resser

That article makes mountain out of a molehill. LPS, no fish, barely any nutrients, water change instead of dosing elements. You don't even need to cycle for bacteria. It's like how all of us are running a QT or frag tanks. Hardly counter-intuitive. Water changing like this costs a lot more than dosing.

It'll take a week for shy fishes to get comfortable, usually, start worrying if it's not swimming well or weird things appears on it's body. Get a bag of brine shrimps off any LFS (I get mine from C328) to entice and start it's feeding response. Alternatively, there are pellets with garlic that does the job too (especially foul smelling ones).

Sorry, but I forgot to mention. If you are using silicone caulk in a tube (CRA's), you need to grease up your mould so you can remove the silicone bit after curing. A VERY thin layer. They are afterall bonding agents, as compared to the other two options above.

Glad you find it helpful. When choosing your mold, don't make a sheet, it's ineffective and uses more silicone, make a few small cyclinder and sit your pump on something resting on them. Best shape is conical diamond, but that's another long story. The abovementioned mold from Artfriend is the best I can find. PS. Hit the 'Like' button if you enjoy my BS.

Your options: The black German made silicone Coral Reef Aquarium (CRA) uses to make their tank, they are the least viscous silicone in a tube you can get (imo anyway). Exorbitant compared to off the shelf, but these are food safe, made for aquarium. http://www.b-i-y.com/silli-450gm.html these look like Play Dough, you need a low range weighing scale to mix a 2 part. They are food safe. While there (address on the site, end of Bukit Timah, Rochor end), you might end up just buying one of those food safe silicone cookie tray or molds and be done with it, you just need to find the correct shape. Please be aware, entering the shop or mixing putty brings out the feminism in you, you have been warned. You might sleep better that night if you let out a grunt/ fart outside the shop. http://www.tinkleartncrafts.com/large_images/454gm_renamed_15467.jpg available at Art Friends (Taka is a safe bet). While at Art Friend, look for containers like these http://www.ringfingertanline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_3174-1024x790.jpg I used these to make the mold, perfect height and size. Also grab some small sheets of cheap acrylic. These are food safe 2 parts liquid. A pain to mix but being liquid, beats 'puttying' around like a girl. Good luck.

Bought the silicone they use to make aquarium, squeeze some into 5 appropriately sized tiny container (Cyrstal Jade chilli container or smaller), let dry 24 hours, place cheap acrylic/ plastic on top of the 5 silicone bits ($2 slice of it from Art Friend) put pump on top. Pure vibration free bliss.

When humid air hits colder glass, you get condensation on the glass. You are either running air humidifiers or your house is a bit stuffy. But yea, soft corals do ok with higher temperature than 26, that would help.

Thank you.

Is the talk open to the public? I wouldn't mind taking a half day off work.

If you wish to do that, you need to keep adding nutrients (dead seafood/ market prawn/ pellets/ stuff that rots). Otherwise, your initial bacteria colony will just die off. The entire business with cycling is just to maintain a healthy colony of bacteria that can quickly consume your fish food/ poo. So you can imagine, the more fish you have, the more bacteria you need, and the initial colony will need to multiply. The aquarium game is all about agar agar balancing, on the verge of crashing. (If you can imagine our Earth being a huge close system aquarium, which it sort of is, it is always on the verge of crashing too).

:thumbsup: What are they made of, those turtle food? Veggies or meat?

Congratulations bro, exciting time! Is there a new car too? Then again, spending hard earn dough is always exciting, this is what we live for. Good luck.

Bro Jyoon, Show us ALL your suns!

I have some prior experience with chlorine removers + tap water + salt mix. Your skimmer will remove green stuff on such a mix. You can summise that by adding chlorine remover, they stay in the water after having done their work, they don't just disappear.They might be harmless in the short term but the saltmix is not prestine, and I don't know the long term effect. Some reefers simply use tap water with salt mix, they got it to work with their tank. Local water is quite good compared to say certain parts of USA, (we have about 7 TDS while they have over 30+). Fair warning, your milage may vary. I've since gone over to the dark side with RO/DI for peace of mind.

There is always bacteria, everywhere. In your aquarium, you need a LOT more living and thriving. Just so stuff like fish poo, uneaten food, etc, decomposes faster, finishing the Nitrogen cycle faster. Best you remove the dead thing though. Unless you are a heavy feeder and your tank has many happy bacteria family, dead fish usually mean Ammonia spikes.

Bacteria, converting it's flesh to ammonia soon.

Bro, still hasn't got any? Centrepoint Guardian, Madpetz, NUH Pharmacy, Holland Guardian, etc. Since your first post, I've been to all these places, seen them, and thought of you.

It's a vegan I think, give it some Nori. Henry's Pellet is pretty cool too, but since your fish is new and probably wild caught, it might need a little training.

Was your pellets these?

<deleted> I can't post picture for some reason.

Hey Jyoon, nice sharing a fag with you . If only that small puffer was still available .

You can stick a short air hose on that air intake and let it hang somewhere. If your outlet in the sump sits below the water level by about 2 inch, and at an angle, it should be good.

- Pricing - Coral health / growth - Design (looks like a freakin' cool toy) - Build quality - After-sales support - Overall outlook of the reef Everything else is fluff. I want green and cheap. :yeah:

Dear Mr Lau, I like your avatar, very trippy. I am a newbie, but I've learnt, allow me to help. I am assuming you plan to achieve the holy grail of reef keeping, keeping SPSes. 1) Without substrate is best. If you insist, fill it with a thin layer of larger pebble like coral skeletons or argonite 'sand'. They are heavy enough not to get blow around, sufficient to cover the floor from precipitates and coraline. 2) Keeping SPS, use a reactor, the cost of two parts or balling isn't fun anymore over a year on. Keeping LPS, either way is fine. Calc reactor drops pH for a little everytime you dose, but with your volume and proper aeration and dosing only when lights are on, you should be good. 3) & 4) I can't answer, it's like writing a book if you want to know. Keeping it short, Biopellet is a PITA to tweak and you must run phosphate absorbers. But once you are no longer stocking your tank and found the sweet spot, it's mostly hands off, a year on. The alternative is dripping a few drops of something every week. Constant monitoring, mostly yes, twice a week over the first 3 months, once a week thereafter for a year. And visually (if you have turned pro) after a year AND you are no longer stocking, otherwise, testing every month. Anytime you put livestock into the tank or change your lights or flow pattern, you monitor for changes, visually and/ or test kits, your experience counts. I am in awe with some of the people here, they don't own test kits, they stock up the tank on the first day, they can tell what is wrong by looking, and probably smelling or tasting the water or some zen thing. I am not being sarcastic, I am serious. I hope you get there, good luck.

I've known RD doesn't carry BK skimmers anymore, that's why I ask where to get them now. If money is burning a hole in your pocket, BK skimmer wins all, nothing even comes close in terms of build quality, silence and fine foaming.