will normally get it. Live Stocks - Fish: Currently: * Purple Tang * Blue Tang * Golden Midas * 5 x Blue eye anthias (1 male, 4 female) * 4 x Chromis Some personal Q & A questions 1. How long have you been reefing? 1. How long have you been reefing? Ans: I have been reefing for about 8-9 months ago. 2. How did you get into this hobby?. 2. How did you get into this hobby? Ans: Keeping a marine tank has always been my childhood dream but the cost and maintenance of it makes me think twice but once I get into my National Service I decided to give it a goal and *poof* here I am now. 3. Are you a fish guy or a Coral guy? Ans: I love both fish and coral because I believe in a reef tank i need these two to complete my “Dream Tank” 4. Any dream fish or coral you wish to own one day ? Ans: I wish to convert my whole tank to mainly SSC but this will definitely be a heavy damage. My dream fish is Gem tang , Black tang and Achilles tang. One day/Hopefully I can keep all of them together. 5. What is your main concern when looking around for your reefing equipment? Ans: My equipment are mainly from reefers that I bought from Sgreefclub. I always will look for those reliable and reputation equpiment. For example brands like: Vortech, ATI etc. I believe in spending more in good equipment than save a few dollars to get a lousy equipment because a good equipment will definitely benefit you in the long run. 6. What is your favorite past time 6. What is your favorite past time Ans: Normally is just lying down my bed and enjoy my tank and going Local Fish Store with my sibling and girlfriend. 7. What is the satisfaction you got from this hobby? 7. What is the satisfaction you got from this hobby? Ans: What I really get/feel after all my effort and money spent in this tank is remarkable. It’s just beyond words. I really love seeing my fishes and corals PE swimming and waving when I come home. It makes me feel so relax after a long day of work but my BIGGEST Satisfaction is my girlfriend (CFO) loves my tank too! HAHAHA 8. Any advice for newbie in this hobby? Ans: PATIENCE and PATIENCE. You must really have the patience when setting up a marine tank. Read more members’ tank from Sgreefclub, understand their system, and understand what kind of problems you will encounter and how to solve it. There are a lot of systems in the market like Auqaforest, Zeovit, Fauna marin and Triton. All of these systems do create amazing tanks but don’t just blindly follow. I will always make time to head down reefers house to look at their tanks and also ask for their experience. Experience is what money can’t buy. Understand the basics and happy reefing! First and foremost, I really want to thank Leon (“SubzeroLT”) for my tank. Without his guidance and experience I won’t get what I’m getting now. Thank you for being so patience, answering all my nonsense questions. Another two important person to thank is my late mother and my Girlfriend. Without their support and contribution everything won’t even happen. I also want to thank “Reef Manic” they also played a big part for me to understand reefing. Last but not least, a Big Thank you to SGREEFCLUB moderator for nominating my tank and also created such a good website for newbie to learn reefing and for experts to sharing their reefing experience! “There are a lot of amazing tank around Singapore and I am not the best. Everyday I’m learning new things from reefers/gurus so never stop learning and Happy Reefing!!” More photo can be found on the Gallery album HERE

Thanks to Conch Aqua for supporting us with the prizes. The next TOTQ winner will be able to receive two set of the ConchAqua RR4W Wave maker for free ! Want to get your tank spotted ? Start posting more pics under your own member tank thread now.

