bues0022

I wasn't able to make the meeting - can someone do a quick cliff notes of what I missed? I'm bummed because I'm quite interested in anemones. I did a write-up a number of years ago on my thoughts on why BTA's move around in our tanks - I'll have to see if I can dig it up from reefcentral..... I found what I'd written - how does it compare with the expert? On the topic of a BTA moving "all the time" as some say...I would argue strongly against this statement. In my experience, from reading, and discussions with other people with far more expertise than me, a BTA will remain in its spot if all of its living conditions are being met satisfactorily. There is no benefit to the anemone (risk of being stung/sliced by corals, risk of not finding another rock in the ocean, predatory animals, etc) to "just move around" IF all conditions are appropriate. Water quality, light, food, flow, and foot - the five conditions that must be satisfactorily met for all anemones. Water quality: In the ocean, if local currents drastically change after storms, rivers dump crap into the ocean etc, the nem may want to move to conditions which better suit its liking. In our tanks, however, there are no other areas which have better water - but the anemone doesn't know that. This is my #1 pick for why anemones move without apparent reason. It may even be something in your water which you do not test for - or it may be BECAUSE you just did a water change and didn't match tank water close enough. The anemone is searching for something it just can not find inside a glass box, hence the so called "anemone's just sometimes walk around for no reason". We can't see the reason - so we assume there isn't one. Light: Lighting in the ocean is quite strong. Far more than our little electrical lights we use. Even on a cloudy day the par is very high - ever had a sunburn on a cloudy day? When you introduce a BTA, you may have a spot picked out that you really want it to go, but it may decide it is too bright or too dim and promptly move. As it gets light-acclimated to your tank, it may move to a spot that is "just right" for its health in the long term. This acclimating and moving to a new home may also cause confusion to BTA's "moving a lot". Food: Yikes! There is a lot of misconceptions about the "proper" diet for anemones. I did a write-up a while back about the topic: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1835320 A basic summary of that thread is.....assuming a healthy nem, food is likely unnecessary. If you would like to feed, feed small (pencil eraser max) meaty, raw, SW-found foods. Unhealthy nems need more food to gain energy and should be fed more. Feeding leads to faster growth. Feeding can also in some cases overcome less-than-ideal lighting because the food is supplementing the light source. More in-depth information can be found at that link. Flow: You need to determine the flow requirements of the species of nem you want, and make it match in order to decrease the likelihood of movement. BTA's will like moderate flow, but not too high or too low. Either of those may cause it to move around. Some can be very picky. I know someone who's Haddoni moved across the sandbed after he cleaned a powerhead and he thought replaced it in the exact same spot (Todd). Apparently it wasn't quite exact. Haddoni's like low flow - if their oral disk is being moved by the current, it's too much and will cause it to move. Foot: This is my #2 reason why BTA's apparently move without known cause. The foot of most anemones also requires special concern. Some anemones like to bury in the sand, some at the sand/rock interface, and some directly onto rocks. BTA's like to have their foot in a deep crevice, hole, or cave. Basically, it's a safe zone for them to hide in if they need to retract. It's also a way for them to regulate the amount of sun it gets. These deep holes are key to keeping a BTA happy with it's current spot. They like their foot shaded, and head out in the sun.

I'm not minimalist in the display, but not packed full either. My sump is packed for room - no way to do an eggcrate divider. Right now rock is on the bottom and cheato on top. I'm considering removing a couple softball sized rocks and using that room to grow cheato instead.

I've got a new fuge light on its way - but I've now started thinking about my potential upcoming problem: what's better in the sump, more cheato or more rocks? I have a small sump (10 gallon tank, roughly 2/3 full of water) on a 30 gallon tank. I have it mostly packed with a lot of live rock, and a small chunk of cheato. I trim it often because it will grow down into the rocks and just get unmanageable. My new light should grow the cheato even faster, but do I trim more or remove some rock? I have had a bit of cyano I've been battling lately, so I've been thinking about the other thread talking about the Redfield ratio (http://wamas.org/forums/topic/87363-tank-failing-need-help/). Would removing some rock and growing more cheato alter my N:P ratio thereby eliminating my cyano?

If you need help getting rid of Zoas, I'd be happy to put them in my tank for you

Zoas are the only thing affected. Actually, only 2 of my 3 frags. The two that are affected actually started as 1 frag, then a big chunk "let go" so I glued it down to a new plug. The zoas in question were from a reputable source, but bugs happen. They seem to have stopped "being cut off" as I described it. But it's been a while and they still aren't opening much. My assessment at this point is that I went too long with the HP. There is at least one polyp open per frag, so they should pull through eventually, but I'm not going to dip again until they look recovered, and then I'll do a much shorter HP dip if things still look rough. The spider I had definitely looked exactly like the one Jon posted, and hopefully it didn't lay eggs inside :( Looks like I'll postpone gluing the frags onto my base rock for a good while so I can pull and dip/tend as necessary.

I checked the water after the dip - nothing visible on the bottom of the bowl besides pods. Maybe it's a bacterial/fungal infection? That would explain why I'm not seeing anything crawling on it, but seeing them shrivel up and pop off. They looked REALLY pissed last night - hopefully I didn't nuke them by trying to fix them!

I didn't even think to take pics - it wasn't very exciting to look at shriveling up zoas. I ended up finding some instructions on R2R, and I did a 10% HP/RO dip for 15 minutes, followed with a swish in dliute SW/Lugols solution. Back in the tank for a day of recovery, then repeat again tomorrow. They all look pretty pissed off this morning, but hopefully they pull through.

While I’m on the topic of zoa pests, does anyone know what the difference is between betadine and Lucila iodine (besides the first is 10% and the second is 2%)?

