Cookiemunster

Thanks for all the kind comments. My tank was setup since July last year. So its still quite young. Initially I went through the heavy diatoms stage which is unavoidable of all new tanks......in which my tank started looking like a planted tank with bubbles rising. That lasted 3 months. Now I guess its quite stable. But I do regular water change of 2 pails once a month. Getting lazy actually. My clams were from the first PR shipments. The best of the maxima lots for a long long time. They have all grown quite alot since then. 2 levels of new scutes (white growth on shells). Even the small clams which are from LCK110 have new white scute growths and its very satisfying to see the small clams grow. Big maximas have been in my tank for about 6 months. The small clams about 2 months. The 2 giant squamosas have also grown new scutes and 1 of them even has pink sponge growing on its shell and getting bigger every day. The derasas have doubled in size since I got them 6 months ago too. I have in total: 9 small maximas 5 PR ultra grade maximas 2 derasas 2 giant squamosas (which do not belong to me) 1 medium squamosa 1 small crocea I guess the calcium demands in my tank are really high with all the clams, sps and coralline growth. Which is why I am using both a calcium reactor and a kalkwasser reactor. But I am in the process of upgrading my calcium reactor too.

Morgan also gave me alot of frags and without his kind encouragements, I would never have ventured into acro territory. I learnt to love keeping acros and appreciating their beauty. I still am far far off as a acro newbie. Hope to learn more from the experienced acro fanatics...erhm I mean fans.... I started out my tank mainly because I love clams. As you can see from my clam collection. However, I still can't get my hands on better quality clams such as tear drops etc. Clam pair

The rest of my acro on the MH intense cliff. I have to thank Rumor for helping me with the landscaping. The cliff effect was on my itinery for a long time. Now I wish I had more space for more acro frags. The centre small blue acro frag was kindly given to me by our dear AT. (PS. He is the only good friend who actually gave me a coloured frag......hahahhaha ok ok just kidding before the shit brown friends...erhm I mean frag givers kill me.)

For the past 2 months I have been trying out acro frags......the shit brown acros were given to me by good friends. Now they have coloured up slightly under my 150W MH. I really believe in the right Kelvin for bulbs and it seems SAKI 20000k really works. But still 250W would have definitely brought faster results. These took 2 months to show slight colors. The pink birdsnest is 3 weeks old, the blue acro on the left is from the last PR shipment. I am still looking for frags to widen my collection. I find it very fulfilling to not only be able to keep my corals healthy but to watch them grow. Its a kind of personal challenge. Pink Birdsnest

Although I have alot of fishes....they were stocked up over a period of 6 months. The same with corals. Do it right and you won't have cyano or diatoms. My sand is clean white and I never stir it. My black cuke does the stirring for me. Princess Anthias from PR.

I've got no diatom or cyano problems dispite my heavy bioload and feeding and under rated skimmer.

Side View

Closeup of sunburst

Its been a really long time since I posted my tank photos. Thought I just post some pics now. Mine is just a humble 4ftx2ftx1.8ft with 3ft sump. Parameters: Ammonia: Undetectable Nitrite: Undetectable Nitrate: 25ppm Phosphate: Undetectable Calcium: 420ppm Dkh: 10 PH: 8 ~ 8.4 Accessories: Lights 2x150W Saki 20000k (main lights) 2x54W Blueplus T5 (main lights) 1x150W Radiums (DIY clip on supplement) 1x36W Corallife artinic (supplement) DIY Korallin Calcium Reactor DIY Kalkreactor TUBBY auto water top up TS12 TUNZE single controller wavemaker HnS Skimmer (rated for 400L) Upgrading to mother of all skimmers soon. Inhabitants: 5 Princess Anthias 1 Yellow Tang 1 Purple Tang 1 Midas Blenny 3 Fire Gobies 1 Lyretail Anthia 1 8 line wrasse 1 Sunburst Anthia 1 Bartlet Anthia 1 Orchid Dottyback 1 Flame Angel (almost forgot about him...fat and blood red) 2 Cleaner Shrimp 1 Blood Shrimp Corals: Too many to name.... Yeah its kinda crowded isn't it? hehehe What I feed: Everyday 1/2 Litre Home grown phytoplankton Nori/Mysis/Cyclopeeze/Selco mix x 4 times a day Every 6 days: Rotifers Dose: NIL....I used to dose alot of things but now stopped and I don't notice any difference so I decided to save the money from now on. I like fat fishes.... Ok here are my tank photos:

