Buying spree

A new addition to the family will be arriving. Such wonderful and pleasant surprise! And with an overzealous mom-to-be, things are stocking up fast in preparation for the arrival. My majesty, the Queen largely oversees all the new purchase, savaging for all offers and discounts in possibly every corner in this earth. She even has a dedicated online forum to go where all the queens congregate to discuss all the worldly issues on baby gadgets and to critic lousy products.

Its entirely a new experience for both of us, unsure of what to do next. So unknowingly, we started off with several quick purchase.

All-white attire; looks too innocently cute to resist not buying... More coming up...

First Inhabitants

The next task was to create mountains and valleys in the tank. Scraping the tank took quite a bit of effort because of the height and the long forgotten ladder we bought finally found its use. Bigger sized rocks were introduced first and gradually stacked to create as many cleverages and shelter for the fishes. The rocks were arranged such that chances of collapsing were minimal. More rocks were placed in the sump for biological filter where the bacterial could colonize. After an hour spent just to scrape the rockwork, the mini mountains finally took shape.... Good enough for a start for now and a fish only with live rocks aka FOWLR.

In the evening, we picked up 1 fresh prawn from Giant during our weekly grocery shopping. The prawn was thrown into the tank and left to rot to jumpstart the biological cycle required to sustain life inside the tank. The bacterial will help to breakdown the harmful ammonia toxic to any life fishes into nitrite and then finally to nitrate which fishes can tolerate. The prawn turned red overnight as if it was cooked and could fool everyone to eat it if I placed it onto a plate. Tested the water for ammonia using a test kit and indeed it showed some reading. The prawn slowly started to disintegrate and I think it would be better to remove it before the smell becomes unbearable. Waited for 2 more days and tested the water again. NH4- undetectable, NO2- undetectable, NO3- trace amount. Seems like the cycle is completed and the bacterial were ready for fish loading. Forums usually recommends cycle duration of 2-3 months for the bacterial to establish themselves, but I suppose since I am re-using the rocks from the old tank setup, these rocks are matured enough with sufficient bacterial and hence my short cycle time.

Hippy! Time to introduce the very first inhabitants. They should be hardy enough considering they survived the grilling car temperature under the afternoon sun and dying for a decent environment than the miserable red pail.

So let me introduce the pioneers fishes were the Twin Tigers...

They started darting around upon realized into the tank. The remaining fishes followed the next day, little blue damsel, green chromis, cleaner shrimps, sand shifter to gradually load the tank. These inhabitants were left in the tank for another week to allow the bacterial to further multiply and cope with the increasing fish waste and ammonia produced. The week was especially long before the weekend and then the fun begins again! We went down to a fish shop in Bedok and came back with a pair of Nemo, black/white damsel, yellow tail damsel, bicolor dottyback. All supposing small hardy fishes and cheap to start off.

The tank still looks pretty empty and dull. But few months down the road, it is going to transform from this lifeless rock scapping into a reef tank, with corals swaying in motion with the wave and more exotic fishes happily swimming around. But this requires the tank to mature to a certain level so have to be very patient.

Setting up

After a day wait for the silicon gel to dry, it is time to do a leak test! I was praying very hard the nite before that the the return pipes were well sealed as any leakage will be disastrous. The aftermath to this will ultimately incurred von's wrath and likely lead to a premature death to the new hobby.

We do not have a long hose, so filling up the tank was done in bucket and pails. So 'let there be water'.....

Filling up.... and more to go...

Half-way mark, everything still holding up....

Almost there.... keep the water coming....

And finally... the first drop of water overflowing into the sump... No leakage so far. Continue the topping up to flood the sump tank.

Holding our breath for any signs of water leakage.... Phew... and then we pause for a moment to savour a job well done. 400+ litres of water.... not sure von wants to know how much is the utilities bill this time.

We poured some chemicals to de-chlorinate the water and powered up the skimmer and pump for circulation and then wait for a couple of hours for it to settle. The amount of salt mix was calculated to achieve the desired salinity of 1.023 and we quickly drove to the fishfarm to get the salt pack. (not sure of amount now as the excel spreadsheet was accidentally deleted by von... Doh!!)

Came back with a carton of salt and we discovered that the salt was caked-solid. 'Gosh... we gonna have to scrap the block to disintegrate it into its original form so the salt can be readily dissolved in the tank', I commanded. The first few scrapes were easy, but as it goes, the salt block got tougher and our skin started to have this burning sensation. Poor von... diligently scrapping away with a despondent look. 'We got to put on gloves!', exclaimed von. 'Okok before it gets any worse', I quickly responded to quench out further protest... hehe

The water slowly turned cloudy as more salt were poured in and the required salinity was reached with about 10% of leftover salt to spare. Water started to become clear again in about 2hrs, only to become cloudy again when the sand was introduced the next day.

After salt mix:

Almost clear after 2hrs

The sand dumping was fairly quick and the sand was lowered down to the bottom using bucket to reduce the debris storm.

And finally, tara!!

Pearly white sandbed:

3ft marine tank

After fiddling with the tank setup for 3 months, I shall do my 'backdating' blog as much as I am able to recall. I hope to record all the mistakes and good tips I've picked up and serves as a reference for others keen to take up as a hobby.

The empty void to spice things up

The first important element is to acquire a decent size tank. Not too small and most importantly not too big to invoke von's displeasure. A good indicator is to observe her eyeballs on the verge of popping out from its socket.

