bawater

Day 6

I wasn't ready for the first spawn so i let it go (monitoring egg development period), within 4 days of the lost hatch a second batch was out. thanks to marinebetta for the S type rotifers, i started up a 20ltr. Eggs laid 3rd Dec(evening) Hatch 12 Dec(night) 9 days (this is the 1st batch i caught so i name it batch #1) Day 1 - Morning (8hrs after hatch, body count 17 dead larvae) Survivors number around 50-70 (can't really count) Day 2 - 4: Needed 2 feedings of rotifers a day. a little too fragile so i didn't do anything. No losses of larvae. Had a 2nd spawning from the pair on the 4th day- gotta crank up the rotifers! Day 5- pictures!

hellooo everyone, haven't had the time to pop back for a while mostly because nowadays my cable connection has degraded to the speed of dial ups in the evenings. also been pretty busy with some larvae. Conditioning Broodstock for breeding started about 6months ago when i put together a frozen feed for the pair (for adult fish health as well as healthy eggs) i don't really need to go into the nutritional content/vitamin profiles of the ingredients here, but i picked them from Human dietary tables. cost never crossed my mind, but luckily they are available to us fresh and relatively cheap. Only 3 ingredients go into it: Oysters,Prawns,Squid.(As fresh as you can get them.) when i make my next batch i'll go into more details. The quality of the eggs produced come from the parents, whatever you feed the pair reflects in their eggs, true to any offspring of any animal - Broodstock Tank is a 4ftx2ftx2ft. Nest site is on the back glass panel. Sorry for the low quality pics but i whipped out 2 sony cybershots(a 3megapixel and a 5megapixel) and both could not zoom across 2ft of water or focus on mm size larvae - i resorted to digging out my old mavica with a 10x zoom.(but pic quality is a low 640x480)

Its either 5 pieces(no bigger than your palm) not weighing more than 5kg in total, water included- they count bag weight. so its 1 coral rock piece per 1 litre of water if packed separately. 1 litre will allow you a flight time of 20-24hrs which is from anywhere in the world to SG(hand carry). dude! if you could breed coelacanths you'd be plastered on National Geographic's magazine front page and offered funding left,right & center. copperband - soft coral = No sps or anything hard with a skeleton because during shipping & travel - even LPS shrink to reveal the skeleton. Flame-tail - clams are under the cities table(in ava guidelines & on the website) only below the clams are the non-cities. You need a commercial licence to get a cities cert.

No, it would be better to switch to their mysis- If your fishes take dry foods- rotate with that & then some frozen or live brine shrimp. You get much healthier fishes with a rotation of foods. If once in a while you buy live brineshrimp, pour them in a container & put in some phyto or spirulina powder- let them feed for 4 hrs, strain(& rinse under tapwater) & feed to your tank. Your own gut loaded brineshrimp. Hikari has a new gut loaded brine shrimp version - Spirulina brine shrimp which has, Crude Protein 6.9% Min. (don't think this is available here yet) The normal brine shrimp - Crude Protein 6.8% Min. Hikari Mysis has Crude Protein 10.5% Min.

Without medication, ich will be gone off the fish within 3-7 days anyway -just that its in the sand now!getting ready for the next cycle. You need to build up the immunity of the fish before the second wave comes. don't take my word for it - read about the life cycle. part 1 http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php part 2 http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/...ature/index.php you have 17 treatment options to choose from. In order to work, medications are not reef safe - or never take the chance if you keep a reef. Do it in a QT tank.

The sps forum is a vault of information on what you seek, i'm just pointing you there . Look at which method you want - beckett/needlewheel/venturi - then look at the brands. Becketts require a powerful pump (again adding to the electric bill, but if that's not an issue then they skim well ) You are limited to the various brands here in SRC, Needlewheel skimmers are efficient - look at H&S or EuroReef. (the bigger models) venturi.....not really for the tank size you are looking at. Calcium reactor, you can check out ian's (i-aqua) in the sponsor's thread.

