SubzeroLT

Finally changed the UV sterilizer bulb after procrastinating it for some time. It was not difficult. Sharing some photos of the process. This bulb is rated for 10,000hrs average life. That works out to about 13.7 months if based on 24hr usage. Longer if used for shorter hours. My UV unit is mounted vertically behind the CO2 tank. Ideally it be oriented horizontally (least or no air pocket) but iI don't have space for that. The next preferred orientation is vertically with the inlet at the bottom. In this orientation, it will have a small air pocket above the outlet pipe which is acceptable. To remove the bulb, open the grommet (1), then open the cap (2) Pull the bulb out from the quartz sleeve. Disconnect the power connector. Must remember to hold the bulb as its disconnected else the bulb will drop into the quartz sleeve (big risk of cracking the sleeve $$$) To remove the quartz sleeve for cleaning, open the big cap Generally the sleeve is quite clean. The part with the air pocket has dried salt encrusted on it. Does not affect performance. Replacement bulb. Just reverse the order to assemble. Used the bucket method to calculate the flow rate, just to be sure its within the recommended range. Will revisit this process in about 1.5yrs.

Thanks for sharing your journey. Look forward to updates. I posted a newbie guide recently on SRC page. I guess you are now more experienced & am keen to follow your journey. In any case, for the others who are keen, this is the new tank guide. Part 2 coming soon. https://www.sgreefclub.com/home/starting-your-first-marine-tank-overview-to-plan-your-equipment-and-budget-part-1/

Can re-purpose for washing oily pans, toilet walls & car rims. Use & discard.

You can refer to this guide as a general reference. Part 2 will be published this week. Corals need cool water in the 26-28Deg C (in general). Corals also don't like drastic temperature or water parameter fluctuations. Ideally you have a small chiller. Depending on where the tanks is located, some can get away with a cooling fan, but take note you will have a tremendous amount of evaporation which is troublesome to manage. Corals need nutrients in the water to survive. Part of it comes naturally from fish poop/waste. So if only have corals with no live stock, you need to supplement this manually

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Feeding the goniopora. Mix some reef roids in a small amount of water till its quite thick. Slightly more diluted than a paste consistency. Turn off all pumps & wavemakers the dose the thick mix with a long pipette onto the gonio. Can see the gonio polyps retract to eat the particulate food Feeding response seen on the millepora as well.

Dip the corals in a small container of water (with the dip). Then rinse a few rounds in several containers of fresh tank water. Then it goes into the tank.

Its not exactly harmful but it does have some negatives and no benefits - Our body replenishes minerals from regular water (and food). Though this absent in RODI water, it should not be a major concern as you can get the minerals from food. - Due to the absence of minerals, the water is going to taste flat - Water that is downstream from the RO membrane tends to have more bacteria (due to the absence of chlorine). Probably not toxic but some prefer not to drink this.

Eh..how come my name is mentioned. Very nice collection What's the equipment setup like for this tank?

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Got some corals recently. Dip dip dip. Apparently not all dips are equal - some seem to use proprietary mixture smelling like pine based disinfectants (CoralRX, TLF Revive), some use potassium salts (Reef Primer), some use insecticide & neurotoxins (Bayer Complete). Reef Primer (potassium salts) is my preferred choice. From past experience, its extremely effective for flatworms for both SPS & LPS. The active ingredient (potassium salts) is reef safe, so its OK to get it into the reef tank. Particularly good for fleshy LPS because some will get inside the body & is quite impossible to rinse everything off. Downside is that its relatively more expensive. US forums often mention Bayer Complete insecticide. Its effective but the major downside is that the active ingredient is NOT reef safe. I've used it in the past and noticed that inverts do not do well for many months after that. Even with 4-5 rinses, its probably not possible to rinse off every single bit of insecticide as there will be some remnant amount of inside the flesh in both SPS & LPS. I noticed that abalone & sea cucumber start shrinking over many months & some died. Suspicion is the pods population is partially affected as well. Did some reading up on active ingredient : Beta-cyfluthrin (0.36%): A common pyrethroid insecticide that’s quite toxic to fish and invertebrates, but only toxic to humans in large doses. Imidacloprid (0.72%): A systemic insecticide that will interfere with the insects’ central nervous system. Recommendation is not to use Bayer Complete at all.

Algae growth in refugium box. Its probably helping elevate the pH levels at night. And tons of pods in the box as well. Christmas Tree worms Blue dragon Fragged the chalice several weeks. Recovering well.

Most current models use internal pumps which have specific mounting holes or brackets => need to use back the same pump. Best to get a good skimmer from a reputable brand with local support.

You can try this. Support local ! https://www.facebook.com/hardcoreefer/

Most devices are DC powered. So its better to use a battery backup to power DC directly (eg. Ecotech battery or Coralbox battery). For example the Ecotech battery can power the MP40 wavemaker for more than a day (good when travelling & gives time to call for help) Its not efficient to use UPS for DC devices - UPS DC convert to AC output, then covert back to DC with your device power adapter). Usually lasts just a couple of hours

That's a lovely christmas tree worm.

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PM me if you are keen. I'm located at Bt Batok. I can send you more pics via whatsapp,. I have the following : Yellow stylo. Polyps more teal colored with lime green base. Possible to frag. This is what the mother colony looks like : Dinosaur Egg Monti & Setosa Also have green montipora capitata (no pic at the moment).

I'm using the Mg powder. There are instructions on direct dosing or to make stock solution on the product documentation.

How much did you dose to bring up from say 1250 to 1450? Tank size (Liters)? Dose liquid or powder?

Added some gonios recently & wanted to make sure the sand bed area was not too bright. Think this is ok but on the end of the range. Read that about 150-200+ should be about right.

Was doing some trimming and a large rock with a grown SPS got detached from a main rock. The extension was glued on about 3yrs ago. With a growing SPS at the end, its 5.5" long now & quite heavy. Tried half a tube of superglue & it barely held the extension rock. Not strong at all. Got hold of some epoxy. Some folks said this was new & quite good. Cut out 2 parts from each pack. Mix it well With the extension barely holding on with superglue, I added the epoxy under water...like sticking chewing gum under the table Filled in the gaps. And the extension is super rigid now. I got the gray colored epoxy. They also have the purple version. Its not sticky like superglue but it'll provide a lot of structure as it fits into the empty gaps. Think its best used outside the tank when doing the initial rock scape. But quite handy to have on hand to provide structural strength to any rocks joints.

Using Nyos powder for Ca & Alkalinity. For Mg, i'm using the the generic Magnesium Chloride powder as the usage is quite high. To raise 100ppm Mg requires ~700g for my tank size.

Thanks Tested my water parameters yesterday Ca : 390. Will top up Ca flakes to 400 Mg : 1380. Will top up Mg powder to 1400 KH : 8.3 NO3 : 5ppm PO4 : 0.24ppm. Time to change rowaphos K : 410ppm Salinity : 35PPT / 1.026SG Think the last Rowaphos change was on 11th May. That's 4 months ago. Rowaphos is good because also binds aluminum which is a common contaminant in our reef tanks (not sure where the aluminum is coming from though) I'd typically put in 250g of rowaphos (half bottle) into a phosban reactor. From the Hanna checker, 77ppb phosphorous is approximately 0.24ppm phosphate. I lifted the skimmer lid up a few weeks back to get more exposure to fresh air. Still skimming well. This is an hour after heaving feeding of fish meat & reef roids. Nitrates running ~ 5ppm. Good enough

Everything looks good! The anemone is well behaved eh