southpaw23's reef

[southpaw23]

good day bro.

may i know hows your h20 parameter b4 u added the fishes?

do you test calcium and magnesium?

getting more coulourful your tank..

where is your regular/favourite shopping place for fishes? 

Hi MAG,

To be honest, i've yet to check my parameters

I've just been careful not to overstock and allow the system time to adjust to the new bio load. With the exception of the 6 yellow tangs going in at once...which was a necessity, i've pretty much stopped or slowed down on my stocking thus far.

Do note that i had a couple of things going for me as far as getting the tank stabilized. The use of livesand helped with the cultivation of bacteria and the rocks used were semi cured which meant little or any die offs. And the skimmer was able to take care of the rest.

I am by no means condoning not testing tho...it's good to test...i just haven't gotten around to it

As for regular/favorite fish shops...don't have any one in particular but i visit most of the LFS in the east for my shopping runs..

[godzillaliu88]

big sailfin tang.

5inch?

[southpaw23]

Yep...it's a biggie! Abt 5 inches or more i believe

[MAG]

Yep...it's a biggie! Abt 5 inches or more i believe

good day bro.

wana ask you few questions on the skimmer since we both are using the same brand.

1) hv you wash the collection cup b4?i hv problem removing it cos very tight.

2) do you hv the black thick muddy stuff on the collection cup(inside part)?

3) do you hv lots of skimmate?my is not too much and quite diluted.

4) by any chance hv any pic showing the water level of the skimmer-with the pump on and with the pump off.

5) do you intend to use ozoniser with the skimmer?

6)you are using gravity feed right to fed the skimmer?any skimming problem?i actually wanted to use gravity feed to save one pump but my tank maker said the reason why he never recommend that is due to inconsistent of the gravity feed that mite affect the skimming process.whats your opinion on that?

would appreaciate it if you hv any pic to share on your skimmer. thx.

[southpaw23]

Hey MAG,

Lemme try and answer some if not all of ur questions to the best of my ability.

1. I wash the collection cup approx once a week and have not much problems removing the cup, just hold on to the base of the skimmer and twist the cup till it's free from the locking position. You may just need to put a lil more strength into it But i've heard from others that there's a type of grease you can apply to smoothen this process...haven't tried as it's working fine for me thus far.

2. There will be some skimate that collects at the inner side of the collection cup, that's a given, but that also is largely determined by how you tune your skimmer. Mine's set to semi wet, meaning the waterlevel is raised up to the top of the neck on the body, the part where it tapers in and connects to the collection cup. A lil difficult to describe i guess. Lemme see if i can get u a photo. Oh, it's important to tune the air intake as well, at this stage it may be a good bet to throttle down your air intake for the skimmer pumps to just below full capacity then adjust accordingly in future.

3. Initially i wasn't pulling out much skimate due to the lack of livestock and the fact that the tank was still cycling..but now that i've got the 5 YTs and the Sailfin, i do get decent skimate (also due to the medication i'm dosing to solve my itch problem). Rest assured the skimmer is more than capable of pulling out gunk when it needs to. The lack of skimate you're facing now could be a result of 2 things, one being the lack of livestock and low bio load. And the other possibly being that you're skimmer is tuned to dry skimate which explains the gunk buildup at the neck and lack of skimate in the cup. Your skimate is probably thick and smelly eh?

4. Will see if i can get u a picture in the coming days.

5. No, not currently running ozone on the tank, altho it's a serious consideration for me with the itch problem i'm facing currently

6. IMO, i've had no problems with the gravity feed to the skimmer but there is a condition to this and it's how the gravity feed is setup. I currently have two dursos running to the sump tank and one durso is set slightly lower in level that the other. Now naturally, all the tank water would just be directed at this lower durso so it needs to be adjusted/restricted (via ball valve) so that the waterlevel in the overflow raises to the point that it starts overflowing into the second (higher) durso as well.

When this happens, the first durso (being completely submerged) starts to only pull in water and not a mixture of water and air and this is the critical part for the gravity feed to work. I found that the presence of large air bubbles fed into the skimmer lowered the efficiency of the skimming and when that problem was solved, i didn't face any more issues with the skimmer and it skimmed fine after that.

I guess it's a lil confusing to explain in words, perhaps you can check it out in person someday.

hope that helps.

cheers,

Kenny

[MAG]

Hey MAG,

Lemme try and answer some if not all of ur questions to the best of my ability.

1. I wash the collection cup approx once a week and have not much problems removing the cup, just hold on to the base of the skimmer and twist the cup till it's free from the locking position. You may just need to put a lil more strength into it But i've heard from others that there's a type of grease you can apply to smoothen this process...haven't tried as it's working fine for me thus far.

2. There will be some skimate that collects at the inner side of the collection cup, that's a given, but that also is largely determined by how you tune your skimmer. Mine's set to semi wet, meaning the waterlevel is raised up to the top of the neck on the body, the part where it tapers in and connects to the collection cup. A lil difficult to describe i guess. Lemme see if i can get u a photo. Oh, it's important to tune the air intake as well, at this stage it may be a good bet to throttle down your air intake for the skimmer pumps to just below full capacity then adjust accordingly in future.

