Almon

Just recently, some of my zoanthids began declining and dissappearing completely. I've had green palys for 7 years, but just recently began aquiring zoas. First were a few 8th Wonders received 6 weeks earlier from Elite Reefs. Then the beautiful flowerseller florescent oranges, and now grav's christmas zoas. Individual polyps will close up, turn brown, fade away, and comletely dissappear. It starts with a few and spreads to the entire colony....... What is going on with these zoanthids? Are they being burned? Not enough flow? Is there a parasite? A bacteria? Is my alkalinity too high? Water specs: pH: 8.0 - 8.2 Ca: 410 dKH: 13.2 NH3/NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: 10 Here are the Christmas Zoas 14 days ago on the reef under 175w 10K MHs Here there are today, front and back, under a 250w 20K MH. Click the picture for full-res. I certainly don't want this to happen to the Solomon's Blues or any other Zoanthids. What's up?

Green Stomatopod coming out for dinner to get the Mysis shrimp.

The Arrow crab is a temporary guest on the country estate while I re-setup the frag tank. He is on one side of the 4' tank and the mantis shrimp is on the other. I will probably be moving the arrow crab to the reef tank very soon. I have read that some people have kept Seahorses and Pipefish successfully, but who know's for how long. Sooner or later, they will probably get smashed. My current Blue Tang, the one in the avatar, and a lunar wrasse lived with the hitchiker mantis for 8 years with any issues. I also have a Kole Tang and Clarkii Clown that lived with him for 5 years. That mantis only killed the snails, crabs, and smaller fish, never the larger fish.

Absolutely....glue the pieces to other rocks, make some frags to give/trade/sell. It looks like a tan Montipora Digitata, but is difficult to tell without seeing the polyps, SPS.

I got a Psychedelic Mandarin about a month ago and he seems to be doing well, but only a month. My reef is 8 years old with pods running about, but I have also seen him eating frozen brine and possible cyclopeeze. I have been considering putting a small in-tank fuge in, but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

I've been thinking about getting (another) one for a while, they're very cool. I unknowingly had one in my tanks for years that hitchiked in from some Caribbean maricultured rock. When I finally knew what it was, I wanted to get it out of the reef as soon as possible. I could not understand why I could not keep small fish....I would add them, see them once, maybe twice, and then never see them again. I was at House of Tropicals two weeks ago and saw that they had two Mantis Shrimp for $9.99 each. So I thought about it for a few days and went back to look again. I decided to get the lime green stomatopod and put him in my 55g display refugium, thinking he/she would like blending in with the green macro algae. He/she was put into a small isolation container with a piece of old red organ coral (nice contrast) and some macros for a couple of days before being moved into the refugium. The mantis shrimp immediately began making a home (Condominium) in the red coral by making tunnels and passages while in the isolation container. Lots of clicking going on. I was considering putting pipefish and seahorses in this refugium as well. There are already hermits, snails, and an Arrow crab in this tank. Does anybody have any opinions on compatibility? I already know the mantis shrimp will take out the hermits and snails sooner or later. I added some specifically for that. Here is a picture of the mantis shrimp in the holding facility in his condo after putting a mysis shrimp in with him. This is a close up This is the refugium about a month ago that that the Stomatopod will be making his/her new home in, the country estate: Click the picture below to watch a YouTube video of the Stomatopod in the new country estate with hermit crabs wandering around. A higher resolution mpg can be downloaded, it's 50MB.

Here are a few of mine sized specifically for you at 1680 x 1050, enjoy. Purple Gorgonian Coral Banded Shrimp Orange and Yellow Zoanthids Palythoas

I use these pictures for my rotating wallpaper. They come from my reef, other reefs from WAMAS members, GARF, the North Western Hawaiin Islands, and some absolutely awesome pictures from someone diving at the Great Barrier Reef. They are mostly sized for 1024x768. http://www.almon.net/corals/Wallpaper

Cool pics....I like the stingray and the green anemone.

Go BIG....and since money is not limiting.....why not build a "Reef Room" to go with it......now we're talking..... Whatever size you get, I suggest you put all of your tanks on 1 system with a shared sump. It's much easier to care for 1 system than 3. Only 1 system to test and only 1 system for water changes. I just added a 55g tank to my system for some reef unfriendlies like puffers, angels, and triggers. I now have on 1 system: 220g reef tank 55g fish tank 55g refugium 40 frag tank

Is there a video on Ed's talk?

That's excellent news, congratulations. Look forward to the videos.... Great website

Rik, you're way more famous than you realize. Google provided 5 links with your address, just on the first page, along with your phone number. Don't need to PM for the address.....but I'll be there...and looking forward to it.

Welcome to the club!

143gadgets: You should submit the Dragonface Pipefish to this contest. That's an awesome picture....

I purchased my 1st RO/DI unit and have it conveniently mounted above my reservoir and next the the water outlet and drain. That was in March. For the previous 22 years I used only tap water, very successfully. Many times not adding dechlorinators because I would run the water for several days using carbon. Never had a problem. I would always use a dechlorinator if I was using the water immediately. Julian Sprung still uses tap water without a dechlorinator.

Yes. A low pressure zone is created at the openings on the side that draws additional water into the unit which is projected forward with original volume of water. I just installed a eductor/penductor that I purchsed from Premium Aquatics for $25. It works great, increasing the volume of water that a pump pushes, however, it doesn't come with the same appeal and satisifaction of one that you made yourself.

Do you dose just bicarbonates for Alkalinity or do you dose for calcium as well?

I use a small pump to auto-top off with kalkwasser and I reduce the volume of flow with a simple valve. Dave, I just started using a DIY kalkstirrer and so far it is sufficiently keeping both the Calcium and the Alkalinity levels up and stable. You may want to consider a Dan's newest kalk stirrer which I believe is gravity fed and continuously drips. Looks to be very easy to use.

Doesn't anyone else have soft corals?

LOL Thanks

Welcome

That's the 1st thing I noticed. Jason, you've gone tank crazy.

Snail.......ok.......It decided to move to the glass and now I got a picture of the underside. That looks like a snail.