Incredible Corals

That's the only reason I would buy on of those high priced zoas. It's like a little money tree. Tiny $100's growing in your tank.

hah sounds good. I want to let the mini colony I have grow a bit more. There are about 30-40 polyps right now.

I wasn't sure if they are a type or "hornet". Sorry my picture taking skills aren't the best.

I think it just needs to be resized to 25% or so. 2% is too small to compare the pics agains each other.

+1, I have to have one!

What is a good brand for a UV sterelizer?

I have been doing some more research as well and didn't think about the UV harming the beneficial algea and bacteria. I'm also on the fence as well.

Submitters: Me (Steve V.) forrealb50 Location: Taken in my 55gal mixed reef Camera Used: Cannon Digital SLR Subject: "Clown Heaven" my 12+" LTA

I was thinking about getting a Turbo Twist UV Sterilizer to help with some algae and increase the health of my fish. What do you think about them? Are they worth the $100-$150.

I did just that a few days ago. I turned one PH up to break up the surface even more. I've had a skunk cleaner for a while and all the fish go over to him. On a positive note. All the fish are looking better. All the their eyes have cleared up and the clowns look much better. They are eating like crazy and I'm giving mostly rods soaked in garlic. Four fish in a 55 isn't too bad. I really want a yellow tang. Not sure what it is about that fish but I love the way they swim.

Thanks for all the help. I was starting to believe I was the only one that had gone through this. I'm going to just feed the remaining fish well and hope they all recover (rods and garlic soaked flakes etc). I'll keep the tank as-is for a few months and work on getting the water even better (not sure how much better) and work on coral growth. If the remaining fish recover then I might add some more fish down the road and only fish that are very ich/disease resistant (ie Rabbit fish, madrian, damsels, chromies, etc.) With one kid under 2 and another on the way I need to keep the hobby as easy as possible. I don't have time for multiple quarantine tanks or the space for more than my 55gal. On the bright side, all my corals are doing amazing along with all my inverts. I can't wait to see what the tank looks like a year from now. Maybe I could get some cool inverts like one of those electric flame scallops.

I want to add an ATO off to my tank just to make everything a little more automated. Anyone built one on their own and can post a step-by-step? I was going to buy one from www.autotopoff.com. Priced out, it's going to cost around $70 plus the cost of a reservoir. There's got to be a cheaper way.

I spit my coffee out when I read that...

Yep, in all the fish they have it in the eyes as well as on the body.

The saga continues

Hopeless is exactly how I'm feeling. Such a bummer to see your fish die one after another when you are "doing everything right". I've found a lot of research that shows that cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp do not actually eat ich. They feed soley off of the dead skin. I also tired both in the past with no luck. Which fish from your experience are the hardiest? I thought clowns were hardy and look at mine. They look like H-E-double hockey sticks.

I have heard that kick ick does not work and can be risky with corals. I have never added chemicals to my tank besides supplements and don't really want to start now. When my fish were in the QT they were treated with copper. All their spots were gone in a week and looked great with out any spots or rubbing for 5 weeks. I gave up on the QT process because you can add ich back in the DT with anything wet. So in order to really keep ich out of your DT you would need a QT setup for fish and QT tank for coral and inverts. Each QT would need to keep the occupants for 6-8 cycles. Waiting 6 weeks to add coral to tank just seems crazy to me. I don't have the space for all these tanks or time to take care of 3 tanks. I'm thinking of just going with the hardiest fish out there and getting a bunch of them.

So here

Yep, they sleep in the LTA all night. I guess they don't feel much of a threat in the take during they day so they swim around with the other fish.

FTS!

This is 3rd or 4th rescape that I did.

You can see some of the tentacles sticking out on the bottom of the last pic. The LTA is about the size of a basketball. The hippos are pals (for now). They stick together most of the time and eat together without problems. I had a third but he jumped (very sad day). I'm sure when they get around the 4" mark they will want to venture off on their own. When that happens one will get to stay.

My 55 gal mixed reef. Surprisingly the 15+" LTA is hidden between the two peninsulas on the left and right side of the tank.

Do you think you could paint the trim black? Is there a paint that is safe? I really like how it looks... and the price tag

Just set the dvr. Thanks for the reminder.