Hi Brunei 1) Go into the sps and advanced reefkeepers forum , take a look around on the light setups of others. You will see the different effects of kelvin bulbs too. 250w will suffice for tanks of 2ft depth, - as it is, with 4x 250w you will need a chiller.(this you can't avoid) If you decide to go with 400w (4x 400w) + a 1hp Chiller + all the pumps you will run, you will most probably hit 2kw of electricity in an hour. (& there are 10-12hrs in a lighted day x 365 a yr) 2) Go for something as big as you can afford, then you won't need to upgrade which cost more in the long run. or run 2x smaller skimmers (rated for 4ft tanks). *Keep less fishes! this helps a lot. 3) In a sps dominated tank, the uptake of calcium and carbonates are high - a calcium reactor makes life easier by providing a stable input of calcium&carbonates throughout the whole day. But if your uptake is higher than what your reactor can churn out you may have to adjust some of the parameters with a additive supplement and even with a reactor your parameters will slowly start to drift & needs to be adjusted. Just do your water testing on a regular basis & you will be able to catch the drift in parameters. As i mentioned, it makes life easier and you just need to tweak levels (instead of daily feeding the tank additives) roughly, 1/2/3 can seduce the wallet for abt $1.5k each. regards

Think of it this way, If you have a sump - the water going from the tank to the sump aerates it a little. If you have a skimmer in the sump(or output in sump) - it also helps a little, The output of the skimmer should also cause some surface agitation so your sump could be already high in oxygen.....it then depends on how much of this you are pushing back into the tank. Creating waterflow within the tank at night would be a better alternative e.g a powerhead pointing towards the surface - circulating water up to the surface for oxygen exchange. (a 900L/hr or 1000L/hr or so pump should be enough) A gently circulation will be fine, i don't think anyone wants a nightly typhoon. You can run this on a timer - so it runs during the night (when all wavemakers are off) Or 24hrs. Rgds

99% of the moorish idols collected from the wild never survive - either by starvation or stress or both, Very frequent they go on hunger strikes while in transit(& the chance to get them to eat are slim). Don't expect them to eat dry foods straight away. And they are not recommended to be kept in aquariums due to their limited success stories. Beautiful fishes but sad mortality rates. They need open spaces to swim - 3-4ft tank with less rockwork & proper feeding 2-3 times a day min. You shouldn't have anything in the tank that can bully it - if your sailfin has been in the tank for a while, then you may have a problem since it has already established its territory. Nutrition wise to keep them long - they require a little sponge & algae in their diets. They will pick on rocks the whole day, frequent small feedings will increase chances of survival.

The aquamedic one can be anywhere around 4x the price of your skimmer. + if you get a redox meter + feed pump 20ppm is not that high, growing macro algae in about a 2ft area(refugium or sump) may be able to lower it by half- choose fast growing algae & harvest on a regular basis. Better skimming will lower it a few more ppm. That leaves you with abt 5ppm or so...really not an issue especially if you don't keep sps. Look around on NNR (Natural Nitrate Reduction methods). More liverock can also help with a few ppm. Your aquaphos may actually not be saturated and you could be throwing money away or then again you may not be using enough, cause your PO4 levels are 3ppm.....you need to know. that's more important than a denitrator (& much cheaper). according to my references....(the cheapo's guide to the universe, holistic edition) If you look at getting a rabbit fish or foxface and it will be algae away. They eat every kind of vegetation(including every kind of caulerpa), except cyano. Increase water circulation, 10% water change a week & better skimming (upgrade or pop in an extra skimmer). rgds

If nothing is acting wierd or out of the ordinary in the tank(like fishes going into permanant comas or commiting suicide), either test your water with a friends test kit or buy another test kit. Also chk your pH. 7 teaspoons of seachem reef builder powder should raise your KH by 3. Mix the above in 1 litre of freshwater and drip over night or 2 days. Do not raise more than 1meq/l per day. (abt 2dkh) If you are using the reef builder liquid bottle, i suggest you switch to the powder. Your tank is too large. Calcium at 510 is not a emergency, just stop kalk dosing for 2-3weeks. It will drop on its own to the 400+ range. If it doesn't drop over time and you have a reef tank, try testing with someone's else kit , or a new test kit.

Why? will the damsel eat the angel? Great start teolt, a sump makes things a little easier to manage - but canisters can be used too, just with a little more regular and larger water changes.

pH is also a factor but don't sound like in your case. Try testing the water after a crash - should have high ammonia and lowered pH. Sounds more like overcrowding. In 1 Ltr grow out - headcount of maybe 10-15 bbs as a culture will make it to adult. Which is 60 days and then they die. Try starting from adults, a tablespoon of adult BS in 4 or 5 ltr should keep a ongoing culture- which you will find brineshrimp in all different sizes in different stages. A dustbin or coralife pail would be more like it for keeping a culture. try searching the web for: brineshrimp growout u will find raceway designs and all sorts. But they are all bigger than 1 ltr.

