untouchables

err boss, i only know of one place but ur post stated "places" so is there others that im not aware of?

az-no3 takes time to get the no3 out so u better get from shop if no one replies within the day...

i may have caused some confusion with my requests... but here is to clarify everything... a. i intend to try natural control instead of continually buying products like zeovit, rowa, etc. however, i know that it is impossible to do that if i dun control the source so thats why im going "fishless" and no feeding. gonna change salt (cos red sea salt seems to give out nitrate). b. my cleaner crews did not die together. these are my experiences over the past 9 months. c. my tank got no issue with what i stated except for some gha due to my high nitrate, after effect of my tank crash. i intend to get 1 of each to remove whatever residue there are or if they are gonna break out, the crews will already be at work taking it out. btw, thanks to everyone who shared. much appreciated. i went through liveaquaria and came up with a list that i may want to try: a. filament algae control - court jester goby or if not, hermit crabs like scarlet hermit, dwarf red tip or dwarf zebra b. film algae - scrubbing is still most effective but gonna get some snails like banded trochus or margarita > need to glue sps down c. diatom - banded trochus snail d. cyano - mexican turbo or margarita or scarlet hermit crab e. detritus and shift sand - star fish like blue linckia (nice colour) or others like fancy serpent/burgundy/fancy brittle sea star yeah, maybe get 1/5 the recommended amount so as not to starve them so much in case my tank got no outbreak.

i have not been having much luck with cleaners cos they always die after a few days except for my cleaner shrimps. if not dead, they pose a different set of headaches so now i hope to get reefers feedback on what to get before i go shopping for them this weekend. tank is 3x2x2.5. they are needed for (my old/current problems): a. green hair algae b. spot algae c. sand bed d. aiptasia e. bryopsis (cannot remember the spelling liao...) none required for leftover food cos i dun intend to keep fishes or if i do keep them, they wont be fed anything i miss out that require cleaning? constraints/restrictions: a. cannot poo too much cos im keeping sps and want top quality water, best of the best condition b. not too big cos if they die... will create spike in water parameters c. preferebly pretty looking. should be part of the display if possible d. not too expensive, ie <$20 per piece or <$100 for the entire crew team. exceptions can be made in view of ©. my bad experience so far... a. blue cheek goby for sand > creates sand storm cos they like to carry the sand up and drop them down. my clams died and rics got stressed out by them. b. yellow goby > mia after 2 days c. 2 spot goby > mia after 1 day d. turbo snail > topple acros, including quite big colonies e. small turbo snail, mexican snail > topple frags f. cleaner shrimp > 2 was stupid enough to go up to the tunze cos the frozen mysis was stuck to the inlet cap. once get sucked there, they cannot away. g. starfish > dunno what is it good for... never see it moving fast enough to be cleaning the tank h. tuxedo urchin > never eat the bryopsis and died 1 week later. many thanks in advance.

YzF, yeah i got that too after i started on zeovit system. i reduce zeofood but the red slime did not go away as fast so i used ultraslime for a quick and easy way out. since then, i drip 50% dosage once a week. no more outbreak. weileong, i dun experience od on zeofood causing sps to stn/rtn but overdose on zeovit and zeobak... yeah that will surely kill the sps.

went to look see look see on sps yesterday evening so here is some update... iwarna: mainly cultured acros left. most brown out but still doing ok. price is now $20 each. not much fishes but still got mushies and lps.

bro Jimng, not never give up, juz havent dunno how many of these i can take but i hope it is my first and last crash! actually my old tank did crash once but that was with some mushies and loads of fishes. not much $ lost in that so im not counting... i juz rescaped my tank last nite. supposed to take out some lr so that it does not look like a mountain in a tank but ended up putting more rocks cos i wanted more space for sps and they need to be high up due to my tank depth and use of t5. oh well... at least im happy with this new scape and the 2 tunze are not sitting in the front part of the tank anymore. now waiting for tank to cycle and do some water change this week. hopefully can start stocking on sps again but this time, im gonna be real choosy on size and quality due to limited tank space.

talking about gha, i juz got a boom of it the last 2 days... right after my tank crashed. guess the darn nitrate is still high in my tank although my surviving fish and corals seems to be recovering.

