fishiee

Oh well, i heard that other, more expensive brands of di units cost $300 or so. In my POV, if you want to build a budget tank, getting i DI is essential, but there is no need to splurge on german brands as DI units have no moving parts, and hence, no MTBF. Things that you should spend your money on will be things like protein skimmers and your tank itself. Your problem with the DI is due to manafacturing defects, unless you dropped it and will most likely be recitfied with another trip down to the fish shop to ask for replacement or fixing. Good luck!

oh well, i also have trouble afixing the canister to the tap, but have been too lazy to go to the hardware store to do anything about it. You can just hold the inlet of the unit to the tap for the moment to obtain DI water. You should be able to recitfy the problem by going to a hardware store and buying an adapter to connect the inlet to one of your taps. The inlet specs should be: 3/4" garden hose connection with faucet adapter and 3/8" presure tubing. You can bring the unit to the hardware store to try out the adapter.

they will even pick dead skin cells off your hands if you put them in...really annoying actually.

ya. they will eat almost anything. greedy fellas.

one big burp...

i fed them a big meal the day before. Mysis shrimp buffet, everything you can eat and more. But they are always hungry...

I bought a small pacific cleaner shrimp from aquamarin and introduced it into my tank to replace one that died earlier this week. I acclamatized it and escorted it down to the bottom of the tank where it clung onto some live rocks. Then i turned away to switch my wavemaker back on and in that period of 10 seconds or so, my tomato clown had attacked my shrimp, took it into his mouth and snapped its neck in two! Poor guy; and its not like cleaner shrimps are cheap either... Any advice? on how to introduce shrimp into my tank if i buy one again? i noticed that some reefers have a beta box in their tank to which they confine 'naughty fish' for a week or so. Does it really help, behaviour wise?

you can try crystal pro (single canister). It will cost around $125 and can be bought in quite a few places. I dunno if there are other cheaper brands (you can check with C328, the fish shop in clementi). If you did not know, RO/DI stands for reverse osmosis / dionisation/deioniser. If you are getting what i recommended, buy the dionising cartriage for it as the main purpose of it is to remove the phosphate and nitrate ions present in the water.

looks very good. must have cost you a bomb through. LEDs is the future of aquarium lighting, unless something better crops up. But they are still under development. Give it a few more years when i get my new fish tank, i think they will become cheap enough for everyone to fit into their budget.

wrong section... should be in pasar malam.

the ballast may have burnt out. you CAN buy a replacement ballast from most aquarium shops and do the replacement, but if this is your clueless first time in electronics, you better just get a new light. It better than accidentally killing yourself. Alternatively, you can send it to the fish shop and see if they can repair your lights for you.

so many ways, for glass, scrape with old credit card or razor blade, siphon out and wash the sand. You can also use turbo snails and other marine critters for sideline algae control. A good skimmer, phosphate remover and cheato (a type of macroalgae) also help to keep things like these away. I think the red stuff is cyanobacterium, can anyone confirm?

assuming the output of light per watt for both bulbs are the same, they both should produce the same ammount of light. However, if you are working with a large tank, i would advise 3 bulbs, its pretty hard to angle the one bulb to illuminate the enitre tank.

micro bubbles have been reported to irritate some corals, especially if it accumulates under them or something like that, your problem is not serious, but you should take steps to resolve it in due course.

