*dlareg*

As long as u do not have any livestock in your tank, its ok. Especially when u are in your cycling period now, u should put in all the LRs that u need now and not when your tank is fully cycled and have LS. The cycling period will just be extended for a short period. Cheers

I've been thinking about this subject about fish dying in our tanks days after we bot them. It seems that many of us seem to pinpoint the cause at water parameters (which probably is). But I think that there are other factors which may be the cause too. One reason could be that the fish that we bot are already in a bad shape. Fishes caught in the wild are sometimes done with chemicals to stun them before collecting. Add in the stress of packing and shipping them to our LFS, by the time they arrived, they are already in bad shape. Also I have seen the way some lfs house their livestock, simply pathetic. Being able to choose a healthy fish would greatly reduce the risk of it dying in your tank. When I started my hobby, I cycled my tank for about 2 mths till the parameters are right, slowly add in live stock, do regular housekeeping but still have fish dying on me. Couldn't figure out why till i started getting my livestock from a better known lfs. And all the deaths stopped. The important factors to a healthy tank in my opinion would be- - water parameters (PH, salinity, bio filtration, etc) - buy healthy fishes - Get the right compatibilty of fishes - regular checking of parameters - good diet - proper knowledge Just my 2c worth. Cheers

It depends on what kind of filtration u want your canister to perform(bio. chem or mech). Most people would leave the job of bio filtration to live rocks and DSB. Your canister can be used for chem or mech filtration like having mediums that control phosphate, nitrates and filter pads to clean the water. But be warned that unless frequent maintenance is done for your canister, the buildup of nitrates can be high.

Thanks guys. What a load off my mind.

Hi all, My block of flats will be carrying out a maintenance of the electricity switchboards so power will be cut off for 4 hrs. Will my tank be able to last that 4hrs? I'll only have my skimmer running at that time which is driven by a battery operated pump. What else do I need to do? I have a 2ft tank with some polyps, mushrooms, 4 shrimps and 2 fishes. Thks

What about the temp? What's the max they can tolerate. How do u tell if they are doing well or not? I have a sponge in my tank but it seems to be shrinking although my other soft corals are doing quite well.

Anyone noticed the temp of the display tank at ML is at 31 degrees? According to them, as long as u have moderate water movement, its ok. Any comments?

Thanks for your views. So am I right to say that its ok to top using anti-chlorine with water direct from the tap (without ageing)? Fuel & gatecrasher, U mean to say that u use tap water without removing the chlorine or ageing? Direct from the tap to the tank? Thats something new.

So should I remove it? Actually, how much destruction can it cause?

Have read somewhere that coral banded shrimps and corals do not mix as the shrimps tend to feed on the corals? Is this true? Anyone keeping them has any experience to share?

Any idea when the new stocks for the various shops arrive as most of them were quite empty when I went on my rounds today especially Re**rn.

I'm using genesis. It takes care of the chloramine as well which I heard PUB has been using very extensively.

When it comes to water top ups and changes, is it better to use aged water or water straight from the tap with anti-chlorine? Also which anti-chlorine do u guys use?

Wrong - Caroline algae. My girlfriend's name Correct - Coralline algae.

Just to share my experience with HDB. Had a friend who checked with HDB recently for his 6x3x3. Mixed reponse from them depending on who u talk too. They wanted us to submit a plan (all angles) of the stand/cabinet holding the tank. So we submitted the plan which was subsequently not approved. However they did mention that approval will only be given if the stand has got 10 legs! So we resubmitted and got the approval. But imagine, a stand with ten legs will mean a very small gap between each leg, which means once your sump goes in, it stays in. Maintenance will also be a problem.