Desi & Ketchup 4x2.5x2 tank

[[V]tEc]

Ketchup is of the opinion of don't water change too much..... Although I prefer to do it weekly.... so I meet him half way.. ALTERNATE WEEK.... Just change MORE!

desi

i change mine once a mth....20%

[cedricang]

Hi Guys/Desi,

IMO, water change serve as a very immediate and effective way of nutrient export. The frequency or % change really depends on the feeding regime of individual reef tank. Visual inspection allows a gauge on how much water change is required.

Wilson rightly pointed out that regular test on parameter is a good practice to ensure nothing goes out of the range ( especially Kh), i chk my Kh at least once a week. Also try to use reliable salt mix ( especially for sps dominated tank ), savings on some cheaper salt brand may not worth the while.

Check out those awesome looking tank from Reefcentral and you will come to a general conclusion - good deligent husbandary work

Btw, my beloved convict tang just RIP on me today...was a healthy specimen and seeing it grazing happily just yesterday

[Eniram]

Hi Guys/Desi,

IMO, water change serve as a very immediate and effective way of nutrient export. The frequency or % change really depends on the feeding regime of individual reef tank. Visual inspection allows a gauge on how much water change is required.

Wilson rightly pointed out that regular test on parameter is a good practice to ensure nothing goes out of the range ( especially Kh), i chk my Kh at least once a week. Also try to use reliable salt mix ( especially for sps dominated tank ), savings on some cheaper salt brand may not worth the while.

Check out those awesome looking tank from Reefcentral and you will come to a general conclusion - good deligent husbandary work

Btw, my beloved convict tang just RIP on me today...was a healthy specimen and seeing it grazing happily just yesterday

No way! that fat dude!!! i think its time he went up to look for St Peter!

[desideria]

CEDRIC!! NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...... my condolences...

To be honest the PBT you guys saw me buy is also not doing good.. I swear on all that is marine relatedly holy, if this little one goes to heaven, i will not buy any more powders until my water parameters are better. ENOUGH for the time being.. All other fishes doing ok so far.

Did nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, Mg, CA, KH testing and everything is good and the results were :

Nitrite and Phosphate : 0

MG : 1290mg/L

Ca : 420-430ppm

KH : 8 DKH

ph : 8.4

SG : 1.025

nitrate : 25-50ppm <-- this one is my killer so I'm working on it.

Btw, I'm seriously considering getting a RO unit.. my stupid Crystal PRO is crap... I do one water change of about 200L or so and now the reading has climbed back up to 70ppm! And this is buying the slightly more expensive Resin! WTH! I should not have wasted 200 on this unit and gotten a RO in the first place. Damn.... once I get a RO I"m going to sell of this crystal pro to somenoe with a NANO tank as I think it's more suited for someone with lesser water requirements!

desi

[TayHongSiang]

CEDRIC!! NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...... my condolences...

To be honest the PBT you guys saw me buy is also not doing good.. I swear on all that is marine relatedly holy, if this little one goes to heaven, i will not buy any more powders until my water parameters are better. ENOUGH for the time being.. All other fishes doing ok so far.

Did nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, Mg, CA, KH testing and everything is good and the results were :

Nitrite and Phosphate : 0

MG : 1290mg/L

Ca : 420-430ppm

KH : 8 DKH

ph : 8.4

SG : 1.025

nitrate : 25-50ppm <-- this one is my killer so I'm working on it.

Btw, I'm seriously considering getting a RO unit.. my stupid Crystal PRO is crap... I do one water change of about 200L or so and now the reading has climbed back up to 70ppm! And this is buying the slightly more expensive Resin! WTH! I should not have wasted 200 on this unit and gotten a RO in the first place. Damn.... once I get a RO I"m going to sell of this crystal pro to somenoe with a NANO tank as I think it's more suited for someone with lesser water requirements!

desi

200litres is a lot of water change for a 400L tank of yours....not good if u r using pure saltmix...

if u want to do big water change, use NSW....some fishes cannot tahan all the chemicals from saltmix from large water change...including less hardy corals...

[raydiative]

only alternate week?? i started once a week water change (if not twice) after returning from his place!

hopefully can start some SPS growth...

besides, parameters testing is also equally important.

I change 20% weekly.. think its better for the corals and fishes.

while doing regular w/c you can suck up all the detritus at the same time.. (for small nano especially!)

[onizukaa]

can try iwarna, $80 regardless how much of NSW i think..

