dtdream

congrats on your tank thread! camping..

Hi guys! Thanks for your responses. Yea I did buy a calibration solution (brightwell). But even so, using the same calibration solution, at different room temperatures (aircon vs no aircon), my refractometer is giving me different salinity values (about 2 ppt difference which is too big difference imo). My refractometer is supposed to be auto temp correct, but just doubting that now. Thinking of trying another salinity measurement device but wondering if I should get another refractometer, or another type of device altogether (eg. Hydrometer/Hanna/Milwaukee). But I'm not sure which is "most accurate", and preferable "most consistent" as well.

Hi guys, just wanted to take a poll on how does everyone measure salinity? Hydrometer, refractometer and/or digital units like Hanna/Milwaukee? How is your experience with your respective device? I’m personally using a refractometer from FnM, but I’m starting to question its accuracy. Eg. Exact same tank water or separate calibration fluid will measure slightly different salinity (33ppt vs 35ppt) at different temperatures. It’s supposed to be ATC (auto correct), but doesn’t seem to be working as it’s supposed to be. Thinking of getting another refractometer (eg. DD) or another type of salinity measurement device. Can anyone share their experience and if anyone is using more than one type and care to share which seems to be a more accurate device and why?

both sold and collected. thanks all for interest.

Importing any livestock will generally require licenses. Will probably not be possible, and yea better that you look locally in Guangzhou if you're based there. I suppose you can check out Yue He Pets Market in Guangzhou? See section starting from 2.49: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiGhgblv10o

Actually also have another Salifert phosphate test kit. That one at least 90%, used only 3 times I think. Will post photo tomorrow. $10 also. Take both $18.

As per title, selling used Salifert KH/alAlkalinity test kit. Expiry September 2025. $10. Please see attached photo, can roughly see how much test solution left (I guesstimate about 80% left, used a few times only). Reason for sale: Using Hanna test kit instead. Pick up Location: Ubi/Taiseng area.

Yea more than 1-1.5 hour sounds abit excessive considering your chiller seems to be properly rated for the size of your tank. Hope it helps, good luck!

This is interesting comment. It does make sense that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation. Do you have any further reading resources that you can point me to on this topic (Cyano and especially Dinos in nitrate/phosphate zero environments)? e.g. books or weblinks would be great.

Haha yea just lower probability for the nasties for as reasonable as possible should be good enough! Yea ATO way of dosing kalk not recommended, not consistent enough, and as you mentioned, for RSR 350 the ATO design has a higher likelihood of getting clogged. Actually in an ideal future scenario, I would like to change water only every month or even less, so have to go the dosing route But yes, good tip on the salt!