A stable reef tank should be able to handle any kind of food you throw in. You need to get to the root of the problem and try to achieve a stable tank with right parameters. A few things to improve the situation would be : 1) Get a damn good skimmer (AquaC, HnS, Euroreef) try to get one thats over rated for your tank and you are safe. Unfortunately the more costly ones are the better ones. 2) Get a black sea cuke to stir the sand bed constantly 3) Use more wavemakers to prevent stangnet areas where cyano and diatoms have a chance to bloom (Get TUNZE) 4) Measure your phosphate levels and use Rhowaphos if needed. 5) Get more snails such as cerith or nassarius to eat up left over food to prevent rotting food which will contribute to nutrients fuelling the cyano growth. 6) Get more algae in the refugium and use stronger lights there to increase the growth rate of the algae. These will absorb the nutrients used by cyano and compete with cyano.

Its a dog fish.

Pls pm me if you are interested. Cheers

Actually a black cuke will help. It doesn't eat the cyano but it stirs the sandbed preventing accumulation of cyano. Constant stirring of the sandbed and cyano can't grow there. But you also need to control other parameters. Measure your phosphate levels. Increase flow using TUNZEs, get a good skimmer. Once you control the main tank the cyano will gather and grow in the sump which is a good thing. At least can easily remove it in the sump when it overgrows. (another form of nutrient export)

I dose kalk using my kalkreactor with auto top up water. Maintainance and trouble free. PH fluctuation of 0.35 is normal. When the lights are on, my ph is 8.35, and when its off its 8.0 This is due to carbon dioxide being used by algae during photosynthesis in light and the opposite during lights off. Dosing kalk everyday has absolutely no problems. I use REEFEZ Kalk everyday as top up water to replace evaporated water. it is done slowly as water evaporates slowly. But you can drip it in daily too. Just do not pour it in at once. The dripping method uses 1 teaspoon mixed with 1litre of freshwater and dripped 1 drop per second everyday.

It really depends on what corals you want to keep. If you just want to grow coralline and keep only LPS and softies, dosing kalk will be sufficient. However, if you keep alot of clams and SPS and hard corals, a calcium reactor is the only way to keep up with the calcium demands of the tank. Using additives are much more expensive in the long run. Its better to invest in a calcium reactor or kalkwasser reactor.

BRo, you can do the following: 1)Get a black sea cuke 2)Get Tunze...powerheads just aint as good for overall circulation 3)Test your phosphate levels. (can borrow from me if you dun have) 4)Improve the skimmer. (get better skimmers such as AquaC, HnS or Euroreef) Need more info....how many fishes and what foods or additives do you add?

AT I've heard that peppermint shrimps are not reef safe too.....they can attack clams especially very small clams of 1 to 2 inch size. Can anyone verify that?

I know I know....its AT on a bad day after giving me 2 yellow cards. hahahaha.

ok ok jokes aside......sorry alvy for hijacking your thread. AT please remove all our posts that are off topic here. Cheers,

Goodbye Cruel world!

ARGHHHHH!!!! no no.....mercy mercy master.....smeegle promise smeegle be good!!! Smeegle promise anything.....just dun ban smeegle...... Mercy mercy....... Sob sob cry cry.....*blow nose on AT's shirt*

yup of course. But still its another advantage of dosing kalk. hehehe Cos I have been wondering what happened to my phosphates when I tested zero with salifert.

yup I just got my ###### whacked for saying @#$ #@$%%##....hehehe I'll leave it to your imagination. I'm in the dark side now. Luke....I am your father.......

Hey I got my first yellow card! Welcome to the dark side. hehehhe MUAHAHHAHA Come wack my ###### you heavy handed mods. hehehe MUAHAHHAHA

Always functioning? Always fashionable? Almost frustrated? *edited for rude content* Always Foaming......