Been wondering why some of the coral specially brain coral not opening since couple months back. I'm not sure if this silly mistake was the culprit causing me lost my 1st coral(green bubble coral) but I've been checking all other parameter except salinity and always used my default ratio on salt water mix during water change.All other parameter (not including Ca and Mg) are ok.

This "default ratio" which i have been practiced quite sometime almost make me lost everything. This is related to slow increase salinity in every water changes. I just lucky not realise after all gone.

To cut story short, i was checking bout the water level regarding ATO (auto top off) and the effect of salinity. Bang!!! its off the chart!! No time wasted i just quickly doing water changed. Anyway I'm not decrease it in once short hopefully to avoid further coral stress. As for now the salinity is sg 1.026 ... will doing more water changes to lower it down to 1.023.

Conclusion don't ignore simple thing cause it can cost me dearly :D

Just added new fish yesterday ... probably the last fish will go into this tank.

As for now already have 4 tangs inside my tank, i think its more than enough. All the fishes almost the same size.

Since entering tank its effected with white ich, its related to stress i believe. Since its a new member.. other tang organize orientation week LOL... been chasing around by scopas tang.

So far its not having any injuries or what so ever .. so its cool. Anyway this new fish still not taking any food given, again believe because of stress. Hope it will ok soon.



Quick fact bout Powder Brown Tang:

Min Tank Size: 70 gallons

Care Level: Moderate

Temperament: Semi-aggressive

Reef Compatible: With Caution

Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.020-1.025

Max. Size: 8"

Color Form: Red, Tan, Yellow

Diet: Herbivore

Compatibility: View Chart

Origin: Indian Ocean

Info and image courtesy of LiveAquaria

Ok guys... seem a lot of tank owner sometimes confuse with his "tank personality"... guess you should know about that before doing anything harm, unnecessary, useless and waste of time and money bla bla bla...

Please check out this post on Mr Saltwater and please don't waste money and effort on fish only tank... and do more reading! think about it, why u need all those thing and what benefit to your tank. I know you have a lot of money, but putting 22" rims to your kancil doesnt seem right isnt it? It same to your tank ... keep it simple

Good luck!

Another great build tank... well planning and execute and the most important of all its super nice result ;) For more info about his journey please refer here

Feel free to enjoy the video from Mr Saltwater Tank video "Why You Need a Saltwater Fish Tank"

This is very good reading for carbon dosing in aquarium. Its also give some understanding about how its works and the effect.

Probiotic methodologies are not for everyone, and are not without risks. They generally require careful monitoring of abiotic parameters, and, in the case of some commercial systems at least, can be considered somewhat expensive. However, with a slow and incremental approach, and careful husbandry, these systems are an extremely effective means of controlling dissolved nutrient levels in the marine aquarium.

I completely agree on his conclusion where this method not for everyone and not for every aquarium. More or less do not change the method/path too many times. Pick one and stay with it at least 2 months! and most important do more reading. Below shown the table for commercial probiotic product, all the solid polymer producer does not come with any bacteria source. So for a starter it recommended to add bacteria source to boost bacteria population.


image from coralmagazine-us.com

The complete article about this can be refer in here...

Lawak terbaru dari Microsoft dengan mengeluarkan ads yang mengandungi gambar sebelah.

Ikan laga siam dalam reef tank!! dan yang lagi teruk ada coral lagi dalam tu... ikan nih leh abis kan semua coral tu kejap jek. Seperti yang di ketahui ikan laga tidak sesuai dalam reef tank... agak nya kalau dalam fish only tank pon tak sesuai nanti jadi makanan kepada ikan yang lagi besar .. ehehhe

Walau bagaimana pon, agak nya begitulah hasil IE 9 nanti ... merosakkan segala yang ada kat pc tu sebab langsung tak sesuai ... haahha... so say no to IE 9 LOL

Been away for 1 week from last week. As usual... the first first thing will be aquarium. My wife a bit shocked to see lot of green algae appear on one side of the glass. I'm not surprise anyway cause it was related to 24 hours light nearby the side of aquarium.

Just doing quick check for fish and coral. Everything is fine... so its cool. The next thing need to check water level in sump, its a bit lower than it suppose to be! its related to micro bubble attach to float switch which prevent it to trigger at the right level. Not a big deal anyway.

Then next thing it will be nice to say hi to my neighbour. Seem all of them enjoyed the traffic during holiday LOL. Lucky this year its my wife turn so no headache for that. And Nieja thanks for coming to the airport. If my memory is right, you are bigger than that before!!! thanks

A bit of NP Bio pellet update for 2nd month, finally the NO3 test kit showing undetected! Not sure what happened while i was away, but skimmer waste collector is half full with very dark skimmate.