Continuing on the previous update. So my Gem Tang the spot thing is gone now. I'm quite sure it's not ich(will have more and smaller white bumps) nor flukes (did a freshwater dip, nothing came off). I've asked around and it's probably a parasitic copepod, which should go away on its own. Might come back again, but recommended action is to do nothing for now as it doesn't really harm the fish and not spreading on itself nor to other fishes as well. Other updates: 1. Touch wood/finger's crossed, I think I've managed to skip the brown "ugly stage" based on observations so far. My tank is about 3-3.5 months old, and is showing green film algae, which is the stage we all want to reach after brown. While my sample size is only one (myself), I attribute it to the copepods(Tisbe+Apocyclops from Algagen) which I introduced early on. Copepods are known diatom eaters and I think is the biggest missing link(among others) between new and more established tanks. My sump is "infested" with copepods now. If I look at the wall of my sump tank closely, its pretty much jammed with copepods. So I'm seriously considering bringing forward my plan to have a pair of mandarins. Initial plan was at least 9 month-1 year mark. But let's see. 2. No Skimmer, miracle mud refugium only plan - so far so good, but not exactly. I think it might be working too well currently? I have what seems like zero nitrates (Salifert) and zero phosphates (Hanna ULR). I've read that with both zero nitrates and phosphates, the dreaded dinos might appear. Plus those values are supposedly not good for coral health as well. BUT, I've also read that if we use dry rocks to start, which I am, dry rocks absorb phosphates at the start, then after reaching saturation at an unknown point in the future, might start releasing it. So.. let's see how it goes. In the meantime, just to experiment, I'm trying to increase feeding and reducing refugium lights time to see if I can get the values up, but it seems it is just increasing the growth of green film algae on glass. Growth of my chaeto in sump has been growing pretty quick, and I'm having to trim 1/3 every 7-10 days. So folks, I think it's pretty clear, no need skimmer (so far) But caveat is that current bioload is not that high; fishes I currently have: 1 x Yellow Tang, 1 x Purple Tang, 1 x Gem Tang, 2 x Onyx Perculas. Feeding: I have an auto feeder that feeds pellets twice a day, and I feed nori sheets (about 2 inch square) once a day for about 5 days a week, and some frozen mysis with vitachem 3-4 times a week. Photo of sump (just filter floss in cup + chaeto + miracle mud + excess dry rock) 3. My KH values have been low for the first 2 months, about 6.2-.4. So as I've recently add some small frags to "test water", I added arm and hammer baking soda (did not bake), to bump it up to 7, then planning to use Kalkwasser to maintain, with the occasional supplemental baking soda. The single head dosing pump that I'm looking at is currently out of stock, so just manually dosing for now. Kalkwasser has the added benefit of a small PH bump, plus I've have good experiences with it in the past. Last time from my memory, two part dosing is not as mainstream as now. I tested calcium (~400) and magnesium (~1280ppm) and both looks ok. Kalkwasser adds Calcium in almost equal proportions to Alkalinity, so just plan to monitor Alk levels more closely, and test Calcium occasionally until maybe when coral load is much higher. Magnesium doesn't deplete too quickly especially for new tanks, so will just rely on water changes for now, not going to monitor unless I see weird fluctuations in Alk. PH is about 8.1-8.2, which is pretty ok, hopefully when I get the dosing pump it can be 8.2-8.3. Useful reef calculator to share, it's been pretty much dead on accurate for me: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html 4. Since I'm seeing green algae, hopefully the next stage I can progress is to see coralline algae. I bought 5 Trochus snails with a some coralline algae on the shells. I used the blade of a scissors to shave some coralline algae off the shells and spread the shavings in the water. It's supposed to help seed coralline algae faster, so we shall see. I did not initially want to get snails, as I was thinking snails poo too and adds unnecessary bio-load. Plus have the risk of parasite eggs potentially on the snails' shell. But I guess was feeling lucky, and I really wanted to seed some coralline algae and control the green film algae a little better. That said, I still brushed the shell of the snails with a tooth brush and RO water before releasing into my tank. I know coralline algae is seen almost as a pest to some as it chugs alkalinity and calcium, but I think it just gives the tank a much nicer natural look. 5. One cool discovery: Diamond paste for minor scratches on outside of glass! I don't know how I did it, but I accidentally scratched the a bit of the glass on the outside facing part of my tank. Upset, I tried to google online and was quite demoralizing initially to say the least. Most on other reef/glass related forum topics commented no hope, need to use machine/equipment which is messy, or need to get professional. I even asked Red Sea directly, but they said they don't really have a solution, need to ask professional. But there was one forum somewhere, which a person posted that they used diamond paste with good results. So tried and it works! It's quite easy to use too. I just used tissue paper and apply the diamond paste, rub the scratched area for maybe 5-10mins, and its very much reduced, to pretty much I almost cant see, unless maybe if I squint really hard. See and judge for yourself. Concede that photo not great, but close enough I hope. Before: After: So guys, if you have a minor scratch on outside of your glass and find it an eyesore, try diamond paste. Unlike the sound of its name, its not expensive at all! Paid about $2+ per tube, can be found on Shoppee/Lazada. Here's what it looks like. I bought the 1 and 0.5 micron type, but I only used the 1 micron one as the result was good enough for me. 0.5 micron will be even more fine. Caveat: My scratch is quite minor, if I use my fingers to touch, I definitely can feel the abrasion, but it's not so deep that that my finger nails can get lodged (if fingernails can get lodged, then might be too deep to make it go away totally). But in any case, the paste should help to reduce a little at least). And if it doesn't work, it's only $2+, so worth a try! If scratch is inside your tank, sorry can't help, you might need to drain or at least partially drain your tank first. 6. Near term plans: Not much, just let it be for now. Maybe add a sea cucumber to clean the sand. And maybe a few more fishes (not sure what yet) if the nitrate/phosphates levels stay so low. After a couple weeks then maybe will start looking for more frags again if current "test water" frags don't die. I've currently got about 5 different small pieces of different types, so should be a good enough reference. So far so good. 7. Longer term plans: Mixed reef, with bit more weight to SPS if first few frags do ok. Fish wise definitely a pair of mandarins as I really enjoy seeing them do their spawning dance (hopefully). I had a pair in the past which did their spawning dance in my tank and it was just really amazing to watch. And maybe an Achilles Tang if I can convince my better half and if prices drop hopefully (but probably not). That's it for now, maybe update in a couple months unless anybody has any comments/questions