SRC is proud to fatured this quarter TOTQ winner - Kylve beautiful Mixed reef tank. Introduction It all started when my BIL tempted me into this hobby with 1 pair of nemo ( clownfish ) with live rock in a simple 1ft tank. Within 2 weeks, I started to fall in love with this wonderful hobby and got another 2ft tank, keeping zoas . After less than 5 month, found my current tank being too small, and it so happen that a reefer is decommissioning his tank, and wanted to give away his 5 ft tank that landed me into my current 5ft setup. I Started my new tank keeping zoas and pratas with lots of fishes. Unfortunately , Murphy's law always happens when you are not around. My chillier pump spoilt suddenly and it causes the water temperature in the tank to rise which result in all pratas melting off. Shortly after this lesson learn, I Change to a compressor chiller together with a auto temp cut off system install with my MH lighting. In 2009, when i decided to try keeping SPS corals , all the corals was growing well. That is also when I decided to rescape my tank and sold off all my fishes and corals to try out my current system with lesser rock and bioload. I started off my tank again this time round with numerous frags and small bioload of minimum fishes. One fine day, i was poison by a SRC reefer ezman with angels fishes, that i decided to setup another tank for these beauty, so i transfer all my zoas over to another dedicated running system so that i can keep my angelfishes in my main tank. By doing so, this also helps to increase my water volume and enable me to add more fishes which i loved !!! I still love to see my tank fill with corals with many fishes swimming around freely which looks colorful and make my tank lively ! Tank specifications Salinity: 1.026 Temperature: 26 Ph: 8 Calcium - 430 Alkalinity– 9 Magnesium – 1500 Tank: Hardware Skimmer: deltec 851 Dosing pump: Tom Aquatics Aqua-Lifter Dosing Pump with timer Chiller: 1HP compressor drop in coil Biopellet / reactor: Biopellet reactor Main return pump: OR 3500 and eheim 1260 Wave maker: 2 x Vortech MP40W, 1 x Tunze 6250, 1 x Tunze 6850 Others Equipments : JBJ auto top up Lighting period : De-Lighting tube 2 x Blue Plus + 2 x aquablue special (From 11am to 11.30pm) 3 x 250W MH 15K Bulb : aqua lighting(From 3.30pm to 8pm) Addictive used No, i dont use much addictive on my tank as I tend to feed my fishes a lot which i belive in turn will the corals in my tank. Tank maintenance 7 to 10 days change 25L of pre salt mix using DD salt. 4 to 5 days cleaning of skimmer cup and changing of cotton wool. Every 1 week mixing and topping up of cal,mag and alkalinity solution using food grade powder.

We are pleased to share with you guys this quarter TOTQ showcase - Tench1 magnificent SPS dominated reef tank. Custom-made tank and sump based on my very own design; 3 x 2.5 x 2.5 FT display tank with top/bottom euro bracing made up of crystal glass. Total volume including sump is approx. 500 Litres Tank specifications Salinity: 1.030 Temperature: 25.5 to 26.5 degC Ph: Don’t measure Calcium - 400 Alkalinity– 9.6dkh Magnesium – 1420 Tank: Hardware Skimmer: MCE600 Mechanical filtration: Filter Wool / Filter Sock / Live Rocks / Biohomes Dosing pump: Jebao DP4 Chiller: 1HP Compressor with dual dip in copper coil Biopellet / reactor: ROWA Reactor powered by Aquabee 2000 pump Chemical filtration: Main return pump: Jebao DC12000 Wave maker: Jebao RW8 x 3, RW15 x 2 Others Equipments : DE lighting RETROFIT x 8 tubes (4 sets of 2 tubes) Lighting period : - 11am to 11pm, 12 hrs (2 x ATI BLUE PLUS, 2 x ATI PURPLE PLUS) - 12pm to 7pm, 7 hrs (2 x ATI AQUABLUE SPECIAL, 2 x ATI BLUE PLUS) Addictive used - Acropower, 1/2 cap full 4 times a week - KentMarine Phytomax, 5 drops 4 times a week - Oysterfeast, 10ml 3 times a week - Iodine/Trace element, duplex, 10 drops per week Tank maintenance Once weekly with either 20Litres or 40Litres of Skimz Saltmix PUB tap water with a few drops of prime, used for Saltmix Live stocks – Corals Mainly SPS, with some LPS and NPS Not really good with names… Live Stocks - Fish: Current Fish list 1. Black Widow Blenny aka Black Combtooth Blenny (Ecsenius namiyei) 2. Mystery Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus ocellatus) 3. Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) 4. Filamented Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus filamentosus) 5. Christmas Wrasse (Halichoeres claudia ) - Hawaii 6. Platinum Clownfish x 2 7. Vrolik's Wrasse, (Halichoeres chrysotaenia) - Maldives 8. Yellow & Purple Wrasse (Halichoeres leucoxanthus) 9. Yellow Tang 10. Clown Tang Some personal Q & A questions 1. How long have you been reefing? Ans: Ever since 2009 2. How did you get into this hobby? Ans: Influenced by my dad’s FOWLER tank which had decomm 3. Are you a fish guy or a Coral guy? Ans: Coral Guy 4. Any dream fish or coral you wish to own one day ? Ans: Yellow Banana lokani 5. What is your main concern when looking around for your reefing equipment? Ans: Price and reliability. 6. What is your favorite past time Ans: Admiring the growth of the corals in my tank. 7. What is the satisfaction you got from this hobby? Ans: Growth of a coral from a small frag to mini-colony. 8. Any advice for the newbie in this hobby? Ans: Take things slow. We are building a new environment from ground zero. Nature needs to be balanced slowly. I believe in using natural predators for pest and good husbandry check on newly bought corals. QT is a must for fishes. Avoid artificial chemical /dosing, as it solve the present problem will bring you a brand new one later. Video of My Reef Tank More photos of his setup can be found on our facebook ; https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153479133633004.1073741837.109005173003&type=3

