Suggestions wanted!

[Aquarius Lady]

Just wanted to let you know how everything is going with the tank. I bought the Live sand from Tidelineand the live rock, the tank is positively ALIVE with tons of benefitial cop's and amphi's. I now have around 10 reef safe hermits, and a couple Bumblebee snails and cerith snails, featherdusters as well as the peppermint shrimp, and horseshoe crab, and last but not least, my little neon goby.
I also have an intank refugium to grow the caulerpa and red micro algae, and any future coral frags ;)
I had ordered my retrofit lights from tideline and a glass top for the bowfront that will hopefully be in this thursday.
All water paremeters are great!
What are your opinions on these corals, and do you ever get them in?
Brain (Wesophyllia)
Anchor Coral (Euphyllia Ancora)
Candy Coral (caulestrea Furcata)
Mushrooms
Because it is a SMALL tank it is very well lit! No problem there! I am running with 30 lbs live rock, penguin (sans biowheel) with media and phosguard, and the 501 powerhead. (great water movement)
Also what would your RECOMMEND (all suggestions welcome!) or like to see in there, if it was yours :D
Thanks in advance,
Warmly,

[Troy182]

I love brain corals. so if it fits I would say go for it. however anchor corals have huge sweeper tenticles that will sting corals that are nearby. If these are for your 16 bowfront all corals are nearby. candy corals are cool they can grow large but they frag well so go for it. Mushrooms are great, are easily obtained and very hardy. They are great corals for fraging.

[Simbo18]

I wouldn't go with the mushrooms if the tank is as well lit as you say it is. Mostly because they will just contract from the light. It wouldn't make a nice piece even thought they would probably live for a while with bright lights.
I think you should go with a brain (open or closed) and or a candy cane.

Luke

[Troy182]

Have you seen the blue mushrooms in skips tank? he has a 75 with 2 175 watt 10K halides and 440watts of mixed VHO attinics.
Huge mushrooms healthy as you could ever want. Plus I think she is getting PC's from tidelines and mushrooms could thrive 1" from PC'S and not get too much light. I could be wrong but unless the strip light retrofit you are getting includes 250watt halides or above I think mushrooms would be fine. heck lunchbucket had mushrooms in a 10 gallon with a 400 watt radium bulb on a pfo ballast with no problems. I think if she wants mushrooms she will be just fine.

[ReefSC]

I agree Troy no problem with mushrooms and PC's. Aquarius Lady, don't forget the leathers, beautiful movement, fast growth rate and one of the easiest to frag. Healthy candy canes also have sweepers but not so big they couldn't be kept in check. I would say the ideal candidates for your tank would be softies (of course including leathers), mushrooms, and zoanthids. Green stsar polyps are a beautiful soft coral that spread quickly and have proved fairly indestructible in some of my tanks.
Randy

[skipm]

Like Troy said I have a ton of blue mushrooms and a couple of other colors (only a few of each though) that are growing like crazy under MHs and VHOs. I have had mushrooms more than 3 inches across before they started splitting, and I am not referring to elephant ear mushrooms either. If you want mushrooms then go for it. Button polyps, star polyps, yellow polyps, etc. are also great choices but keep in mind that they will need to be fed a couple of times a week. I use phytoplex, chromaplex, and zooplex (made by Kent) and also use Cyclops-eeze which is frozen coepods. I do not use all of the foods for each feeding but use them either singly or in combinations according to what I feel like using (not very scientific but it has worked so far). I also use frozen food for my fish so they may get some of the tiniest pieces from that too.
I will try to bring a few goodies to the next meeting. Skip

[Aquarius Lady]

Actually my tank has some really good ‘variable’ lighting for being small.
I placed my Live rock in a sort of double lagoon structure with two ledges over both lagoons that offer dimmer lighting (Think of an “M� exactly how you see it looking down, with two main shelves) Right now I am running a standard Coral-Life 10K – when I get the retrofit it should be a 10k full spectrum and then the acetinc bulb as well.
Here is my “DREAM� list of what I would LIKE to have in the tank (if possible!) I am writing them in order of most desirable ;)