I would agree with you regarding copper treatment in QT. But for full course of proper QT (do copper+prazi), will be 4 weeks, maybe more. Gor me I think 80-90% safe would be good enough (until proven otherwise of course, lol). 100% safe would be pretty much impossible unless you QT your corals/inverts too (76 days). Because ich's tormont (egg) stage can still be present on the rocks/plugs or corals, shell of snails, etc which you buy. It is not recommended to do copper on DT even if no corals (and planning to), as the rocks/sand will absorb some copper and its just going to be a ticking time bomb. But I actually have a few frags in, so can't in any case. If I had a QT and have time and patience to do QT for a longer period of time, I'd buy fish from ABA all day Actually now if they had something I want, I would still buy from them, just that my chance of increasing my cost to QT becomes higher as I'm doing with a fellow reefer. The good west shop their PT wasn't so nice when I was shopping for PT. I ended up buying my PT from DE Aquatic as they had a very nice specimen (body shape, colour, and not aggressive). But if buying from there, I'll just say that just please observe longer. A neat trick to see if the chance of a fish/tang bring aggressive or not is to observe at LFS if it attacks/tries to attack other similar fishes in the LFS, or if it has the run away and hide type personality. You can actually observe a lot just be observing! But of course, shy doesn't mean that you should omit the strongly recommended requirement that it is feeding. But I only will buy shy fishes if the fish species is known to be aggressive, like the PT! If it is a shy species, I will try to look for a more aggressive specimen. And yes! Please share lesson's learn. Start a tank thread too?!

I run a red sea reefer 350 as well. But I use the JBJ Artica 1/10 (DBA-075). I configure it at 26.1C, as it starts cooling every 0.5C, so starts at 26.6C and stops cooling at 26.0C. It takes about 20min-30mins to cool 0.5C, then maybe 1-3 hours before turning on again. 1-1.5 hours if aircon is turned off, 3 hours if aircon is on, sometimes even longer. A contributing factor to chilling time is also what lights you are running. The stronger and more heat generated by your lights, the longer the time it will take for you chiller to chill the water. eg. just notice the time it takes to chill when your lights are on full blast vs night time when lights are off. There should be some difference. Another thing you could check is the flow rate for your chiller pump. Is it rated correctly for your chiller? If it is, and if your pump's flow rate is adjustable, you can try to increase/decrease the flow rate to see if you experience any difference in time it takes to chill. But it would be best if you can keep the light variable constant. eg. same light intensity when experimenting with the flow rate of chiller pump. Next thing you need to check is placement of chiller. Do you place it in your cabinet or outside. Outside is recommended, I would even argue essential, for better ventilation. And if you place outside, make sure don't place too close to the wall. I know the Teco's exhaust is can be adjusted for direction, but it is still recommended to not place it too close to the wall. Last thing that need to ask would be how long have you been running the chiller? The JBJ technician recommends that every 6 months need to service, he says its like our home aircon; he posed the question, how long often do you service your home aircon? But, just my own personal opinion, 6 months maybe abit too quick, I think 1 year once should be ok. JBJ they can come to your place to service, Teco I think you might need to bring to Qianhu (call to check if you need to service). It is likely that if your chilling time initially was much faster and now much slower, it is due for servicing. Basically they will clean the dust to increase efficiency of heat exchange again, and also check if your refrigerant needs to be topped up. Oh and the pipes/hose too for your chiller, might be clogged with algae/gunk if have been running for awhile, especially if your hose is the translucent type (light can go through, algae will grow). But this one you probably need to do yourself! Btw, TK-500 should be enough according to manufacturer's advise. TK-2000 is overkill, RSR 350 total volume (DT+Sump) = 345L (91 gal) only.

