Minh B.

Jan, what an awesome link and I love how it's in timeline format! It's ironic that for years, many have been in search of alien lifeforms in space, when we have our own alien lifeforms in the ocean. Also, developmental and evolutionary biologists have been on a constant search for ancestral organism(s) that displayed adaptations that would facilitate transition from life in the ocean to life on land. Like the fish with hands, the frogfish with eyes facing forward, and the fish with the ability to move its head freely in your link. I guess until we find mermaid/mermen, we're always going to be on the search for that evolutionary missing link.

I have the same problem of being unable to keep zoas. The sps, lps and softies are thriving. The last zoa I had was positioned with high light and flow near an acro and it just disintegrated/not open anymore by the end of the second week. I recently acquired a mini-zoa colony and placed it much lower in the tank and it seems to be ok...for now. Nice. I will give this a try as my skimmer is rated for more than 2X my setup and with the biopellets and MarinePure ceramic balls, I think I may be overkilling it.

Salt will assist in populating as much as LR assist in providing the surface area for bacterial growth. I'm attesting salt isn't a source of feed/food. My post-doctoral research focuses on uncontrolled cell proliferation in yeast/bacteria, and an aspect of cancer in humans. When I clone bacteria (in my case, E. coli), making liquid media with just salt alone leaves the bacteria in a catatonic state where no cell division occurs but it's still alive. It isn't until I add amino acids (a source for protein), carbohydrate (a carbon source) and phosphates (for DNA synthesis) will the bacteria divide and cause the media to become confluent/cloudy. But salt (or the ions it provides) is important for two aspects: maintaining physiological tonicity (so cells don't implode under hyper salinity/explode under super hypo-salinity) and for enzymatic reactions. But salt will not assist in cell division/DNA replication unless it is contaminated with a source of carb, amino acids & phosphates. That's why I suggested he test whether the salt is contaminated by adding it to RODI water. There's enough bacteria in the air to populate that tank if the salt is contaminated.

I would find out what life form/particle you're dealing with and eliminate the food source. If you have a secondary tank, add your RODI water and salt mixture to 1.025 and left it go for a week with a vortech (you probably can afford to give up one of your 3 for the time being. Keep all parameters the same (e.g. temp, etc). If the salt is contaminated with a food source, you'll get a haze similar to the one you have in you DT. After a week of no haze, transfer one or all of your LR, and if it's cloudy after a week, the LR is the contributing food source. If no cloudiness in that tank, then the food source is in your DT. In that case, transfer your fish, dump out & clean out your DT and restart it. Once it's the same parameters as the secondary tank, you can add everything back it. Good luck.

I assume you're only putting in RO/RODI water into your system? What's your salinity level? I have to disagree w/the salt contributing to bacteria bloom as a form of feed. We use salt as a natural preservative to prevent excessive growth of bacteria & fungus. Do you have access to a microscope? If not, I work at NIH and can do a bacterial count for you if you'd like. If its not bacteria and some other particle/life form (like a fungal/yeast outbreak), you can tell under the microscope if you have been trained. Bacteria will 'wiggle' non-stop. Yeast/fungus are often figure 8 bubble-shaped in liquid suspension (do to its very short cell cycle) and they are resistant to penicillin. And it would be helpful to compare your water to someone else's water.

Ingenious idea Steve! Thanks for saving me another messy cleanup until the locker comes.

Thanks Tracy! That has to be it for today's incident & you're right...my bubbles are 'soapy'. This forum is awesome.

Thanks for the advice. Didn't know about that cool trick.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

Is this the collection chamber after the bubbles fall down or inside the cone where the bubbles are?

Hi Tracy. Yep, just put in washed ones yesterday.

I have a Reef Octopus Diablo DB-XS225 that works great almost all the time. Except three times already, it over-flows and floods inside the stand and the surrounding hardwood floors. Today, it happened again but luckily I was home and noticed bubbles going into my DT via the return because the sump level was too low. I quickly shut the power off to the skimmer and dumped out the excess water from my collecting bin. I know the last time it happened, there was a power outage, leading to the increase in level of the sump and when the power came back on, the high water level in the sump caused the over-flow. But today, no power outage. What other factors besides a power outage/rise in water level in the sump could cause the skimmer to over-flow? I adjusted the valve on the skimmer to have the minimum level of water recommended (and not the maximum). I plan on eventually getting Avast's skimmer locker to prevent this from happening again. Thanks.

