Lee Stearns

Majano-slower but just as painful as buble algea.

I used to keep a large textile cone in my tank in Hawaii and in Japan to solely eat the cowreys that I wanted to keep- very efficient hunters and eat the the flesh without any dammage to the shell. Neat to see them track down and home in on a cowrey- then they have a hollow tube hypodermic needle like that they inject thier poison with. They usually use once and then grow another. The cowrey limps off and then the textile cone would follow the slime trail for his meal when he caught up. Might seem a bit sadistic- but it is just nature and really neat to watch.

Jason- Think about this long term with the tap water. If you are replacing evaporated water from your system to maintain salinity, then over time the chlomides and other heavy metal toxics build up. No matter how many water changes you do dilution can not get you out of this. It is like Magnesium in reverse, If your system is using some magnesium - you can never get back to the correct balance (without 100% water change all at once)- (not advisable or feasble for the critters). your only answer is add the trace element. (Note that with Magnesium- if you have low Salinity it will be difficult to raise magnesium if you are testing for it.) I have taken down too many 3-6 year old tanks that were essentially pickled and not able to maintain anything but the hardiest of critters, aptasia, majano, some crabs and snails that were using tap water long term. Most of your LPS and SPS corals just need more pristine water than that. Your experiment, because this hobby is more art than science, but giving anyone setting up the impression that they can or should follow suit is wrong. Regards, Lee Stearns

Agree that at some point a SPS heavy tank will require either daily dosing or a calcium reactor. The testing indicator for this move is when you can not maintain your alkalinity. Some rapidly growing corals such as the green bali slimer may actually start to die without alk and calcium maintained at thier proper levels. Once a good Calcium reactor is set up and tweaked right, it is really as much of a fire and forget peice of gear as this hobby has. If you do not want this type of set up - I would go more heavily into LPS and softies with only one or two SPS specimens.

hopefully the battery air bubblers wil get me through if power does take a hit.

the first issue I look at for a bleaching event is normally a heat event- usually tooo hot, but rarely it could be too cold. Note temp gages are notorious for going bad over time- good idea to have two gages and maybe a glass thermom to back them up. I would also note that it takes a significant amount of time for the corals to recover from a heat driven bleach event. I have had a sunset monti, and pavona take two months to recover from a heat bleaching event when the tricolor acro had recovered at about a month and the digitatas, and plating never were totally effected, just lightened up. Phos can create a bleaching event as well but less often, and corals recover from a phos spike a bit quicker after you bring down the phos.

yep I have had my pair for more than 5 years and there are ties they disappear for up to two weeks, even when I had them in a 12 gallon nano (they are now in a 54 corner)- It would be strange if they both died simutaneously with all other tank inhabitants doing well. how the corals look are a key first indicator of water parameter problems.

Aquairum coras by Eric Borneman. Selection, husbandry, and natural history is tough to beat

I started the same way thinking balance PH by running fuge on reverse cycle of the main tank lights. It works as my son conducted a high school lighting experiment on cycles using two nano cubes as closely mirror stocked as possible. Of note copepod production is a bit better with some lights off time. I actually run my main tank's fuge reverse cycle but maybe 18 hours. On my 54 corner and many other tanks I have seen the fuge lights are run 24/7. It can not hurt as a step to bring down Nitrates- but one must keep their chaeto trimmed back to allow room for it to grow. When it gets too thickly matted it slows down its growth. You can add a bit of calurpa which grows much faster than chaeto, but is not stable and should be used sparingly for this purpose in the fuge. I also run a bit of carbon which is not just for Nitrates, but believe that carbon can be and often is over used, which is why I do not list it in my things to lower nitrates. Nitrate sponges are also effective if you are fighting a large algea bloom due primarily to nitrates. Purigen is one that I favor if that is the case- It can be recharged using bleach then thouroughly dried and reused several times. But I would not like to depend on it long term. Just MHO Regards, Lee

sounds like a group buy on a good set would be in order

yes that is what I would call teh green hairy

1)use nothing but RO/DI for top off 2)good skimming, 3) macro algea in a fuge growing 24/7 4)top off water goes through a kalk reactor of some type to keep PH up 5)and of couse calcium and alkalinity balanced in appropriate range 6) DSB(6inches or more) is more of a preference and IMHO should be relegated to the refuge if desired. 2-3 inches seems the mixed reef standard for most peoples viewing tank. It and works well a a buffer, bio diversity area, and nessecity for many wrasses and gobies. These will keep the nitrates in check in order of priority that I would install them- I am talking the 0-3 PPM range. If you are running any bio balls I would list slowly removing them at the top of the list. I have not come across a mixed reef tank that will not balance out in the 0-3 range doing the above. Water changes will move the tank in the right direction if made with RO/DI.

