hondaker

my guess is, bio rings and bio balls' bacteria are smaller in number as compared to liverocks, somemore bio balls tends to trap detrius, hence making it a nitrate factory by removing these balls, you effectively eliminated a source of nitrate, and by reducing feeding, less ammonia will be introduced to be converted into nitrites/nitrates. 2 cents

Thanks will monitor the nitrate once i added fishes

Hi all, i had just bought a nitrite/nitrate tester kit from aquamarine. In the past months, i had Ammonia, pH, and nitrite kits from Tetra(Used to think that NH3==nitrate, hence i nvr notice got kits for nitrates) Ok, here's the deal, my tank is re-started, with 30kg worth of LR in roughly 100L of water. Most of this water are old water from the previous tragedy. After one month, i added in 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 hermits and 2 snails. A week later i added 2 fire shrimps. I fed them frozen shirmp cube(small amount) every 2-3 days. Hence i expect my nitrate level to be indicating something, however after i tested it, the results showed the lowest reading(less than 1ppm). How is this possible? Regarding the nitrate export stuff, i only have ~2.5inch SB with no refug, no sump, and a low end skimmer. Also, some white moving dots are observed to be on the glass side of the tank, are these ICH or are these pods? Too small for photo to be taken Thanks

*EDIT: sorry, double posted*

erm, this thread is related to a certain LFS selling true percs at different grade pricing? from my point of view, although the different grades in the end, are still the same species, but due to the amount of black on the fishes' body, the demand is different i am still a newbie to aquariums, but the way i see it, if i were to pay 3-4 times the amount for a true perc, rather than a false perc, i would want the amount of black visible to be as much as possible, or else i would go and buy the cheaper false perc (came across some LFS selling them at 1-2 dollars) so if the LFS that did the grading were to sell all at the same price, pretty soon, they will be left with the true percs with the lowest amount of black, which in reality, not much buyers for them however, the LFS(which i think that this thread implies to), still gives pretty good prices, as compared to the true percs saga happening a few weeks back in which the online seller is selling at 12 dollars per piece(if i didnt remember wrongly) any comments?

no prob man also wanna see ur new tank, should be able to store more corals that you wanted

thanks bro for th blood shrimps nice decor in your house cheers

sorry to hijack this thread, but if i am looking to keeping true percs, can they coexist with other fishes? i am having a 120 litres tank thanks

well, the trend in here seems to be going 2 ways 1) DSB 2) Bare bottom

hi there, i was also told the same thing by the LFS, setting up my first tank using coral chips(was told undergravel filter + coral chips = less maintenance), however, that tank crashed after 3 months, then i discovered this forum, seeing that coral chips traps dirt easily, and becoming nitrate factory since then i have re-started my tank using grade1 sand, some fishes prefer this too, since coral chips are too rough for them i am still a newbie, but i believe sand+LR and some sandshifters might be good filtration for a tank PS: I've just bought 2 hermits, and they are shifting the sand like nobody business(good thing)

do u filter the prepared water? i've noticed quite a few impurities once i added in the salt

the LFS water have chance of being infested? oh no, guess i shouldnt buy them in future, by the way, what is the actual way of changing water if not using water from LFS? pre-mix salt with water in a seperate pail, then when it is to the correct SG, then pour the water in? or add normal water to the tank, then add in salt slowly and moniter the SG from there?

bro, established waters means bacteria ready water(means cycled water) or those bags of water usually sold at LFS?

thanks guys for the comments! regarding the QT, can i use a styrofoam box with air pump providing air? or do i need another filtering system(if need filters, think i do not have the means to do a QT in this case) i just saw what is meant by garlic additive when i visited irwana today, i have been giving cube shrimps to my fishes before, guess i'll switched over to the powder food(dont know what it's called, but reccomended by irwana) added with garlic in future. thanks again

hi bro nakazoru, what do u mean by water parameters? any specific indication? i've check my nitrite levels, it is light yellow(on the scale provided by the kit, it is the 2nd safest grade), pH levels show levels of ~8 what other parameters should i take note? thanks!

dear all, my 2 clowns just died after picking up their corpse, i discovered the white film actually is little white spots, so after a few more research, discovered that they might be the dreaded ICK/ICH. i can even see the white spots floating around in the water now after looking through much postings, come to conclusion that 3 methods were effective in curing them 1) Waiting 6-8 weeks without any fishes so that the ICK/ICH will die out since there's no hosts for them to feed on 2) Copper treatment 3) Hypo treatment copper is out of the question for now since i have no idea how to use this med. So i will keep the tank fishless and at the same time reduce the SG to 1.009 hoping to kill off these ICK/ICH hopefully my tank will be ready by end of the 8 week isolation by the way, will skimmer aid in reducing these ICK/ICH, i've just bought a 2nd hand Weipro SA-2013 skimmer powered by a 2500L/Hr pump(however my tank is only 40G/120L 2.5ft) thanks guys

hi mentors, i've noticed a whitish film over the skin of my 2 clown fish these few days, and i don't know what diesease it is. they seemed to be constrained by this film and not swimming around a lot anyone can advise me on what to do? i've tried to look through the forum but no info on this since i do not know the exact term of the illness thanks