Hi daryl with regards to your question on fishes dying within months- Fuel posted an important question,what do you feed your fish?. A proper diet is a life or death issue. If you lost fishes within a week or weeks then properly acclimatising new fishes will solve that. with regards to nitrate @30ppm , that's secondary. With LPS and soft corals, a little nitrate is tolerable. Both nitrate and phosphate is fueling your algae but that should be later on your agenda. Your current levels are not toxic to fishes either. There's more to it than just ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. More details or a history of what has happened is needed, weileong has asked that. It would be of great help and you should get more direct answers pertaining to your problem. A picture will also help. actually, it will help a lot. if you do not wish to put up your details here, you can drop me a pm and we can go thru them in private, whichever you feel more comfortable with. e.g: pH reading? is it stable/consistant? salinity? temperature? - you said you run a MH, do you run a chiller and do you have big temperature swings in the day? what do you have for water circulation? what did you run before the current skimmer? you said you had it a month. what fishes died/you had trouble with? How long did you manage to keep them alive?. What do you feed? How often? Do you have problems with corals?what do you keep? keeping them alive over a year or just started? regards

Howdy fuel, i second that -any of the lysmata sp, due to the constant high demand in the hobby it can be commercial sustainable if you are able to get high survival rates. You will be looking at around a 90-120 day larvae care with the different PL stages. Dig into commercial shrimp farming data & methods, the answers are there. drop me a pm if you need help.

I've heard bros who comment that bio balls,ceramics rings, biohome, etc etc in the end will bring up your nitrates. If i'm not wrong it's due to unfiltered detritus building up in the pores of the media(correct me if i'm wrong). True but not the whole truth, all the above does is provide a home to the bacteria- you can even use straws/hair curlers/plastic nets/coral chips/any aquarium filter sponge. Prefiltering detritus out is one way of removing the raw material before it becomes a never ending fuel source for the bacteria. Nitrate build up is due to a lack of export methods - be it water change,lots of liverock or one of the various other natural ways. When nothing is done, it just builds up & before you know it in a few months you find NO3 levels hitting 100ppm. If you find low levels staying where they are like 10ppm-20ppm or even 30ppm, don't sweat it unless you run a full fledge sps tank. LPS/softies and fish only systems need not be nutrient void. So does this mean if i have very effective mechanical filtration, my biomedia should not become nitrate factories?Coz personally for me i just have CR and biohome for my very last layer of filtration but before that are layers and layers of filter sponge. If you don't clean the wool or sponges - its the same. But the biomedia will still work as normal housing the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. If you have enough liverock, the rock will house enough bacteria for your bioload. It does depend a lot on the system, but in any system - you would rather have Nitrate than ammonia or nitrite (which are toxic even at low levels) Also for my second compartment(mine's a 2ft three compartment), i understand some people put DSB,liverock,mangroves,macroalgae or other things. Can have some relation of experiences as which seems to be most effective? To have a effective DSB, you should hit for a size the same footprint as your main tank.(which is why DSB is usually in the main tank). To grow macro algae/mangroves just for export - you will need an ample amount or a fast grower to balance your load. Mostly ppl have a small area in the sump with algae to act as a refugium & at the same time help as a nitrate reduction method. For a 2ft sump, it leaves you with a 10cm or 20cm width space to play with - a DSB is out, so that leaves you to find a fast growing algae to suck up those nutrients,(caulerpa & ulva are fast growers)and lower your bioload. Just switched to sump so constantly looking for best possible methods to suit my needs and also hope it becomes a reference article to other bros so that they can understand the different views on filtration systems and filtration media. understood, its never easy to balance input vs export and many ppl are still doing it today. Once the basics are taken in- its just a matter of time until you find a working method for zero NO3.

nope, hobby study more like cause the practical is fun. with little methods released for ornamental culture - i turned to finfish/foodfish culture methods then shrink down operations/designs for me wif no space & hobby tools. .Just for fun, some work some don't. I'm looking more on the nutrition and larvae development on foods- i think this is a vital key in mortality. But try to only look at inland aquaculture(closed systems)- that's more like the difficulties like what the hobbyist will face. Giving on average - a hobbyist will have abt 3-4 sq foot of space and about 3hrs a day to run cultures/raise larvae. If you can make a production model of the bivalve culture out of a standard 2ft tank!why not - that's an idea . The yeild would definitely be enough for home usage.Then we have to look at the nutritional value if used for larvae. Running a 2ft culture of rotifers produces a hell of a lot - then enriching them on specific EPA/DHA profiles , you can customize them.hee hee,but this only last 1-2 weeks then have to do the same to 1 day old bbs.

