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Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978

Hood Ornament posted:

Mystery palys, mostly open


Mystery no more! Now that I've seen them open, I can definitely identify them. Those are called Armor of God palythoas. I have them and they're pretty cool. Just be advised: they grow SLOOOOOOOOWLLLY. My initial frag of them was 5 polyps. I placed them in the tank appropriately and they seem very happy. Only whereas my other zoo colonies have probably doubled in size (or more), I've only gained 2 polyps in 6 months.


quote:

Mystery Coral #3, opened, hosted by anemone shrimp


This looks like some sort of leather coral, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it is.

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Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you

Psimitry posted:

Mystery no more! Now that I've seen them open, I can definitely identify them. Those are called Armor of God palythoas. I have them and they're pretty cool. Just be advised: they grow SLOOOOOOOOWLLLY. My initial frag of them was 5 polyps. I placed them in the tank appropriately and they seem very happy. Only whereas my other zoo colonies have probably doubled in size (or more), I've only gained 2 polyps in 6 months.


This looks like some sort of leather coral, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it is.

Thanks for the info! I like being able to name my corals instead of just shrugging at them. :3: I think Mystery #3 is a Duncan Coral, but we'll see as it grows.

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe

Hood Ornament posted:

Mystery Coral #3, opened, hosted by anemone shrimp


The mouth in the center says lps to me, it looks like a duncan without the long tentacles could be stressed or not grown out, does it have a stony skeleton at all? maybe a little big, but could be a single polyp from a turbinaria species but that would be pretty weird.

Here is a shot of my 65g tank as of tonight.

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
That's pretty slick. LOVE the Ric's and the Alien-Eye paly's. I need to get more of those.

Edit: it doesn't seem very wide for a 65G. Is it a cube?

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe

Psimitry posted:

That's pretty slick. LOVE the Ric's and the Alien-Eye paly's. I need to get more of those.

Edit: it doesn't seem very wide for a 65G. Is it a cube?

No its a standard All Glass 65g 36" wide, the same as a 40 breeder but a lot taller. I am going to try and take some more pics to post later.

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you

bobbert posted:

The mouth in the center says lps to me, it looks like a duncan without the long tentacles could be stressed or not grown out, does it have a stony skeleton at all? maybe a little big, but could be a single polyp from a turbinaria species but that would be pretty weird.

Yeah when it was closed up, it just looked and felt like a piece of bone, actually.

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe

Hood Ornament posted:

Yeah when it was closed up, it just looked and felt like a piece of bone, actually.

yeah it almost has to be a duncan you will know as soon as it starts growing especially if the testicles get longer. They are really easy to keep and grow extremely fast if that is what it is.

crudnugget
Nov 14, 2000

*sigh*

bobbert posted:

yeah it almost has to be a duncan you will know as soon as it starts growing especially if the testicles get longer. They are really easy to keep and grow extremely fast if that is what it is.
Hmm what kind of coral are you talking about? :lol::lol::lol:

csammis
Aug 26, 2003

Mental Institution

bobbert posted:

especially if the testicles get longer.

This is either the best Freudian slip I've seen recently, or the most hilarious long-time misunderstanding of a word ever :)

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you
Great, now I have to worry about my Duncan teabagging my shrimp.

ChloroformSeduction
Sep 3, 2006

THERE'S NO CURE FOR BEING A CUNT, SO PLEASE KEEP REMINDING ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
I'm getting a new marine tank today, a 14 gal. biocube from a coworker who's moving. I have a lot of FW experience over the years, but haven't had a saltwater in ages (last time I did, you had to have an UG filter, and in order to get a reef tank it required a special hood with something like 7 different lights).

At any rate, I'm stoked about it. There are currently 2 damsels and a tomato clown inhabiting the tank, in addition to some crabs. I've picked up some live sand to swap out the old stuff with, and have a bucket of mixed up saltwater to replace what was taken out during the move. The hydrometer is with the tank, and the LFS was sold out of refractometers, so I just went with taste to ballpark, but I realize that the salinity of the water I deal with at work (I work at a public aquarium, with jellies, mainly coldwater, and it occurred to me that going by taste is disgusting, but I get mouthfuls of the stuff all the time, so I would think it's pretty accurate) is probably lower than what is needed for tropical saltwater. Anyway, I can fine tune it once the tank gets here.

