Binosage's Nano 2.0

[albinosage]

lo bino will not stoop so low... but I will ... wahahaha .....

I promised Jacky that i will not piak his backside if he award me TOTM, and he did lol.

Ok la enough joking already, it was a forum glitch. Nothing to see here

[MOssrope]

I promised Jacky that i will not piak his backside if he award me TOTM, and he did lol.

Ok la enough joking already, it was a forum glitch. Nothing to see here

so me and ray shall not award you!

[lcf425]

I promised Jacky that i will not piak his backside if he award me TOTM, and he did lol.

Ok la enough joking already, it was a forum glitch. Nothing to see here

lol you sell butt de ar OMG or are you GAY!

[albinosage]

lol you sell butt de ar OMG or are you GAY!

Umm I think the 2 names mentioned in the reply above you seem to enjoy the spanking more than any of us leh...

[Goondoo]

Thanks bro! Although I think you are the real pro, silently read SRC for 5 years before starting a tank... your tiger and dragon are crouching and hiding all these years waiting to be unleashed lol.

No lar, my daughter arrived so we decided to call off the idea. I mean at least my wife is supporting my project spiritually now......

[mitlancer]

I promised Jacky that i will not piak his backside if he award me TOTM, and he did lol.

Ok la enough joking already, it was a forum glitch. Nothing to see here

got thing to see meh? I see nothing, unless someone spanking someone's butt... hehehehe...

I dun see your tank pic, but i still can see the thread...

[albinosage]

Some updates over the weekend...

Did a bit of reading up on reef chemistry over the weekend, and decided that I should pay more attention to my water parameters since I am starting to keep more SPS frags. In the past, with just soft corals and a few LPS, I think it is sufficient for me to just rely on 15 to 20% water change weekly for all my replenishment of trace elements. Last Saturday, I noticed that all my corals stopped growing as much as they did in the past, so I decided to pull out all my test kits from storage.

Results:

No3 - 0.2 ppm (Good)

Po4 - 0.5 ppm (Moderate)

PH - 7.7 (Low!)

Ca - 425 ppm (Good)

KH - 5.1 dKH (Low!)

Alk - 1.83 meq/L (Low!)

Salinity - 1.025 sg

All tests above done with Salifert test kits. I think the low PH and KH is the reason for the stunted growth in my corals. Getting a refractometer quite possibly saved me from a tank crash. Previously my Coral Life specific gravity meter (swing arm type) gave me a reading of 1.020 which for some reason I felt was alright. Recently I wanted to raise the salinity, but decided to test the water with the more accurate refractometer I got from Nigel, and it turns out that my salinity was at 1.025 all along!

Since there is not much new stuff in my tank, I took some pics of the various food and additives I use (not regularly enough) for my tank.

Test kits.

Kent Marine 2 part additive and Purple up which I dose 1ml of each everyday. Mistake. Should have dose a larger ratio of part B

Assorted coral food and supplements including PhycoPure and Reef Pods from Aqua Fauna

Misc stuff, might as well take photos since I've already dug them out of the drawer hahaha. The refractometer is also used as a lightsaber in my other life as a Jedi.

[albinosage]

Some coral pics:

Sunflower zoas, pink metallic palys and a large colony of Bali zoas.

Radioactive and pink birdnest, Green BTA with purple tips.

[yikai]

wah the bubble tip looks very nice and big now! glad it's in good hands.

the sunflower zoas look dam nice lol. against the solid purple coraline algae.

good growth of your pink birdnest. looks bigger and nicer compared to the first picture you posted.

[albinosage]

Precious, precious frags which I begged, stolen and robbed from the various reefers:

Ray, you have the first one on the left right? And Wilson, that's your Bam Bam on the right. Zoa frag in the centre unidentified but looks damn nice

Sunkist zoa frag. Looks more pinkish from the side cos it is directly under the blue LED.

Before/after shots of chilli pepper monti, nice and fluffy little polyps

[albinosage]

FTS as of last night (13/6/10):

Parameters after water change and adding a tablespoon of baking soda from my baking supplies, which Wilson helpfully pointed out that i could use:

No3 - ~0.1 ppm (Good)

Po4 - ~0.03 to 0.05 ppm (Moderate)

PH - 8 (Could be slightly higher)

Ca - 425 ppm (Good)

KH - 10.2 dKH (Good)

Alk - 3.66 meq/L (Good)

Salinity - 1.025 sg

Once I figure out the exact amount of additives to add to maintain my KH, hopefully I will see some real growth in my corals

Forgot to add, this is the very helpful article from Reefkeeping where I read up on the basics:

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters

[yikai]

excellent parameters. wah i dam gian to start sps after seeing urs

[poomoon]

FTS as of last night (13/6/10):

Parameters after water change and adding a tablespoon of baking soda from my baking supplies, which Wilson helpfully pointed out that i could use:

No3 - ~0.1 ppm (Good)

Po4 - ~0.03 to 0.05 ppm (Moderate)

PH - 8 (Could be slightly higher)

Ca - 425 ppm (Good)

KH - 10.2 dKH (Good)

Alk - 3.66 meq/L (Good)

Salinity - 1.025 sg

Once I figure out the exact amount of additives to add to maintain my KH, hopefully I will see some real growth in my corals

Forgot to add, this is the very helpful article from Reefkeeping where I read up on the basics:

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters

hey bino, you do water change with NSW or salt mix ? nice nice tank ... Jacky is right

[albinosage]

wah the bubble tip looks very nice and big now! glad it's in good hands.

