Michael Young

Melvyn, these are the basic equipment you would need to keep the animals in your aquaria in good health (does not include sps corals): Filtration: What you are using currently is workable if your tank is lowly stocked. Currently, I'd would say that your tank is already overstocked and your Eheim canisters will not cope with the bioload because there just aren't filter media surface for nitrifying bacteria to grow; especially when I can see that you do not have a lot of live rock as well. What you need to do is to add one or two overflow boxes to your tank and use a sump filter instead. One with a biological compartment and a macro algae refugium to export nutrients will be a good way to start. You would also need to purchase a skimmer of the right size for your tank as well. I don't care what your 'mentor' said; but a skimmer is an absolutely must unless you have a 10 gallon tank. It is the only way you can export unwanted nutrients out of your tank mechnically. Lighting: I do not know how many watts of lighting you have but if you are only going to keep soft corals, then I'd say what you have now is sufficient. However, if you aspire to keep light dependent corals like lps and sps, you'd need to upgrade your lightings. T5s or PLs are a good investments if you want to keep lps corals but you'd need MH if you want to venture into sps corals and clams IMO. Circulation: Your tank definitely do not have enough circulation right now if what you have are the returns from your Eheims and one powerhead. Corals need lots of water flow to thrive. Water flow around corals are important because it brings with it nutrients and micro plankton which the some corals feed on and these currents will also wash away detritus which will settle on them through time. Other than keeping your corals happy, good water flow will also stop fish waste, uneaten food etc from accumulating by suspending them in the water column and eventually exported out by your filter and skimmer. If detritus are allowed to accumulate, nuisance algae will proliferate. Note: circulation is about 'flow' not 'speed'. Therefore, its better to have more small powerheads placed stratigically then to have one or two large powerhead blowing and knocking over corals in the same direction all the time. Melvyn, I've not even scratch the surface to the science of reef keeping with what I've done here. There are still subjects such as reef chemistry, reef temperature, husbandry etc which are also extremely important. Therefore, I suggest you do more reading up on the subject of reef keeping before adding more livestocks to your tank. Lack of knowledge in what you do will lead to frustration and a loss of your investment.

You have been lucky so far but I know people who had their entire box of 7 DVDs confiscated. And they weren't ###### mind you; they were just Region 1 movies that were not allowed here because they were not censored. eBay still the safest IMO.

Melvyn, you should at least provide me a link to your thread...... Anyway that looks like a shriveling piece of open brain Trachyphyllia with its skeleton exposed. By the way, did you really added an acropora into your tank (it looks fake)? I can also see something that resembles Porites in there. If they are indeed sps corals, they will not survive in your tank for too long because you lack the proper lighting, filtration system, circulation etc. Oh.. and I also disagree with your mentor that you don't need a protein skimmer for your tank size.

U guys need to consider the fact tha when you buy DVDs from Amazon they are going declare on the customs form that its a DVD and when Sg customs sees that, the package will end up in the Board of Film Censors. Saving Private Ryan Region 1 DVD is banned in Singapore and it'll be confiscated. And to top it off, they will also charge you a censor's fee. The best bet is eBay. Instruct the seller to declare it as books, gift etc and you'll evade customs here. eBay DVDs are also cheaper. I bought my B.O.B. region 1 on eBay.

Do a search on RC and you'll get loads of info.

Kalkwasser or lime water by defination is a dissolved solution with calcium and hydoxide ions. The calcium ions in the solution obviously add to the calcium level in the water and the hydroxide ions supply the alkalinity which buffers the pH. However, hydroxide cannot be absorbed by corals to aid in calcification unless it is combined with CO2 (which is omnipresence in the atmosphere and from respiration) to form bicarbonate and carbonate. Therefore, the answer is yes, kalkwasser will boost calcium level in your aquarium.

Vince, 4 powerheads really doesn't mean anything if they are not providing enough 'flow'. Always remember: Its the amount of water that is moving that counts; not the speed.

What Scarab recommended is the right thing to do if indeed your ca reactor is introducing lots of CO2 into your tank. One other thing you could do is to install a solenoid regulator and put it on a timer or pH controller so that CO2 supply will be shut off either during the night or when pH is low. To be honest, your pH range of between 7.7 and 8.1 is acceptable. However, if you are determine to raise your daily pH average there are several things that you need to understand before you can tackle your problem. pH is affected by the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water which are emitted by livestocks and algae during the night, as well as decaying matters, fish waste etc round the clock. Therefore, if your tank is highly stocked, the pH of the water will automatically drops back to its natural level no matter how much kalkwasser you dosed. Low alkalinity will also affect the buffering capabilities of saltwater. A good alkality range for any marine aquarium should be 7dKh to 10dKh. You should at least know what the alk level fo your tank is before attempting to raise its pH. Having said that, I feel that if the animals in your tank are healthy and their aren't any algae problems, you shouldn't be to anxious about the slightly low pH. Like I always say: If its not broken, don't try to repair it.

