Little Tokyo tank

[Sangogo]

Hi guys,

While I'm not fortunate enough to live in beautiful Okinawa, I hope that you will allow me to join in your group here. :) I live in Tokyo, but hope to bring a piece of Okinawa to my home in my tank. I get a lot of information from the Japanese magazine Coralfish (issue 6 came out this week), but I find it even more helpful to interact with people who have been in the hobby for a while.

After years of hesitation, I have finally set up my tank (after harassing Jeff a few times) and am posting pics at his suggestion.

here is the full setup: http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/?action=view&current=tank2.jpg

here is the top of the tank:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/tank3.jpg

stuff under the tank:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/tank1.jpg

I took these with my phone which doesn't allow for great quality, but I hope you can see enough. In addition to my 55 gallon tank, I have a skimmer, sterilizer and cooler/heater.

I used 80 kg of live rock and have about an inch of live sand, which I ordered from Pukoa, as well as bacteria formulas recommended by Japanese aquarist magazines. The Pukoa people were so nice, they gave me a free gift. 5 hermit crabs and 2 starfish. Very sweet, but I had no cycled tank to put them into. After consulting Jeff, I put them in the tank and am hoping for the best.

I used mostly natural water, but I forgot about the sump when ordering water, so I had to mix enough water to fill the sump.

I have a stylish-looking metal halite lamp, but for some reason it keeps shutting off each of the bulbs whenever it gets too hot....and turning it back on after it cools a bit. I think I better call the store about this.

So far readings aren't bad on my tank. Ammonia still is only at .2, but I expect that it should spike soon enough. Hopefully my hermits and starfish can live through the spike. Right now they're quite active.

I do expect to make quite a few mistakes here and there . . . and send a few fish to the great toilet bowl in the sky by accident, but hopefully I will be able to avoid some pitfalls early on.

[fdokinawa]

welcome.. your close enough to okinawa I think we can make an exception. =)

Tank looks good.. so, how long you been in japan? must be a while if your able to read japanese magazines..

[Sangogo]

This time around has been about 1.5 years. I did go to school here for a bit when I when I was younger though and went to Saturday Japanese school when I was in the States when I was in high school. I work in Japanese as well, so my Japanese level is probably not the best indicator of how long I have been here. :)

[Sangogo]

So... I get up to look at the tank . . . and I see this weird short worm like thing swirling up and down in the water. It looks like a really tiny snake or small slug . . . just making "s" formations over and over up and down in the water. Doesn't look like the other worms. I know I'm not giving you much to go by, but any idea what this is? Should I be taking it out of the tank?

[jeffb3t]

The worm is normal and you will see quite a few of them in there. I have a few in mine. One recommendation for you. If you can place you chiller outside of the stand, Do so. The first time you have a water leak in the stand, it will damage the chiller. If you want to keep it in the stand, raise it up a few inches just to be safe. Also, is that crushed coral in the sump? If so, I would remove it as it will catch a lot of crud and you will end up with a nitrate and phosphate problem that will drive you nuts. In the first chamber where it looks like the water enters, put some cheato in there with one of those tetra 10000k compact flor lights and it will help control your phosphates and nitrates better. Your set up looks real nice and I am glad you finally got it up and running. Feel free to give me a call anytime if you have questions or problems.

[jeffb3t]

BTW, Welcome to the "Gang"!!!

[Sangogo]

Thanks Jeff!

If I take the coral sand out is there something I should be putting in its place? More of those glass rings maybe? I didn't order the crushed coral . . . the guy just gave it to me in the set along with the glass rings, so I just followed his instructions and used them.

Also, what exactly is "cheato?" (Besides a nasty looking orange snack by Frito-Lay.)

I went to a store today, and contrary to everything I have heard, they told me to start changing the water everyday. O_o I haven't even had a significant increase in ammonia yet. However, when should I do my first water change? I plan to change the water at least once a week following that.

Same store person says I need to get rid of the starfish because they will eat coral. Is this true?