Oh well, when setting up a marine tank, you need to invest in some important equipment: Tank: get a glass one. I got an acrylic tank of the same dimensions and it started to buldge (not that bad, but noticable) after 8 months. try this: http://freshnmarine.com.sg/estore/product_...products_id/795 the review is actually mine. Pay 10 bucks more and have it delivered to your doorstep. Dunno how reliable it is, but i definitely beats the acrylic one Protein skimmer: reef octopus (DNW110) (200 bucks ++?) or a dymax RS is you really cannot fit budget. Feeder pump ehim $30 get a good one. don't skimp on this piece of equipment. DI unit - crystal pro (single canister). the prices are around the same everywhere. should be +-125 Wavemaker - seio is a good brand. get a seio prop Lighting: get it generic. T5 2x24 or a PL (1x55) may also want to consider indulging in a moonlight for effect. A timer is good if you don't want to manually do everything. well worth the money. Additives. It really helps in a marine tank. for a fish only tank with a few hardy corals...umm... (seachem brand) marine buffer, reef advantage calcium (for shrimp), trace elements, activated carbon (may want to get pura activated carbon. it is cheaper, i think) get from clementi. cheapest. Get a generic filter. HOB will do. Just have the water pass through some media so that all the solids are filtered out. around 20 bucks. And as i always say, no harm putting a few hardy corals in your tank. Mushroom and leather coral should will fit nicely. low lighting requirements, no feeding required. very forgiving. perfect. just make sure you flow rate is not too high...Get a few hermits crabs as well, blue legged. and a pacific cleaner shrimp for itch. And if your tank is heavily stocked with fish, you may want to be prepared to buy a UV steriliser.... and advice on sand: 0 grade sand is the nicest. I cannot really advise you on fish compatiblity, but yes, a 2 footer is a little too small for tangs. You may want to consider replacing your maroon clowns with a tomato clown (very heady) or the common clown. Get some chromis when your tank is settled down. They are quite nice. have fun toggling with the prices. i also have a 'budget' tank and my best advice is not to buy the cheapest thing there is in the market as they are not always the best (and you will be forced to upgrade, waste of money).

possible, depends on how you play with it..... some wavemakers are just too strong....

I agree with [V]tEc. Either a hydror nano wavemaker, a hydro korella 1 or 2 at max. You can also try the seio prop 320 or 520. Flow rate for your awuarium should be around 2000l/h at max. If you want to toy around at little more, why not get 2 hydro nanos if your budget can afford it? 2 smaller wavemakers give you much more flexibility than just 1 large wavemaker. Get a decent wavemaker, not some cheap china brand. It will serve you will in time to come.

an answer to the thread: http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=66510

http://www.spc.int/coastfish/News/Trochus/...Trochus8-07.htm What do you all think?

Just wondering - is it possible to keep cheato in a fluidized reactor? with lighting and all that of course. PS: I don't have a sump, so ya.

I have been using crystal pro (single canister); it has worked fine for me. solved my algae problem i had a few months back good and proper. cheap as well. the TDS meter that came with it reads at around '66' for tap water and around '1' for the water that my DI unit produces; in my point of view, there is no need to buy the 3 canister one unless you want to run the water through like crazy. If you are on a budget, there is no need for activated carbon and RO as well (the 2 extra canisters); what you really want is a deioniser that removes phosphate, nitrate and sillicate ions that cause algae bloom in your tank. My 3 cents worth. My only qualm is that the canister will most likely crack in you drop it. Its acrylic.

Mabye you can get a tomato clown. I had one and that's about the only thing except for a flavia coral and a button polyp had survived 2 of my mistakes. Hardier than normal clownfish, i must say. Get a small one - you don't want to overload the biological system in your tank, especially when you are going to keep hard corals.

You increase the price to attract more potential buyers ? What's the logic?

For some reason, my blue legged hermit crabs have recently taken up the pastime of sitting on my leather coral for hours at a stretch. It has happened 2 times this week already and there are marks on the coral indicating the crab's favourite resting spot (which so happens to be in the middle). My leather coral seems a little irritated by this. Any comments? One possible reason i can think of is that my leather 'shed' recently, but this is not the first shedding the crabs have gone through.

Aquamarin is selling protein skimmers, you can try the cheaper aquanaut and reef octopus skimmers; they are all under 200 bucks. You can check it out on their website. I have heard complaints about weirpro skimmers, saying that they do not skim well and that some people have trouble working them. The only reasonable china brand of skimmer i have come across is boyu (although some may disagree). It has served by nano tank well for the past 6 months, never failing. However, i am still looking to upgrade to one of the above skimmers in due course. A protein skimmer is an essential component of your tank. You can skimp on other things like DI units (e.g. cyrstal pro 1 canister is good enough, don't need to buy german brand) but a good skimmer would reap benifits over and over. I strongly suguest you invest a few more dollars to get a decent skimmer. Its not much really, come to think of it.