SRC is proud to featured this quarter TOTQ winner - Alex's mixed reef tank !! Below is a write up from Alex. Front View Since young, I have always been fascinated by the colors of the ocean. I remember when I was young, my dad used to rent his place to an Angmo with a hexagon Marine tank. That was when I told myself, I want a marine tank when I grow up!! Well, after I started work, I dived into marine. This is my 6th year into marine. Through these years, I have made countless mistakes, but I guessed I have learnt a lot from my mistakes, from fellow reefers, and from friendly LFS too! I started out with a simple nano tank, then into a DIY 2 feet tank, and then to a 3 feet tank which I have now. when I got my new place, I ordered a custom made 5 feet with a full height hood 3 sided divider tank which I used to divide my living room with my relax corner, and also to have many different views of my new tank as possible . Despite having friends who are crazy over sps corals, I still retain my love for LPS corals . Reason being i can’t resist the intense colors and fluffy corals waving to & fro in the water which is also why I decided to steer towards a mixed reef setup J Tank specifications Salinity: 1.026 Temperature: 26 degrees Ph: 8.1 Calcium - 450 Alkalinity– 8.0 Magnesium – 1450 Tank: Hardware Tank Size: 60” x 27” x 24” Sump Size: 36” x 18” x 15” Glass: 3 sides Crystal Glass 12mm (Braced) Skimmer: Skimz Monster E Series SM251 Mechanical filtration: Bio Balls/Coral Chips/Bio Home Dosing pump: Jebao DP4 Chiller: 1 HP Daikin Compressor (Drop in Titanium Coil) Biopellet / reactor: NM 122 (Nitrate Reactor) & FM100 (Sorb4) Chemical filtration: Biological filtration: Prodigio Biodigest & Biooptim Main return pump: Jebao DC-6000 DC Pump & Jebao DC-12000 DC Pump Wave maker: Jebao RW 20 & RW 15 Others Equipments : Lighting period : 6 x 80W Ati Dimmable Sunpower 1200 – 0100 (3 Blue plus / 1 Purple plus) 1600 – 2100 (2 Coral Plus) Addictive used Ca & Kh on Dosing Manual Mg dosing Reef Roids (3 times a week) GroTech A,B,C – Definitely thinking about changing to FM colour elements J Live stocks – Corals Full Range of Corals ranging from Softies – LPS – SPS Some examples. Softies - Floridas & Yumas, Assorted Zoas, Xenias, Yellow Gorgonian, GSP LPS – Hammers, Torch, Frogspawn, True Octo, Jewel, Red Gonio, Blasto, Wild Acans, Prata, Scoly, Favia, Chalice, Plate, Lobo, Duncans SPS – Assorted Millies, Staghorns, Tenuis, Spathulatas, Lokanis, Birdnest, Montiporas Shortcakes etc. And an Ultra Big RBTA Live Stocks - Fish: 1 Sohal Tang 1 Blue Tang 1 Yellow Tang 1 Power Blue Tang 1 Midas Blenny 1 Flame Angel 1 Flame Hawk 1 Yellow Head Jawfish 4 Clowns (3 Picasso, 1 Frostbite) 4 Purple Queen Anthias 1 Yellow Wrasse 1 Solar Wrasse 2 Six Line Wrasse 2 Blue Chromis 1 Algae Blenny 1 Sleeper Blue Dot Goby 1 Red Dragonet Some personal Q & A questions 1. How long have you been reefing? Ans: 5.5 years 2. How did you get into this hobby? Ans: Always been my Childhood dream! Started the hobby when I graduated and move back home from hostel. 3. Are you a fish guy or a Coral guy? Ans: I am both, love the interaction between fishes, corals, invertebrates in the marine eco system. Not to mention the vibrant colours and the interesting personalities 4. Any dream fish or coral you wish to own one day ? Ans: Achilles Tang. Tried twice L 5. What is your main concern when looking around for your reefing equipment? Ans: Reviews from fellow reefer on the efficiency! 6. What is your favorite past time Ans: Ermm.. Looking at my tank? Haha, well, I am a PE teacher so, I spent a lot of time on sports too! 7. What is the satisfaction you got from this hobby? Ans: Definitely, seeing the corals and fishes grow healthily! Seeing the corals try to encrust, and colour up gives me the recognition for my efforts, and of cuz $$ The next satisfaction or maybe, personal achievement, would definitely to successful breed my clowns! 8. Any advice for newbie in this hobby? Ans: Never jump straight into this hobby! It has been a painful process for me, and I’m sure many of us, losing livestocks, having setbacks due to mistakes that we have made. Do your homework, don’t be afraid to ask questions when you visit LFS. Think through whether your passion is worth your hours and hours of commitment before you make the jump! Because, I’m sure, if you do, you will never regret getting poisoned by marine J Final acknowledgement which I would definitely want to thank SRC for this privilege to feature my tank, especially for being still a novice and relatively “young” reefers like me, a chance to share my passion and pride with fellow reefers here ! I would also like to take the opportunity to thanks all the reefers here who always share their buys with me! You know who you guys are J Also, to thank ah Heng, for sharing with me all the reefing tips and advises ever since I started reefing! Lastly, every one of you, for your support as you read this thread!

