Milch's Reef Learning Journey

[Terryz_]

yup. I think everyone is established on this fact now....

now the next million dollar question is.... Is there a difference cycling 1-2 month or cycling 3-6 months?

I think the only difference is that cycling longer, the bacteria population will be more stable(IMO) and will take better to new bioload... Got no prove but tried it, cycling longer does help with your stocking but of course not like 4-5 large fish at a time lar...

1-2 fish medium size is still fine... And also the population of the Pod will be higher too..

[yikai]

got there's a difference of 2-4 months LOL!

ok jokes aside. i think it's personal preference how long you want to cycle. as long as you hit the minimum 4 week criteria you should be fine.

however long you want to cycle after that, up to you.

i like to cycle more because it gives chance for little things to grow on my rocks. like pods, algae, sponge, fanworms, tunicates, etc etc. the extra weeks will let the liverock recover from it's massive die off before cycling, and re-grow into good liverock with algae, etc.

this might seem rubbish to others but it's precious to me. why? simply coz the livestock i want to keep, love eating this. cycling extra time also give better water quality. in this few weeks you can tune your CR if you have not, etc, and let the equipment and water parameters stabalise abit first. then slowly add livestock 1 by 1.

as for wether or not there will be more bacteria after cycling longer, who knows? but the benefits are definitely there if you cycle longer. pod growth, liverock fauna growth, stable parameters etc.

patience is the key.

[jackywongto]

I think the only difference is that cycling longer, the bacteria population will be more stable(IMO) and will take better to new bioload... Got no prove but tried it, cycling longer does help with your stocking but of course not like 4-5 large fish at a time lar...

1-2 fish medium size is still fine... And also the population of the Pod will be higher too..

Thanks for sharing Terryz... yeah its hard to prove if longer cycling period benefits stocking of new fishes.

Even if the fishes made it, it might not be because of prolong cycling period.

There are so many variables... healthy fish, environment, etc etc.

Could also be => more pods so fishes have more food to sustain on till they get weaned on pellets/ frozen...

maybe they are happier seeing pods all around and feel less stressed and suicidal.

[jackywongto]

i like to cycle more because it gives chance for little things to grow on my rocks. like pods, algae, sponge, fanworms, tunicates, etc etc. the extra weeks will let the liverock recover from it's massive die off before cycling, and re-grow into good liverock with algae, etc.

this might seem rubbish to others but it's precious to me. why? simply coz the livestock i want to keep, love eating this. cycling extra time also give better water quality. in this few weeks you can tune your CR if you have not, etc, and let the equipment and water parameters stabalise abit first. then slowly add livestock 1 by 1.

that explains better bro as to why you prefer / promote a longer cycling period. Thanks for taking time to explain.

[Milch_Tan]

wow, many thanks to bro Jacky, Terryz & Lemon²

All these comments had indeed aided me plenty with sound logic backed by scientific understanding of the different bacteria phases. Definitely learnt a great deal! thanks, if permissible i'll copy & paste some of the posting in the "Proper Cycling" Section, think it really contains a lot of useful information about bacteria behaviors etc.

Reefing would have been more hostile without such willing individuals like you guys to share knowledge, and knowledge is always good to pass around, makes every 1's life a little easier and better

[yikai]

wow, many thanks to bro Jacky, Terryz & Lemon²

All these comments had indeed aided me plenty with sound logic backed by scientific understanding of the different bacteria phases. Definitely learnt a great deal! thanks, if permissible i'll copy & paste some of the posting in the "Proper Cycling" Section, think it really contains a lot of useful information about bacteria behaviors etc.

Reefing would have been more hostile without such willing individuals like you guys to share knowledge, and knowledge is always good to pass around, makes every 1's life a little easier and better

by all means! go ahead!

[akinass]

I like your scape. Thanks for the help tt day.

[Milch_Tan]

Thanks akinass! waiting for your tank thread!

hmm interesting observation, put in 8 med sized de-shelled market prawn on 29/06/10 @ bout 0630hrs and on 30/06/10 @ 2140hrs all disintegrated!

just 1 amp of Bio Digest (on 29/06/10 @ 0645hrs) and weekly Bacterlife (Since 10/05/10), seems like they really work! thanks for the suggestions and stuffs bro LaW! haha

[LaW]

Thanks akinass! waiting for your tank thread!

hmm interesting observation, put in 8 med sized de-shelled market prawn on 29/06/10 @ bout 0630hrs and on 30/06/10 @ 2140hrs all disintegrated!

just 1 amp of Bio Digest (on 29/06/10 @ 0645hrs) and weekly Bacterlife (Since 10/05/10), seems like they really work! thanks for the suggestions and stuffs bro LaW! haha

No p, can ask me anything and i will try to answer provided if i know. I have got some ethanol 99.9% purity, just in case you want to feed your bacteria further.

big day for akinass later but not for us.

[Milch_Tan]

haven't been updating for a long time, and would like to share an extremely electrifying lesson I learnt with power bars located in cabinet, esp near the sump.