Too big & too expensive, you will find commercial hatcheries will try to keep cost low. 50ml of live D-veliger frozen in liquid nitrogen cost a bomb to buy- Even home aquarist would want to. Food fish larvae are usually large, those that are smaller are fed rotifers & weaned onto bbs. The industry is looking at alternatives to bbs due the limited harvest and rising prices. But rotifer growing is pretty standard practice. If we are looking at aquarium fish - those with big fry & egg layers can be started on rotifers(enriched accordingly for larvae development). Those lavae with pelagic stages are the difficult ones - & can be raised on copepod nauplii and small strains or baby rotifers) . First foods need to be smaller than 50microns. Somewhere around 10microns - 20 - 30 micron size. The first food availability is where the major losses occur.

Done.

I suggest we close SRC and let all the members migrate to whichever local/overseas marine forum they like. Let 'them' have a taste of all the shit you have to endure all this while and see if they can still stick to their credo. We only need to close the pasar malam apart from issues arising from time to time - that's one of the cause of flames/arguments. I must say it is quite funny to read the quarrels. But the moderators here are so predictable that it takes a big part of the joy away. They will let you vent your frustrations a little. Then advice to take it out of thread and settle privately. Only when things get out of hand do they lock the thread indefinitely and give warning to the parties involved. i find it funny too but its suppose to be a forum, hobbyist can discuss anything - sometimes things get out of hand and there's no point going on in public (as it benefits no one else) & we stop it,but we only warn - we don't ban yet. What if i am involved and i refuse to leave things as it is and i start another thread flaming the other party? Then whoever spots it! locks it What if i use strong words and run down the moderators for interfering? Then whoever spots it! locks it What if i insist on getting support from my 'khakis' and slam the forum and everyone else who disagrees with me? Then whoever spots it! locks it - and delete/ban or issue warnings Gestapo style What if there is such a forum that condone my behavior because the forum is for disgruntled i.e unreasonable and unwelcomed SRC reefers like me What if this forum is a special place for free thinking and spirited people that find it offensive to have their posts deleted or have threads they are interested in be stopped? There is a place called ice red, people may bitch about anything. but i think they lock posts & ban ppl too. There is always a limit.

i used it for NO3 while i removed my DSB somewhere around May last yr. Ran in a reactor with a slow flow for 2mths(abt 100ltr/hr) before removing sand bed, then threw away the media once tank stabilized again after 3 mths. NO3 didn't move above 0ppm.(salifert). Never used any of the zeo acids, but i did feed bacteria with another food source to boost numbers. Ammonia? - LiveRock,bio-rings,bio-balls and even some water conditioners can do that.

That is cyano in the beginning stages, Improving water quality (with lower nutrients)is a main step - leaving the algae with less fuel for growth. With PO4 & NO3 at zero you may still find cyano.(as many ppl have) This is because Rocks and sand(substrate) act as a sink. Cyano will grow over these surfaces until that runs out then die off by itself. All this while the water should have low nutrients(or very very low levels,near zero) so that the algae has nothing else to use up and will go away in a few weeks to a month or two. For a new tank- there is no way you can avoid the first cyano outbreak (it may come in the first month or in the first year). Siphoning off whatever you can helps keep it in small patches, but you have to keep doing it till it goes away. If water changes are done during this time- the new water should be nutrient free too- or you fuel the cyano. IMO, cyano is part & parcel of life. Looking after your water will stop future outbreaks. If you use red slime, becareful of low oxygen levels. Increase aeration or water circulation during treatment.

There will be trace quantities in the gravel and filter pads/balls etc. If you wash your gravel, don't touch your bioballs at the same time or you will upset your filtration balance. water change. 2 or 3 times. Running carbon at 1gram per gallon volume , change after 3 days. Do 3 changes and leave the last batch of carbon for a week. With water changes and carbon, most of it should be diluted or reduce to trace quantities. The aluminium sulphate levels will be quite low since its from a water conditioner, again water changes and dilution factor lowers it. If you had corals -then it would be a different scenario but for fish, should be fine.

erm....Means you will have to man-handle the fish to do it. Eels will eat anything or at least try to eat anything. Marine hunters can go a while without food, and a little live food seem to always get them back into mode. For the soapfish - a few live prawns (small enough to fit the fish's mouth) should get the attention of the fish. If it doesn't then i guess you really got not much of a choice.