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Ketchup

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Posts posted by Ketchup

    Cycling tank

    in New to the Marine Aquaria Hobby

    Posted

    I am starting my tank soon as well.

    Just a question, is it a common practice to pour in water before sand? (I saw it in some video by some pro-ang mo doing the same thing)

    In planted tank, we usually put in water after the substrates so as to maximize water clarity.

    I was planning,

    1) Put in dead rocks,

    2) Put in Live sand,

    3) Pour in NSW.

    I have no intention of hijacking this thread, just want to compare the sequence to ensure I am also doing the right thing.

    Hi Goondoo,

    No problem abt Hijacking as we are all here to learn :P

    I think why water is added before sand is not really an issue as the "cloud" will settle anyway before the cycling period is over. Also, i know that some reefers suggest to make use of this CLOUD to turn on the wavemakers etc to see the water flow :)

    As for why Live Sand before Live rock, that one i read is because live sand may cover the porous Live rock and thus kill off the Live rock... if you using Dead Rock i guess it is not relevant except you may need to shake of the sand during aquascaping.

    ketchup...

    Cycling tank

    in New to the Marine Aquaria Hobby

    Posted

    Hi all fellow reef kakis :P

    Thanks Lemon Lemon for the Cycling write up.. i find it very useful!

    Just a noobie question... we are setting up a new 4ft tank and we have the following... but i am just wondering what is the recommended sequence...

    Live sand - we have enough for about 4-5 inches of DSB. We have bought live black sand from both caribsea and NO as it is different in sizes. We intend to use NO at bottom, abt 2/3 (finer grade) then caribsea (abt 1/3) on top.

    Live Rock - We are using about 20+ kg of live rocks as we have 3 big pieces of Fibreglass Rock. We may add some smaller pieces as we progress.

    Fibreglass rock - We have 3 big pieces of this, which i understand do not help cycling process.

    Water - NSW - We have placed an order for NSW from Iwarna.

    Roughly our plan is as follows:

    1) Pour in the NSW

    2) Pour in the NO sand to form the base layer of DSB

    3) Put in the Fibreglass (tied to a large sheet of egg crate)

    4) Pour in remaining Caribsea sand to cover the egg crate and create some different height of sand at different area to prevent detritus build up.

    5) Stack the Live rocks on top of the egg crate and sand

    6) Cycle the tank with Live Prawns (2-3/gallon, according to some website guide)

    7) Cycle the tank, Aquascape as we go along

    8) Cycle complete

    9) Do a major (50%) water change with NSW or Salt water (prob salt mix + RO water using the Crystal Pro)

    10) Finalise Aquascape

    11) Add in some corals

    12) Add some clean up crews - snails, sand shifters

    13) Add in some fishes

    14) Repeat and add in corals, fishes and clean up crew slowly while monitoring the water parameters.

    Oh yes... we have a sump and we will just fill it with some sand (which we will rinse) and top up with NSW and dose it with some bateria culture tablet. We will also throw in a couple of rocks (not big and not so nice ones) from our existing 2 ft tank inside. In future, we hope to cultivate some cheato or the other marine plant that tangs eats... Can't rem the name now.

    Are the steps correct and are we missing somethin?

    Lemon's tank!

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    that's an $8 clam from PR haha. got it when it was smaller.. colour wise cannot compare to those ultra grade maximas. but it fills up the space pretty well

    $8 only... so cheap ah... i saw some nice ones at CF but they selling S$80 for the small ones :(

    Anyone uses fibreglass rocks for rockscaping?

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    They look great and can even be DIY-ed to fit your tank the way you like it. Downside is it's not porous so it's more or less useless in helping the de-nitrification process. Ready-mades can be purchased from a number of our sponsors.

    If you intend to use for scaping, then they'll do great. But you'll need something else to house your beneficial bacteria.

    Hi iskay...

    Thanks for your response... If assuming that i have say 4 inches of live sand plus a small refrigum (with some live rocks) then i should be ok as the livesand and the live rocks (in refrigum and maybe a couple of pieces in main tank) will help in housing the bacteria?

    Anyone uses fibreglass rocks for rockscaping?

    in General Reefkeeping_

    Posted

    Hi fellow reef kakis... :P

    Has anyone has fibreglass rocks for rockscaping? I seen it and think it looks great and have nice structure and it's relatively much lighter than Live rock. Also, it does not have all the parasites of liverocks.. Hence i am comtemplating using it fully or maybe partially for our new 4 ft tank. Anyone has knowledge of this, please kindly share :P

    Cheers! :paiseh:

    how do i 'cure' live rock?

    in New to the Marine Aquaria Hobby

    Posted

    ya this i also encourage to do it u won't have any worm or crab ha ha which i done for my 3ft and 4ft if u want faster result use NSW as well consistance for the cycle period wow la rock came alife and coraline algea all over also with proper lighting ofcouse

    Very interesting indeed... i love those dead fiji white rocks... can use that to cure? Any LFS in SG carry those? Also, i see so people use the black or white egg crates to prop up the live rocks? Where got sell ah? Thanks in advance :)

    Desi & Ketchup 4x2.5x2 tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    HI there,

    thats what i did to my rocks. since you are afraid of those irritating critters,i assume u arent keen on parasites and stuffs.

    if budget is not a concern, go for Distill waters either in bottle form or DI units.

    some people will say its crazy to spend such $.

    think back, isnt it crazy to use livesand as well?

    :)

    We are getting a DI unit but havent decide on which yet... any good recommendation?

    Desi & Ketchup 4x2.5x2 tank

    in Members Tank & Specs

    Posted

    Which LFS has seawater and what's the costs like? The other suggestion we had is to use distilled water but we decided that it's not very practical and costly too (S$7.50 for 10 litres?)

    How's the Nature Ocean black sand? I don't recall seeing that at AM when i last visit their shop in JK before they close. I quite like the carribsea version and online review seems quite positive.

    We most likely will go for black sand as we like the look as our cabinet will be all black with flower motifs and also using black silicon. With the blue artinic light and MH, it should be quite nice.

    Keep the suggestions coming... Desi and me will keep this thread updated as we go along and hopes to learn more from the sifus in SRC :)

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