Cookiemunster

You're going to have to soak them in phyto solution. They cannot eat anything else. Keep them separate from the tank in a plastic container and fill it with green live phyto.

hahaha yup good choice. Sometimes we have to be very careful of what people recommend....ie do not follow advise or instructions blindly. Best to think about it or read up.

Actually UV protective pigments do not determine the colour of the SPS. Its the zooxanthellea that do. The flourescence of the SPS from brown is due to anti UV pigments generated to protect itself from UV burns. By itself these pigments have no colour unless viewed under artinic light or light with strong 400 to 500nm wavelengths.

Alvy is right. Basically if you think about it carefully, its like buying an industrial multi unit air con system 4 unit to cool a 1 room flat compared to a economical window unit to cool the same room. Which bill do you think would be higher? Sometimes theory does not reflect real life situations unless you factor in every possible variable. Although hp is doubled, it doesn't mean cooling time is also reduced by half. Its just like a car. A 2L car doesn't mean it can travel twice the speed of a 1L car.

I think its not overkill. Its super duper overkill. Bro a 1hp is enough to cool a 1000L to 1200L tank depending on its heat load. (6ft to 7ft tank) A true rated 1/2hp chiller is more than enough to cool your tank. But if you are planning for future upgrades, best to go for a 1/2hp. Remember the higher the hp, the more money for electricity too. Another thing........ Price is one thing. But make sure you are getting what you are paying for.

Hi Tanggy, beautiful setup and tank. However, a word of caution though. Slow down. 2.5 months is still quite young. If I'm not wrong, the diatom and cyano stage should be coming soon....if its not already over. The green algae is normal of young setup, it will go away in another 3 to 4 months time if conditions maintain stable. For the 1st 4 months usually nitrate will be very very low. It will start building up in the 4th month onwards. DSB only kicks in after at least 6 to 8 months later (earliest....usually takes a yr). So your 0 nitrate reading is due to young tank and not because of DSB kicking in. In any case, you're doing well and I love the moorish idol. I have tried to keep moorish but failed twice.

You can only safely remove it if you can see and cut the byssal threads of the clam. Here is a photo of what byssal threads look like. NEVER CUT THE FLESH!!! Just the threads. Use a sharp pen knife and slice from nearer the rock surface. And never dig or pry or force.

Any pump can be modified to work externally. But its not as simple as this. Sicce can be modified to work externally but it is not designed to be that way because its supposed to be water cooled. Eheim has thermal cutoff which will shut down the pump when it overheats. I do not know if SICCE has that. However Sicce can be used for short periods of time using a timer when operated externally.

What happened to $50 allowance. Damn if I had $1k allowance, I would stop working. hahhaha I sell TUBBY to sustain my love of this expensive hobby. The electric bills are killing. Chris is right. Many of the corals sold here are really cheaper than what you will ever know. But the markup is to cover the die offs and shop rent etc. At least we can be happy about the fact its still not as expensive as in the States

Its not a good idea to set your chiller's delta to only 1 degrees. You would be wasting alot of electricity although you would be having a small temperature range fluctuation in the tank. A good setting would be 2 degrees. That way your chiller doesn't cut in so often.... (every 3 minutes and your chiller will spoil very fast). I am using the Pacific Coo 1/2hp chiller (true rated compressor). My tank is a 4ftx2ftx2ft with 3ftx1.5ftx15inch sump. Running 800W of lights. My chilling is 0.1 degrees every 10 minutes when the lights are on and 0.2 degrees every 10 minutes when lights are off. My chiller kicks in every 2 to 3 hrs and runs for about 4hrs. I am using a titanium chiller and my heat from the lights and pumps are huge. My total pump wattage is almost 250W. Wat Hp you require is highly dependent on a few things: 1)Your tank and water volume 2) Your lighting wattage 3) Your pumps used (internal or external) which contribute to heat 4) Your chiller's input pump size (whether its sufficient flowrate) 5) Your chiller input and output location (Best is suction from sump and output to main tank direct or to return pump area) 6) Your tanks flowrate (higher flowrate faster distribution of heat and cold) Typically a true rated 1/2 Hp chiller can chill up to 6ft tanks using 2x150W of lights with a 3ft sump and using 4500L/hr flowrate return pumps. Other considerations are whether the chiller's heat exchanger is copper or titanium. Copper is a much better conductor of heat and hence is much much more efficient. Titanium is a lousier conductor of heat and because its very expensive, off the shelf titanium heat exchangers use very little coils of the piping, resulting in poorer heat exchange performance, and hence much lousier heat transfer compared to copper. As micheal suggested, the best method is to get a bigger rated chiller than necessary. This has the advantage of covering upgrades or increase in lighting wattage. It also will not stress your chiller and does not necessary equate to higher running costs because your chiller would be running more efficiently. Frequent on/off results in much higher wattage consumption because compressors as well as all motors (cars, engines, etc) need much more power during the initial startup.

Drool.....slurp slurp.....can I go and snorkel in your tank one day.

I think yours is a specialty tank already. I bet its got high potential to be on Reef Central too. A super rare species only tank. hahaha I can't wait to see your tank in person man.

yup I love fairy wrasses too. But mine disappeared when I placed them in my tank....these are very very shy and timid fishes.

Bro your photographs dun do justice to the teardrop clams. They demand better camera and better photo skills. Great clam tank......but upgrade the camera to show their true beauty.

Amazing......204 pages and still counting. Roidan you need to make significant contributions to SRC fund. 99% web host space is used by your thread. hahahha This thread is going as deep as your deep deep pockets man.

The huge price difference is because the cheaper brand is not a external pump but just a powerhead. Also the more expensive brand uses much better quality parts and materials. It also has a auto overheat cutoff feature so it will not run until it melts and burns.

having a matured deep sand bed will really help. I have been living with nitrate of 30ppm but now just 7 months after I first started my tank, nitrate is down to undetectable. (using salifert, sera and other test kits)

So how bro did you get alot of emails or comments or worse condemnations? Wheres the section where they post comments?

Congrats bro. A job well done. clap clap clap. I wonder when more of our local tanks can have the honor of being featured in RC mag.

bro you can still save it. Provided your tank water quality is good. Try to introduce it slowly from low light to medium light then to strong light. Never put a bleached piece under strong lighting without slowly acclimatising it. Lack of zoos and anti UV pigments will cause it to burn and die. After about 3 to 4 months the colour should return. Good water conditions will help it to regain its colour faster.

My 3ft fish only tank has nitrate of 80ppm. No coral can survive long in it(max 1 month) except for the hardier mushrooms. My 4ft mixed reef tank has 0.5ppm (undetectable). And my corals flourish and grow happily.

If you aerate it, you will find even more precipitation because the kalk will react with air and precipitate into useless calcium carbonate sand.

which is why a Kalk reactor is used. The kalk reactor was created to ease the pain of having to mix new kalk every day.

yes of cos, it greatly depends on DIYers workmanship too. But I dun know anyone who does welding himself.