[Giving away]

Dear friends,

All fishes and live rock cleared..

Hi Bro, thanks for your kind gesture. I'm interested with your tank and can arrange own transportation.

Please let me know if you intend to giving it away too. Thanks

I will try to clean up the tank today so that it's easier for you to arrange for transportation?

Send me a message so that I have your number..

Thanks to all..

[Giving away]

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the interest and kind words.. 2 brothers cleared my corals and fish very quickly..

I will be releasing my fish tank for taking soon, along with the live rocks..

Will update by Thursday evening..

Thank you once again..

Cheers,

Ryan

[Giving away]

Update : 2 friends coming over tonight.. Will update on what's left..

Thank you for interest

[Giving away]

Dear Friends,

I have to decom my fish tank due to personal reasons and would prefer to give the fishes away to another reefer who would take care of them..

Stock :
2 x paired common ocellaris (1.5")
1 x BTA (6" fully opened)
1 x blue tang (3-4")
1 x yellow tang (3-4")
1 x yellow watchman goby
1 x algae blenny
1 x christmas wrasse
4 x zebra damsel
1 x red eyed banggai cardinal

My tank dimensions :
4 x 2 x 1ft shallow
4 x 2 x 2ft (sump)

The tank will be available once the fishes are cleared..

I will be keeping my equipment (chiller/skimmer/pumps) for the future when I can return to this hobby so I could't offer it but all the above are free as long as the interested party collects it from my place..

The miscellaneous corals will be given away if anyone is interested..

Please contact me 96162732 to arrange for viewing at Bukit Panjang..

Thanks..

Ryan

[Coral that loves high flow]

Branching Acros will love that water flow..

Or Montiporas will be a good choice too!

But for Montiporas, choose those which are ridged and thick, these prefer water flow..

DO NOT get the plating kind - they are smooth and prefer gentle flow...

Hope that helps

Cheers,

[Help needed fighting micro bubble]

Agree with Vtec..

Check the pipings..

There might be a possibility that your return is not strong enough, hence water going upwards are not filling the return pipe and a small pocket of air is inside, causing the bubbles..

Let us know?

Cheers,

[Largest concentration of aquarium shops (West)]

Hi Reefers!

I'm new to this hobby and it seems like there are many aquariums to go to when i start this hobby. I'm staying in the west at the bukit batok area.

Some information would be very much appreciated if any lau jiaos can direct me to the nearest n largest concentration of aquariums in the west for me to go look see look see.

I heard west coast has quite a few shops. Some addresses would be good hehehehe and do let me know the shops to avoid..i;m new but i really dont wanna become a carrot head. If its inconvenient, PM is fine too

Thanks in advance fellas!

Hi,

Welcome to the hobby!

There are many shops in the west.

My general suggestion is that you should chat with the shop owner.. If he presses you to buy something and tells you that everything is easy etc, you have to be wary...

I was 'convinced' to buy a anemone for my 1st nano tank and that clown fishes require anemones.. I wouldn't name the shop as it's an established one but i feel that the shop owner should have offered me an easier alternative like mushrooms or LPS to get me going first..

All of us will try to help you in this hobby!

Cheers,

[Return pump advice]

Hi, are you setting up a new tank?

What size are your drains? No point using a big return if your drains are small..

I'm using 2 x 1" drains and I have to scale down my 1262..

Personally, I think a small return pump will be sufficient if you have additional wave makers in the display.

As you already have 2 wave makers, I'd suggest going for a smaller return.

Let us know how it works out..

Cheers

[Alage scrubber VS Skimmer]

Skimmers remove nutrients (protein) before they break down whereas ATS take out those that are broken down (nitrates)..

Skimmers will be a basic item as it's mostly plug and play - just clean it when the collection cup needs to be cleaned.

ATS requires a lot more tweaking and an additional light to run it. You also need to remove the algae and check the flow rate to make sure the water is flowing optimally..

If you have the luxury of space, run an external ATS. My next tank will try to include an external ATS, for pods and maybe a mandarin..

The discussion of ATS vs Skimmers have been going on since forever, instead of asking which is better, provide your tank information (size, what fauna etc) and the experience friends here will be able to suggest which is more applicable to you.

Cheers,

[How much light?]