My thought is if it's happy, opening & growing, let it be. If it wants to, it'll move on its own. I normally feed mine once a week.

I'm curious if anyone has tried the shorter photoperiod with a maxi clam in their mixed sps/lps tank? And if so, for how long to make everyone in the tank happy?

Thanks for the info. I'll have to get it through Amazon.

I'm not with my tank either. I love seeing & reading about other ppl's tanks and getting ideas so the TOTM is quite helpful. I don't think we should do the 1st-3rd rankings but definitely different categories, and would love others' input on what I'm doing wrong & right but know it has potential because it was featured. But TOTM doesn't really offer newbies like me that option. We have to hope that one day our tanks look good enough to be TOTM or risk being embarrassed.

I'm also part of the NCOS (National Capital Orchid Club) here in DC and there's a live judging event at each of our monthly meetings for 6 categories. There's top 3 (1st-3rd) in each category and in the end the head judge gives a 'Best in Show' award. One of our categories is 'First Bloom' which would be equivalent to ATOTM (amateur tank of the month) to showcase young tanks or tanks from newbies. And sorry, I prefer amateur as opposed to 'worst tank' which has a negative connotation. My tank was setup in August & I know it doesn't look like you guys who've done it for a decade+, but I would not nominate or volunteer myself for 'Worst'. Amateur suggests room for improvement (hence the feedback) and 'worst' is everyone say why it's bad/ugly. And why stop there? Large tank (maybe tanks >200 gal?), seasoned tank (maybe >5 yrs?), etc. and still do 'Best in show'. And if you're having difficulty getting participation, why not do it less often like a tank of the fall/spring or seasons or meeting months? Also, the orchids that won 1st in our meetings go on to compete in competitions with other cities (if there is one at the time). But being that we can't drag our tanks along on the road, we can still cross post pics with other cities' forums if we wanted to for a vote or an impartial judge. The last part is probably too much for WAMAS but just thought I give some insight into what other orgs are doing.

Ha! So I did first Aiptasia X and one out of the two imploded so I sucked it up with turkey baster and dumped it. Then took out the clam, placed into a bowel (luckily it didn't squirt that much) and did a coating of the super glue at the two spots. Hopefully no more will pop up.

Great. Thanks for the info!

Coral Hind, is it safe to expose the clam to air? And if so, for how long or until the super glue gel dries? BTW, thanks for the suggestion.

Oh, forgot to say in the picture, it's right in the center on the clam shell. Splotchy white/black star-like shaped.

I purchased this beautiful maxi clam recently from one of our sponsors & noticed that it came with some hitchhikers on its shell. Most seems innocuous except for two spots with what appears to be banded aiptasia, each with about 6-8 pronounced tentacles. My questions are 1) anyone experience this & 2) would getting rid of it (with aiptasia x) on the clam shell be acceptable & safe?

Hey Wardragonet. Which neighborhood in DC are you at? In NOMA NE here. Glad to see another neighbor and I too just got into the hobby 3 months ago (from freshwater -> reef). Lots of cool folks here. Oh, an welcome

Gorgeous. I love the cute conchs. Their eye stalks remind me of the periscope on submarines.

My setup is run strictly with 2 Acan 600PA 18" which comes with the colored (red, amber, green, cyan, magenta), white (12000K) and blue (460 nm). So far I love these lights (recently got in the hobby so no experience with the MH/T5s). The only thing is that there is an adjustment period for both the user and the corals...these lights are super bright at full capacity. Mind you, this 70W is supposed to give off more light than a 250W MH. I have it programmed (you can program intensity for white/blue/moon) and timed to reach 85% capacity (I had it at 100% and my corals weren't too happy) daily, with a 28-day lunar cycle (a nice feature) and a 15 minute lightning phase (I know, a little excessive). So far, the maxi clam and monti are happy.