I have a mystery pest/disease with some of my zoanthids. They start to shrink/not open as much, then it looks like they are cut off at the base. By the time I find them there's some brown goop coming out of the bottom, but I think that's an effect and not a cause. Any ideas? I did pull a zoanthid spider off of them a couple weeks ago and did a FW dip of all zoas at that time, but this has sped up since then. Any ideas? What should I do?

hydroids? They like BBS.

I want something to stir up my sand to keep it looking all nice and clean. There are many who recommend Just doing it manually, but I don’t want to. First, I won’t be able to get to about 1/2 of my sand, and I also don’t have that kind of diligence. So, what to get? I have a 30 gallon cube, which means I have the footprint of two 10 gallon tanks side-by-side (not a huge amount of sandbed). I have a pretty good CUC with nassarius and cerinth snails, but they don’t “really” sift the sand fantastic - just a little as they come in/out of the sand to feed when I feed the fish. I’m thinking some of the “standard” sifting fish like diamond watchman are not great for my tank. Not enough sand (I.e. critters in the sand) to keep them longterm. Thoughts on that topic? So, I’d need a fish that likes to sift sand but doesn’t actually need to in order to eat (and hopefully not make a sandstorm). Inverts: cucumber, sand sifting star, sand dollar etc I don’t think sill survive longterm in the tank either. Again, not enough for them to eat, although the cucumber is likely a better detrivore than the other two which are looking for critters. What about a small Florida conch though? Keep it for a while, trade it in when it gets too big? There are some of the Florida ones that stay much smaller (only a couple inches max) so I’d aim at that rather than the huge ones. Any other ideas that I should consider?

Which one do you have? I’m finding out there’s more to growing cheato than just tossing a bulb on it and calling it a day.

Thanks for the tip! I looked more closely at the listing for the bulb. It appears as though if I had the bottom of the bulb 1.6 feet from the water surface, I would have a 1.5 foot diameter circle of “hot spot”. Using some simple trig, with the bottom of the bulb roughly 6” from the water, I’d have a “hot spot” roughly 5.5 inches in diameter. So yeah, too focused. Would the UFO light be too intense at that close range and 200W? Looks like amazon has the same light (probably newer) at 150W but more expensive than the 200W eBay version.

So, I have a 10 gallon sump, and about half is available for cheato. I only have about 12" head room above the water. Will this light be too powerful if it's not dimmable? I'm leaning towards the less powerful TaoTronics bulb for that reason: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0748D2SMB/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2KUZVNQ9LP7N9&th=1 Or, do I just reduce photoperiod at night and call it good?

Woot Woot!! Hopefully this means some better competition, coral prices come back down, and more options for corals too! Where did you see the memo?

Is it also possible I don't feed enough to have nutrients available for the cheato to use? I feed about a dime sized piece of homemade frozen food per day. 4 fish and a pretty big CUC. I hardly have any algae anymore anywhere - in the tank or in the sump.

I have a clamp-on fixture in my sump for my cheato. I've always been fine growing cheato with a spiral CLF bulb, but my "stock" just ran out, and the bulb I tossed in for a replacement isn't cutting it. The cheato is dark green, but breaks easily into little pieces that are now littering my display. So, what bulb to use for my cheato? I'd rather not spend a ton on a new fixture (some recommend high-end Kessils, but I'm not going to put down $300 to grow cheato). Another forum had someone recommend a $7 Home Depot bulb, but failed to say which one. I found these two last night which others recommended, thoughts? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HPIPM70/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2KUZVNQ9LP7N9&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N47QRHV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3D0RI3DPRKVNK&psc=1

I am not familiar with that light. However, I suspect you have both not enough light and not enough flow. Lack of light is likely worse than flow (short term that you are killing them that is). What kind of powerhead do you have? Picture of the tank? Copper is another good idea for the problems, especially considering how quickly they die. Do you have any other inverts (snails, crabs?)

Perhaps a silly question, but did you unwrap the filters from the plastic before putting them in the containers in the unit?

Wrong. What SHOULD have been stated: "Some people's tanks are not setup properly to provide the conditions necessary to keep anemones alive". Anyone can keep an anemone, if you know the species specific requirements and can meet those requirements. While water quality is very important, what are your lights? What size of tank do you have? How much flow? How much rockwork? Can you post a picture of your tank?

I starting thinking last night that the rumor was exaggerated based on the complete lack of any official statement.

At the moment it's a complete rumor (not corroborated through any press release that I can find), but the chatter that's reached my ears tonight is telling me the Indonesia coral ban is over! Has anyone else heard something similar tonight, or am I falling for a rumor spreading like a wildfire in California? With everyone hoping it's over soon, I can definitely imagine something getting out of hand quickly with this, so hopefully someone else with better sources than me can help confirm.

I've been watching the clowns really close since the goby died a week ago. So far nothing unusual about them. They are captive bred.

I had the fish for about 3 months. No new additions to the tank (fish-wise) for about 2.5 months. Brook was on my list of differentials, but I think it moved too slow. My fish lasted 3-4 days after seeing the nasty stuff on it. Also, the things I've read about Brook say that the excess white "stuff" is excess mucus production. I picked this guy up in my fingers, and he wasn't excessively mucusy, but it was literally like his skin was falling off. I'm no expert with fish diseases, but I also assumed that if I'd have/get brook, my clowns would also be nailed as they seem to be more susceptible, right? In any case, this coincided with an outbreak of red slime, so water quality also had (IMHO) a big factor to play with the fish getting sick with whatever it had. I've done two big water changes, and a third 50% is happening tonight (benefits of a small tank - big % water changes are only a couple buckets of water). Nothing else seems affected at this time.

I'm not going to worry about ich - that one is usually manageable with keeping the rest healthy. I'm mostly concerned if I'm should be working to catch and treat them, or just keep up with good husbandry and let them be.