Yah your BTA is damn laid back one, quite easy to care for.

I feed it once every 2 weeks and it is too lazy to move no matter where it place it lol. It is in an area with good flow and moderate light now, it was hiding in the rock for a while cos it was in the direct path of the MP10. Till today, it is attached to the same rock you passed it to me in.

[albinosage]

excellent parameters. wah i dam gian to start sps after seeing urs

PO4 could be lower though. I didn't know it was so high at 0.1 ppm in the beginning! I never had an algae problem so I didn't bother to test, and assumed everything was in an acceptable range. I usually use the colour of my SPS frags as an early warning system to test the water lol.

hey bino, you do water change with NSW or salt mix ? nice nice tank ... Jacky is right

I have been using Marine Environment salt mix the past few months, except for the start up of this tank when NSW was delivered. No reason in particular, just feeling a bit lazy to buy NSW lately haha...

[raydiative]

yeah i got the same one as yours.. i want purple hornet!!!

[wilsontantw]

If only I can get as disciplined as you bro.

I'm sure the next time I visit you, the pink birdnest will need some trimming.

[MarcoVan]

yeah i got the same one as yours.. i want purple hornet!!!

I ALSO WANT!

[albinosage]

yeah i got the same one as yours.. i want purple hornet!!!

I ALSO WANT!

My last remaining loose frags are reserved for someone liao, will wait for main colony to grow since it is very small now.. You will be first on the list

If only I can get as disciplined as you bro.

I'm sure the next time I visit you, the pink birdnest will need some trimming.

Not discipline la bro... force of habit. You're a smoker you should know lol, things like changing water or dosing additives is like second nature to me by now. I'll break a branch of the birdnest for you the next time you visit

[wilsontantw]

i'm a smoker yes... but OCD, i'm not. hahaha.

but truth be told, im very behind in doing parameter testing... didnt clean up my skimmer over the weekend as well.

GOodness, maybe i should spend more time in husbandry instead of posting here.

hmmmm.....

btw: the hornies skirts are starting to colour up, i see alternate yellow coloration amidst the black skirts... Is this the way it's supposed to be?

They are placed about 3" below ATI Blue plus lights... fairly strong and direct lighting, even more direct than my SPS!

[wilsontantw]

oh birdnest, thanks in advance first... but let me get my current birdnest's colouration back first. Now it looks a little brown, but with constant lighting + good flow, i'm sure it will recover its colour soon.

[albinosage]

What a difference a day (plus higher alkalinity) makes...

Candy red zoas before and after. It has been with me for a month but yet it was very bleached and only partially opened, one of my weakest zoas for some time. The polyps have fully opened this evening with improved colours, and the stunted ones are starting to open too.

[albinosage]

btw: the hornies skirts are starting to colour up, i see alternate yellow coloration amidst the black skirts... Is this the way it's supposed to be?

They are placed about 3" below ATI Blue plus lights... fairly strong and direct lighting, even more direct than my SPS!

Glad to hear that... They did better in high light than medium depth in my tank. The alternating yellow skirt is the striking part of the zoa

BTW, remember the zoa you saw last Saturday and said it looked like it is not doing well? It has opened up finally! (pics above) So happy

[wilsontantw]

like what the pros always say... there's no secret 'tricks' in marine...

keep the parameters in check!

good work bro... can see the difference immediately.

i must learn from u.

[albinosage]

MURPHY STRUCK...

The green and purple tipped anemone from Lemon started moving around on Friday night, and I just ignored it, thinking it will stop once it is happy. On Saturday, before leaving for a wedding lunch, the BTA was nowhere to be found. On a hunch, I checked the overflow box and there it was, hanging for its dear life.

Placed it in the sump as I was in a hurry. As a precaution, I pointed the inlet of the return pump towards the glass wall with a 1mm gap to prevent the anemone from getting sucked in.

You guessed it. I returned home to a cloudy tank with the BTA nowhere to be found

I immediately did a water change, replaced the activated carbon, and dosed half a vial of biodigest. All this while, I left the used filter sock on the bathroom floor, waiting to be soaked in bleach. When I was ready to clean up, I inverted the filter sock to find 2 large chunks of the anemone inside! This probably saved my tank from a complete crash, I'd hate to imagine what kind of damage my MP10 would do to it.

In the end, everything went better than expected. I cheated Murphy's Law twice in a day. To make the story even sweeter, I tossed the 2 BTA remains in a betta box to try my luck (there was absolutely no mouth left) and they survived! They are healing well now