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honkit

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Posts posted by honkit

  1. Closing down my tank as I am preparing to work abroad in the near future for a couple of years. Whatsapp me at 81869375. 

    Livestock:

    1) One pair of true percula clownfish - $100

    2) One rarely seen blue tip red bubble tip anemone - $150 (the female clownfish is hosting in it)

    3) One Purple tang - $150

    4) Six lemon chromis - $5 each

    5) One aiptasia eating filefish - $15 (good for polishing off pesky aiptasia and mojano anemones and also takes pellets)

    6) One spotted mandarin fish - $10

    7) One regal blue tang (3 inches) - $30

    8) One sea urchin - free (great algae eater)

    Dry goods will be next after the livestock have been sold

     

  2. Hi friends,

    I am remodeling my tank display from an SPS dominant one (90%) to a mixed reef tank (50% will still be sps corals) and with a new look, I have also embarked on using the Zeovit system.  The last time I used the full zeovit system was 12 years ago!  I recently started with the Basic 4 namely Zeolite stones, Zeobak bacteria, Zeostart 3 carbon source and Sponge Power for coral food.  That’s it - no other additives will be dosed until corals are fully adapted and growing well over the next 3-4 months at which time I will consider using Coral Booster and Flatworm Stop.  

    Will share progress as time goes by.

  3. On 6/14/2017 at 4:20 PM, vincentwangz said:

    How much do you use each time? Replace only when the balls have totally dissolved?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    Follow the bottle's instructions on the label.  The balls do not totally dissolve hence replace every fortnight.

  4. I prefer having a shallow sand bed due to aesthetic reasons.  Also, a sand bed provides more surface area for beneficial bacteria to colonize.  However, a bare bottom tank has its advantages too with the option of having increased flow without creating a sandstorm and providing reef keepers an easier job in cleaning the bottom of the tank.

  5. On 2/2/2017 at 8:09 PM, cedricang said:

     

    Hehehe... you missed out my blue spathulata that day ? It was my second try and got it survived ( touched wood ) for almost 2 years and counting. Very very surprising to have it colored under 250mh and colors holding well under good nutrient.

    My guess is that they need enough nutrient to sustain their vitality, in the wild they have no issue but when comes to ulns system, it becomes a challenge.

    I missed spotting your spathulatha.  So sphathulatas need higher nutrient levels?  Interesting as they are from Australian waters which are more pristine than Indonesian waters where the majority of our SPS corals are from.  The irony is that I can keep strawberry shortcake acroporas (A.microclados) another Aussie endemic well coloured and growing yet struggle with Sphathulata.  

     

  6. A thread to share and discuss about challenging SPS species.

    For me, it's Acropora spathulata (Aussie thick millepora lookalike) and Acropora Hyacinthus (Fiji version).

    They grow well, keep their bright colours then mysteriously have their flesh recede until they eventually die.

     

    A.Spathulatha

    Acropora-spathulata-Aussie-Colony-3-Fron

     

    A. Hyacinthus

    Acropora-hyacinthus-Pink-Tabling-Colony-

     

     

     

  7. My suggestion for first time SPS keepers is to avoid all the carbon dosing/ probiotic methods like Aquaforest, Fauna Marin, Zeovit etc and utilize the old school method of keeping your water clean with strong skimming, running phosphate removers and regular water changes along with sensible fish and invert stocking.  This is to get you on the learning curve of understanding how stable water parameters and especially carbonate dkh stability is important to the health of sps corals. 

    When you can keep good colouration and growth with the old school method, then you can be more adventurous and try to improve things with probiotic methods.

    • Like 1
  8. 3 hours ago, christan1959 said:

    Another thing just occurred to me... if u use a CA reactor, won't the media release trace elements? Iodine an exception?

    Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk
     

    I believe in the case of a tank that is been carbon dosed (like mine) and aggressive wet skimming, then trace elements especially iodine would be quickly depleted.  

  9. 9 hours ago, cedricang said:

    I think there is an idea way about getting the value of iodine in our system.

    First test the natural sea water and see what is the value using a test kit...say red sea iodine test kit or salifert

    The use that as a gauge for our tank, keep it at that level first and see if there is any improvement. For those with a stronger heart may wanna slowly up or down the value to see if there is any interesting result  LOL

    NSW level for iodine is 0.06 ppm. 

    • Like 1
  10. 16 hours ago, cedricang said:

    Interesting observation you got there HK. I have done testing before without any supplement , also using salifert but I do record some level of iodine ( at the low side though ).

    Ok. Perhaps I should re-test my iodine level and see what level I got before starting the regime. Will try to update here.

    Thanks

    From what I know, dosing lugol's solution might be better when it comes to test kit detection although it's pretty powerful stuff and is less forgiving.  Which is the reason why I opted for standard iodine instead of lugol's.

  11. 7 minutes ago, hansolo said:

    Any ill effects due to overdose? Interesting to hear how you would control for that

    Absolutely no ill effects whatsoever.  Which is why I swear by it.  It's all been positive.  As for control mechanisms, now that the sps corals which has STN  are rebounding, there is no need to do heavy dosing anymore.   I have reduced my dosing to a maintenance dosing regime of 3 times per week with 5 ml each time. 

  12. 7 minutes ago, hansolo said:

    Any ill effects due to overdose? Interesting to hear how you would control for that

    Absolutely no ill effects whatsoever.  Which is why I swear by it.  It's all been positive.  As for control mechanisms, now that the sps corals which has STN  are rebounding, there is no need to do heavy dosing anymore.   I have reduced my dosing to a maintenance dosing regime of 3 times per week with 5 ml each time. 

  13. 3 hours ago, cedricang said:

    Hon Kit, do you measure your iodine level ( if so what test kit ) before embarking on the iodine regime ?

    I tested with a Salifert test kit and it recorded undetectable readings prior to my first dose.  After 5 days of dosing, it went up to 0.01 and remained at that level.  However, salifert's instructions stated that iodine supplements which release iodine on a time released basis (such as the supplement I use) may not be detectable by the test kit or even inaccurate results.  Hence, I just went commando and use my own observation to assess and dose until the stn stopped and growth resumed.

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