I don't do copper treatment, but I would seriously consider it if I had my own QT tank. I did think of setting up one, but (1) hassle (2) my office space too small. Its recommended you have your QT tank away from your DT due to a chance of aerosol transmission of ich (apparently its possible). I've read something like 10 feet (~3m) away is recommended. My office space probably around that length so for sure fail that guideline, lol. For me I tompang my new fishes at a fellow reefer's QT tank for 2 weeks for a fee. We just do 2 weeks observational quarantine. If the fish looks healthy and feeding, then do no treatment. Usually ich/velvet will appear very quickly in a non-copper tank after bringing home from LFS (if fish is indeed infected). He runs UV on his QT. If there are any issues with the fish(es), then we discuss and see what to do, eg. copper/prazi. But it would depend on the issue. Happy for you that you have your own QT!

you can use egg crate and cut pvc pipe if necessary as temporary stand if your skimmer stand takes long for delivery. Should be pretty easy and cheap to DIY

Pricing is ok for standard items, but that’s because you know roughly what market price is. The non-standard on the other hand.. But I suppose for me, the thing I’m most uncomfortable about is that the advice given is really sketchy. And I think it’s just really detrimental to the whole hobby if sketchy advice is dished out. So yea, if seeking advice like OP, better avoid.

Hi lextheimpaler, I would say most LFS in Singapore are able to assist you for a simple set up. Just visit any LFS near you. Most are decent in their own way! You don't have to buy anything, just talk to them. If you want to fact check, feel free to ask away in the forums. There is only really 1 shop I would avoid, especially if you are a beginner. It's located in the west. So if you live in the west, think it's not fair to name in a public forum, so just PM me to confirm or deny that is the shop I'm referring to. But as mhcraft has mentioned, it would really help to know more details for us or the LFS to assist you better. The most basic questions would be: What size of tank do you think you want? what do you roughly want to keep (fish only, soft coral, sps)? Have you maintained a marine tank before? freshwater?

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Hi anybody have a copy of the book "The Reef Aquarium, Volume 3 Science, Art, and Technology" for sale? If anybody who has it but don't want to sell, can let me borrow for a couple weeks? There's a copy in the Singapore library, but only for reference unfortunately. Which means I can only read in the library, not able to borrow and bring back. Please PM if you have, thanks!

Well, just plan ahead, and plan slowly. Then IF the time comes, you're ready. But most importantly, enjoy what you have now!

Its not very clear in the full tank shot, but I do have some tiny cheap-ish ($10-$15) frags just to test water. But I did get a more expensive ($40) hammer LPS, so I get to see some "moving" corals at least. Probably the biggest challenge face keeping a tank in the office is the weekends, because I don't usually go unless I have some larger maintenance task I have to do like change water, which I do every 2 weeks, but long run I'm going to try to stretch it to once a month. But anyway I bought a cheap battery operated fish feeder (white colour!) to feed the fish over the weekends, so its all good. We also have cameras around the office, so can monitor no issue. The benefit of having your tank in the office is that I think most of us spend our waking hours in the office rather than in our homes actually (of course now covid is an exception), so get to enjoy the tank more. If your vendor/customer sends you a nasty email, then just look at the fish swimming then all will be well! Yea my wife is supportive for sure. Its just our home is not that big, and we have 2 young kids, so she wants our kids to have more space to move around. Plus young kids and wires don't go very well together, and we all know how much wires we have in and around our tanks!

