Tivoli's $2000 3ft tank upgrade

[tivoli]

The shot of my custom sump + refugium.

I originally wanted to reuse my old sump but it was too long for my cabinet.

So there goes additional $100 for my sump and $20 for delivery.

[tivoli]

I used to keep feather and grape caupela.

But I faced the usually algae asexual crashing problem.

I tried to keep the green ulva also but somehow it could not survive in my tank

but it started to rot and dissolved into my waters.

So now I have three species of algae that are stable and grows fast

once they are established in my tank :

1) Red algae. The leaves are leathery and thick. It grows well only under strong lights. It is currently being held by one of those plastic containers to be near

my 36 w PL

2) Red bamboo. Not bad growing well.

3) chaetomorpha (spagetti algae). This guy is growing very fast. It came as a hitch hike --- no I

actually choose a piece of algae that has it as a hitch hike.

It came as a piece of 2 cm by cm turf of algae. After a few months it grew to 10 cm by 10 cm turf.

This algae is solid. It is very stable, I left it in my sump without lights for 2 weeks.... and its still ok.

my vedict : - chaetomorpha is the best refugium algae.

[tivoli]

This is a shot of my spagetti algae.

Two big turf in separate containers and red bamboo.

[tivoli]

Another algae I forgot to mention.

I found some algae that looks like the brown colour version of "Tang's heaven"

at the east coast beach and placed it in mysump.

http://www.ipsf.com/web7535a/rfolder/tangheaven.jpg

It is very stable and growing fast and well too.

Sorry too busy to get a pic of it.

[tivoli]

okie.

Finally a pic of my tank in full bloom - this occurs

after two hours of MH light up.

my corals bloom and stretch to the max size under the MH.

[tivoli]

The left side of my tank.

Mush in full blom. My wife said it looks delicious and succulent.

[tivoli]

the mush pic

[tivoli]

The right side of my tank, which is the separate anemone rock structure.

Currently I have two bulb tentacles anemone.

One green and one rose.

I will buy another clown to pair up in due time.

[tivoli]

There is a pic of elegant in full bloom.

This is one of favourite.

This is a full lime green long tentacle elegant with strong sting.

I used to have problems keeping elegants and they die from some wasting disease but now I found a technique.

1) When I am at the LFS, I try to touch the tentacles of the elegants ... if they

are sticky and tried to sting me ... this means they are very healthy and will

eat food if they are fed.

2) Before I dump them into my tank, I dip the elegant into a coral dip solution

that will supposely kill off any resident bacteria

3) At night i tried feeding the elegant with pieces of blended prawn, cuttlefish and sea weed food (which I made to feed my fishes) This keeps the elegant strong and healthy to fend off any wasting diseases

4) So far so good

[tivoli]

This is another of my favourite :

Alveopora : The petal like tentacles really captivate my heart.

Somehow under MH. It blooms and grows very fast.

I hope to get another one with green coloured petals.

A pic of my alveo in full bloom.

[tivoli]

A pic of my frogspawn.

Under the MH, the colour really stands out with purple and green.

It growing fast.

Nice another one of my favourites.

[tivoli]

There's a pic of my H&S skimmer.

Hard working and dependable. $$$$$580$$$$

[dradttg]

Your Tank looks fantastic.

Tiong Ghee

[Bob]

2k really well spend!

Luckily you did not give up or else lost another good reefer kaki.

like your rock scaping .Very neat & natural. The lighting has nice colour combination.

PS. How the hammer doing?

Bobby

[ervine]

He said "Man either play with toys or with woman".

That's a wonderful phrase!! Might go try it out on my gf... haha..

[tivoli]

Hi bob,

the hammer is doing well.

Will have tp frag it later to make space .....

else the child head that is growing may get snuff out by the parent.

cheers

[tivoli]

Thanks guys for the compliments.

I was telling my wife only a reefer will tell another reefer that $2000 is money well spent on a aquarium tank.

Every other friend I know think that I am NUTS.

I suppose we have to console each other after we have burnt our pockets.

[tivoli]

I must add that I am lucky.

I stocked up my tank to around 70% capacity within a month ..... not recommended for any reefers.

But you guys know the problem : we reefers cannot stand looking at an empty

tank for long.

I think I could get away with it because of a hardworking skimmer and that my live rocks are all cured as they taken from my old tank.

H&S skimmer is quite amazing. The tower started foaming and skimming after 30 minutes of operation. No break-in time needed.

[Acanthurus pyroferus]

bro. don't feel guilty about spending that amount of money....I just spent close to $5,000.00 in just a months time liao.... but one thing.....I don't regret it now because it's all worth the hard work.....

[tivoli]

Yo Acanthurus pyroferus,

only a reefer will be able to understand whya nother reefer is willing to fork out that kind of money ... ha ha

Just like only a golfer will be able to understand another golfer's passion.

Yo bro ... i saw your tank. It is awesome.

I told my wife this is it : My final upgrade : $2000 bucks.

unless of course I make lots of money and have lots of time then its another matter.

Anyway I love my tank and setup. I am happy with spending the $2000. For me I am gald that I spend money to keep a proper reef tank with the correct equipments.

One life. Live it.

Keep a reef tank with good lightings, proper chiller and a good skimmer..... instead of keeping a cheapo tank where corals die frequently.

Ha ha .... cheers

[beachboy]

Really very nice set up and the LR colour is very nice :> what light you using now ? and how big is ur tank how many by how many ?

[tivoli]

I am using CoralVue 10k MH.

The lightings of this bulb is very nice ....

My tank is 3 ft by 1.5 by 1.5 ft.

Cheers

[beachboy]

oic got think of change a big tank ? how much you buy ur MH huh ??

[tivoli]

Yes.

I thought of changing to 4ft x 1.5 x 1.5.

But you must understand that the cost of the equipment will go

up alot more + cost of maintenance + time.

(more lights, bigger skimmer, more rocks, more live stock,

bigger chiller, more electricity ..... etc)

For me, I wanted to put a limit on upgrading and contain the cost.

Else the money pumped into the tank will go up exponentially !!

Instead I decided to focus on buying quality equipment to keep my

3 ft tank in good shape.

Cheers

[beachboy]

oic :> how much u buy ur MH ah ?