I'm thinking of trading the fish currently in it, since I recall damsels as being quite aggressive, and I think the tomato clown might be a bit large. From the photos, there doesn't look to be a lot of live rock in it, which I'll soon remedy. Apparently the biocubes are kind of lovely for lighting, which eliminates some of the cooler stuff, but it looks like it'll still be pretty good for a variety of inverts. Ultimately I would like a Red Sea Max, since I'm not so keen on all of the cords at the moment (but they're a little pricey and I'm saving my pennies for a new saddle right now), so I think that the free biocube is a good way to get myself back into SW maintenance.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a tank of this size, or anything to look out for with this particular brand? I'm fairly sure that I'm limited to perc clowns, blennies etc. for fish, but I would like to get maybe an urchin or two (would they bugger up the acrylic?) and some seastars (I know some of them can be aggressive, so I'm not sure if in a tank this small they'll just eat some of the slower inverts). Any suggestions are appreciated, I'll try and post some photos once I have it set up again.

crudnugget
Nov 14, 2000

*sigh*

ChloroformSeduction posted:

...
I'd recommend taking a trip to http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/ Lots of great info there, focusing on tanks of your size.

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe

csammis posted:

This is either the best Freudian slip I've seen recently, or the most hilarious long-time misunderstanding of a word ever :)

oh man i just got back from a trip to see these posts, i am going to blame this on my terrible spelling and Microsoft words ability to auto correct it into testicles...

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
As always with biocubes/nanocubes/red sea max, watch out for heat. With my biocube 14, I had to install an 80mm computer fan and drill holes in the hood to allow for ventilation in order to keep the tank at a reasonable temperature.

A single tomato clown and some damsels aren't necessarily too much for that tank. I'd look into getting rid of the damsels, but keep the clown (personally). One thing you'll be tempted to go with because it's a cube and they usually get along pretty well is firefish. With your crabs I would strongly advise against it. Firefish ALWAYS disappear with crabs in the tank (and usually even without them).

If you want an absolutely awesome species to put in your cube, consider a Jawfish (video of mine here. Mine is a pearly jawfish, the much more expensive blue-spot jawfish is even cooler). Just make sure you have at least 2-3" of pretty fine sand as well as some assorted shells and larger bits as they like to decorate the outside of their caves (and also like a bit to use as a lid to cover their hole when they go to sleep).

As far as needing a special canopy with multiple lights to keep reefs, well you're effectively getting just that. Your tank will come with two lightbulbs that are linked (effectively 4 individual bulbs covering different parts of the spectrum). Look into getting a matching 10,000k/7100k bulb that is your daylight. You should probably replace both lights right off the bat (effectively, get two of these.).

But yeah, as far as the best advice I can give you, get a digital thermometer AND WATCH THE loving TEMPERATURE. I actually have a biocube 14, and the 80mm fan I had installed burned out today (as they are prone to do since I have it in a pretty moist environment), the temp got to 86F. WAY TOO HOT.

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you

Psimitry posted:

Firefish ALWAYS disappear with crabs in the tank (and usually even without them).

Well, you were right about this. My firefish died over the weekend, but not from crabs. He found the tiny hole in the lid for the cord to my powerhead and managed to jump out of it, leaving me a crispy firefish on my desk this morning.

God dammit, stupid fish. He was a cool little guy. :(

csammis
Aug 26, 2003

Mental Institution
I feel your pain Hood Ornament. My tank is finally done cycling, and last Thursday I introduced a Randall's goby...it seemed to acclimate just fine and spent the afternoon/evening exploring, but drat if I didn't find one dried-up goby on the floor the next morning. My lid had one gap to exploit, but exploited it was :(

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
Gobies are very common jumpers, sadly.

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you
I have a bit of an advanced question for you guys.

I have two lettuce sea slugs in my nanotank, and I've recently learned that they only seem to eat Bryopsis algae. I don't have any in my tank, and since it's considered a pest algae, I doubt I'll find it for sale at a LFS.

Long story short, does anyone have Bryopsis growing in their tank that they would be willing to ship to me? I know my slugs can live a good while without food, but I really don't want the little guys to slowly starve!

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
Even if I could find some bryopsis in my tank, I doubt it would last shipping it to you. You may be better off just giving the snails back to the store if you're that worried.

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you

Psimitry posted:

Even if I could find some bryopsis in my tank, I doubt it would last shipping it to you. You may be better off just giving the snails back to the store if you're that worried.

I bought them from Ken at sealifeinc.net, and I emailed him asking about Bryopsis and he is going to search his tanks for me. His customer service is pretty much unbeatable.

My LFS doesn't have any bryopsis, and besides that, I'm always wary of what they tell me. I went in there today and they had beautiful sea slugs that I know for a fact only eat certain species of sponges, but according to the LFS they eat algae. :byodood: Those poor things are going to starve to death.