[desideria]

Ah siangz, my system is about 700-800L in total including sump etc. so making 200L and not using all of it is about 20% WC

not much la... especially if alternate week...

Desi

[TayHongSiang]

Ah siangz, my system is about 700-800L in total including sump etc. so making 200L and not using all of it is about 20% WC

not much la... especially if alternate week...

Desi

how can be 700-800 litres...yours also 4x2x2 (around 120G) same as mine ma...and sump also sama sama wat...sump tank the most give u another 50G...max is 500L...correct or not?....

[wilsontantw]

Desi, I'm no expert with fish, but I hear that if you keep the Sg slightly lower, I.e. Hyposalinity, you can help them to reduce their stress. I dunno how true, but somehow it works for some. How abt trying 1.022?

Ur parameters look good except for no3. How are some of the sps doing?? If they brown out, I guess u know where to fix.

Do u also clean ur skimmer regularly? Especially if u do heavy feeding. A cleaner skimmer neck improves it's efficiency.

Hth.

[onizukaa]

corals ~ 1.025

Fishes 1.021~1.025

[wilsontantw]

corals ~ 1.025

Fishes 1.021~1.025

hmmm. But I've been on 1.022-1.024 for the longest time. Maybe that's why my true octos all die??

Thanks onizuka.

[[V]tEc]

200litres is a lot of water change for a 400L tank of yours....not good if u r using pure saltmix...

if u want to do big water change, use NSW....some fishes cannot tahan all the chemicals from saltmix from large water change...including less hardy corals...

bro, u need to change ur specs lah...ppl de is 4 x 2.5 x 2 not 4 x 2 x 2

[[V]tEc]

not sure if u missed my post in ur thread, but fix up ur NO3 b4 adding PBT....wait for ur tank to mature b4 adding these fishes....i noe this is a beautiful fish, but they r one of the hardest to keep esp if u gt some other tangs in ur tank to stress it further.

[chercm]

can try iwarna, $80 regardless how much of NSW i think..

$80 for 400 litres

[chercm]

tEc' date='05 April 2010 - 08:20 PM' timestamp='1270470011' post='895875']

not sure if u missed my post in ur thread, but fix up ur NO3 b4 adding PBT....wait for ur tank to mature b4 adding these fishes....i noe this is a beautiful fish, but they r one of the hardest to keep esp if u gt some other tangs in ur tank to stress it further.

i would agree to that ....

PBT is such a challenge , control on the nutrients in the water before adding it in .

be careful that the White spot for the PBT when it is stress as it will spread to the other fishes .....

[desideria]

Hey siangz, mine is half a feet wider 4 x 2.5 x 2 RB did the calculations for me and my tank volume is (if I remember correctly) 566L and the total volume of the sump is about 120-150L or so.. I can't remember .. so I round it up to 700L la.

Anyway, yes, I will not try powders until probably end of the year.... don't want to see another beauty go down because of my foolishness.

I just want the rest of my fish to go back to the state before I even tried powders 3 weeks ago. Now my Tangs have all recovered, left the rest of my fishes I see they have spots but they are all still eating and swimming around. The Male anthias scared me and Ketchup when we saw him resting on the sand but then every now and then he'd get up and swim around with his harem of other fish. Then he'd go sit on the sand again.. and then he'd go swim around...

Guys, if I go meet you for another LFS outing, please SLAP me if I look gian @ fishes... i only intend to add coral.. NO FISH for the next month or so. lagi like intervention... haiz!

and yes, I clean my skimmer cup every 3-4 days. I have had Ming's SPS for about a week or so and it's actuallly GROWING.. I got a birdsnest from her. And today 2 frags of green milli and 1 pink birdsnest also from hijacking bro. See how they do, right now on the plug holder.

Thanks all for your kind words,

Desi

[jackywongto]

Guys, if I go meet you for another LFS outing, please SLAP me if I look gian @ fishes... i only intend to add coral.. NO FISH for the next month or so. lagi like intervention... haiz!

Thanks all for your kind words,

Desi

k k. I'll call all the LFS and fax them your photo tomorrow.

hope he recovers, sis.

[m12345y]

i think you just be a bit more patient.....actually i got a very small YT and PBT from LCK, the same batch as your previous one if i'm not wrong, both are doing fine so far. i also kena white spot a few times in the beginning and lost some fishes.