Other than that, will be doing schedule aquarium maintenance tomorrow. Its nice to be back!

Just install my balik kampung water top off :D... been test several times to make sure its working fine. Before this just using simple drip method to top up water during holiday, but this time create better water top off using float switch.

It not so call complicated to build anyway. What i need just a float switch, cheap pump and water container.

For a float switch i opt for this:


For more info about this switch, can refer to this link . For a pump, I dun think pump selection important here, the most important for me is water container. In case of switch not working correctly, water will overflowing into my house!. So to overcome this, top off water container/volume is important. I'm using not so big water container, just enough for my vacation period. BUT i hope switch will working fine.

Cuti cuti raya coming up.. so what need to do before leaving on long vacation?

As for me, the first thing need to do is water change, its just 1 day early my normal water change that should be ok. During this time, normally i do pump cleaning, bulb cleaning etc together. So if something goes wrong i can detect it earlier.

Blackout is the most scary part, so far i dun have any solution for this yet. I might consider backup battery on the later stage. Dun have money yet hehehe..

Thing for malfunction chiller while on vacation sometime is out of control, not sure how to overcome thing beside put another chiller on standby. Other than that just pray everything will be ok. Anyway chiller will not suddenly broken... normally it will produce loud sound or taking too long to lower the temp.

And lastly maybe an auto top off water. It doesn't matter what method but its a must. For my case even tho not using fan to cool down water, water level in sump surely drop more than half of original volume, if not careful its going to kill my pump by overheating. Sure its not a good thing. I'm still waiting for new switch ordered to reach for my top off system... lambat laa plak. If any of u interested ready made which is cost bout RM 75. For more info refer to this link but not sure if stock still available.

On the other precaution, maybe can prepare saltwater mix before leaving. It will help if anything happen after back from holiday.

So basically the main thing need to check/clean

• Water change
• pump and bulb cleaning
  
• auto feeder battery
  
• possible leaking
• auto top off

Other than that, enjoy your vacation.. get a life! and dun think much bout your aquarium LOL

Soklan boring nak jawap dan biasanya adalah soklan faveret. In general, tak kira penambahan hidupan dalam aquarium dan hanya melibatkan cost nak jaga iaitu letrik, bulb replacement ... cost lebih kurang cam nih (ni base on aku punya lebih kurang)

1) Letrik (harga divide 2 dari total, senang kira) - RM 70/monthly
2) Garam - RM 150/ 5 months = RM30
3) T5 (assume tukar 8 bulan sekali) - RM 100/8 month(100 paling mahal) = RM 12.50
4) Food (depend bagi makan apa, yang mahal nya liquid food) - RM 10/monthly

So Total lebih kurang = 70 + 30 + 12.50 + 10 => RM 132.50

cost ni depend kepada:
1) Jenis hidupan + jumlah
2) jenis lampu dan bilangan ( ni je lah kot yg makan letrik pon)
3) besar aquarium
4) tak ngada ngada nak try benda benda baru .. heheh

Tapi berapa pon costnya, tak penting sangat. Yang paling penting enjoy dan tak nyusahkan diri sendiri .. ehhehe

Tengah best layan tido tengahari tetiba panas semacam jek... rupanya blackout daa. Ingat kan satu taman blackout. Dengan rasa diri hebat try tengok main suiz .. rupa nya sini off .. memang laa tak der letrik.

So try laa on .. dengan pantas dia off balik ... ampess confirm ada yg short circuit nih .. so 1st thing yg try mati kan suiz aquarium... selepas try on .. nampak nya aquarium yg buat hal ...

Setelah dibelek belek ... benda yg rosak nampak nya return pump. Since ada Rio HF 32 yg lama, try laaa pasang, mana tau leh jimat duit .. hheh.. nampak nya buang masa aje try pasang semua tu .. rio pon boleh blah.

Setelah gagahkan diri kejap .. tros gi Oceanic dan tak banyak cerita skip jenama pump lama @ cap ayam dan beli yg agak ok compare cap ayam tu.

Disebabkan pump baru ni Eheim Compact 5000 ada waranty 3 tahun ... kira ok lah tu .. kalau dia buat hal lagi hantar kasi warranty.

Apa apa pon nasib baik dia jadi skrang bukan masa kat kampung ... kalau tak lagi laa haru.. syukur