SRC are pleased to share with you this quarter TOTQ winner - PeeBee beautiful Mixed reef tank. Congratulation to PeeBee ! Tank specifications Salinity: 1.025 Temperature: 25-26 Ph: NIL Calcium - 420 Alkalinity– 8.9 Magnesium – 1230 Tank: Hardware Skimmer: VERTEX Omega 150 Protein Skimmer Mechanical filtration: Filter sock Chiller: HAILEA HS-66A 1/4HP chiller Biopellet / reactor: D-D H2Ocean FR Chemical filtration: Rowaphos, Vertex Biopellets Main return pump: EHEIM 1264 return pump Wave maker: JEBAO WP40 Lighting: MAXSPECT Razor 300W 16K Additives used Initially I started with the Triton method, which I feel was convenient for a new reefer, who might be daunted by the sheer variety of additives in the market and also parameters to keep track of. I, however, felt that I wanted more autonomy over the individual parameters in my tank. I have since transitioned into using the Fauna Marin Ultra Balling. Tank maintenance Once every 2 weeks

We are proud to featured this quarter Tank of the Quarter ( TOTQ ) winner . Honkit beautiful SPS dominated reef tank to be be showcase . Congratulation to Hon Kit !!! Theme of your wining tank : Hon Kit’s SPS dominant reef tank Brief Introduction of your history of setting up your tank I am honoured to be choosen as the latest TOTQ winner and it is with joy and thankfulness that I am writing this. My reefing roots sprouted almost a decade ago in 2003 when after watching Finding Nemo the movie, I was inspired to set up a saltwater tank in my home. It was a simple 50 gallon bowfront tank that was converted from an old goldfish tank with no sump. When things turned sour in my tank with livestocks suffering, I decided to pull the hobby plug in 2007. However, little did I know that the reefing poison is permanently ingrained in my nervous system and try as I might, after a four year hiatus, I finally succumbed to temptation and set up a new reef tank in October 2011 which was slightly more than one year after having moved to my new home. Ironically, I initially intended to keep a simple fish only tank with a few interesting invertebrates to keep costs down. However, having tried keeping SPS corals before, the SPS bug bit me deeply and I decided to plunge into it again (although my bank account certainly protested!). With this in mind, I firmly intended to do the best I could for an SPS dominated reef tank and thus I embarked on a few steps which were firsts for me namely: 1) Use RO/DI water exclusively 2) Utilize a probiotic method religiously (I began with Prodibio but eventually switched to the Fauna Marin Ultralith system) 3) Slow stocking of fishes (one fish every 2-3 weeks) and enforcing a limit on the number of fishes I intended to keep in my tank 4) Use dead rock for rock scaping as live rocks are filled with pests and unwanted algae It’s been almost 15 months since my tank was up and running and I am glad that things have been relatively smooth with the occasional algae break-out notwithstanding. Tank specifications Salinity: 1.025 Temperature: 25-27 degrees celcius Ph: Unknown Calcium – 400 Alkalinity– 7.5-8.0 Magnesium – Unknown Tank: Hardware Skimmer: Skimz SM251 Mechanical filtration: Filter sock Dosing pump: Kamoer Chiller: Drop-in titanium coil with 1 HP Daikin air-con compressor Biopellet / reactor: None Chemical filtration: Activated Carbon Main return pump: Eheim 1262 Wave maker: Tunze Turbulle 6125, Tunze Turbulle 6155, Vortech MP40wES Others Equipments : ATI Sunpower 6X39W + DE retrofit T5 2X39W Lighting period : 4 bulbs on for 9.5 hours, 4 bulbs on for 4.5 hours

Stand a chance to win a set of the latest new concept ULNS system from Polyplab worth $ 189.00 !!! . The winner for the next Tank of the Quarter Winner for Nov ~ Jan 2013 will be award a set of the addictive proudly sponsored by REEF DEPOT. Thanks again to Reef Depot for the support ! More information about this products can be found at this link ;