BLACK V TANK

[Ah-lim]

I nv keep sponge before.

Wat's the recommended temperature?

Feed on? nitrate?

[Vlamingi_cont]

Hi, Welcome to my tank thread. nothing much in here. just gonna post up some pictures of my tank.

Things are very budget.

Tank specs:

5.5ft X 2ft X 2ft tank (FOC)

skimmer is underpowered weipro skimmer

DIY denitrator

8 T5 tubes with 2 FL tubes.

using ATI blue special, Blue, colorpro and actinic.

wave maker using powerheads and one seio 1100.

focusing on LPS and softies first but have some sps too.

Pictures are taken using Canon EOS 450D...the latest model..

so this thread can also be a product review too.

No CR, but running FR with activated carbon and phos together.

using bailing method to does trace element, carbonate and calcium.

Parameters :

KH 10

calcium 400ppm

magnesium: testkit used up

nitrite, ammonia:0

Phosphate:0

nitrate:5 to 10ppm

(denitrator not working recently so reading went up, fixing it back.)

temperature: 26-28

chiller: teco 680

even that i doesn't utilise much of skimmer due to space constraint but still recommend one.

denitrator and mangrove keep the reading in check all along.

cheers.

WOWWWW!!!! Euu not on budget liao??? Hav chiller ar?? Teco some more leh, teach me leh how save more money...hehe jk only...

[Victor007]

I nv keep sponge before.

Wat's the recommended temperature?

Feed on? nitrate?

they are filter feeder...u need to provide them with either plankton, rotifers or x-nature food or ur own blend.

temperature around 27 or lower...they need strong current. and dun get the blue hard sponge, it's poisonous when it died.

I have one, buy it becos the stone's hitchhiker is some goniopora or alveopora...mini polpys one. dun know if can take photo of it or not. hahah. will try.

[Victor007]

WOWWWW!!!! Euu not on budget liao??? Hav chiller ar?? Teco some more leh, teach me leh how save more money...hehe jk only...

haha..if u see my setup..for my tank size, it's very budget already. no big skimmer which cost few thousands, or any CR...

using bailing method which is auto dripping system.

how to save up ? u must know at long term, nv buy things on impulse.

before u buy fishes or corals, get ur water quality good first. that's what i do.

i spend a lot of time gathering all the equipment from ppl who are decomming.

how to spend well ? u need to know the market price.

Teco chiller is good but mine is second hand one, bought from a freshwater guy.

the price original will be 1000+ but i buy at one third of the price.

and for my system, only using second-hand seio powerhand. the rest are from china or taiwan one.

haha.u need to know what u need and why u need then u can do well in this hobby.

like why u need powerhead and there are so many brands out there and why this particular brand.

blah blah blah...sometimes u can get killer price here online also.

cheers.

[Vlamingi_cont]

haha..if u see my setup..for my tank size, it's very budget already. no big skimmer which cost few thousands, or any CR...

using bailing method which is auto dripping system.

how to save up ? u must know at long term, nv buy things on impulse.

before u buy fishes or corals, get ur water quality good first. that's what i do.

i spend a lot of time gathering all the equipment from ppl who are decomming.

how to spend well ? u need to know the market price.

Teco chiller is good but mine is second hand one, bought from a freshwater guy.

the price original will be 1000+ but i buy at one third of the price.

and for my system, only using second-hand seio powerhand. the rest are from china or taiwan one.

haha.u need to know what u need and why u need then u can do well in this hobby.

like why u need powerhead and there are so many brands out there and why this particular brand.

blah blah blah...sometimes u can get killer price here online also.

cheers.

Really very 'budgety'... hehe

[Victor007]

Recently acquire a new twin spot...not actively feeding for day one. It was bought in an unopened bag at ah beng's.

Think for anyone who wanna try one, u need to get a good specimen.

Can try harlequin, they have some twin spot. my original piece was from them.

Luckily I bought another sand goby which happened to teach twin spot how to eat from sand again.

So it's getting better now.

Also acquire a Yellow eye Kole Tang and Tomini Tang. Both are beautiful.

Blood Splash spending so not gonna stock for one month.

Will post some pictures tomorrow.

