hongqixian

thanks for the interesting read!

hi, maybe you can try going to changi beach near the jetty area to look for ulva. a ton of it washes up at low tide. hth

if you want octopuses, reborn had some brown ones last week, about the size of a small fish. but octopuses eat other crustaceans like shrimp too.

Hi there again, for saltwater, pls clean the canister (by rinsing out all the sediment and dirt in a bucket of saltwater) if you use it like blueheaven said because the aerobic bacteria in the rocks, sand, any surfaces, are supposed to convert toxic ammonia (which is already dissolved) into nitrites and then nitrates, which are less toxic, but build up to become harmful (fish colors begin fading, corals look unhappy etc). That's why water changes, algae in refugiums and denitrators are used to convert the nitrates into other compounds such as algal proteins or nitrogen gas. It is best to remove solid organic material before it rots into ammonia and other compounds. The bacteria are to clean up because it is quite impossible to prevent everything from rotting, or to stop the livestock from releasing ammonia when they digest foods etc. Coralife is not an unusable salt, but people have mentioned that the mineral composition of the salt may not be that good, for example the KH is too low or whatever, maybe other people can comment on this. It is supposedly high in calcium though. For your lionfish tank though it won't really matter as the finer details pertain more to coral and invert care. Coral sand comes in grades of 0 to more than 5 i think. Grade 0 is the fine textured type like beach sand, which is nice but the sand may fly easily. Grade 1 is a nice grade with grain size around 1mm. The higher grades get chunkier. I think grade four to five is already chunky coral chip size. Grades 3-4 may tend to trap more dirt inside because they don't pack that closely, while grade 0 is messy but aesthetically pleasing. Try the second floor of Reborn aquarium at lavender street, they stock a lot of sand types and equipment. Usually open in the late afternoons i think, not sure when they're open.

coralife is usable but not that good. actually since you go to clementi 328, why don't you take bus 154 down the AYE to hong leong gardens from the bus stop beside the MRT and pay Henry at marinelife a visit? He carries several decent brands. i personally prefer tropic marin pro reef salt, it has better solubility than the normal tropic marin salt. There are some very nice SPS tanks featured here that use it too. I believe others have had good results with Marine Environment salt too. Stick with a good salt, it is the basis of your tank system.

haha bichirs are cool. one thing to note though is that freshwater tanks are much more forgiving because plants do uptake toxic wastes, and ammonia is more toxic in saltwater conditions than freshwater (think it's the alkalinity, i forgot). do post photos of your tank when its done

hmm okay point noted but it also depends on the individual fish i think

Last photo, lone blue shroom also from Sis Monki. Can anyone tell me if my lights are sufficient to keep a clam? Would it be possible for me to keep any kinds of SPS (maybe montis?) and anyone knows where I can find those frags or frags of ric floridas for not too much? haha poor student, just asking, don't flame me

A small frag that came along with it

Red palythoa with neon green mouths from Sis Monki, otherwise known as Red Man Eater Zoas. Together with some blue-purple rhodactis from Henry.

RBTA and one of the skunk cleaners. This anemone's living in the top of what was formally a cheap in-tank skimmer. Encrusted with coralline but much of the coralline recently bleached. I think it was because my actinic bulb burnt out.

Candycane coral, Caulastrea I think.

Small sarcophyton leather

Brown sand anemone, possibly a color variant of Heteractis malu. I put it in a cup for convenience's sake in case I feel like moving it.

Cheap Yumas

Fromia monilis

Tube anemone

Another shot

Two of the three fish

Side View

Hi, I've recently upgraded my lights to t5s and am wondering what other corals I can try in my 2ft. I welcome all suggestions. Considering more LPS like hammers, frogspawns or bubbles but I'm not too sure if they can sting my other livestock to death in the small space? Tank Specs: Equipment: Eheim Liberty 200gph hang-on, Red Sea Prizm with overflow attachment, 4x 24W HO Jebo t5 with jebo tubes, ground probe, Tropin Marin Pro Reef Salt, no additives. Water chemistry: Temperature should be around 28-29 deg celsius I suppose, no idea about the rest of the other specs . I think my tetra nitrate test kit's not working properly. In any case, I just do water changes if I have the feeling that something's not quite right because of abnormal behavior from the fish or anything else. I change water once in a while. For small water changes, I store a bit of extra saltwater from preparing for large water changes in 1.5litre bottles. Used to use distilled water but got lazy about it, so I use tapwater now. No major problems except for light diatom growth. Tank, live rock and green mushrooms on the top are four years old and running stably, fish and additional corals added over the course of this year. There was a rash of parasitic isopods from the live rocks four years ago so I left the tank running with just live rocks and shrooms till recently. Lazy to maintain also. Haha Livestock: Fish: Bicolor dottyback (got attitude), low grade true perc, bicolor angel. Inverts would be the anemones and corals below, 2 blood shrimp and 2 skunk cleaners, 3 Nassarius snails purchased from sis Monki, many many bristleworms, pom pom crab, various tubeworms. Customary FTS:

something that would kill crabs would generally not be reef-safe. Maybe triggers and larger parrot fish? but I don't think they would be that effective in catching out the crabs from the crevices esp since crabs tend to be more active at night. Use the brands essence container crab trap idea maybe? oh, someone else suggested using an octopus before.

The rain bar is a great idea I have used five plan tanks before; they're strong enough generally but you're right, it's much easier to clean the glass if the rock is not leaning on it. There's no formula for live rock sufficiency, it's really a matter of surface area for bacterial growth. Given time, your bacterial population will generally adjust to suit your tank needs, so it is not really an issue. 5 kilos should be fine, I think that 20kg is a severe overestimate. I have a 2ft (45cm tall) myself but I got the rocks four years ago so I've forgotten what the weight was like

that's good to hear!

You can source for live rocks from both farms and LFSes, it doesn't matter where the rock comes from but rather the quality of the rock. Avoid blocky types that have a lot of nuisance algae and pick porous well-shaped pieces that fit nicely together. The rock should have a lot of red and purple coralline algae too and it should not smell rotten. Average price is from $5 to $10 per kg depending on supplier and quality. Usually a 2ft can fit 20+ kg of rocks, but try not to make it too cramped and the rock shapes and your interior designing skills will determine how the whole thing looks. Live rock can come in branching forms such as Tonga branch rocks, those look good and you might have to source around for what looks best. Rocks require a curing period of about 2 -3 weeks, do read up. Unless you buy rock that has been pre-cured already at the suppliers. The OHF boxes really splash a lot of salt water, are you sure you want to use those? The salt spray is terrible and sticky. You could consider a canister filter for your setup or hang on filters. In your case, a protein skimmer is not that necessary but it makes life a lot easier and nicer, try looking for a second hand hang on skimmer such as the Red Sea Prizm on the Pasar Malam if you want to save money. Second hand ones can be sold at $65 to $100 plus. Your filtration will be fine and low maintenance with good live rocks and a hang-on or canister filter as well as a skimmer. Your planned livestock is fine. Slightly understocked but that just means that your water stays cleaner for longer (esp with the lionfish's meaty foods) and you can afford to be less stringent about maintenance. Don't be afraid to ask around and your careful planning is admirable