[Off power cause fish die?]

Whoah dude, your NO3 is at or above 100ppm? Its amazing all your fish are still alive!

You have seriously been abusing this tank..what temperature is the water maintained at?

What kind of lighting are you using for the tank?

You have a very steep learning (and spending) curve ahead of you if you decide to continue

running this tank.

For starters you want to vacuum all the debris off the sand, and get NO3 down to 10 - 20ppm.

What brand of Salt mix are you using for water changes? Are you using Anti-Chloramine in your tap water?

I hope you can absorb the necessary information and make the changes necessary in time to save the rest of your livestock.

Best of luck.

hmmm my friend got pass me knowledge, but many are loss, some of powder/solution finish didnt replace.

well i think going to make things better as seem now i have more interest.

i didnt know my tank got many problem as my old bird fish didnt die haha, untill now i find out seem impossible to put in new fish. .. . notice rocks are not as purple as last time. and sand is brown colour

i just did a 20% water change. and i get a sailfer test kit for $24 . test kit also so ex ar haha

i tested, is it at the most bottom colour meaning. NO3 still above or at 100

i think every 2 days i changing 20%

i suspect my NO3 sera test kit got problem. but it also show at or around that max range. that why i get another one de.

but seems is same.

i also throw in a whole bottle of sea cheam NO3 removal stone.

Q) will stone disolve over time or to do change of stone?

i have (ph + orp) controller, but just a setup to monitor PH, notice that last time my friend use to activate calcium cylinder. try to install every thing since i going to keep coral in future.

coral eater fish going to put at another tank next time. but next time then say lar now. get more experiance first haha.

will like to ask if i install denitrator need to have water supply to it 24 hours right? inside the denitrator also there is a power head. that only i also need to on 24 hour?

in this forum i have read that people dont put coral chip . . . i inside got one bag should i remove it?

notice my clam i put in sump seems got open up but not as nice as purchase that time . . . . other coral like green jewel seem become a piece of rock. i think eaten up liao.

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

Mmm ok, I'm thinking this is Galaxea astreata, can anyone confirm?

[Help on Pico Tanks]

What do you have in mind size wise?

Pico meaning under 10 gallons?

[DI water questions]

Hi Bro,

Remineralization is needed when you are using it in fresh water application. For marine, we either uses DI for water top up or with salt-mix, Salt-mix contains the necessary trace and minerals need by the tank thus there is no need to remineralize your DI water. As for water top up, it replaces evaporated water without the minerals thus it is also not necessary to remineralize.

If your TDS is measuring 0, I think it should be safe to use without needing to add anti-chlorine.

HTH

Thanks bro! I'll probably cave in and invest in a chlorine test kit for peace of mind at some point. You top up DI water directly without buffering or treating it to your marine tank?

I've been remineralizing for my brackish, FW and SW tanks.

Heh, guess I can save some of the additives for my FW tanks.

[My first 8G/30L Boyu Nano tank... help needed?]

Hows your tank coming along?

Any pictures for us? hehe.

[Need advise on all in one covered tank.]

just did a few tests and the parameters gathered as follows: :

PH : 8.0

Amonia : 1.0

Nitrite : 5.0

Nitrate : 20.0

questions:

1) Will I be seeing both amonia and nitrite dropping in next few more days of cycling or should I do a 25% water change to bring them down?

2) Will Nitrate continue to rise at this current juncture or should be falling down?

Don't change any water until Ammonia is 0, Nitrates should be increasing if the cycling is going well.

The white/grey patches should be dead or decaying matter, did you wash/scrub/clean your live rock before you put it in?

Sounds like it was not fully cured yet, should not be a problem, will just take a little longer to cycle. Also explains why you

still have ammonia readings at 20ppm nitrate.

What kind of water did you use to fill the tank? Dechlorinated tapwater with salt mix?

Also what is your water temperature and can you keep it below 30C at all times?

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

bro, gd to see that everything is going well for u!

Hey thanks bro!

The live sand and rock I got from you did wonders for cycling.

[filther leaking~!!!]

