illumnae

What problems are you having? I've been using anti synch with alternating gyre mode for a couple of months already with no issues

Let's not talk price here and just enjoy our hobby together Thanks bro, I can't take credit for it - scaping was done for me by Steven from Seasonal Aquarium. Hi bro, sorry I don't understand. What's "Me GI"? Paiseh I'm not very smart one haha

All the fish except for the 2 Zebrasoma tangs were purchased from Iwarna. Excellent place to order rare fish from!

It's been awhile with nothing much to post as my tank has been settling in. I experienced a pH crash a few weeks back that took out a number of corals, but things are stabilizing now thankfully. Here are some pictures of some of the current inhabitants in the tank. There are some missing members as they were either hiding at the point of time I was taking photos, or had not been added to the tank yet (photos were taken 2-3 weeks back). 1. My favourite fish that I've been hunting for a long time: Halichoeres melasmapomus (Earmuff wrasse). This picture is of the largest one, but I have 3 currently - 2 from Philippines (more green body) 1 from Australia (more pink body). 2. Zebrasoma scopas x rostratum (Hybrid black tang). Sorry for the dirty water - the sand was just stirred. Tiny little guy that's very fiesty. Love the wormlines on his body. I also have a large purebreed black tang that isn't pictured here. 3. Valenciennea bella (Bella sandsifting goby). A much prettier sandsifter than what's usually available. This guy keeps the sand clean without bombing the corals from above. He built a mount of sand for himself to dig a cave with though. 4. Bodianus paraleucosticticus (Five striped hogfish). Australian hogfish that started out very shy but is now one of the most outgoing fish in my tank. Love the brilliant colours on him. 5. Holanthias fuscinnipis (Hawaiian yellow anthias). Deepwater cousin of the crowd favourite Blotchy anthias, this guy shares a similar body shape and perching habits with the Blotchy anthias. Also started off very shy and always hiding, but definitely comes out to play more often now. I think the only other fish missing aside from the ones I already mentioned above are the trio of Macropharyngodon vivienae (Vivienne leopard wrasse) that I picked up last week. Don't think I've added anything else. Hopefully my tank parameters will stabilize more and my corals will continue to improve so that I can share coral pictures the next time!

It has worked for me, but you need to be very stringent in your dosing. Use 3x the recommended dosage for each dose and you must dose once at 10am and once at 10pm religously for 21 days. Any less than 21 days and you might as well don't dose - as mentioned by patrick, a simple understanding of the ich life cycle and you will understand why. Based on recent "kiasu" practices in overseas reef forums, they will even recommend up to 28 days (i.e. same amount of time as copper treatment). Basically except for Chloroquine Phosphate, every other ich cure needs the 21-28 day treatment period to ensure you eradicate the parasite. This one just allows you to do it in the DT instead of QT.

So people have been asking me where I got the Aqua Scapefix from. I got it from Iwarna, and was told that it'll be available at all FM retailers this week. Now for my feedback on the product. The TLDR version is that I like it and yes, I'll continue to use it. Overall, it's quite value for money at only $25 per bottle. I'm quite a heavy user of glue/epoxy when I glue my corals, and I use about 3/4 to 1 tube of ISTA glue per SPS colony that I glue (about 1/2 tube of BSI). So far I have glued 7-8 colonies using Aqua Scapefix and I haven't even used half a bottle yet, so I can safely say that 1 bottle of this is worth at least 10-15 tubes of BSI or 20+ tubes of ISTA. This is my personal estimation - your mileage may vary. I find that following the instructions and using 42 degree celcius water is not sufficient to prepare the product properly. The individual beads that make up the product need to individually absorb enough heat before turning into the putty. When I used just hot water (didn't measure temperature, but slightly above what my hands can bear so probably above 42 degrees), I found it hard to make the product pliable enough - I ended up not with the described transparent putty, but no matter how much I mixed it in, I could still see the individual beads not mixed properly. Colour was transluscent. So I tried another way instead - I poured boiling water into the bowl, and immediately the beads softened and joined into a transparent putty just as described by the bottle. I then poured away half the boiling water and replaced it with tap water. I did this a few times until I was left with warm water just bearable for my hands, and it remained at that ideal consistency and I could knead it and then use it. On to my feedback. I'll list out the various pros and cons that I feel this product has, and my thoughts on each point, if relevant. 1. Convenient to use - It's much easier not to have to wield a tube or bottle of glue especially when navigating tight corners in the tank. With this product, you can use it epoxy style by breaking off a piece, sticking it on the coral, then using your hands to press it against the rock. Let your fingers do the walking to press it in to stick to the rock. 2. Remains malleable/pliable for quite some time after preparation - One of my fears before using this product is that it will cool down too fast and basically harden before I can properly position my corals on the rock. This fear was unfounded. What I did was to keep the putty inside the bowl of warm water I described above, and just take it out to break off pieces to use and put it back in while gluing my corals. Using this method, the putty remained warm and pliable even after 20 minutes when I finished my first batch and had to go make my second batch. Even inside the 25-26 degree tank, the putty took a few minutes before it hardened. There's definitely sufficient time to work with it and position your corals properly and press the putty into the rocks to secure the hold. By my estimation, I had to hold it slightly longer than ISTA glue and slightly less than BSI glue before it hardened sufficiently for me to let go. 3. A little bit goes a long way - Already touched on this point above. Fauna Marin estimates that a 500ml bottle is equal to about 20 tubes of glue. However, my estimation is more generous than that, as described above. Maybe their glue tubes are bigger than ours. However, that being said, the actual amount of putty I used per colony ends up looking like more in volume than what I would use for glue. So for example if I use about 500ml of glue to hold a colony, maybe i'll need 800ml of putty instead. Figures are for example purposes only but you get the idea. Also, I found that with more practice, I was using less putty per colony than when I started. 4. Skimmer skims normally - unlike epoxy, my skimmer doesn't go crazy when using this product. Fish don't seem affected either. Fauna Marin claims you can eat this product and be fine, but I'm not so adventurous. 5. It is sticky - one of my biggest dislikes about using epoxy, other than making my skimmer go crazy, is that it isn't really very sticky. This product sticks well and in fact, I even had some minor wastage as there were bits stuck to the bottom of my bowl that I simply could not remove. I had to wait till it cooled and hardened then peel it off the bottom of the bowl. I would be pissed of at this wastage, except that this product already exceeded my expectations for value, so a little bit of wastage is fine. So far overnight the colonies that I glued have not fallen, so its sturdiness does hold up. Only time will tell whether it holds long term as well as glue does. As mentioned at the start, I do like this product and would definitely continue to use it. I find it's great value for money in terms of how many corals you can stick with just one bottle. All in all, another great product from Fauna Marin. P.S. This post is not sponsored. I have to pay full price for this and all my other FM products purchased