On the size of tank, I think it's a very personal choice. It would depend if you are just trying the hobby out, space considerations, etc. For me I don't plan on upgrading anymore, and the 350 was probably the biggest I can fit in my space, so went with that. Though I consider the Reefer 350 a "medium" tank, not "big" at all. Bigger tanks are easier to keep water parameters stable. Plus you'll have more margin for mistakes, like feed to much, dosed wrongly etc. Of course, in major mistakes, smaller tanks are better because you can do large water changes more easily. I think cost wise comparing smaller to bigger tanks, the largest difference will be lighting cost. It cost quite a bit more to add additional lighting per feet of tank. For example pump wise, you just bought a Jebao pump right? I think to go one level up is about maybe $30-50 more? But for lighting, your current light is a Red Sea Reef LED 50? Price about $350 each? If you go from Nano to Peninsula 500, you'll probably need at least x3 light fixtures if you don't supplement with T5. But I saw your Nano still got plenty of space to put corals, so more fun times ahead la. When maxed out liao then can apply to your CFO again hahaha! And yea the mirrors are great for tang management, here's a couple of videos showing the effectiveness of mirrors. A: Yellow Tang (most aggressive because biggest) was in isolation with new Purple Tang, with divider of course. But you see the Gem Tang keep rushing it also. rushing.mp4 B: This was after I put the mirrors in, Gem Tang stopped rushing and just attack its own reflection haha. Didn't care about the Purple Tang anymore. ownself.mp4

Nice tank bro, looks clean and organized. I see how you place a wood panel on the side of your sump area to secure everything together. Smart! Just updated my tank thread with the most recent pic, your post made me do it, been procrastinating haha. See here, scroll to last post: https://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topic/189896-dts-dream/