Vicky, are you new to the hobby? If you are and your tanks is small and immature, I suggest you do not keep the blue tang (aka. regal blue tang, aka. hippo tang etc). They are extremely hard to keep in a home aquaria and very few people have had any success in keeping this beautiful fish. If you are insistant on buying one, then I suggest you read up on what is needed to care for the fish before you get one. I'm saying this because I feel that this poor fish has been exploited enough due to the 'Finding Nemo' craze here.

Only chlorine will evaporate overnight but chloramine will remain. I suggest you guys use some kind of water conditioner to get rid of chloramine.

You can also use Liquid Life USA's MarinePlankton very soon.

Scooter, check the list of retailers here.

Did you know that NSW has a dKh of between 6 to 7. I'd say your tank parameters are alright. Don't try to repair lt when its not broken. Chasing numbers will take away the fun in reef keeping.

I won't be held responsible if you get food poisoning

Adding rollers to your tank will be the worst idea in the long history of bad ideas....

Hey Fuel, thanks for giving BioPlankton a try. But I really don't think it smells nice though...... The feeding instructions on the BP bottle is just a general guideline and you do not need to follow it religiously. It is wrong to feed BioPlankton according to your tank size because we all know that there will always be different livestocks level in tanks of similar sizes. Therefore, you should feed according to the need of the animals in your aquaria instead. As a general guideline, I'd recommend that if your tank is immature, you should feed no more than one squirt per 60 gallon; then gradually increase the dosage when you can see your inverts responding. The key is to start slow and not to overfeed There are approximately 160-170 squirts in the BP bottle and one squirts is about 0.18 of a ml, which is not alot. You need to remember that when feeding plankton, the density of the feed is very important because you need enough algae cells to generate a feeding response from your inverts. Otherwise, they could all be wasted. I hope I have answered your question.

In my opinion, always buy the biggest chiller you can afford. Reasons being: 1. Less wear and tear because the chiller will not have to work as hard as one which is less powerful. Do not think that a bigger chiller will use up more energy. Just think: Big chiller draws more energy but take shorter time to achieve preset temperature; small chiller draws less energy but takes longer time to achieve preset temperature. 2. Allow you to upgrade to bigger tank or add more lights. 3. More cooling power per dollar spent. (1hp chiller does not cost 2x the price of 0.5hp)

Chloramine will damage the gills of your fish.

This is a Pseudodax Molluccanus or otherwise known as the chiseltooth wrasse in the US. What you have here is a juvenile specimen and when fully grown they can attain length of up to 25cm. Check out the adult male here.

I would take the Eheim anytime of the week and twice on Sunday. They are so reliable I've never heard of one breaking down. No comments on OR cos I've got no experience with them.

Powder browns and blues are all difficult fishes to keep and they are definitely not good candidates for a new tank. With all the constant moving of rocks and corals comon in new tanks, they will be stressed out in no time at all. I suggest you should not even consider having any surgeons in your aquaria until everything has settled down some months down the road. And even then, do not keep more than 2. If you really must have surgeons, why not keep the kole tang? Its fairly hardy and it also takes care of some nuisance algae which other tangs doesn't eat.

3 tangs are definitely too many for your tank size. Tangs are active swimmers and they need lots of room. I'd keep either only a yellow or a purple if I were you. Definitely leave out the powder blue. Scooter blennies Synchiropus ocellatus belong to the dragonet family (madarins) and are not like what you described. I think you were giving descriptions of a Yashia Goby Stonogobiops Yashia.

Zoanthids generally do not require target feeding because they live off the nutrition from their zooxanthellae. However, some zoos will also filter out organic matters in your aquaria as well as phytoplankton and zooplankton.

This is the Berghia nudibranch and its a wonderful addition to any reef tanks cos it feeds on Aiptasias. If you don't have aiptasia, you should loan it to anyone with aiptasia problems cos they feed exclusively on aiptasias and will starve if these nuisance anemones are not available.

... Read my post above...