exiled_infidel

Does anyone know where i can get branchy tonga rock? Preferably not a farm (no transport la) and how much i should be paying roughly? Missed out on someone selling on the forum by a few hours, i think!

Wow, 200ml is tonnes if you think about it as a percentage! Sexy shrimp were a possibility too but i think i like how boxing shrimp look like theyre married and holding hands all the time

Hahaha, if i do add a chiller or iceprobe, for some reason it still seems lower tech than a sump (dsb, skimmer, fuge, denitrator etc), hahahahaha. I dont actually intend to test nitrate levels regularly (lazy reefer) but i just know if theyre too high ill have problems so trying to keep as low as possible. I figured since only shrimp in there, it should be okay, right? Now to get it all started Thanks for the advice guys! Btw, anyone know anywhere in the east that sells good livestock etc? Ive been to Aquamarin and a place in bedok but the farms are a bit of a problem public transport wise.

Thanks cdckjn! Do you think the filtration would be enough to keep nitrates down to, say, 10-30ppm?

Just a thought i had the other day when i realised i had a spare 2x1x1 lying around. Wanna try to do a super-uber-low-tech tank for softies, maybe some LPS and probably no fish (to minimise nutrient levels). Probably gonna just put a couple of pieces of liverock and try to do a (barebottom) lagoon style tank (i know that sounds a little funny!). Have some PL lights so lighting shouldnt be an issue, but was wondering if i could rely on JUST a hang-on filter (maybe the bigger eheim?) filled with chemical media (those absorb-everything kind?) for filtration and flow? Anybody think this'll work? Was thinking of just having a couple of leathers, maybe zoos (havent decided yet), corallimorphs, maybe try to add euphyllias, plerogyras and catalaphyllias when the system matures. The only motile things in the tank may be a pair of boxing shrimp or cleaner shrimp. What do you guys think? Suggestions VERY welcome and very mcuh appreciated Cheers

Hi guys, I recently graduated from uni with good grades and an honours degree (research) in Biotechnology and Life Sciences and was wondering if anyone needs tuition. Am applying for scholarships atm for my PhD (in NUS hopefully) and will be more than happy to teach anyone. Am hoping to become a uni lecturer so tutoring would be great experience. I have tutored at the undergrad level before when i was in uni. Also have experience teaching english to people with varying backgrounds in the language and have achieved great success with IELTS students. Subjects i can teach are as follows: Sec School (Lower) : Science, English, History, Geography Sec School (Upper) : Biology, Chemistry, English, Social Studies JC: Biology Undergraduate Biology (by discussion). IELTS (both academic and general). All academic grades available upon request. Am very passionate about teaching. Please email me at exiled.infidel@gmail.com (i know this isnt too professional sounding an email addy, i really need to get a new one!). Reasonable rates! Cheers

Hi Just curious to see how many people have actually tried clicking on one of those ###### links that have shown up in the forums.

The H malu i have had tend to root themselves very deeply into the sand (down to the bottom glass). Maybe if you try the species again bury them in the sand to get them attached (might sound harsh but tehyre pretty resilient) To be honest, i thought the white crispas were near goners. Theyre much more sensitive than H malu (ive seen) and they seem to be especially delicate now that theyre bleached. Good luck with it though.

Strange. It looked quite healthy and happy. Was it being harassed by anything? Sorry for your loss.

Hi 10 was just a hypothetical number. But im sure 6-8 would do alright for quite a while. Possibly the whole crowding thing to reduce aggression? Plus lotsa SPS for the babies to hide in when theyre young. Sure to be a pretty sweet tank!

Hi Was just wondering, since ive seen large aggregations of blue tangs Paracanthurus hepatus) among other tang species in the wild shoaling together over lagoon patch reefs, has anyone tried to keep a shoal of blue tangs in, say, a 6' tank? Blue tangs in singapore seem pretty cheap and it would be awesome to have a relatively empty 6' tank and buy about 10 tiny/small blues and put them in to mature. Just a thought.

Yes, i really dont use smilies nearly enough. Must try to remember The H malu generally like being in the sand bed. Having said that, i do hope someone confirms my ID or at least someone smarter gives a better opinion. Just in case im wrong. Did the crispa manage to climb its way up the glass?

Hi Apologies. I just re read all the posts and realised that i might sound a little, um... un-friendly. This was totally unintentional. The problem with forums et al is that you cant convery very much emotion through text. I was trying to be aggresive or anything Sorry if that was how it looked. Nitro, i dont think crispas or BTAs have that powerful a sting to affect other fish. Maybe it was one of the waratahs?

