'Ric

Bad - and bizarre - news... Recently I picked up two frags of Blue Xenia - one for me, and one for Nadir. They initially looked fine for a couple days. Last night when I got home, my frag had some kind of transparent brownish slime on it and both frags were closed up tight. Today, there was nothing but a brown pimple left on the shell mine was mounted to, and that then drifted off into the gravel and vanished. Nothing is left of my frag. Nadir's however, was right next to it and seems to be ok. I moved it from the display 'fuge I have it in and back to the main tank to prevent whatever that brown stuff was from getting on it, just in case it's some kind of infectious thing. I just bought a sample collection kit from that company that will do lab testing of aquarium water. Hopefully something will turn up that is correctable. I don't get it. My home test kits don't show anything wrong, just maybe 10-40 ppm nitrates (depending on the test kit used) but I didn't think Xenia was sensitive to water quality as much, even preferred some nitrates. If it was a chemical problem with the water, why wouldn't Nadir's frag be affected the same way? I don't know what the deal is in my tank. Any ideas??? 'Ric

This little guy... welcomed by his tankmates and happy at first, but now MIA :( 'Ric

Hmmm... What *should* my TDS reading be?

I agree. Basically, a general rule for planning can always have exceptions. But, exeptions have to be proven by experience. Since the clown is in the tank, and happy, he's fine. If you didn't have a tank and said you planned to get one, I would advise against it, too.

I think we only get to submit one pic for the contest. If not, LMK, because I can't decide which I want to submit of mine!

Probably not, if he adds the water to an open auto top off tank. Chlorine will evaporate out of the water after a while when it's exposed to air. Years back when I had a freshwater tank as a kid, I didn't have any conditioners. I just filled a pitcher with water and let it sit over night.

Well take a pick of it, then!

To add to that, I would also recommend starting with a layer of gravel at the very bottom, then course sand on top of that. As jamal noted, sand that's too fine can get blown around. It aslo can settle down and create dense layer that blocks the osmotic flow through the sandbed. The bacteria need to 'breathe' so to speak.

When lights go out tonight, add a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sugar (better yet, Vodka, if you have it) to provide hydorcarbons for the aneobic bacteria to use to break down the nitrates. Expect white cloudy water in the morning, but that will clear up in a day or so. 'Ric

Go to this thread and scroll down to the post with the graphs. One of the examples was a 55 gallon tank with 8 plants. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?act=...f=4&t=14820 I am about to start me second attempt at red managroves. I got 20 seedlings off eBay and am in the process of acclimateing them to saltwater. Some have died already, so get double what you need. My first batch of three all eventually died, but I made some mistakes along the way. Lessons learned: Seedlings must be acclimated from freshwater to saltwater. Mangroves can grow in either fresh or saltwater, but can't switch between them too fast. Most growers grow them in fresh, so when you get them, you will have to acclimate them to more and more salt in the water over time. How much time, I don't know, but a week is too short. Also, make sure you keep the knuckle at the top of the pod above water at all times, and don't get saltwater on the leaves. When leaves drop, don't let them rot in the water or they will pollute it. Get seedlings with at least some leaves starting to grow, even though the leaves may drop from shipping. Many pods never pop. You don't want to get a bunch of duds. Let us know how it goes. 'Ric

You mean like this, for example?

Ditto! Very cool - how stable are the water params now?

Submitters: Eric Mucklow, 'Ric Location: My 54g Corner Tank Camera Used: Canon 40D Subject: THE TERROR OF THE TANK, NANO-JAWS, AWAITS THE TASTE OF HUMAN FINGER!

Nice! I like the color variety of the worms, too.

The infamous villain, Blue Face, awaits sentencing in his jail cell. Batman has done it again!

Get a UV sterilizer, at least 36W, ASAP.

What is that red in its fin? It killed it?

unkh.? Did someone recommend flame to combat aiptasia??? ~O Geeze - there's a lot of bad advice out there. ...

I hope you plan to get one soon. Nitrates are the end product of the ammonia->nitrite->nitrate process. They tend to accumulate and creep up on you until your tank is really balanced. You won't know until you test for them. I have a Salifert test that I can recommend because it's a lot more accurate than the test strips I used to use. Cheers. 'Ric

What is this thing?? I was looking over my tank in the middle of the night with a subdued flashlight and came across this thing. It's probably about 8" long at least, and very strong. It looks like one of the worms from that movie a few years back called Dune. I got a hold of it with some big tweezers and it pulled back with more force than I though any worm could muster. Then it finally pulled itself out of it's own leathery skin, that it left me holding. Any ideas? I doubt it's "reef safe"! 'Ric

If you don't already have one, add a UV sterilizer to your set up, at least 36W or more. Less wattage doesn't expose the bad things to enough UV to kill them. The white spots from ick can be very tiny. Also, the infection could be in their gills, which is the way ick finally kills fish.

I was able to remove a large section of it once by using a steel pick to scrape under it from an outer edge and peel it it off ine one big sheet. Maybe if yours grows thick enough you can try it.

TOO LATE! I got a reply from the vendor: So, I put it in there and coaxed it in to a nice spot for it. It seems to be doing fine as far as I can tell. But then again, how do you tell if something is doing fine when it normally just lays there anyway? It at least pulses around a little bit. Eric

Ok- I'm a believer now: Last time I dosed with Tech-I (slow release Iodine supplement) my Sally Lightfoot molted the next day. It's been a while, so I dosed again with Tech-I last night. This morning, my Sally Lightfoot molted again. And, a Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp I bought since last time also molted. Short of actual science, that proves it to me. 'Ric