Thankfully my lettuce sea slugs are also photosynthetic, so they can go for quite a few months without food by living off the chloroplasts in their body. So at least I know I have plenty of time to look for bryopsis.

Supernaturalist
Sep 25, 2007

Forum Rat
Ken is freaking awesome, I love his stuff so much my new 37 will be a Keys/Caribbean biotope made up of mostly his stuff.Living in Tampa means shipping big stuff like LR costs so much less!

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you

Supernaturalist posted:

Ken is freaking awesome, I love his stuff so much my new 37 will be a Keys/Caribbean biotope made up of mostly his stuff.Living in Tampa means shipping big stuff like LR costs so much less!

Pretty much every invert and coral in my tank is from him. :)

A few exceptions from LiveAquaria and Mr. Coral.

Ramen Pride!
Jan 13, 2001
Oh, here's an update on that red slime problem I was having.

I went to my LFS and asked for Chemi-Clean, and they looked at me like I had two heads. Since I wasn't going to buy it online, I just bit the bullet and for the first time ever I am now using distilled water in my tank when I change the water. I've done two twenty percent changes in the last couple of weeks now.

Problem solved. The red slime algae is in full retreat. No phosphates = no problem.

Man, the water supply around here must really, really, really, REALLY suck. I'm even thinking of investing in some sort of filtration system for my drinking water now.

csammis
Aug 26, 2003

Mental Institution
I haven't kept zoas before, so I'm not sure if this is normal behavior. I got a couple of colonies on plugs from a local store on Wednesday. As has always been my policy with new corals, I gave them an RO/DI freshwater dip before introducing them to my tank: matched the temperature, pH buffered it, dip for 5 - 7 minutes, then into the tank they go. This has worked great for rics, xenia, and GSP in the past, but on both of the new zoa colonies most of the polyps are still clenched up. A few have opened up and seem happy enough, but I'm a bit concerned about the rest of them. Should I give them more time in the tank before I get worried that the closed polyps are dead?

Aphelion Necrology
Jul 17, 2005

Take care of the dead and the dead will take care of you
Some of my polyps took a few days to fully open and I don't even dip them, so I wouldn't worry too much yet. They're probably just shy. :3:

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe
I have had some take 4 or 5 days to open after fragging or other stress, I wouldn't worry until they start to shrink which could take weeks.

ChloroformSeduction
Sep 3, 2006

THERE'S NO CURE FOR BEING A CUNT, SO PLEASE KEEP REMINDING ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
Thanks for the advice on biocubes and the referral to nano-reef.com guys. The temperature actually seems to be about spot on, but the room I keep it in is on the lower level, which tends to be a bit cooler. I'll keep an eye on it in the summer though, because it's just about perfect without a heater. I'm thinking about upgrading the lights, as the lights that come with the biocube limit what I can have (no nifty clams :( )

I traded in the fish at the LFS the day I got it - turns out that the girl who I got the biocube from hadn't done much maintenance recently, so I didn't feel so great about putting them back after the move. I bought some snails, zoas, yellow polyps (both of which I were assured were fairly hardy) and a pom-pom crab (not so hardy), all of which have done quite well over the week, with the exception of the two snails. One of the already present hermit crabs killed and ate them. I'm assuming it was due to needing a new shell, since he's been wearing the larger one. :( I know it's just how things are, but still, it's a little morbid so I've named him Buffalo Bill.

Everything's been testing well over the week, so I got some palys, feather dusters, more snails and a yellow Watchman Goby today. The store was out of the specific shrimp that went with him, but I guess he's ok without having his little shrimp friend for now.

I've gotten rid of most of the algae that was covering everything, but there's still a lot, so I'm hoping that the snails take care of the rest eventually.

Nifty-est thing yet though is a tiny seastar I discovered while fiddling with the filter media this morning. I thought it was dead, since it was little and hard, so I just chucked it in the bottom of the tank, and as I type this, I can see it zooming up the side of the glass. It's small - if it had all four arms, it would be just smaller than a nickel. It looks as though it should should have four arms, yet is growing three new ones where the one broke off. Not sure how that's going to work out.

ETA: Turns out the little seastar is actually a pest, so I hope he doesn't start eating anything he shouldn't. I'm a little concerned about the little anthropods I see in the LR, but everything I've read indicates them to be good in reef tanks - I just know that they bugger up jellies, and that removing them from the jellies doesn't always end well for the jelly. We've had to euth entire tanks of cyanea and others because of anthropod infestations.

