Glad to be back in SG, NEWBIE needs HELP!

[Jeffs]

Hi guys, new member here. I stumbled upon aq recently while looking for pictures of planted tanks. A little bit about myself: I attended Primary and Secondary school in Sg before moving to US for college. I had two planted tanks (100 liter, 30 liter) while studying there and absolutely love it. Now that I'm back, I managed to persuade my mom (easy since she loves fish) to get a tank for the house. My plan is to do somewhere between 80-100l FW planted tanks. I browsed the mizuworld website and I only have this to say: You guys in Sg are bloody lucky since everything is dirt cheap. When I set up my tank overseas, anubias cost USD$6-10 each (6-12 leaves) and anubias grown on driftwood sells for USD $40 (S$60). I don't even want to start talking about fish (eg.US$36 for a pair of apisto trifasciatas). Guess budget won't be a problem in this country =)

Anyways, blabbering aside, I am REALLY glad to be back home in SG. Although I have kept fish as a kid, I never really understood water chemistry till now. I do have a few questions and I hope that you guys can help me out:

1) I saw your LFS listing page. I'm operating on a tight schedule and don't have time to go to every store. Can you guys recommend me a few stores that sell a wide variety of FW plants (esp. dwarf anubias, HC, glosso, vals, rotalas) and FW fish? (esp. dwarf rasboras, fancy tetras - weitzmani, dwarf cichlids, loaches - tiger hillstream loach). Also, which store has a good variety of aquarium setups/test kits/co2/dechlorinators etc. I would prefer a one-stop shop but I know this could be hard as it is impossible for a LFS to focus on so many products.

2) Since I do not have a test kit, can you guys give me a brief info on water parameters? pH, soft/hardness etc. Do they put chloramines in sg water? Anything specific about sg water that I should be concerned about?

3) What do you guys use to keep the temp. even? Most fish that I am interested in likes 26C. That is about the same temp indoor. Do you guys use any type of heater/chiller? What if temp. drops when the AC is on? Will it adversely affect the tank? Is a heater a must-have item??

4) Any of you ordered stuff from mizuworld? I am more concerned about live plants and inverts. In US, since the country is so big shipping live fish is a big issue and I often get dead/sick fish. Can online vendors in sg be trusted? If not mizu, anywhere else?

5) Is there an active aquarium society in sg that holds frequent fish/plant auctions. When I was overseas, the best way to obtain rare fish for cheap was to frequent such auctions. Is there something similar in sg? Or do you guys just use the forum to trade?

Sorry for all the newbie questions. I would love to meet many of you guys and hope to learn from all of you.

[CK Yeo]

Welcome back to Singapore.

1) I saw your LFS listing page. I'm operating on a tight schedule and don't have time to go to every store. Can you guys recommend me a few stores that sell a wide variety of FW plants (esp. dwarf anubias, HC, glosso, vals, rotalas) and FW fish? (esp. dwarf rasboras, fancy tetras - weitzmani, dwarf cichlids, loaches - tiger hillstream loach). Also, which store has a good variety of aquarium setups/test kits/co2/dechlorinators etc. I would prefer a one-stop shop but I know this could be hard as it is impossible for a LFS to focus on so many products.

Clementi Florist and Aquarium aka C328. Amazing but true. All and more. While you are there, might as well pop by Polyart further down the row.
My other favorites includes Aquastar (Y934), Seaview, That Aquarium (Y618'), Biotope, Nature Aquarium. Addresses is all in the LFS directory.

If you cannot find the plant you are looking for, you can try ask the LFS to order in for you.

2) Since I do not have a test kit, can you guys give me a brief info on water parameters? pH, soft/hardness etc. Do they put chloramines in sg water? Anything specific about sg water that I should be concerned about?

Yes they do add Chloramine. Soft in terms of KH and GH.

3) What do you guys use to keep the temp. even? Most fish that I am interested in likes 26C. That is about the same temp indoor. Do you guys use any type of heater/chiller? What if temp. drops when the AC is on? Will it adversely affect the tank? Is a heater a must-have item??

With the lights, filter, pump etc running, you should be worried about the temperature going up. Should be fine even with the air conditioner on. Fan works great bringing the temperature down, but topping up evaporation can be a pain.

4) Any of you ordered stuff from mizuworld? I am more concerned about live plants and inverts. In US, since the country is so big shipping live fish is a big issue and I often get dead/sick fish. Can online vendors in sg be trusted? If not mizu, anywhere else?

Mail order is something new here. Convenience for busy people.
Singapore is tiny. Doesn't take that long to go from one end of the island to the other. Most of the LFS listed earlier are near MRT stations.

5) Is there an active aquarium society in sg that holds frequent fish/plant auctions. When I was overseas, the best way to obtain rare fish for cheap was to frequent such auctions. Is there something similar in sg? Or do you guys just use the forum to trade?

Auction? There are some local forums that does this online.
Look out in the buy and sell for cheap deals.


ck

[bossteck]

Hi Jeffs,

Welcome to the forum and back to the country

I recommend Seaview, Biotope and Wu Hu for fanua. Colorful, Seaview for most plants, Bioplast for mosses. C328 is also a place to visit.

ph of water in my area is 7.1, kh is 0 degree, don't have test kits for GH.

I used to have a fan to keep my water temperature low, but these days, I don't bother. My tank is about 28 degrees celsius these days.

Can't help with 4) and 5) though.

[torque6]

1) I saw your LFS listing page. I'm operating on a tight schedule and don't have time to go to every store. Can you guys recommend me a few stores that sell a wide variety of FW plants (esp. dwarf anubias, HC, glosso, vals, rotalas) and FW fish? (esp. dwarf rasboras, fancy tetras - weitzmani, dwarf cichlids, loaches - tiger hillstream loach). Also, which store has a good variety of aquarium setups/test kits/co2/dechlorinators etc. I would prefer a one-stop shop but I know this could be hard as it is impossible for a LFS to focus on so many products.

Most of the LFS dont "exactly" sell a variety of plants here in sg, but both sisters co such as c328/y618 order from the same supplier, you just have to get hold of the planted handbook and indicated what you want, or make a trip down to Yio Chu Kang area and visit the supplier themselves, i've recalled its Teo or something.

2) Since I do not have a test kit, can you guys give me a brief info on water parameters? pH, soft/hardness etc. Do they put chloramines in sg water? Anything specific about sg water that I should be concerned about?

There was some articles back in 05' with some concerns of chloramines present in our tap water. I personally use Seachem Prime as the main dechlorinater. Water parameters should sit at around 7-7.5 PH. KH/GH =0 [east area]

3) What do you guys use to keep the temp. even? Most fish that I am interested in likes 26C. That is about the same temp indoor. Do you guys use any type of heater/chiller? What if temp. drops when the AC is on? Will it adversely affect the tank? Is a heater a must-have item??

I've DIYed my own AC/DC coolermaster fan 12x12 maintaining a satisfactory temp of 24 night/ 26 day. 25 on avg generally, unless its from Feb-Apr when its extremely hot.

4) Any of you ordered stuff from mizuworld? I am more concerned about live plants and inverts. In US, since the country is so big shipping live fish is a big issue and I often get dead/sick fish. Can online vendors in sg be trusted? If not mizu, anywhere else?

MIZUworld / aka Ben has the best online deals, you can check Jervis thread on his "first impressions". Mizuworld by the way is our "trusted" merchants on AQ.