3. Initially i wasn't pulling out much skimate due to the lack of livestock and the fact that the tank was still cycling..but now that i've got the 5 YTs and the Sailfin, i do get decent skimate (also due to the medication i'm dosing to solve my itch problem). Rest assured the skimmer is more than capable of pulling out gunk when it needs to. The lack of skimate you're facing now could be a result of 2 things, one being the lack of livestock and low bio load. And the other possibly being that you're skimmer is tuned to dry skimate which explains the gunk buildup at the neck and lack of skimate in the cup. Your skimate is probably thick and smelly eh?

4. Will see if i can get u a picture in the coming days.

5. No, not currently running ozone on the tank, altho it's a serious consideration for me with the itch problem i'm facing currently

6. IMO, i've had no problems with the gravity feed to the skimmer but there is a condition to this and it's how the gravity feed is setup. I currently have two dursos running to the sump tank and one durso is set slightly lower in level that the other. Now naturally, all the tank water would just be directed at this lower durso so it needs to be adjusted/restricted (via ball valve) so that the waterlevel in the overflow raises to the point that it starts overflowing into the second (higher) durso as well.

When this happens, the first durso (being completely submerged) starts to only pull in water and not a mixture of water and air and this is the critical part for the gravity feed to work. I found that the presence of large air bubbles fed into the skimmer lowered the efficiency of the skimming and when that problem was solved, i didn't face any more issues with the skimmer and it skimmed fine after that.

I guess it's a lil confusing to explain in words, perhaps you can check it out in person someday.

hope that helps.

cheers,

Kenny

hi kenny.

well thx for the reply. it will be great if can view your tank. where do you live? i live in yishun.

just waiting for my chiller when back to sin next week.

will try to get my tank maker to show me how to remove the collection cup again. maybe bcos its new thats why so difficult to remove.

hows your tank itch problem? will you use ozoniser and uv to tackle the problem?

ok chat with you when back to sin.

take care

[southpaw23]

Small update - The chilldown chiller coil has finally been hooked up!

Takes less then 45 minutes to chill down the entire tank by 1 degree, and it takes well over 3.5 hours for the tank temp to rise 1 degree before the chiller kicks in again....not bad . But that's just an estimate. Will get a more accurate reading over the weekend.

Oh and the itch situation is improving...i've had a couple of casualties tho...the PBT and a YT

[ReDDeviLs]

sad to hear that u lost ur PBT and YT.. imo PBT always cannot escape ich when there is any in the tank..

[southpaw23]

When i had got him...there was no ich in the tank...not that i was aware of at least. Only other inhabitants were the 6 yellow tangs...but about 4 days after i got him...all the fishes were infected with ich

I can't say for certain if the PBT was the source of the ich but i've been battling it for the last week and a half now and it looking better now.

As for the YT...not sure what the cause of it's death, i suspect it was due to starvation and not the ich. Oddly out of all the 6 yellows...2 or 3 of em ended up being skinny as heck while the rest just continued to fatten up. Don't know how to combat this, tried enticing it with a variety of food but it threw in the towel eventually

[ReDDeviLs]

aiyo.. sad to hear that.. maybe u feed more?

[southpaw23]

aiyo.. sad to hear that.. maybe u feed more?

Already feeding garlic soaked brine and mysis twice a day and occasional rounds of Ocean Nutrition pellets whenever i'm around the house.

Plus there's red bamboo present in the tank...can't go more cos i'm not home most of the time during the day.

Will just have to hope for the best and do what i can i guess...

[southpaw23]

Small updates....did a lil bit of rescaping on one side of the tank. Here's the new look - from the bedroom

[southpaw23]

Close up..

[southpaw23]

From the living room...

[southpaw23]

Close up...

[southpaw23]

Fullshot from the bedroom..

[southpaw23]

Fullshot from the living room..

[southpaw23]

Couple of recent acquisitions..

mushrooms...

[southpaw23]

Hammer..

[southpaw23]

Pair of True Perculas from CF...exploring the hammer

[southpaw23]

here's a nice catch...purple LTA from Marinelife...gorgeous specimen

[southpaw23]

Close up and last shot for the day...

[fishtalk1517]

Great scaping and I quite like the scape as It allows ur fishes more space to swim from. Good tat u introduce ur anemone first. Once the anemone stays put at tat place for abt a week, should be safe to put other corals. The colors are intense too. Looks big too

[southpaw23]

Great scaping and I quite like the scape as It allows ur fishes more space to swim from. Good tat u introduce ur anemone first. Once the anemone stays put at tat place for abt a week, should be safe to put other corals. The colors are intense too. Looks big too

It's a decent sized specimen....love the fact that it's purple...now i'm on the look out for a decent sized Rose BTA to put on the other island and the contract would be great for the tank

[MAG]

It's a decent sized specimen....love the fact that it's purple...now i'm on the look out for a decent sized Rose BTA to put on the other island and the contract would be great for the tank

hi kenny. if i put the purple anemone into my tank do you think i can hv angels in future? eg majestic, blue face, king....

does angels attack/whack anemone?