[Victor007]

Decide to Take some night shots under actinic light.

Enjoy.

First up. Cynarina under Actinic light.

with flash.

[Victor007]

Brain eating it's supper...looks like alien's brain...

[Victor007]

Man-eater Bubbles...look fierce.

[Victor007]

my favourite coral...purple monti with green rim and tentacles...

[Victor007]

prata eating pellets...i feed the corals with pellets at night.

[Victor007]

star struck...how superstars just hate CAMERA...and paparazzi...

[Victor007]

Starfish try to push the snail away...

Trying to poke...trying to poke...whose finger is that ??

POKED...

[markietan]

nice tank thread!

whats the bail out method and care to show a pic of your diy denitrator? am thinking of doing one. i'm using fan in the daytime and it does a great job keeping the tank cool and preventing my chiller from kicking in but water evaporates really fast... so am curious what the bail out dripping method is about.

any update on the twin spot? i love these guys but tried keeping one about 2 yrs back. it fed on shrimps and henry's food readily but one day it just died.

[jellyjar]

This is our pompom crab.

Notice there is some red stuff under the body?

seems like she's carrying some eggs.

More pictures to show red stuff under her belly, though the pictures aren't as clear.

She's always in the hiding.

[jellyjar]

Another pic of our open brain.

[jellyjar]

One of our three chromis and a huge red monti.

[jellyjar]

Our purple throat boxer.

We thought it's gone, but i found it stuck in the overflow box. phew =3

We bought her from Ah Beng there.

She spawned in the plastic bag when we found her.

Sadly, we don't have the facilities to rear her babies, and they ended up eaten by the chromis.

[w3ish3ng]

nice photo on the brain..

[jyoon]

Hi Bro

How's your MI (Moorish idol) project? BTW had read from books that this fish hardly can survive long in cavivity due to the fish requirement. This fish require huge swimming space (of cos your tank is large enough) and also need multiple feed a day. So far only heard one reefer manage to keep for 1 year +. To me this is already a success.

Also Twin Spot goby does not have long life span in capvivity too.

You can search the web or read more on these fishes.

So far, I have not touch any of these species yet. Purely read from books in the library.

Any reefer have experience with these fishes (Moorish Idol and Twin spot goby)?

[Victor007]

so far no luck on moorish idol leh...but if u see in reefcentral thread alot of them manage to keep it. it doesn't seems to be that hard just that u need to find one healthy one. i am waiting for jireh's shipment for a pellet feeding one.

previously try one, it's pecking rocks but not feeding on other things. think if u can get one feed on pellet one, and with good water parameters, should be alright.

cos i know a friend who keep for 5 or 3 years, his MI is cool and crazy.

as for twin spot, u also need to get one which is feeding...feeding i mean by sifting sand.

the one i get from ah beng didn't survive...becos that fish NOT EVEN SIFTING SAND.....it was packed in a plastic bad, maybe it's why.

if u wanna try one, get from harlequin.make sure it's sifting sand. i got one from there and it survive for very long.

it died becos of the stupid crab trap which trap it inside and suffocate it.

i think twin spot u really need a big sand bed...and some frozen food to them.

cheers.

anyway the denitrator i try to take some picture.

[w3ish3ng]

actually,

i think for moorish idol, the first thing is of course feeding. but unlike other difficult fishes, even when your moorish idol start to eat like pig, eat mysis, pellets and so on. it will still get thinner and thinner and eventually die off.

i tried 2-3 moorish idol before, all feed on mysis, clam and pellets but eventually they will just die for no reason. like feeding in the morning before i leave for school, noon when i am back, they just die. think maybe its the way they catch it, maybe its due to cyanide catching..

[Victor007]

could be that also. but many times it's due to malnutrition...u try NLS pellet ? i using that...really very good for fishes.

in reefcentral, they also feed moorish idol with bananas and avocado...sponge...blah blah

[peacemaker]

Bananas and avocado...? They sure have a strange diet... and its not even natural, since you don't find them in the sea. I wonder what made the owners try such food?

[jellyjar]

Picture of the sump.

All the pipe connections are DIY.

Pardon the messs =X.