Nitro, wasnt there supposed to be a rock beauty in there too? Southpaw, i am somewhat confused as to what you were saying. In your first post you said: " Your anemones look fairly bleached to me and i'm guessing it's due to the light (or lack of light in this case)." But later you went on to say what seems to be the complete opposite: "...i agree they look healthy ..." The bubble tipped anemones do indeed look rather healthy. Plus, being the longer term inhabitants (anemone wise) of the tank, i think that they are a fair indication that they are at least not doing too badly so far. Although it is hard to argue that more lighting would not be appreciated, the fact that they have not moved around much (BTAs are notorious for moving around constantly until water, flow, lighting are in their favour) indicates their contentedness. Similarly, the fact that several are perched in areas which are not the brightest lit in the tank indicates that this isnt of immediate concern. The crispa anemones were bleached on purchase and cannot be commented on with any capacity, although it does seem that they are (happily) making the effort to reach more light (or possibly flow) by climbing up the glass. More time will reveal what is happening in this case. Although many will argue this, i feel that anemones need to be fed, period. Several people have kept anemones under (relatively high) lighting without feeding them at all, this is not representative of what would be found in nature. Under high lighting, naturally the anemones would not need to be fed as often but they still do need to be fed. Do keep this up Nitro. In any case, if you upgrade to T5s, you shouldnt need to undergo too stringent an adjustment to the higher lighting. Usually these sort of 'burns' only occur when switching from Fluoros (of any sort) to halides. Just my 2 cents worth.

Southpaw, Although the lighting Nitro is using is a little on the low side, there has been very little evidence so far that any of the longer term anemones have suffered effects of the low lighting. The H crispa are bleached only because they were bought that way. The BTAs look fine to me, and so does the H malu although, nothing in the tank has been in there long enough to denote any real success or failure. I am confident that Nitro would increase the lighting if indeed the anemones were obviously struggling due to insufficient lighting. Additionally, it would be unwise to suddenly expose any anemone (bleached or otherwise) to high amounts of light (eg a high intensity 150w or higher halide) as the anemone would likely bleach due to the sudden increase in light (more light = more algae photosynthesis = increased oxygen within the body of the anemone = increased toxicity = shooting out zoox = bleaching). The BTAs do not look at all bleached, but, as you said, it would take at least a few months to tell if the anemones are really declining. If indeed the BTAs were unhappy with the insufficient lighting, they would be moving as high onto the rockwork as possible or even onto the tank glass to get closer to the light (they seem to be not moving much at all, indicating their content at current conditions). One must remember that we are trying to replicate nature in our little glass boxes and often E quadricolor is found rather deep at 60 or so feet. The light they recieve down there is hence quite low too. I am sure this would lead to many effects (the anemones would probably survive - especially with rigorous feeding - but they may not grow as rapidly or be able to divide as often). The latter may be especially true resulting in mainly the solitary form of the species being found deep while numerous clonal BTAs are found in shallow water (possibly cos larger anemones would be more able to sustain themselves without feeding as often as smaller ones?). In any case, im sure the true test for this would be time.

The big BTAs look great! Im so jealous!

Hi NIce new anemone. I think its Heteractis malu but i may be wrong. If it is, its tentacles will get (slightly) longer when its happy. They never will get as long as healthy crispa anemone tentacles. It may also be H aurora but will need to wait for it to be happy first (this species develops very characteristic bumps on the tentacles look like beads). I still think its the former species, looks a lot like the H malu they get here from Western Australia. The crispa attaching is a good sign. Keep up the feedings and try not to let too many fish harass it. Do you see healthy (brown, long tentacled) crispa anemones in sg? One of my fave anemones cos theyre easy to keep (if not bleached to begin with), dont move around as much as BTAs and host occies and percs with relative ease while still looking like a 'real' anemone (haddoni carpets do all the above but dont have the nice anemone-characteristic flowing tentacles) Hope this helps

Hi Just curious, what are your nitrate levels? Is the nano-skimmer working well? How much does one of those cost in Sg?

Hi Any update pics of the crispas? No offense but i dont think theyll make it unless they colour up soon. Are the maroons still blowing them around? Are they eating?

Hi Sorry, edited the post after i saw the pic properly. Thought you were referring to the greenish purple things as elephant ears. I was mistaken. How big were the bigger BTAs that you bought for $8? Do they come in larger sizes too?

Hi I'm not gonna try that. Caused my H. magnifica to move around SO much the last time the light bulb blew and couldnt change it for 18hours. Bleached and stung corals, not good.

Hi The three BTAs look really happy. Nice to see the bubble tips on them. They dont look like theyve moved around much too. Looking good. I must admit, however, the one small BTA on the left looks a bit retarded, lol. Never quite seen one like that! The greenish based fluffy mushrooms look like Rhodactis (possibly indosinensis) while the bigger ones are (Amplexidiscus sp.). The latter has been known to ingest clowns that try to host in them. Only something i have read, havent had enough money to try it myself. The other clowns look like theyve been bullied out of the picture

Awesome, cant wait for the pics

Hi Its a good sign that the crispas are attached and not moving around all over the place. Hope the maroons arent molesting them too much. Try feeding the anemones themselves. Try to get the tentacles to attach to small bits of shrimp, squid, mysis etc. This might be hard with the white crispas (bleached nems tend to have very weak nematocysts making it hard to stick to food). Ensure the fish dont steal the food and let tehm slowly feed themselves by placing hte food into their mouths using their tentacles. This would reduce nitrates and phosphates that youd get by feeding hte entire tank food (eg frozen/live etc) cos the clowns dont need to eat. All this excess would soon lead to nutrient problems (and possibly cyano). Keep up with the waterchanges!

Coolness, yea, anemones tend to be like that. Have the maroons hosted anything but the hole they made in the sand? What about the other clowns? Keep feeding up the two white crispas, dont want them to succumb to starvation before they colour back up.