They are extremely dangerous and potentially an accident waiting to happen, and I just had mine. The red circle in the picture is where the power bar used to be located, and the blue lines is the jet of water that is coming out from a feed pump (~3000l/hr), it happened so fast that the moment I felt the shock thru my arms my entire house got tripped, and next I know there's paddle of water on the floor that my two feet were, with me still holding on to that pump in hand.

I was lucky the entire electricity of the house stopped, else it would have been devastating. Thank God really.

[Milch_Tan]

I had wanted to investigate why was such a strong pump not working with the Tee-off.

Immediately after, before turning on the mains again, I plugged out everything from that 8 socket power bar and moved all the power points out of the cabinet, ugly yes, but safety is more important! hence this is how it looks like now.

Just hope bros/sis will wanna consider safety and design the power points to be away from any water source, as salt water is an even better conductor of electricity than fresh water, and really hope no 1 else will have to kana this crap. haha.

[Milch_Tan]

hmm updates of tank.. finally installed the compressor.. another lesson learnt, get a higher HP compressor if the distance is far, else it may be counter-productive to have a compressor in the first place. Now I have a free in-door sauna in my kitchen toilet, after I was left with no choice but to place the compressor there. also, learnt that 2nd hand compressor will never be as quiet as brand new.

[Milch_Tan]

I'm using deltec ap 702, and 1 of the pump is broken and needs to be repaired @ RD, hopefully won't cost me much.. also learnt another lesson, while there are 2 pumps for fail-safe; it is still not enough power to run on only 1 pump, and if you wanna adjust the water level higher to compensate the lost of foam height, be prepared to jam the air-intake for the broken pump, as water will flow out from it when the water level is too high, and cause flooding if one is not careful.

Water color is now yellowish. sad.

[Milch_Tan]

the reefing journey now is a little depressing and daunting, but I'm sure it'll be alright soon again,

[wilsontantw]

Bro. Quite an experience you had there. As you correctly pointed out. Water and electricity just shouldn't be too near each other. I'll bw shifting my Multi plugs out this weekend.

Have been trying luck for too long.

Reefing, tests your determination. There will be loads of challenges coming our way. Be focus and if circumstances allow, keep the faith in the hobby. You'll be rewarded in abundance.

Btw, good setup. Must follow your thread. Impressive patience during cycling.

How abt fish/corals? Any plans?? Sps?

[BFG]

Yeah man, quite an experience you got there, but it was avoidable in the 1st place though. Your documenting the electrifying experience would help to deter would be reefer in to placing such electrical outlet above the sump. As for your Deltec pump, be prepared to shell some bagful of dough. I had replaced my APF600 pump and it was costly. The old model Deltec are electrical hogging, inefficient design compared to the Super Reef Octopus XP series and the Bubble King SM and Mini series. These 2 would run around the old Deltec skimmer and still save you some money monthly. They do not require an additional feed pump and uses 1 pump instead of 3 to perform their duty. The days of using multiple pump to create bubbles are numbered.

Your compressor chiller heat output is not that bad, I have 1 in my living room and the heat produced from the compressor chiller is lower compared to a Resun CL650. I was using the Resun CL650 previously and the heat it produced destroyed my father Coca-Cola collection! Some of the Coca-cola can just burst due to heat. Using the air-con compressor chiller presently, this problem hasn't occured anymore. The compressor chiller is only operating for 25 minute and rest for 2 1/2 hr. If it rain, it will take a longer rest time.

[mitlancer]

haven't been updating for a long time, and would like to share an extremely electrifying lesson I learnt with power bars located in cabinet, esp near the sump.

They are extremely dangerous and potentially an accident waiting to happen, and I just had mine. The red circle in the picture is where the power bar used to be located, and the blue lines is the jet of water that is coming out from a feed pump (~3000l/hr), it happened so fast that the moment I felt the shock thru my arms my entire house got tripped, and next I know there's paddle of water on the floor that my two feet were, with me still holding on to that pump in hand.

I was lucky the entire electricity of the house stopped, else it would have been devastating. Thank God really.

WOW, u r lucky to be alive!!!!! This is no joke... yes, all reefers really have to take note and avoid having any extension plugs near the sump!!!! Good that you point out here and hope new reefers will also be aware of such incidents.

[Milch_Tan]

Bro. Quite an experience you had there. As you correctly pointed out. Water and electricity just shouldn't be too near each other. I'll bw shifting my Multi plugs out this weekend.

Have been trying luck for too long.

Reefing, tests your determination. There will be loads of challenges coming our way. Be focus and if circumstances allow, keep the faith in the hobby. You'll be rewarded in abundance.

Btw, good setup. Must follow your thread. Impressive patience during cycling.

How abt fish/corals? Any plans?? Sps?

Hey bro Wilson, yeah pls do shift out your power outlets! can't agree more, it does test one's determination was kinda pissed at having to stay up till 5+am re-wiring and cleaning up the mess.

