Since I was around TTSH today, I visited Aquaria Art at Balestier Rd. Came home with a nice red gioniopora, green porites and a free aquacultured Acropora! FREE!!! Oooh, I am so thrilled with that Acropora! It's now brownish in colour but with any luck, IF it grows well, it'll revert to its original purplish-blue colouration. And hell .. it came with 3 cute little Acropora crabs to boot! Hahaha .. come to think of it, this is the first time ANY shop has given me any freebies. I think this one shall soon become one of my favourites. Fish-wise - zero. Equipment - minimal. But corals - ooh la lah.

Was eyeing the Ricordea florida they had .. this lovely blue one. But ah. Alas. $45 a polyp ... CRAZY. I know the americans get it cheap over there, less than $6 a polyp. On the other hand though .. Hmmmmmm ... our Ricordea yuma fetches a mere $3 a polyp here, while it's more than USD60 a polyp over there. I guess it's all relative then. But honestly - I'd much rather keep R.florida than R.yuma. Plumper, cuter and more colour. Aaron said he loves the orange Ricordia yuma though. Those go for $5 apiece here, while I've seen them at USD90 a polyp in the States.

Other things that really caught my eye-
1) Hammer coral and frogspawn coral. I'm a sucker for Euphyllia species, and their hammers and frogspawns have some crazy neon greens. Hammer's down at market price, which I can afford. Just skip a couple of meals outside. But frogspawn .. HMMM.

2) Neon green bubble coral. I know yx hates the look of bubble corals, but I know this is one piece that'll convert her. =D Crap, now come to think of it, I forgot to ask about the price.

3) Orange Scolymia, aka "prata coral" in the local context. I simply adore Scolymia sp., but for SOME ODD REASON they never survive my tank. Tried twice, and both ended up dead. And these darned things aren't the cheapest corals around.

4) Encrusting purplish-red Goniopora. I'm pretty sure this'll set me back by $50 at least, so it had to pass. Not to mention how I'm going to find space to put it. And heck, now think of it, it's not that great anyway.

5) Purple Montipora capricornis. WOW. THIS WAS THE ONE THAT REALLY TESTED ME. If only I had $60 to spare .. hahahaha ... no no no no that's waaaay too much for a poor little student. Maybe if I haggle .. nah. No way it'll go down to $30, which is my miserly max for a coral. I mean .. it might die right? Hah. And it's just Cnidarian. I could buy a huge plush toy and have it forever .. not that I dig plush toys anyway.

ok, KIV Montipora and hammer. Monti, too expensive. Maybe if I went moonlighting as a pimp for one night? Eeeeks .. NO WAY. The thought of old ladies (or men for that matter) groping me ... URGH.

Feeling itchy about the tank actually. Feel like changing water - AGAIN. But that'll incur so much cost on salt I think I shall desist.

Next in plan would be to control water quality. I haven't measured nitrate for AGES (daren't). Right now it's more of a if-something-goes-wrong-then-I'll-measure sorta thing, but I'm guessing SOMETHING must be wrong. Other people's mushrooms sprout all over the place, but the only things that really grow and multiply in my tank are the Xenia. Odd. Let's see ... what do I really need?

For short-time control, the use of adsorption and ion exchange resins should do. Currently running carbon and phosphate resin 24/7. May think of polishing the water up even more by using SeaChem's De*nitrate geolites, or polyfilter. Cheaper, but in the short-run. Very expensive in the long run.

Long-term control. For nitrates and phosphates already formed, a refugium would be in order. Current problems: 1) Lack of light. My bulbs blew. 2) Excessive current in "refugium". What I can currently think of is either to replace the sump entirely (which would cost a fortune), or grow macroalgae that can actually tolerate high current. The refugium I have is actually a in-built compartment in the sump, so about 2000L/hr actually flow right through it, which is way too much. And it's a mere 12 inches long, while any decent lights are at least 24 inches long - excessive length. It's actually one of my top priorities though.

For nitrates not already broken down from proteinaceous waste, of course a skimmer upgrade would be heaven. I've finally gotten past my mental obstacle (and character oddity) of insisting that ALL equipment be hidden from view. So .. hmmmm ... Beckett or bigger Macro skimmer? Becketts are notoriously efficient at pulling out gunk, but they require a pressure-rated pump which sucks electricity like a camel in an oasis (what an odd analogy).

Oh .. and a piece of good news. My long-missing rose bubble tip anemone (RBTA) finally settled down and is eating shrimp again. The bad news? She's decided to sit pretty at the BACK of all the rocks. Damn that thing. More bad news - the 3rd tilefish is missing - AGAIN. He's not in the overflow, BTW. Crap. I shouldn't have bought him. Should have saved up and bought that purple Montipora instead. Poor judgement.