HI! my filther is leaking! is there any guideline for me to check to ensure that it doesnt leak? its an external canister from JEBAO...

Buy an eheim?

kidding, kidding. Why are you using a canister for marine? what media is running inside? Open check the O-Rings are ok,

see if the plastic latches are cracked (usually the cause)

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

Nice.... pls kindly keep us updated on the conditions of your cheato after some time? I have an FR hanging around, so I might just do something similar if it works out for you.

Will do, my chaeto is alive, but not in great shape, I was storing it in a small betta tank with saltwater and light, but with no flow for a month, before I got my tank up.

Heh. Chaeto torturer..thats me. I'll see if it bounces back and update with pics next week.

Some quick updates, splashed a little cash at GO (little over a blue note) Mostly humble little frags, don't laugh hor.

Going to stock up slowly, don't want to risk the inhabitants going through a crash.

Can anyone ID this coral? I thought it was a gonio sp. but I don't think so now.

Got a bunch of multicolored shrooms on a small rock, one fell off in the bag and reattached to my LR scape, heh.

Some really bright blasto.

Small frag of Yellow Suns that just started opening

Okie thats it for now, I need to meet up with bro fUel to grab some of his inverts this week, hehehe.

[Reality check]

I just worked out how much I spent over the last 4 months prepping to get my first tank up, JBJ 28G.

Close to $2500.00...I have basically everything I need except livestock but I've only got a few small frags of LPS and mushrooms in it at the moment.

Could probably do it for way less than half if you were going FOWLR. But still, not for the faint of heart.

This is relatively harmless as far as "serious hobbies" go though, I have seen people who spend way WAY more on their hobbies than we Aquarists do.

Remote Controlled Toys are a killer, especially Helicopters, Modifying your Cars for Track driving is another.

[Need advise on all in one covered tank.]

Unfortunately what tends to happen to these tanks most of the time, is that the cover gets removed and the frankenstein-ing begins.

Both in Freshwater and Saltwater, unless you're running a chiller, the cover tends to trap heat and raise water temperature.

Also frequently the light is not strong enough and installing better equipment (powerheads, filters, skimmers) is very hard if not impossible with the cover on.

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

LOL! I like the night shot of the DIY chaeto fuge! Looks very sci fi hahaha. Nice set up and scaping, the 28G has duo return nozzles right? Do look out for the space behind the rock work on the left, potential dead spot since the tall rock will block the flow. Diatoms heaven

Edit: I see that you already have a K1 there

Hehehe yeah, I noticed some detritus accumulating there when I cycling, so I managed to ninja a K1 back there. Yeah the tank has 2 return nozzles, but the return is really not strong enough to generate any appreciable amount of current.

I am still trying to figure out where the other K1 is going to go, can't really visualize the flow of the tank yet, surprisingly no sandstorm going on, I was expecting more of a mess.

Need to get rid of microbubbles still though. I am going to wedge foam into the return compartment in the rear and see if I can stop the pumps from sucking in bubbles, wish me luck.

Nitrate is a product of nitrification, thus it is not surprising that your nitrate will be high. With your investment in Cheato and Biohome plus, I believe you should be able to lower the nitrate in due time.

HTH

Hee, I was actually on the prowl for a denitrator also, but that would be serious overkill for a tank this size, and I didn't find one that would fit my budget.

I'll just stick to 10% weekly water changes for now. If I decide to try SPS when this tank is more mature, I'll start looking again.

[DI water questions]

I'm using the 3 stage Crystal Pro to produce DI water at the moment, its all ok, TDS of input water 60ppm and output is 0ppm.

Thing is I've read that DI water is unstable and needs to be left overnight and stuff like that, is there any truth to that?

If so what does this "ionic instability" do to a marine tank?

I have some coral chips soaking in my 60 litre holding tank for my DI water, I use it for topping up a handful of FW tanks as well as for mixing salt and topup of my nano.

Does DI water really need to be remineralized like its always recommended for RO water?

