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Hi All, Everything has been great with my tank but a few weeks ago i noticed a maroon colored algae start to form on top of the sand in the corner of my tank which has spread about 1/2 my sand bed now. I have no clue what it is and my daughter lost my digi cam's cable to dload to pc. It seems to sink into the sand at night or atleast diminish and come back when i turn the lights on and is catching air bubbles in it. I also noticed that my green star polyp colony hasnt opened up since yesterday so i did some water tests and my ph has dropped to mid sevens which has never happened before, my amonia is at .1 range barely registering on my test kit and everything else tested well as it always has. Could this algae be the cause of the ph drop by absorbing up either oxygen/co2 and causing an imbalance? All of the other coral and my fish seem to be unaffected. thanks. sorry i cant get any pictures at this time unless i use my cell which is pretty bad lol.

I stopped in on Saturday and picked up 185$ worth of various coral, as this was the first coral going into my new tank i was very pleased with the service and with how helpful they were with picking out some nice starter frags and small pieces for my tank. i will be back soon for some larger items and maybe some sps once i get a lil bit of exp under my belt.

I tried the lights out for a few hours trick, it didnt work so well i swear this fish was a ninja in another life. I also tried feeding in the net he will not come anywhere near the food, i dont want to not feed him for a day for fear of him nipping my coral. I will try the bottle trick tonight and last resort draining the tank down which i don't want to do. thanks all.

Anyone have any tips or ideas on how i can catch this damsel? I have tried baiting it with food, and stuck my net in the corner it likes and waited for over an hour for it to come in range. i cant seem to catch it for the life of me.

i tried, but my camera didnt want to focus on something that small, i did acclimate and add 2 damsel fish last night and they went nuts on the tiny pods. I will put the picture i took below but i dont think anyone will be able to tell much as they are so small and the picture would not come very clear. I circled an area where they are, the larger round white circle i assume is being left on my glass by one of my snails as they appear frequently and in small clusters.

I just looked up the stomatella snail, and that is what i have. That makes me happy to know i dont have to try to remove them as there are many. Thanks for the info, i will try for a pic of the pod like one when i get home.

The photos i posted were from a week after i set up the tank, i just wanted to show the basic set up of it i forgot i had those 4 photos on my photobucket account. I will post the pictures of the creatures in question when i get home this evening.

Hi All, I am at work currently so i can not provide pictures, but i will give a brief description of my set up i have a 55gallon tank, with a seaclone 100 skimmer, and a marineland emperor 400 filter. 3 hydor power heads, 40lbs of black reef sand and 65 lbs of fiji live rock purchsed from a fellow wamas member. The rock is awesome i have had it for about 4 months now, and my tank is very stable with a cleaner crew and a coral shrimp. My coraline is spreading all over the place and my shrimp has molted twice in under two months. But the main reason i am posting is for possible pests, as i am pretty new to the hobby i am not sure what they are. I have allot of pods living in my rock but i noticed on the back glass of my tank is a ton of small white bugs/inverts of some sorts about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a grain of rice and there is alot of them. They do not seem to be doing any harm, i actually witnessed two of them fighting a week ago they have small pinchers and they locked up and boxed i was very entertained. Also i have noticed some snails that almost look like a ground slugs that you pour salt on as a kid. They are white, but have a very low body conforming light purple to dark purple carapace/shell. They are not part of the cleaner crew so i can only assume that after my tanked fully cycled they hatched or came out of the rock, there are quite a few of them from small 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. I will try to find my camera when i get home but just wondered if by description someone might know what they are and if they were harmful for my tank. thanks in advance. TJ Some photos i had on facebook from the first week of set up.

Thanks for the info and advice. I was looking at a RODI on air,water, and ice yesterday I will pick one up this weekend.

Hi All, My name is TJ, I have recently moved from Germantown, MD to the Hyattsville, MD area. I use to get my tank water from a mom and pop drinking water/filtration store in Germantown which was recommended by a fellow hobbyist and had always served my purpose for very little cost as i would fill up 25 gallons of water to keep for top off and changes every few weeks. Now that I have moved I am looking for a new source of water, or if nothing is available a temporary supply while I look into a RODI unit. Does anyone know of a source in my area? I have never bought water from the grocery store to use in my tank before could I use purified/spring water for a temp supply? thanks in advance.