RAV-65, still undecided on a new scape cos the frags off the colonies are still being given cpr. decided not to do anything drastic at this moment but will reconsider later this week. DeepBlue, thanks for the offer. luckily a 50% water change seems to do the tank inhabitants some good. give u a call if i need to house my rics, after all, some did come from ur tank originally. andysho, seems like if keep marine tank, cannot go anywhere liao murphy strikes when least expected. to avoid such problems, i decided on a no fish tank. if there shall be fishes, it will be my current true percula pair, the 2 gobies (darn, was hoping they dont make it!) and selected fish for specific purposes like sand shifter, etc. no more display fishes like tangs, etc. too risky, imho. any suggestion on a scape? i need to have high rocks cos im on t5 so a sloping scape will mean sps on the very top... that would limit the pieces i can have in my tank.

nice but... dun come with the gal ah?

something weird for me... my effluent from cr seems to have low dkH, somewhere in the region of 7-8 only.

any updates?

juz got home this afternoon after a 4d/3n hols in malaysia. worst nightmare came true... my tank crashed did a day by day account with my bro in law who was oveseeing my tank. seems like something caused my fishes to die and he could only pick up a few dead ones, not knowing i had big blue tang, purple tangs, etc that died in the rocks. water turned bad slowly and even the acro crabs and lobster died. sps started to rtn... final count of the dead... 2 x purple tang 1 x achilles tang 2 x six line 1 x sea urchin 1 x lobster 2 x cleaner shrimp 2 x blood shrimp all acro crabs survivors are 2 x true percula, 1 yellow goby, 1 anemone all acros rtn (around 10 colonies of various sizes, 5 small frags), left a few smaller frags. all the nice ones are gone......... luckily my brain, hammer, torch and ric floridas made it... oh well, juz changed 50% of water and gonna let it run for 1 month before i start stocking again. meantime, gonna start investigation on what caused the fishes death.

thanks for the info. i thought they were sps safe and got one yellow and one black. turned out the black one killed 2 sps liao but lately has been behaving and not killing anymore ever since i started trying to spear it with my home made 3 point spear!

sugi, if someone uses ur bandwidth connection to cause some damage, u r also liable so best if u do not assume anything. it is pretty easy to enable the security feature in ur wireless ap. cheers!

the nudis definitely died but monti... mine up lorry liao after the fw dip. sigh... can buy monti cap again now that i got 2 six-line in my tank

juz started 3 days ago... but i under dose juz in case something weird crops up. first 2 days was 2 drops daily (100g tank) and yesterday brought it up to 4 drops, which is the recommended dosage. was told that overdose is ok but will cause cyano breakout. amino is supposed to increase growth so may take time to see results. btw, im interested to try the flouride and pocci-style. anyone tried it yet?

eh it is not a sin nor a crime to be rich. dun have to call them buggers leh.

i got the same problem and found that tuxedo urchin eats them. tangs dun. but hor, my tuxedo urchin dun seems to eat so i went chemical berserk and dropped my po4 and no3 to zero. growth stopped and seems to be dying out...

actually hor... maybe he did pay that price for it. sometime back, when i was at lck201, i was quoted a red blasto frag (around 5 mouth... is that what it is called??) for a bargain price of $100. the owner seems surprised i juz smile and walk away. he was like expecting me to grab immediately. according to him, the previous few pieces sold for $150 or more. not sure if i look like a sucker or there are really suckers out there hahaha

depends on if u took the blue or red pill

im think this coming shipment... i give it a miss and pick up the brown ones can liao. i got a stylopora (i think thats what its called) from forbidden place. although brown but i know its original colour and the shape was juz what i needed to scape my tank. good buy provided it doesnt die on me this few days. lck110 lelong piece doing well in my tank. hopefully it starts to colour up again!

aquaz 20000K is very white and the actinic is not exactly dark blue. if u dun put them in equal ratio, u get a white look. since it is lps, no need to put too many whites, so 2x20000K and 2xactinic is a good mix. for slightly more blue effect, add a third actinic.

slightly but where do u guys refer to when trying to identify corals, esp acros? cant seem to find a good site. or can someone recommend a book or two?

lck110 having acro clearance but i only saw one piece that is still ok, ie no stn or rtn. but worth the risk cos it is really cheap! some clams left but so so only. lots of new flame angels and saw one AT (3-4") with nice teardrop!