Also, I know the Carbon stage is supposed to remove chlorine and chloramine from the water, but I sometimes still detect a faint chlorine smell in the output water, and have been using

a small dose (5% of recommended) of antichlorine/chloramine in each batch of water I draw.

Has anyone else experienced this with the Crystal Pro? I don't have a Chlorine / Chloramine test kit, and don't really feel that compelled to go get one...

[what is the water temp ?]

Hi Achilles Tang, so is it the best to invest a chiller ? to keep the temp low 28'C ? currently my temp shot up to 30-31.5'C and what hosepower chiller should I use ? look for the buget one ?

For your tank size, you should consider the Hailea HC-500A. 1/2 HP, you will probably need the power since your temps can reach as high at 31.5C.

Or if you really can't stretch your budget that far, use Fans and a HC-300A together.

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

Thanks for the kind words!

I was surprised at how fast it cycled, probably had something to do with my using 20lb of live sand from established system and the live rock from the same system.

NH4 - 0

NO2 - 0

NO3 - 15ppm (Did a 40% water change before adding livestock)

Temp - 26C

SG - 1.024

CA and Mg not measured, freshly mixed Marine Environment (should be ok I hope)

I picked up a few small frags from GO last night, Yellow Sun, Mushrooms, red blasto, and what I believe is goniopora, but I may be wrong.

Lets see how this goes.

Feeding Hikari frozen Rotifers and Cyclopeeze, Hikari Mysis for the Sun.

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

Here's my noob attempt at scaping, I decided to use only the live rock I had been given instead of going

and buying more live rock, broke...

Here's whats the rear looks like

Here is an attempted DIY conversion of an FR into a Chaetofuge reflective Mylar sheeting over the back of the FR,

Stuff chaeto in, stick 9w PL lamp beside it, and hope for the best.

Shot of the FR in the Dark

My tank is in my bedroom and the light bugged me, so I decided to do something fairly ghetto..

Mmmm I think thats all I have to contribute for now

[Setup of my Pasar Malam Nano Tank]

After pondering long and hard about making the jump from Freshwater to Marine,

I found myself in a situation similar to that faced by many newcomers in our hobby.

Confusion as to how to begin and a fairly tight budget.

After doing a considerable amount of research (over 3 months) I decided due to budgetary and space constraints that it

would be a nano tank, and then to started acquiring everything I needed, over the next 4 months.

Thanks to many of the bros here (you know who you are!), I managed to get pretty good deals off the marketplace,

and finally assembled everything.

This is an approximate list and breakdown, not all of this equipment is necessary, I just decided to buy some of it for future use / expansion.

All prices are approximate and to my best recollection, may not be 100% accurate, but its close.

From Pasar Malam and AQ Forum:

JBJ 28 Gallon HQI Nano tank (150W MH Lighting built in) - Full set

Stand for tank

Hailea HC-150A Chiller

20Kg of Live Rock

20lb of Live Sand

Hydor Koralia 1 Wavemaker

250g Biohome

---------------------------------------$488

RM Fluidized Reactor

RM 8" Calcium Reactor

TLF Phosban 150 FR

---------------------------------------$240

Dupla pH Controller Delta

---------------------------------------$120

3.5L CO2 Tank and JBJ Solenoid

---------------------------------------$120

JBJ Automatic Top Off + FW holding Tank

---------------------------------------$100

Tunze 9002 DOC nano Skimmer

---------------------------------------$120

FOX External Thermostat

---------------------------------------$30

API Saltwater Master Test kit

Tropic Marin Ca Test Kit

Seachem Reef Complete

Seachem Reef Carbonate

---------------------------------------$20

1x Digital Timer

2x Analog Timer

---------------------------------------$25

Bought new from various LFS:

Salinity Refractometer

--------------------------------------$90

Crystal Pro 3 stage + inline TDS meter

--------------------------------------$225

60 Litre water drum

-------------------------------------$17

Hydor Koralia 1

-------------------------------------$50

2 Bags Marine Environment Salt

-------------------------------------$68

Tanita Digital Kitchen Scale (3kg/1g)