It's always exciting to try out new products. Just in time to stick my Walt Smith sps purchases!

Actually 1 big black tang and 1 small black x scopes hybrid tang Yup that's right. This one: http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topic/137970-derocks-marine-liverock-replicas/ I bought them from Seasonal Aquarium

Scape was done up for me by Steven of Seasonal Aquarium

After struggling for 8 months with live rock that wouldn't stop leaching phosphate, I decided that enough was enough and decided to restart my tank from scratch. Very grateful to the bros that helped me hold my corals for the past 1+ months while I redid everything. Went with 100% dead DE Rocks this time around. Sorry for the poor white balance - picture was taken with handphone camera

Reviving an old thread. Just heard that SA is bringing in the MAME skimmer - a few sample units are in already. Great choice for a minimalist nano/Pico setup.

I've had it bleach my LPS before. I think it' caused by improper mixing and some concentrated portion of water hits the LPS, causing it to bleach. I also dosed at 3x recommended dosage in a nano. To prevent this perhaps try to mix the powder in tank water first and pour it into the sump area instead of directly into the tank. That being said, it only happened to me once. 90% of the time it's ok.

Ah beng more or less every week will have cowfish and should have the more common species of boxfish too. Coral farm has them often too. I've seen the more uncommon species of boxfish at iwarna and marinelife

T95 last picture is a burgessi butterfly? Looks yellowish.

Coral farm has

50-50 bleach-water is excessive. Usual recommendation is 20 parts water to 1 part bleach, or 10 parts water to 1 part bleach if you're kiasu. Soak for 24 hours is enough, 48 hours if you're kiasu. Thereafter, you can soak the rocks in water with antichlorine to get rid of as much bleach as possible. Dry the rocks completely to be 100% sure that you are free from bleach (bleach evaporates completely without residue). A small amount of remnant bleach on the rocks is not a bad thing as it actually raises your ORP until depleted. Vinegar will burn the surface off your rocks as acid reacts with calcium carbonate. Just use pure artificial white vinegar (5% acetic acid) undiluted to do this. Please note that this is a very dirty process as the entire surface of the rock is burnt off by the vinegar. There will be fizzing and popping while the reaction takes place, and the resultant residue is brown and smelly and damn disgusting. How it helps to reduce phosphate is that phosphate can bind with calcium carbonate and then leech into your water, causing phosphate problems. By burning the surface of the rock off, you are also burning the bound phosphate together with it. How effective it is depends on how much phosphate was bound in your rock. For example, I made the mistake of buying recycled live rock that was in another tank for goodness knows how long. Even after 1 round of vinegar treatment, the rocks are still leeching measurable amounts of phosphate (though much less than before). I would probably have to do a 2nd round of vinegar bath to totally get rid of the phosphate. However, as this rock is extremely porous and "holey" in structure, excessive vinegar bath would cause the rocks to potentially disintegrate or break into small pieces if too much of the surface is burnt off by the vinegar.

above allowance is per person on the trip, so if you go with your family, you can multiply the limits accordingly. Otherwise, the 3L limitation for 30 fish (if you really bring in so many) is quite impossible to fulfil unless you're bringing in fighting fish

Obviously got to check in la... how you handcarry so much liquids? I collected the fish on the day I flew back, took the flight back then unpacked the fish when I reached home.

Yes I've brought back fish from this store before

Interesting. That looks like the Excel file I created and posted onto the AI Facebook group.

Oh well then bopian. Make sure you check your pump regularly and bring it for servicing/repair during warranty period if required. My experience was that power cord was loose, and problem persisted even after bringing in for servicing. I was too lazy to bring it in a second time so I just made sure the skimmer was positioned properly then never moved it any more after that. Once I upgraded tank, I changed from DC to Eden pump model. Have you decided on any maintenance system yet? E.g. carbon dosing method, etc.

Have you bought your skimmer yet? If not I recommend the SM251 over the SV253. In my experience, Skimz DC pumps tend not to be as reliable as their old line of Eden pumps. At max settings, the DC version actually draws 69W vs the 40W of the SM251.

Cirrhilabrus cf lunatus x cf lanceolatus

Between AcroPower only and Polyp Booster + Reef Roids, I recommend going with the latter. AcroPower is only amino acid mix, which is comparable to Polyp Booster, but Reef Roids is SPS food as well, so you're getting more stuff with the second option as opposed to AcroPower alone.