ChloroformSeduction fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Aug 31, 2008

Ramen Pride!
Jan 13, 2001

ChloroformSeduction posted:

Nifty-est thing yet though is a tiny seastar I discovered while fiddling with the filter media this morning. I thought it was dead, since it was little and hard, so I just chucked it in the bottom of the tank, and as I type this, I can see it zooming up the side of the glass. It's small - if it had all four arms, it would be just smaller than a nickel. It looks as though it should should have four arms, yet is growing three new ones where the one broke off. Not sure how that's going to work out.

ETA: Turns out the little seastar is actually a pest, so I hope he doesn't start eating anything he shouldn't. I'm a little concerned about the little anthropods I see in the LR, but everything I've read indicates them to be good in reef tanks - I just know that they bugger up jellies, and that removing them from the jellies doesn't always end well for the jelly. We've had to euth entire tanks of cyanea and others because of anthropod infestations.

I actually love those little starfish guys, but I don't currently and have never kept live corals in my tanks. So I have never had any reason to want to get rid of them.

As far as I know, they just skim around and eat stuff, and occasionally split in half (or drop arms) and make more of themselves, which is why they never seem symmetrical. They never get large enough to be really interesting, but they are fun to have.

*The next time one of them cruises to the front of the tank I have, I'll post a pic.

Ramen Pride! fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Aug 31, 2008

Ramen Pride!
Jan 13, 2001
Here's a pic of one of those little asterids, from the side of my tank.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978

Ramen Pride! posted:

using distilled water

You should actually consider picking up an RO/DI system ASAP if you're going to keep corals. Distilled water usually involves using copper distilling systems and you can end up getting copper in your aquarium (which will end up killing your corals).

Ramen Pride!
Jan 13, 2001

Psimitry posted:

You should actually consider picking up an RO/DI system ASAP if you're going to keep corals. Distilled water usually involves using copper distilling systems and you can end up getting copper in your aquarium (which will end up killing your corals).

Sadly enough, that's not in my budget, and the LFS around here looks at me crosseyed whenever I ask them if they sell reverse osmosis water. Of course, their tanks are crawling with red slime too, so it's pretty obvious they don't.

So far so good, but thanks for the distilled water copper warning. I guess I'm dammned if I do and dammned if I don't.

csammis
Aug 26, 2003

Mental Institution
One of my zoanthid colonies has opened up nicely, and the other is getting there slowly but surely :)





Any ideas on what variety they are?

The full tank shot as of last night:

KPD-aGgS
May 29, 2005
Killing People Dead - Its a way of life...
Finally added a few cool things to my tank. Sorry my camera is a little blurry.
Here's everybody, 5 chromis, 2 clown fish (false percula), cleaner shrimp hiding in the bottom.

Click here for the full 1280x960 image.

Close up of my ricordeas, red mushroom, and my little green anemone.

Click here for the full 1280x960 image.
]
My other lonely mushroom

Click here for the full 1280x960 image.

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
You sure that's an anemone? The only green things I see there appear to be a ricordia and a green ricordia yuma.

KPD-aGgS
May 29, 2005
Killing People Dead - Its a way of life...

Psimitry posted:

You sure that's an anemone? The only green things I see there appear to be a ricordia and a green ricordia yuma.
Yeah it is a rock anemone from Ken. Which I might add I tried only because of the good things you guys said about him, and it was definitely worth it.

Click here for the full 1280x960 image.

Hes just got short little arms.

bobbert
Dec 8, 2002
Fish N Scooters
Fun Shoe
I am going to be entering a photo contest next month that is worth $100 in store credit at a lfs. It is going to be judged by the owner and employees none of which are photographers, so it needs a lot of pop. I can only enter three here is what I have so far.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.

Paul E. Waug
Feb 18, 2007

bobbert posted:

I am going to be entering a photo contest next month that is worth $100 in store credit at a lfs. It is going to be judged by the owner and employees none of which are photographers, so it needs a lot of pop. I can only enter three here is what I have so far.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


I Like 2,4, and 6

Psimitry
Jun 3, 2003

Hostile negotiations since 1978
I'd go with number 4, but I'm also a total Bluespot jawfish whore.

The problem I have with all of these is the same problem I have with a lot of coral shops - the white balance is shifted way too blue. It looks like the shots are taken only with actinic lights on. Try shifting a little more towards white and you've got some really great shots. Even if the shots are realistic to where it is in your tank, it still looks too blue.

Fredus
Sep 4, 2004
the lonely albatross
I like 2 and 3. The fish ones are nice but it would have been good if you had a higher f stop value or did focus bracketing.

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Desert Bus
May 9, 2004

Take 1 tablet by mouth daily.
I like 2, 3, and 4. 3 and 4 more than 2, if that helps you to narrow things down.

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