-------------------------------------$57

20lb Caribsea Live Aragonite Sand

--------------------------------------$40

Grotech kH+CA 3 Remineralization

Purple Up

Aragamilk

TLF Phosban Media

Rowa Ezeclean

D+D Epoxy

API Reef Master Test Kit

------------------------------------$210

BLV 20K 150w DE MH Bulb

------------------------------------$90

Eheim tubing for all plumbing

------------------------------------$40

Eheim Compact 1002 pump

------------------------------------$50

1kg Biohome Plus

------------------------------------$40

The rest of the cleaning/scaping/maint stuff I had laying around my house, or already acquired previously for my Freshwater stuff.

Eeeek the Total damage is $2240 + probably $200 - $300 more of misc stuff spent over the last 3 months. I didn't quite feel the pinch as badly as I very gradually acquired everything.

I hope I haven't scared anyone off, this is probably serious overkill, and you can probably do it for a lot less, but I wanted to be sure my setup was as close to bulletproof as budget allowed.

Also, about $400 of the expense was for the Calcium Reactor which I am not even planning to use currently.

Pics of the tank and setup which has just completed cycling to follow!

[FOC: Live sand]

Bro, have not purchase a tank. Can the sand be kept for 1-2 month?

not unless you put them in a tub of seawater with a hang on filter and some circulation

[what is the water temp ?]

yah your all r rite ! a million .the best is invest a chiller .just started to use a fan , but u can see the water evaporation very fast... so anyone recommanded which chiller to buy ?

If you are working on a budget, I recommend Hailea, but wow for a 4x2x2.5 you are looking at a 1/3 HP or bigger chiller.

[what is the water temp ?]

No matter how you DIY, the source of the fan is usually China made. Cost is also about the same.

You can buy Japanese Made (Scythe S-Flex) or German (Papst) fans from Sim Lim Square if you wanted to, you need to

hook them up to a 12 volt adapter or other power source though.

But yeah, the evaporation is a killer, I'm running 3x 80mm fans on my 3ft freshwater planted, and I have to top up close to 50 litres a week.

You _must_ do daily topups in a marine tank to prevent salinity fluctuations, if you intend to stay in this hobby for any amount of time, you

really need to invest in a chiller in your initial setup, unless you have the discipline and desire to top up daily.

[WTG: Crab]

hi bros and sis, im giving away this crab...ne one interested? collection will be at ang mo kio st 61...if nobody is interested by next wkend, i will throw it away...sms me at 91856098...thks

I found another crab in the rocks when i got back, but he crawled out of the styrofoam box and into my garden somewhere

[Shun's 2nd tank: 3x2x2]

Muahaha I'll get a sneak peek at this tank tonight.

Add one and u'll notice u'll b addicted... haha...jkjk..

[WTS Live stock and Equipment]

No PM reply for me

I'll pass on the ATO then.

Hi bro, PMed you regarding:

ATO Auto top-up system - $50

[Consolidation #2]

It is not recommended to run out-of-sump due to the head-loss from the AquaBee 1000 pump which is "fixed" at the bottom of the unit.

Ah ok the pump cannot be upgraded? thanks for the clarification!

[WTS Live stock and Equipment]

Hi bro, PMed you regarding:

ATO Auto top-up system - $50

Hi,

I have the following to sell:

1) Live stock

LR - $50

Saijfin Tang - $30

Yellow Tang - $35

Purple Tang - $35

Blue Tang - $30

Tomini Tang - $20

Blue Ring Angel - $40

All the above had been with me for abour 1-2 years. All very healthy and disease free.

2) Equipment

Tank - CR aquarium with lights - $150

Aquabee 200o pump 2 pieces - $$50 each

AquaC Remora skimmer - $100

ATO Auto top-up system - $50

I have some other miscellanous equipment and fish food to give away as well if you but something.

Live stock have to clear before equipment.

If you want to take all at one go, I can part all for just $500.

Please pm me with your requests and contact number. I will get back to you as soon as I can

Discliamer : I reserve the right to sell. Cheers