Hi, just my opinion..

The 3-5wpg is just a general guide.. Depending on the height of the tank, your lighting requirement can vary..

For example, if you have a 4 x 2 x 2, your lighting requirement can defer from a 5 x 3 x 1 (I know this is a strange shape, but I'm trying to illustrate that depth is the issue more than the volume of the tank).

The same amount of light can 'burn' corals in a shallow tank and yet be insufficient for a deep tank..

tank is L36 x W24 x H27. currently keeping softies and LPS.. will be moving to SPS at a later time..

I thought the standard watt for 3ft T5 tube is 39w and 2ft T5 is 24w?

If you are doing just softies and LPS, your current lighting is sufficient for your tank of 27"..

I'm curious for a picture of your tank - where are the softies and LPS currently positioned now?

Should you decide to do SPS, instead of adding more light, try positioning the SPS higher in the tank?

Probably put them in the top 1ft of the tank so your effective height is 1ft instead of 2ft.

Don't rush to buy more lights just for SPS when you can work around the light requirement via re-positioning.

I'd rather spend more money on filtration / water circulation, these are more important to coral & fish health than lighting..

Again, try it out and let us know..

We can shorten the learning curve if we share all our experiences and learn from one another..

[zoas and other easy corals for newbies.]

Feeding zoanthids are not necessary as they can thrive on photosynthesis alone..

If you really want to feed, feed them small items like phyto or cyclopeeze.. However, note that it will take some time for them to eat the food and you will have to watch out for water quality.

Suggest to just feed your fish heartily and their poop will automatically be food for the zoas..

[SPS]

I would like to share my experience.. I bought 9 SPS (3 for S$100) from one of our LFS when I set up my 4ft tank a while ago..

After 2 weeks, I begin to see little worms (they look like mosquito larva) in 1 of the SPS and I saw an AEFW crawling on the wall of my tank.. I tried to remove it but it was too late.. All the acros died within a week (7 out of 9 SPS bought)..

This tank is newly set up and totally sterile, so there couldn't be any introduction from other corals other than the ones from the LFS.

Of course this could be prevented if I had set up a quarantine tank, but being inexperienced, I didn't consider the possibility of bringing in an infected coral from the LFS.

Just sharing my experience and showing the risk when we get corals from naturally harvested sources..

I will still visit LFS for corals - but will make sure to have a quarantine tank just in case

[Rowaphos]

it is not due to space constrains.. just want to cut down on electricity usage... too many equipments drawing power from the same wall outlet, dont know ok or not. anyway decided to get 2nd hand fr from a reefer later.

last question - should i or should not i bag the rowaphos inside the fr?

thanks

don't worry about the electricity - most of us probably already have a dedicated pump for the chiller, just send the outlet of the chiller into your FR.. The benefits of having a FR far exceeds the 'savings' for electricity..

2ndly, I prefer iron based phosphate removals as you can leave and forget for a few months.. 1 less thing to worry means more time to enjoy the tank

Let us know how things turn out, and if the FR works for you..

[Rowaphos]

Is it due to a space constraint that you cannot run 2 FRs?

Based on my personal experience (I hope the experienced guys can chime in too), I think it's harder to reduce phosphates than nitrates.

So assuming you have a space constrain, run the phosphate remover instead..

Your live rocks can do the removal of nitrates..

Let us know how it goes?

[which light set produce most heat?]

I'm running DIY LEDs and I think based on same wattage, LEDs actually produce more heat than T5s as the beams are more focused.

So I will rank them MH > LED > T5 (wattage for wattage).

However, if you have sufficient air movement to cool your tank around the top of the tank, I'm thinking MH > LED = T5

MH is easily the hottest.

I could PM you the photo of my DIY LED if you like.. Let me know?

[How to start 2 part dosing]

I suggest adding the required amount slowly, within the course of 1 week or more so that you don't jump your Alk and CA by too much..

As your Mg is already at the desired amount, try to aim for correct Alk levels first (again adding it slowly) before slowly adding CA.

Let us know your progress

[Help!! Microbubbles from BM NAC3+ skimmer.]

Hi, noticed that you will be building your UAS on the first compartment and leaving your skimmer in the 2nd?