1. Morgan 2. Achilles Tang 3. Danano 4. Robe 5. Bloop! 6. Foxface 7. Day 8. Bum 9. Kelstorm (PADI) 10.hoppinghippos 11.chrislwp (Padi) 12.Tango_Liverock 13. WLSS 14. Benz... (Padi) 15. Rycin (Padi) 16. yus (naui) 17. TanGo (Navy, NAUI Adv) 18. Alentino (Padi) 19. Tfrancis (Padi) 20. Angry (Padi) 21. Ian(PADI) 22. Supremo (Padi) 23. TTboy 24. dradttg 25. clammy (padi) 26. damsel-in-distress (Padi Adv.) 27.Calciumreef(Naui Adv.) 28. Guinness 29. Assillian (PADI) 30. ryz(Basic is SSI, Advanced is PADI.. screwed up eh? haha) 31. jd 32. narkosis (Naui DM) 33. wedgee 34. Huanjie (PADI Adv.) 35. JaGr (NAUI Adv, TDI) 36.dispar_anthias(PADI) 37. auberon (PADI) 38. dust_to_debris (PADI DM) 39. cysiong 40. manta (SSI) 41. euggoh (SSI) 42. KKX7 (PADI) 43. cowgum 44. ivanlaw (PADI...hot from over on 16 Nov) 45. yogurt 46. reefer guy 47. nicken 48. kokhui (PADI Adv.) 49. daimy068 (PADI) 50. barnacle 51. Bandit (PADI Rescue Diver + Nitrox) 52. Kit (PADI Rescue, currently doing DM) 53. eddtsk (PADI) 54. acidjazz (PADI) 55.Lucifer 56.hermit(PADI Adv) 57. NaTaS``` (Taking PADI Adv in Jul ) 58.clownfish lover (PADI rescue) 59. kschew1498 60. cityofangels (PADI Adv.) 61. keithtty 62. Scubadoll (PADI Rescue) 63. hondaker (PADI Adv.)

canister filter?? never heard of it, guess i've to read it again. Hopefully it doesnt need any mod to my tank i've installed a simple skimmer, dont need any pump just the normal air hose from my existing pump, looks cool with the small small bubbles though so if i installed this canister, i can do away with my overhang filter?

thanks for all the advices given @ Travy: i know the brine shrimps are meant as food for the fishes, but i've seen a thread saying the brine shrimps feed on algae as well, so i thought this would be a 2 fold advantage for me. Anyway, i thinking of cultivating my own brine shrimps in future, figure that live food is better than frozen shrimps since the liquid from frozen shrimps encourage algae growth(again read from another thread) @Kelmen: I was told by the LFS staff that the goby eats algae, but i know the blue tang does not eat much. However they told me yellow tang does eat algaes, so i think i will research a bit on it before deciding whether to get one or not. @ loster: i cant find any info on why overhanging filters are not good whatsoever to the aquarium system. i also want to have those sump filtering system, but due to space constrains and budget, i can only make do with a overhanging filter for now(it was leftover from my family old luohan tank) The only reason that i can think of as to why my NO3 shot so high is due to my tank's cycling process. At that time, i didnt know there was such a forum, so i introduce a few clowns to kick start the cycling process. But on the 3rd week, my friend gave me some fishes as a present(i couldnt say no could i?). I got info that cycling needs 30 days, so i thought they might have a chance of survival since the water was 3 weeks old(boy was i wrong here). I measured the chemical content, and everything was in the reds(pretty scary here). But after exactly 30 days, i measured the water again and everything was back to normal, so i started to purchase more fishes to add variety. If anyone could advise me on how to setup my overhanging filter, that would be best, cause thats the only option now i have. @ mUAr_cHEe: i am buying mostly small fishes(no threats to any species i hope), and i try to buy fishes that i know of, of course i always ask the LFS whether they will be agressive or not(i only want peace loving dudes here). PS: now i am reading up on reefcentrals' newbie guide to tank setup, pretty impressive infomation gathered there

i've just purchased a fire shrimp and a orangy diamond goby, and a blue tang, hope they will clear up some algaes as they feed does brime shrimps feed algae too? i bought a bag of them as well

ah found it thanks bro

alright thanks bro, but i have trouble reading the abbreviations any common terms to explain to me?

Hi all, new to the aquarium scene, have started a tank for 1 1/2 months now. Initially, a few fishes perished due to water toxic(nitrite levels too high). But however, right after one month old, the levels become more tolerable and fishes are able to be kept alive. But my tank now grew some algaes(some green some brown), heard from a friend that algae growing is signs of water stableness(is this true?) Are these algae harmful? Should i get some fishes to eat them? Thanks in advance for replying btw, my tank consists of coral chips as the sand bed, overhanging filter with bio balls and ceramic rings and wool filter, an ornament made from white corals(looks like same material as the coral chips) LS are 1 x boxer shrimp, 1 x purple nudibranch, 4 x clowns(2 orange, 1 yellow, 1 black)