As for your nitrate, not much to be worried since you dont keep SPS, just slowly bring it down, and from online resources, the most reliable/economical way is still a sulfur bead denitrator IMHO.

[chercm]

i think you just be a bit more patient.....actually i got a very small YT and PBT from LCK, the same batch as your previous one if i'm not wrong, both are doing fine so far. i also kena white spot a few times in the beginning and lost some fishes.

As for your nitrate, not much to be worried since you dont keep SPS, just slowly bring it down, and from online resources, the most reliable/economical way is still a sulfur bead denitrator IMHO.

u can use NP bio-pellets other than using Sulphur reactor which is available i think at Iwarna and ML .

It have a long review on Reefcentral

[pokmingsheng]

Btw, I'm seriously considering getting a RO unit.. my stupid Crystal PRO is crap... I do one water change of about 200L or so and now the reading has climbed back up to 70ppm! And this is buying the slightly more expensive Resin! WTH! I should not have wasted 200 on this unit and gotten a RO in the first place. Damn.... once I get a RO I"m going to sell of this crystal pro to somenoe with a NANO tank as I think it's more suited for someone with lesser water requirements!

desi

i was adviced against using crystal pro for large water changes as well..

at that time when i was shifting my LS from old tank to my new tank,

i was using more than 200l of "filtered" water only to realise that after my 3rd pail of water,

i tested the PPM and it was something like 120ppm, way above some of the normal tap water readings.

oh well, that was because my old resin was already giving out about 50ppm water before that,

and i thought after that large water change i would change the resin..

didnt know that it would shoot up so high...

anyway, i'm still using crystal pro for my 2ft..

sometimes i would just get NSW if i pop by iwarna..

but i agree with the rest, should use NSW for large water changes in the longrun..

but of cos if you're getting a RO unit, thats another case which is different altogether

[comycus]

Really sad to hear about your loss. I'm sure your other fishes will pull through!

[TayHongSiang]

Hey siangz, mine is half a feet wider 4 x 2.5 x 2 RB did the calculations for me and my tank volume is (if I remember correctly) 566L and the total volume of the sump is about 120-150L or so.. I can't remember .. so I round it up to 700L la.

Anyway, yes, I will not try powders until probably end of the year.... don't want to see another beauty go down because of my foolishness.

I just want the rest of my fish to go back to the state before I even tried powders 3 weeks ago. Now my Tangs have all recovered, left the rest of my fishes I see they have spots but they are all still eating and swimming around. The Male anthias scared me and Ketchup when we saw him resting on the sand but then every now and then he'd get up and swim around with his harem of other fish. Then he'd go sit on the sand again.. and then he'd go swim around...

Guys, if I go meet you for another LFS outing, please SLAP me if I look gian @ fishes... i only intend to add coral.. NO FISH for the next month or so. lagi like intervention... haiz!

and yes, I clean my skimmer cup every 3-4 days. I have had Ming's SPS for about a week or so and it's actuallly GROWING.. I got a birdsnest from her. And today 2 frags of green milli and 1 pink birdsnest also from hijacking bro. See how they do, right now on the plug holder.

Thanks all for your kind words,

Desi

ok ok...yours is a 700G...lol

in that case, we can look forward to either CF & LCK or Pasir Ris farms or GO & AM zones in the first week of May between 7-8 May...as i will most likely be driving...

u can still add fishes...but not power blue loh....

i suggest u get iwarna to supply u with nsw beta....RB also can.

[thomas_lim]

Sorry to poke my nose in this thread.

I read abt salinity and water changes.

May I suggest using distill water and salt mix. In this case, you can eliminate unwanted bad bacteria from the sea water if any since you are looking into introducing good clean water replacement source.

This way, you can also control the salinity as different LFS water had different salinity. Some as are below 1.020 level.

Salinity level of 1.021 to 1.023 is good enough for mixed reef. In the ocean, it hardly go beyond this level.

The key will be holding the salinity stable and not let it fluctuate too much.

As most LFS' salinity level is pretty low as this help to reduce the disease like itch. You will need to acclimatise new fishes bought from LFS properly to prevent "shock" to them.

They may not show it on the first few days, but weeks later.

Just my 2cts.

[desideria]

no worries thomas.. poke away.... we listen to everything and everyone but then end of the day, Ketchup and I take responsibility for the decisions we make...but we always hope and pray for the BEST... * BIg SIGH*... thanks

always happy to hear from fellow reefers.

Cheers,

Desi