Wont the skimmer pull out your pods from the UAS?

Wil you be able to put your skimmer in the 1st compartment instead? What I did was to have some live rocks in the compartment of the skimmer so the micro bubbles stick to the LR.

Hope that helps..

Cheers

[Flow rate for fish tank]

Kohwhl,

Suggest getting another powerhead (koralia) and position it on the opposite site of the tank.

You can aim both of them towards the surface and diagonally from each other..

That should create random currents enough for hardy corals to survive..

Alternatively, post a picture of your tank and we will be able to help further!

Hope that helps..

[Seeking Guidance/Advices (Very new to this hobby)]

Hi Zackt,

Welcome to the hobby..

Your tank sounds like the typical 2ft ones..

Let's look at your water chemistry first..

You mentioned that your salinity is 1.022-1.026, the fluctuation is probably due to evaporation.

Because the salinity fluctuates, you will be restricted in the livestock that you want.

It's a good choice to go fish only as fishes are not affected too adversely by fluctuating water parameters.

Secondly, your water temperature is 29-30 degrees.. This is actually not too advisable and I'm sure many of us will recommend that you either get a chiller or a fan to aid in cooling the water off. You will want to have your water temperature at 27-28 degrees max.. However, a fan will increase evaporation and change your salinity further, so do take note of that..

The live rock should probably be enough and coupled with your current filter system and frequent water changes, you should be able to keep your nitrates low.

Unfortunately, the fishes that you bought are almost the limit for a 2ft-er and if possible, try to resist the temptation to buy more.. A tang (whichever breed) is seriously not too suitable for a tank this size. They eat and poop a lot, so keeping up with the water quality will probably take a toll on you if you are serious about it.

A skimmer will be helpful, but most hang-on skimmers do not work very well (not to mention noisy). If possible, try to incorporate a sump and you can get a good 2nd hand in-sump skimmer (most brothers/sisters here will be able to recommend)

Anemone - I've been misinformed into getting an anemone when I first started with my 2ft and although it's still alive now, I have had a lot of issues with it.. Lighting, water quality and so on.. If you really want a host for your clownfishes, you can ask your LFS for a leather coral / hammer coral.. Clowns will host in them fairly readily.

Food - The usual pellets that you see being sold for marine fishes are very good.. Not too sure if I can mention brands here.. Or even get Henry's mix.. If you choose to get a tang (I'm guessing probably Hippo Tang), Nori can be bought from NTUC.. Just get those used for making handrolls, they are quite cheap and can feed for a long time..

Hope that helps!

[Is clear bottom or sand/gravel bottom better?]

Hi McNugget,

What type of tank are you looking to set up?

Size? SPS? Mixed reef? Or even just Fish Only?

Just my two cents, I feel that these information will help the regulars understand and suggest the pros and cons for each type (DSB / or barebottom)

An open question like these will result in a variety of answers and I'm afraid you probably will not reach a comfortable decision..

Just my thoughts..

Regards,

[Nemo fish]

Hi, please post more details about your tank, type of water used.

Also, if possible give us more details about the size of your fish so that the regulars here can make a more accurate diagnosis.

There are many species of clownfish and many species of shrimps.. So either a photo or a short description of how your inhabitants look will also help..

I want to help, but I don't want to speculate and give your advice without knowing too much about your tank..

Cheers,

[Why still so many red algae?]

is this the only way?

To use a red slime remover?

Has anyone tried a non-chemical way of removing red slime algae?

I've been manually removing them by scraping and suctioning them off.

My blue tang and astrea snails feed on them too.

Along with constant water changes, our battle is long and hard, but I personally would not want to use chemicals as the risk is quite big as mentioned by the earlier posters..

[Skimmer to replace LR]

Hi,

Is it possible to use a huge skimmer to replace live rock?

I'm thinking of saving some space in my display (with more flow) and getting a big protein skimmer..

Is it even feasible?

All comments are appreciated..

[Where to buy additives? And plumbing supplies?]

Any brands to recommend? For the reactors? Value for $$? =)

[Where to buy additives? And plumbing supplies?]

Do they sell the corresponding reactors too?

I'm still trying to understand the difference between a carbon reactor vs a phosphate reactor..

Thanks for the help =)