Long overdue update, been procrastinating. But in the spirit of recording my progress, regressions and mistakes, here goes. Below is photo from today: Lighting Update: It was only yesterday that I managed to fix all the lights up properly: 4ft Aquatic Life Hybrid Fixture White Aquatic Life Hybrid Wall Mount White 4 x 54W T5 bulbs (1x Aquablue Special, 1x Coral Plus, 2x Blue Plus) 2 x Kessil A360X 1x Kessil Wifi Dongle The Hybrid fixture with the T5s have been up for about 3-4 weeks, and the Kessil were only up 2 days ago. Reason was that I bought the 16" end bracket from overseas, and it took a little while to arrive. The stock 18" end bracket I find too wide for the Red Sea tank, and I wanted more concentration of light in the center of the tank where my rocks and would be corals are. I chose the T5 combination above as I don't really like tanks which are too blue. With the above combination, the light would probably I guess around 12-14K (no Kessils). If you like Bluer tanks, replace the Aquablue special with a Blue plus. Have not measured PAR ratings with the Kessils yet, but just the T5s alone are about 300 PAR at the top, 250 PAR in middle, and 150-200 PAR at the bottom. The mount is currently roughly 5-5.5" off the water's surface. I was initially thinking of getting 3 Kessils, but its really too damn ex and I don't want to spend all my kid's schooling money lol. So since the PAR ratings with just the T5s look fair, decided to just get 2 Kessils to supplement and mainly for the Kessil Shimmer. The Kessil Shimmer is amazing, it's main reason I got the Kessils. I know I could have gotten much better PAR per dollar with other brands, but no other LEDs even comes close to the natural shimmer of Kessils. The Shimmer is "straight" like natural sun, no fuzzy tv static like other LEDs. It reminds me of my old Metal Halide circa 15 years ago. FYI, I used the Seneye Reef to measure PAR, and it seems to be doing a fair job, so need to plus points to the Seneye Reef (was bashing it in earlier post). With the Kessils in, I'm guessing the PAR ratings should be higher but haven't got to measuring it yet. Here's hoping my lighting will be sufficient to keep any corals I may want to. So any regrets/lessons? Yes. While I think it looks pretty nice in the photo, there's actually quite a lot of light spill with no hood covering the lights. As I'm sitting probably only about 1m away from the tank, the light from the fixture spills onto my desk and monitor. This makes it pretty my monitor glaring and harder to see. As a stop gap, I got an 9am high acrylic sheet secured with masking tape to block out the light when sitting beside it (not pictured), and it helps significantly. I'm planning to make a DIY hood using foam PVC sheets, will post again when I get to it. So for those of you planning to do a rimless tank with no light hood. Yea pictures online look nice, but please remember to consider if you are ok with the light spill. This can be a problem if the tank will be beside your desk like me, or even in the living room and too close to the TV/Sofa (light shine on your TV and can't watch properly)! Fishes update: Besides the 2 clowns, which have since gotten nicer (got "blacker", will post pics again), I've added 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Gem Tang and 1 Purple Tang. I got another nice reefer to help me do a 2 week observation quarantine for a fee just as an insurance since I was lazy to set up my own QT. His DT is pretty amazing with a hell lot of tangs in it, and all look very healthy too. For those of you thinking how I got my 3 tangs to live in peace, here are some tips (which worked!) from the reefer friend who helped me do the QT (if you're reading this, thank you!). 1. Isolate the biggest/most aggressive tang, and put it side by side with the new tang in an isolation box. Preferably for 2-3 days. 2. Always let the newest/weakest tang out of the isolation box first to familiarize with it's surroundings without getting bullied by the "old" tang (who is still in isolation). Try to let the new tang familiarize its new surroundings for 2-3 days as well before releasing the "old" fish. 3. Feed the new tang a lot more when in the isolation box. Try to make it fat just incase it gets bullied too much when it comes out and goes into hiding. 4. Mirrors. This is probably the best tip. I put 2 cheap (~$2-3?) ikea mirrors at the side of my tank, and the aggressive fish immediately attacked it's own reflection and left the new fish alone. I initially placed 2 of the slightly bigger mirrors, and stuck it with masking tape. I have since removed the bigger ones, but I have replaced it with a smaller ikea mirror as an insurance. Plan to leave it there for a while more since its not that unsightly and I can't really see it anyway. Below is a pic of how I placed the smaller mirror. Anyway, it was hard to get pics of all 3 tangs together, so here is a short video instead if anyone ones to see. IMG_0167.mp4 For those of you who are wondering, I did it the introduction this order: Yellow Tang, Gem Tang, Purple Tang. All is not smooth though, at about 6 weeks in, my Gem Tang is showing some sort of external parasite issue on its dorsal fin, its still pretty healthy otherwise and not affecting other fishes, so just monitoring for now. Ok I still have some stuff to update but it's getting too late, CO complaining. Will try to continue tomorrow or another day. Thanks for reading!

Haha to be fair to ABA, their business model is fast in fast out, so can't help but have some casualties on the way. If you have a QT or just plain lucky, their fish prices are a fair bit cheaper than other places. So if you think about it, if you spend $100-200 on a simple QT, you'll get your money's worth if you shop at ABA. I know reefers who do QT, and they do have good experiences with ABA. As for SAS, try not to be too over confident also la, I personally know other reefers who got from there also experience mortality. Imo SAS IS "better", but as our Police like to say, "Low crime doesn't mean no crime". 1. Actually another way to reduce a little sound is to buy those food grade silicon mat, and put under the pump to further reduce sound which comes from vibration. You can buy on Lazada/Shopee etc, but make sure its food grade. Alternatively, you can buy at IKEA also, its not ex but just a hassle to go there I guess, slightly risky too with all the covid cases going on now. 2. Yea DC pumps are great for sound right? Btw, you could consider to use the "old" 1200 LPH pump for your chiller, and the new DC pump for main return + UV? Then maybe you can go one down from max. But in any case, running at max shouldn't be any problem imo, they're supposed to be designed for it! Just make sure the flow rate would let your chiller cool your tank efficiently. If you find that your chiller takes a long time to chill your tank, its generally either (1) undersized, (2) flow rate too fast or too slow.