Anyway, a small capacity tank will have problems with water stability because any slight change in parameter will have an adverse effect due to its small water volume. A larger tank will have a much better tolerant to the change in the quality of water. Also, the number and size of live stock will be limited in a small tank. Future expansion of tank will be crippled, which is no good for long term. Decided to source for either a 4ft or 3ft minimum for novice like me.

New good quality tank is too expansive for my 1st attempt. So have been brawling around a particular forum for suitable tank for sale. Sale of marine equipments are quite rampant in the community since many people decom their tank to upgrade or giving up due to many factors. I happened to chanced upon a decent 3 x 2.5 x 2 ft tank with all the equipments included and went to his place for a look before deciding.

The tank is not really cheap, but can see that the glass and cabinet is of better quality. 10mm thick glass joined using industrial grade black epoxy and solid wood structure for the cabinet. Don't want to risk flooding the entire living room with over 400litres of salt water if the tank is of poor quality. Cheaper tank will be typically 8mm thick with conventional clear epoxy to join the glass edges. This will give way due to the enormous pressure from the water after many years. The pictures from some members of the forum experiencing tank cracks speak volume by itself.

So parted with $800 for the tank, sump, skimmer, pump and light set and all the cheapo fishes and sandbed. I returned to his flat the next day to help him with the clearing of the tank inhabitants and dismantling the pipes for moving, and at the same time, learning as much as possible on sustaining the life stock. The tank mover is professional as they have many experiences in large tank moving.

I bought back all the fishes and shrimps contained in a pail before the tank is moved over to my place the following day. The journey took 30mins but it took its toil on the life stock. The intense heat in the car wiped out 50% of it and I am left with the most hardy and strongest surviving fishes. 2 cleaner shrimps survived but many died. Most of the surviving inhabitants eventually recovered from the ordeal and awaiting to be re-introduced back into the tank.

The tank arrived without any damage, great! The men quickly assembled and silicone all the piping back and the gel was left to cure over 1 day. Meanwhile, off to a fish farm in Pasir Ris to get marine salt and other additives for start up.

Tank arrived together with 2 FOC hardworking unkown species

Me working on the sump connection after the movers lave left

Final post on reno

The painstaking effort in setting up our ideal home is finally taking shape. The renovation was completed as scheduled and we only have a window of a few days to do a thorough cleanup and arranging for all the furnishings to be delivered. On the whole, we were quite satisfied on how our home interior turned out.

Living room - Natural light from balcony

Living room - Illuminated with warm florescent lighting
Living room - Illuminated with downlights
Sofa and coffee table combo
Overzealous array of light switches
Dining area with black mirror backdrop
Dining lights
Walkway to bedrooms

Wedding photo
Our Bedroom
Movable sliding tabletop
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by frosted glass lamp
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by warm florescent light
Our Bedroom - Illuminated by 'Mr Pee'
'Mr Pee' table lamp
Don't mess with 'Mr Pee' when he is turned on
Bedroom
Study room build-in table
Study room window view
Study room with only the table light illuminated
Balcony view
Nite view from balcony
Outside Lift lobby

We noticed that the wall at the back of the sofa to the door entrance is too plain. We are trying to get some large landscape canvas type pictures. We wanted a canvas painting of a blood red rose but can't seems to find a decent and cheap one. So we leave it as an empty space for now, hoping to stumble upon one in future. Anyway, 'Project Aquarium', which is going to commerce real soon, hopefully will fill the void. Stay tune....

Xmas extravaganza

Christmas season is always a good time to indulge in buying gifts for ourselves and families. We started off quite well, in fact 3 weeks before Xmas. we found ourselves looking at those nicely done up xmas trees in shopping malls and pictured these assorted trees right in our home, flashing its multicolored lightings and its prismatic accessories dangling all around. "We'll get one for our new home this year." We thought.

In Ikea, there were many different kind of assortments to choose from. We liked the idea of having only a single colored ornaments on the tree and chosen red from the varieties of gold, black, purple and silver in the stockpile. The ornaments comes in shapes of seashells, spiral, star and spherical forms with glossy or matt finishings. There was also a string of ball lights, each light was encapsulated in a white ping-pong ball-like capsule and non-flickering. This would look very nice on the tree with the all red ornaments. We snapped 3 boxes of ornaments and the lights into our baskets and checkout.

We thought of buying the tree from Giant when we saw it was advertised for only $19.90. But upon seeing the tree, we decided not to get it because the greens are quite bare. We wanted a tree that looked lush and healthy, even though it is a fake tree! "We will get a better tree in Concourse next week ." We thought.

As next week unfolds, von received news that she has to go to Suzhou again for 2weeks. So we decided that we will not be getting the Xmas tree this year. As for the ornaments we had bought, we returned to Ikea intact and unopened. They has this 30-day returned policy... :) Its a pity though but I'm sure we willget the xmas tree again next year.

Merry Xmas to all.

First Post

Have been urged by Ethan to contribute to this blog ever since the "birth" of nanny blog. It's really sweet of him to start this blog and I enjoy reading each and every post. Have always been looking forward to read more but the rate of the posting is inconsistent and slow.

Ethan usually does his postings when I am outstation. When I am around, he will give all sort of excuses to delay his posting. Well, I can't "blame" him as I also dislike him to stay in the study room all day doing his posting when I am at home.

To all loyal readers, I make sure that he posts our completed reno pictures soon. Both of us will be off from Christmas eve till New Year, thus we will have plenty of time postings the remaining pictures of our love nest. Stay tune!

To Ethan, you are the BEST!!!