arwndsh

We got power back right as my shipment I had forgotten about should up from LiveAquaria. Thankfully we had no loses in our 48hrs without power.

Mine were on rocks without any other corals, but I don't know if that means anything.

Mine was about an inch across before it detached itself. I wouldn' recommend trying to manually remove it. From what research I've done plate corals are broadcast spawners and growth sites form when the I guess embryo would be the right term settles. The second baby pictured above popped up right after the first one detached. I think if it damages any of the zoa's it will only be the ones that are closest to it. Thanks for the compliment Trockafella unfortunately something else I also learned about plates was they do not appreciate lack of water movement for several hours. I was gone on vacation for an extened weekend and came home and found out the pump had stopped working. I lost them all. :(

It is definitely a plate coral growing site. A picture of the one of the ones I had is posted below. It will grow slowly if you don't feed it but will grow faster the more you feed it. Mine was very adapt at catching whatever food was floating around in the water. Don't worry about removing the zoanthids around it the plate will take care of them itself. Sam its possible the rock you have has multiple sites on it that you haven't noticed because the plates are so small or it was inactive for a little bit. I know of another person who had one on nano-reef and her site was dormant for about a year I think before it started to grow again. There were two growing sites on the rock shown below one green plate and one pink plate. Here is a picture of the plate that came of the site before the little one above started growing.

I got the same pm but didn't open it since I figured it was spam.

Submitter - Amber arwndsh Location - my 20L tank Camera - Canon XSI with Sigma 150 macro lens Subject - Crocea Clam mantel

I have a 45g with a whole for a 2" bulk head drilled in the top back right (left if you are looking at the back) corner and the back is painted black. Its never had water in it. Might be able to work out a deal if you are interested in it.

Buckets are fine and an air pump is not necessary especially since you are only going 5 miles. I moved my tank from KY to MD in a 2 gal cooler cause thats all I had without a pump and everything was just fine. Corals, fish, and inverts were all in the same tank.

Sounds like you have a variety of astrina starfish. They stay small, I think the largest variety only gets to about an inch across. Most are just grazers but there are a few species that can be opportunistic.

Plates do not need MH as long as you feed them. They don't need MH even if you do feed them. I had 10 in a 2.5g pico with 18w of pc light and they were fine. In fact my smallest plate was growing quickly and it wasn't getting fed because it was too small for the food.

Another thing to note is plate corals should always be in the sand bed. Having them on the rock means they could be damaged easily they need a soft surface to rest on. Secondly it appears to be a long tentacle plate and those are incredibly hard to keep heatly even for really experienced reefers. I'm still sorry about your loss.

That is really good advice. I got home once and started putting my purchases in the tank only to realize I'd come home with an empty bag of water. The store was busy he got distracted and didn't realize the coral didn't make it into the bag. I didn't either. I called they fixed it. No problem. We all got a good laugh. Now I check my bags.

It should also be noted that the different varieties have different levels of sucess. There is a guy on nr that has a red and yellow stripe one that he has had for a few year. He doesn't know what its eating but its surving. There is also a few green ones that I have seen in a local fish store that are doing well. Again they don't know what they are eating but they have been in there for awhile. From the research I have done it appears that the solid red ones are the hardest to keep. Also they are crinoids.

Sounds like sticking everything in 5g buckets with lids will work the best for you.

Here is my tried and proven method of moving. I've done this several (read at least 12 times in the last year and a half) so I know what I'm doing. 1. Purchase a few 5 gallon bucket or a cooler that has an air spout on top. (One should be enough unless you have a lot of rock and the cooler with the air spout on top would be best) 2. Use extra 5 gallon buckets to transport excess water. 3. Have at least a few gallons of new water on hand because some will spill and you will need it to fill the tank back up. 4. Place all corals, fish, inverts, and rocks into the bucket. You do not need to individually bag anything. 5. Put as much of the water in the tank as possible in the bucket with the corals, fish, etc. 6. Place the remaining water in the empty buckets. Leave just enough water in the tank to cover the sand. 7. Place everything in the car and drive to the new destination. If you use a cooler that has an air spout open it, if you don't try to open the 5 gallon bucket lid a little. A pump and heater are not necessary. 8. When you arrive home reassemble everything. 9. Sit back and relax because you are done. It should only take and hour to dissassemble and then an hour to reassemble unless you spend a lot of time playing with the aquascaping. I don't know how many fish you have, but if you have a few in a bucket I'd probably recommend a bubbler or something to keep the water oygenated when they aren't in the car. If you have any other questions let me know. I'll be glad to help you.

Reminds me of a tank I saw in a restaurant in Hawaii. Well minus the hair algea. The entire aquascape was covered in aptaisa's. It actually provided a pretty nice backdrop for the fish they had in there. We actually considered setting up a tank like that on purpose.

YAY the Fed is closed. Booo my office is open and I have to go to work. ugh

Thats awesome that you are doing this Justin. I visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, FL a few years back and it seems they are having the same problem. They have a huge holding facility but its outside and not inclosed in any way. Here is a link to an article on their website about all of this. http://www.turtlehospital.org/blog/

I just did a rough calculation of 7 divided by 3.14 so it could actually be closer to 2.5"

The diameter is 2.25"

Mini carpets will eat snails. We never could keep nerites in our biotope with them. As soon as they fell off the glass on to one they were gone. Is it possible that its getting ready to split? I mean I've never heard of a maxi-mini splitting in captivity, but its possible.

Are you sure its dying and not just getting ready to lay the eggs?

It won't be too heavy for your tank. We had it clipped on the side of a 5.5g tank with no problems.

All you need to know about spliting mini nems http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=121624 and you might find some info in here about them http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=19180

My husband and I have had the pleasure of seeing this system in person. It really is amazing and its just right down the road too.