Wellsophyllia Brain
Ricordia
Candy Cane or the Anchor coral Eup. Ancora
Mushrooms (blue or metallics)
Fungia Repanda

I really like the LPS’s and anything with that metallic kind of glow :D
I have on Sebae (white w/ Blue tip) coming in this week and I may in time go with a small, small bulb anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor).
Obviously all this is debatable, hence my throwing it out to you all, to get your opinions.
I did just want to let you know though that the tank DOES have areas of moderately to darkly dim.
Also, Minfinger or anyone. I saw that Palmetto Reefs has some GORGEOUS, gorgeous Ricordia at reasonable prices! Would it still be like 50 bucks for them to ship it just down the corner to Summerville? Or do they ever come this way?
Thanks!

[Aquarius Lady]

Originally posted by skipm
I use phytoplex, chromaplex, and zooplex (made by Kent) and also use Cyclops-eeze which is frozen coepods. I do not use all of the foods for each feeding but use them either singly or in combinations according to what I feel like using (not very scientific but it has worked so far).

Hey Skip,
Sounds good to me! After all, I think 50% of the hobby is getting your own formula's and combinations dowm! Everyone seems to have their own cocktail of ingredients that works really well for their tank!
I picked up some Kent Phytoplex at Tideline (for future corals, for the tiny feather dusters and the large one) and also Marine Snow.
I do the same as you, try and mix things up or feed alternating formulas.

[skipm]

If you are interested in buying something from Darren (Palmetto Reefs) give him a call and see if you can come by, the last meeting I went to in Columbia several of us dropped in after the meeting and did a wee bit of shopping.
I noticed you said something someplace about being disabled, does this limit the length of travel that you can make?
BTW, I fragged a few of the blue mushrooms and have them under wedding veil with your name on them if you are interested and they attatch. Skip

[Aquarius Lady]

Originally posted by skipm
If you are interested in buying something from Darren (Palmetto Reefs) give him a call and see if you can come by, the last meeting I went to in Columbia several of us dropped in after the meeting and did a wee bit of shopping.
I noticed you said something someplace about being disabled, does this limit the length of travel that you can make?
BTW, I fragged a few of the blue mushrooms and have them under wedding veil with your name on them if you are interested and they attatch. Skip

Unfortunately it does. It is hard for ME to drive personally that far, and since Husband is in the AF, he isn't always available to drive me around. However, if someone ever DOES go to Columbia, I may just give them the $$ and order and see if they can grab it and I can meet that at a halfway place around here, or what not. I also wrote an email to Darren at PR and explained the situation, see if he has any suggestions (There are two Ricordea's I'm in love with on his site! Small colorful ones)
Skip, you are a DEAR! glad to hear about the mushrooms your fragging, of COURSE I'm interested! LOL! Does a bear.....Ah you know the rest ;) LOL! I will for sure make it to the November meeting unless health causes me to cancel, but I will for sure do everything in my power to get there!

[Simbo18]

What everyone says about skips mushrooms is true as long with other people having sucess with mushrooms under pc's and or MH but you can't actually say that any mushroom will thrive under that... I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that those mushrooms have been adapted to such bright light. Am I right skip, even if you did get those mushrooms that were able to take that light they were adapted from someone else. I had mushrooms that could hardly take my 300W at the bottom of my 38 gal. and over time they grew upwards on my rock and now they thrive on my lights. But this theory is almost true with all corals and or anemones. So what I'm saying is if you want a bright light shroom make sure you know the shroom came from a tank or with BRIGHT lights
ex. Skip:D .

Luke

[Troy182]

I think I remember him saying that shipping to around here is not as expensive. I would give him a call. I find he is more responsive to phone calls than emails. his # from his web page is (803)665-4620. Let us know.

[ReefSC]

Be careful, Ricordea are one of the few mushrooms that actually need very bright light. Start with some discomosas (wich is probably what Skips blue ones are) and see how they do before you spend $$$ on Ricordia.