Steve Bory

Obviously I haven't totally nailed down the difference between zoas and palys. Thanks Steve...I guess I can enjoy my Veteran's Day off again. By the way, all the frags opened up right away and look great. Thanks again.

Are these hydroids and the sponge something that I might need to get rid of or do I keep them?

I've got some potential pests that I'm hoping someone can help me with. 1) Is this Zoa Pox? If it is, what should I do? It only appears to be on one polyp. It appears to bump out some. This one makes me really nervous. I first spotted this about 15 minutes ago. 2) What is this worm-like thing? Do I need to be concerned about it? They appear to be multiplying quickly, but staying on the same rock. 3) This one looks like a cotton ball. What is it? I touched it and it was squishy. It's been in my tank for a while. It's grown, but doesn't appear to be bothering anything. It's pretty weird though. Any help would be great, especially regarding the white spot on my zoa as I've read zoa pox can decimate the whole tank...

My pumps had been running for only a few months, but I've had a real algae problem lately. It really was easy. Even if it doesn't solve your problem, they've got to be cleaned anyways. I don't think it can hurt.

Wow, thanks again everyone for tips on cleaning my powerheads. It totally worked for me. Well, kind of. The back chambers of my AIO tank had so much gunk built up that was never moving around with my previously week powerhead that suddenly made it into the front. It's all settling down now I think. I'm kind of blown away by how much better they're working though.

Interesting. I hadn't thought of the efficiency of the pump. This may call for a bit of experimentation I think. Thanks for your input.

Why did you remove the locline? I would think that it would increase water movement in the tank, which would be good, right? I've definitely been trying to feed sparingly and have been vacuming during weekly water changes. If I ever wanted to seriously go down the SPS route, I know I would have to make some modifications to my setup (skimmer, more lights, etc), which I'm not ready to do yet.

As requested, here's some pictures. I know...it's looking pretty rough in there. FTS and Cyano

It's a 12 gallon Aquapod with a 70w Sunpod I'll check it out. Thanks.

The tank has been running for a few months now. I've had some green microalgae on my live rock the whole time, which I initially attributed to having a new tank, but it has not stopped. The red slime is new though. I haven't been too worried about the green algae as its only on the rock and I plan on having it all covered with coral eventually anyways. I'm really hoping that a good size ball of macroalgae will suck the nutrients out of the tank that are feeding the microalgae and cyano, but I'm not sure if this is the only/best option. Also, I'm not running a skimmer. I've read that on a tank of this size, weekly water changes should be fine and I'm not planning on stocking much/any SPS. I'll post a full tank shot tomorrow (the lights are off now). <Edit> If anybody has any good ideas on a small, somewhat quiet skimmer, that won't be ridiculous on my tank, I would love to hear about it. I'm under the impression that the Nano Fission(sp?) skimmer is the only one that fits the bill, but I've heard that it sucks and I shouldn't bother.

I'm having red slimy cyanobacteria on the sandbed of my 12 gallon aquapod. I'm planning on getting a submersible light and a ball of chaeto for one of the back chambers. Does anyone have any other advice? Will this even help? Thanks, Steve

I have been trying to figure my tiny bubbles out for some time now. I figured there was no way it was coming from the return pump because it's completely submerged. Thanks everyone for all this info. I can't wait to get off work tomorrow and get rid of these darn bubbles.

I think getting a peppermint shrimp would be overkill at this point. I've only seen a single aiptasia polyp so far. I guess I'll seal him in tonight with putty and hope he was the only one. As far as the limp kenya tree. It definitely wasn't dropping more branches. It drops a branch every few days and the only part that contracts are the branches that are being touched by the branch that is about to drop and is hanging by a thread. It wasn't even closed up like it closes up at night. It was wrinkled up and laying flat on its side. I suppose it could have been the water change though. I hadn't considered that. I didn't do anything different than usual though, so that is strange.

I have a couple of questions that possibly should be in two separate posts, but oh well. 1) I got a couple new frags last week that had a few interesting hitchhikers along with them: some feather dusters (yay), a brittle star (yay), and aiptasia (boo). I've heard the aiptasia can get out of hand pretty quickly. Does anyone have any advice on how I should do this? I was thinking about sticking a piece of two part epoxy over it and hoping it hasn't taken hold anywhere else. I'm not sure if that's my best course of action though. I read a lot of ways to deal with these things, but everyone complains that they're not working also. 2) I have a Kenya tree that is quickly getting out of control and dropping branches all over the place which of course are attaching to any rock they can get near. Long term, I plan on getting rid of the thing completely, but something interesting happened the other day. I pulled several of these smaller branches off the rocks. Afterwards I did a water change because I have heard that softies can have some chemicals they can release. Anyways, for a good 24 hours or more, the big kenya tree (the one that dropped all of the branches in the first place) was laying limp. It had never done this before. My question is: Did my Kenya tree go limp and contract because of the chemicals in the water from the smaller branches? I'm kind of imagining this as some kind of communication between the now seperate kenya trees like, "The colony is under attack. Go limp and hide." Anyways, I thought it was strange and none of my zoas were affected, so I didn't really mind too much. Thanks, Steve

OK...I'm thinking about getting one of those BRS dosing pumps after christmas when money is not so tight and maybe buying a maxijet next week for temporary. I figure it might be good to have anyways for doing water changes (I have hardwood floors and I splash water all over the place with my current method. ). Thanks everyone.

I'm not sure about using a maxijet. I've heard people complain that on such a small tank, the water comes so quick that by the time the float switches react to being filled, too much water has entered the tank (I'm still not sure how that makes sense with a mechanical float switch, but whatever). I hadn't thought of using two Tom pumps in a chain. That sounds like a pretty good idea that I will need to investigate further. Thank you both for your advice.

I'm planning on making an ATO system for my small 12 gallon setup and would like a recommendation on what pump to use. I see that a lot of people online with similar setups are using the Tom Aqua Lifter, but that pump only has 30" of head height. I am planning on pumping up about 4 feet. Does anyone have any recommendation. Also, I'm kind of cheap, so I really don't want to spend too much money if it's possible. Thanks, Steve

I haven't worked with acrylic yet, but I'm planning to in the next few months. From what I've read it's pretty easy to do besides the cutting. I'm thinking about paying wherever I get it to cut it for me. My plans will be much simpler though. I'm just making a reservoir for an ato system that will fit in my tiny little tank stand. We'll see how it goes though. Good luck!