I have many green hairy and a few blue hairy of the same species. the green out grow the blue ones of course- I have only seen the blue ones in a few members tanks in the area.

I always have rotifers as well if you are in my area. I used to grow green water But Reed mariculture's cryopreserved algae as ctenophore says is much much easier. Just PM me if you need some

I concur with Garret- If it is in a tube it is probably a snail- but acts more like a tube worm, the two antenae are actually the feet of the Vermetus snaill which fishes for bacteria with its mucous lines- reels them out when the tank is stirred up and then reels it back in to eat.

The way to settle down new sand is with some established sand form some ones tank- The bateria gets on the small particles and settles them. If you use the more expesive wet sand which already has live bacteria then you will not get the flare up at all- as your tank begins to cycle the sand will settle down by itself, and never be a problem again- just depends on whether you have more time than money.

I used to have many many small snails at night- not pyramids, but since I have a radiant wrasse, he cleaned them all out.

I second much of the advice above, generally when one think sof a bleaching event it is genearally associated with ligting first (Some kind of change, new lights, lights did not come on, or slow aging of bulbs) Craig also noted a swing in alk, calcium, ph and or phos can cause changes. Temperature I had not thought of until I had a power outage for 24 hours- i kept flow and all else in the tank- but my temperature dropped to about 73 degrees at its lowest point- I normally have it about 80-81. When the power came back on and temperature, lights and all perameters were back to normal I ended up with pale looking corals for about two weeks.

I agree with steve. IMHO - PC and T5s have not reached the actinic asthetics of VHO's. There are 24 inch VHOs. I have had VHO and various T5 actinics/blues over my main tank. I have found that some of the corals I have given out to others are far better looking (colored up) in their tanks (Eddi) than under my MH and T5 combo. I will be pulling 2 of my 6 T5s out from under my hood and replace them with VHO actinics.

Scott, I would be interested in the baby blue monti- reserve one for me - let me know if you are looking for anything Anyone - I am also looking for a blue tort- PM Me or a peice of chalice Rik your light blue tort is georgeous- just too pricey for me- when I pay that it is garanteed to die in my set up within a year- I have a nice tricolor purple tip acro that I can bring if there is an interest- red zoas, green on green zoas Orange zoas large hairry green mushrooms standard purple mushrooms Green striped palys toad stool Green or orange digi Green or orange monti cap rainbow monti frag

Phil has been at this hobby for quite a while, but since his development of Reef eScape- his hands on knowledge base has exponentially increased. He sees many dozens of tanks each week in all sizes. He has seen virtually every problem a marine aquarist will see, many times over, and can quickly diagnose and recommend changes. I have watched him do things with Marine aquariums that are contrary to "conventional" wisdom, and virtually impossible for the new or even relatively experienced reefer to do. His true forte is putting up a system that functions quickly and efficiently for the bio-load expected with as little hands on maintenance as possible. His set ups avoid so many of the little "gotchas" that are hard learned by us hobbyists. The key is setting them up right the first time vs. the painful and costly slow evolution that many of us hobbyist have gone through. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to set up or consult on a system they are setting up. Truth in disclosure: I have had the pleasant opportunity to accompany Phil on several of his large system set ups, and truly enjoyed getting the opportunity to revisit and watch some of these systems develop into great reef systems over an amazingly short period.

welcome aboard let us know if you haev questions- S/F,

I estimate with out water changes you will go through about a gallon of water a week for evap. do about 1 galon water change a week, or 4 gallons at one time once a month on that puppy and you shoule be fine. I ran nano cubes at work and just kept one gallon of fresh water for topping off that owuld last a month on a 12 gallon nano. I would bring in a gallon of water change salt water once ever few weeks to a month. I kept 13 varietiesof soft corals, cleaner and pistol shrimps, a crabs, snails and gobies- No issue with maintaining water quality. Godd luck.

welcome - lots of good basic advice is available - and many will give cuttings of corals that are suitable to what you may want in your tanks pending thier lights and conditions. Just ask or PM someone near you, many of us are trimming some corals on a fairly regular basis. Regards,

concur with Ric- I have many Asterina and have never know to have any of the bad ones to be in any tanks in this area- Mine eat mainly algea, always a good thing.