pospeh

If you get enough live rock to seed your tank, you really dont need to spend money on these bacterial products.

Actually I found Alteco to be quite poor. It is not very sticky and it does attach to the rocks well. The next best I tried is the Wessbond underwater epoxy. The best brand I have used is Two Little Fishes Epoxy. It dries fast and attaches very well to even dirty LR. It is also the most expensive option.

Cookie are you sure your hood can handle a 250 W magnetic ballast. I would guess that it would be more economical to get a new hood and sell off your old one rather than upgrade it. There are just too many things you need to change to upgrade to 250W.

If you watched Infernal Affairs III, it's the phone used by Andy Lau. Its only available in HK, costs about $950 phone only. You have to see it to believe it, it is HUNDREDS times better than any of the displays out there. In fact, it is better than the best displays in laptops or pdas, since it is designed for a small screen and the pixel resolutions are so bright.

LOL its Saddam Claus.

The best camera phone out there is the Sharp GX-22. 260k of color (as opposed to 64K for most phones), 350K pixel resolution camera.

so anyone up for cheonging tomorrow at MS... 1. Benz... 2. Pospeh

I got bored yesterday and went to Coyote Ugly after dinner. It was the most "mature" bar I can find on Mohd Sultan. Bar top dancing, and the drinks were dirt cheap at $5 a pop. Tomorrow is ladies night, so I am surely going. Anyone want to join? Blenny, my 3 footer tank is 4 years old

I live off of river valley too, got a aquatechnic tank too, but I dont think it's mine, unless you know how to fly since I am 14 floors up.

I have found that higher alkalinity level (+10 dKh) is more effective at promoting coralline growth than raising Ca levels. Ca should be about 400 ppm.

haha, this thread is 2 months old. . but better late than never.

The 3 minutes waiting time thingy always puts me off. After adding all the stuff, I put it away and forget to check 3 minutes later, and everything is all 100 mg/l. Scared the heck out of me. Then I realized the thing gets darker as time passes.

thanks Hon BTW, cookie, you also need to change the holder too if you want to upgrade. Also make sure you have enough room in the reflector to accomodate the bigger bulb.

I dont think so. The 2-part balanced additives (such as ESV, and Kent) is basically calcium chloride (Part A) and bicarbonate salts (Part . They get rave reviews in the US, so should not be a problem.

Hon, have you seen the new e-ballast versions of the Nova or Eco lines of their fixtures? How much are they selling for, and who is selling it?

Cookie, I am glad that we are getting more 250W DE users!! I have not used electronic ballast before, but from what I understand from reading the literatures, here are my take on it. HQI magnetic ballasts have been around for ages. The bulbs that are available (AB, BLV) are designed specfically to run optimally on that one type of ballast, so they will perform at their optimum conditions. Electronic ballasts have many advantage (in addition to the ones you listed). For example, they can run many types of bulbs (SE, DE) and all wattages, and will TRY to deliver the correct current to the bulbs that the bulb needs. So they are the jack of all trades. If you want to switch your setup, you can still use the same e-ballast. But the thing is that they sometime do not do it so well, so the bulbs may not be getting the amperage it needs. As a result, the PAR output may not be as great as compared to HQI ballasts, or the color rendition may be off. So the conclusion is you have to look at the specific brand of ballast you are buying to make sure it can handle the DE bulbs you want properly. As I said, some may be really designed to run US type bulbs, not european bulbs we use. That being said, I think Giesemann is now using e ballasts for all of their 250W DE fixtures. I would think that the e ballasts that goes with the fixtures would drive their (and as well as the AB and BLV) bulbs at the correct power and amperage.

Kalkwasser provides alkalinity and calcium in a balanced 1:1 ratio, so your ionic balance wont get out of whack. disadvantage is that the amount of calcium supplied is usually not enough to raise (or perhaps even maintain calcium levels) in a moderately calcium-consuming tank. Calcium chloride will raise your calcium levels very fast and efficiently. The problem is that with the rapidly raised calcium levels, your alkalinity levels will take a dive. So to add the two in a balanced ratio and to maintain the correct ratio, you also need to add a buffer (carbonates and bicarbonates) product like Seachem Reef buffer to raise the alkalinity levels too.

I would conider a CB if it is realtively safe. Getting tired of having only tangs and dwarf angels in my tank. So far have been very lucky with my angels.

Cyano are caused by excess nutrients in the water. You need to get a better skimmer, reduce your feeding, or get nitrate and phosphate absorbing media to get rid of it. diatoms are caused by silicates in the water. The best solution is to wait it out. It will become eventually manageable after your tank has matured. If you want a short term solution, get silicate absorbing media.

Gilbert at Marine Pets or if you are rich, Aquatechnic.

AB (although it is marketed as a 10K, it is really closer to 14K)

0.25 for NO2 is WAY to high. At that level, your fishes (even the damsels) should already be dead or dying. If they look ok, I suspect the test kit is giving you wrong results. Seems like your tank is mature and is not overstocked, so I suspect it is due to inaccurate results.

Avoid all butterflys. Angels, maybe can go for pypgmy-type angels (cherub, flamebacks). Generally dwarf angels (flame, coral beauty) are ok, but some may cause problems. Regular angels are definite no nos.

Tecos have flow restrictors that limit the flow rate to 400 l/h or it doesnt matter how powerful a pump you are using. The RA 200 is their smallest model and is really only suitable to 200L tanks. What is the size of your tank?

Anybody read the letter to editors section in today's ST? http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/sto...,224317,00.html? The writer was complaining about the unregulated collection of wildlife at Labrador Park? Is it by chance written by one of the members here?