Thanks for the kind words bro, hmm so far till date I've only gotten 1 juvenile doublewhip tail bream fish, on 30/08/2010 which I am gonna give away by this weekend, cos it can grow up till 20cm! and from the other reefing community out of Singapore, they say this fish can be potentially a menace towards wrasse (read somewhere this thing killed a number of expensive wrasse in a tank!), so it's going out. But there's like about 17 turbo snails inside now though. Might wanna place a dozen of mini scarlet hermit crab.

Stocking list hope to achieve more zoa+SPS, followed by less LPS, and even lesser fish if possible. So will be likely to be selective about fishes that goes in I hope, but then again, hard to say, scarly too chio cannot resist. :X haha will post some pics of zoa, SPS (most are housed at friend's place) etc by next weekend if possible once I manage to settle all the misc. items.

How's your split tank idea coming along? still doing it? and can't wait to see pics of your Ho Liao

Yeah man, quite an experience you got there, but it was avoidable in the 1st place though. Your documenting the electrifying experience would help to deter would be reefer in to placing such electrical outlet above the sump. As for your Deltec pump, be prepared to shell some bagful of dough. I had replaced my APF600 pump and it was costly. The old model Deltec are electrical hogging, inefficient design compared to the Super Reef Octopus XP series and the Bubble King SM and Mini series. These 2 would run around the old Deltec skimmer and still save you some money monthly. They do not require an additional feed pump and uses 1 pump instead of 3 to perform their duty. The days of using multiple pump to create bubbles are numbered.

Your compressor chiller heat output is not that bad, I have 1 in my living room and the heat produced from the compressor chiller is lower compared to a Resun CL650. I was using the Resun CL650 previously and the heat it produced destroyed my father Coca-Cola collection! Some of the Coca-cola can just burst due to heat. Using the air-con compressor chiller presently, this problem hasn't occured anymore. The compressor chiller is only operating for 25 minute and rest for 2 1/2 hr. If it rain, it will take a longer rest time.

Hey BFG, yeah man, it is an avoidable thing in the first place, hope to just pass on my unfortunate experience so others won't have to be an innocent victim to electricity and mar the joy of reefing.

Really sad about the skimmer, but since got it liao no choice, will have to repair it, and hopefully will save enough for next year's Aquarama goodies! 2 pumps are just wasteful IMHO after seeing how this works.

Bro, think ur compressor chill down rate is good man! mine takes about 1degree/hr and that is only with blue lights on! can't imagine when I blast all 3 250MH down. lol. Hmm coke-can bursting is scary.

WOW, u r lucky to be alive!!!!! This is no joke... yes, all reefers really have to take note and avoid having any extension plugs near the sump!!!! Good that you point out here and hope new reefers will also be aware of such incidents.

Hi Mitlancer, yeap, it was indeed a close shave! hope other bros/sis will not have to suffer the same thing

[BFG]

Really sad about the skimmer, but since got it liao no choice, will have to repair it, and hopefully will save enough for next year's Aquarama goodies! 2 pumps are just wasteful IMHO after seeing how this works.

Yes, Aquarama! A friend of mine got some good deal there during Aquarama 2009. He saved a lot of dough compared to buying it outside ( lfs ).

[HW33]

very long never heard from u....u still have some sps frag in my tank hahahahaha!

[Milch_Tan]

Yes, Aquarama! A friend of mine got some good deal there during Aquarama 2009. He saved a lot of dough compared to buying it outside ( lfs ).

Really hope to have enough by then man! lol.

very long never heard from u....u still have some sps frag in my tank hahahahaha!

Hey Brooooo sorry, had meant to collect from you this week, but skimmer pump spoil, need to fix it, and should be 1-2 more weeks when all systems GO!!!! might need your help with the monitor I bought from you. haha. But seriously THANKS BIG BIG, haha owe u 1

[Milch_Tan]

haven't updated for some time now, first up will be the fish residences, now they are as followed :

1) Pygmy Hawkfish added on : 10/08/2010

Surprise to find 3 left over from Iwarna's arrival date, so grabbed 1, had some fear that it's not feeding, but seems like it's getting its fill some how, used to be shy, but now perching all over.

[Milch_Tan]

2) Whipfin Fairy Wrasse added on 14/08/2010

Got this chap from Ah beng, had seen it swimming actively in the blue tub when it first arrived, went back 2 days later surprise to find that the same fish is still for sale in the display tank, so fate was smiling at me to get it, so fat it's the lao da of the tank, doing its thing, here and there.

Surprised to find it flaring, and the tail fin is seriously electric blue! lousy camera, can't capture the full colors.

[Milch_Tan]

3) Fork Tail-like Wrasse added on 20/08/2010

got this at CF, at the back rows, seemed very hardy and active, and would still flare around.

[Milch_Tan]

4) Hanae Goby Added on 20/08/2010

Got this chap at reborn on the day of the Japan/Philippines shipment day, arrived at 9am, got it at 3pm, but hmm it's been hiding under the rocks, hope it'll come out soon!

The colors on this fish is truly remarkable, pity my lousy camera cannot capture the full spectrum of shimmering bright blue and pink all over its body, and those tail fins are jus hypnotic! Any bros with experience with this fish? pls pls pls share your tips on making it feed and caring for it, seem hard to find much keeping info bout it.