(Oops, I realize that I wrote 80 kg of live rock in my first post, when I meant 80 pounds. It's 35 kg. I am thinking of adding more though, but not too much more since I like the current balance)

[fdokinawa]

Would sugest doing %15 water change every two weeks.

Some starfish are bad.. some are good. what does it look like? you really should invest in a good camera if your going to stay in this hobby...lol

As for the coral.. not sure on that. Leave that one for Jeff.

[Sangogo]

I never was very into photos, so a good camera just seems wasteful to someone like me. :) I did take a few pics of the starfish though.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/starfish1.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/starfish2.jpg

I hear different things from everyone about the water change. I figure that I'm mostly going to test the water each week and take it from there. I'm mostly concerned about when the first water change should be, since I know the tank has to cycle first.

[fdokinawa]

my tanks been back up and running for a couple weeks now.. once I get a chance, ill be doing a water change.

mm Is that one starfish or two? the second pic looks like a starfish I had before.. it was reefsafe.

[vest0830]

Welcome to the "gang".

your tank looks like a great set-up. As jeff mentioned, remove the crushed rock stuff in the sump. your levels are gonna be all over the place all of the time. I had it in my first tank, and it was a big mistake.

-as for water change. I do 10% every 2 weeks...or so.

[Sangogo]

two starfish. The second one is much larger than the first. I hope they are reefsafe, since they're quite pretty in the tank and I wouldn't know what to do with them otherwise.

[Sangogo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7623971#post7623971 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vest0830
Welcome to the "gang".

your tank looks like a great set-up. As jeff mentioned, remove the crushed rock stuff in the sump. your levels are gonna be all over the place all of the time. I had it in my first tank, and it was a big mistake.

-as for water change. I do 10% every 2 weeks...or so.

Thanks!!!

What do you have in your sump instead? Are the glass rings ok?

[jeffb3t]

I would take the glass rings out as well. Not really needed IMO. Chaeato is a macro algae and is very easy to grow. The purpose of it in our systems is to control nitrates and phosephates. From the pics, the first starfish is a red linkia. Very nice looking and are generally reef safe. I am not sure about the second one though. Linkias do however need a well established tank though so to keep a spike in ammonial from doing him in, Go ahead and do 5-10% water changes for the first few weeks and then slow it down to 10% every couple weeks. As long as your water is in check, they should do fine.

[Sangogo]

Since I'm on a new assignment this week at work, I think that I'll have to wait until next weekend to take the coral/rings out. Does the sump stay empty except for the cheaeto then?

In the meantime, my ammonia spiked to 1.0 today and the starfish were rather sluggish today. I did a small water change, since I expect the ammonia to get even higher. (Any ideas of how high the ammonia level will normally gets before it peaks off?)

Not that I had any expectations before, but I don't expect the starfish to survive the week at this point. (I suppose I should be glad that they were a free gift.) I tried some of that "StopAmmonia" stuff though. Hopefully it will buy me a little time.

[jeffb3t]

Just try to keep it under 1 and you should be ok. Continue to do small water changes. You sump will basically be empty but you can put a couple small chunks of LR in it if you want.

[OkiDivers]

Welcome to the gang. We are new to this saltwater thing also, so dont feel alone!

[Sangogo]

Since I got home from work early today, I decided to take the crushed coral and glass rings out of the sump. Without going into speculation or confession of the million things I probably did wrong during the process, I now have a very cloudy tank from the crush coral bits that apparently were in the pumps after I took out the coral. I think any chance I had of keeping things alive have been significantly reduced.... oops.

At least I made the mistake early enough not to be catostrophic is my way of looking at it. And I figure I'll be better off from this point on anyway. So, where do I get chaeto?

I figure the coral grains will settle after a few hours and I did add more saltwater to make up for the space that was taken up from the corals. Ammonia readings are lower today than yesterday, but I seem to be getting some of this cobwebby stuff on my rock. I think I read somewhere that this is due to too much calcium?

Thanks for helping me fix this error early. :)

[fdokinawa]

Jeff can probably mail you some Chaeto.. and I wouldnt worry to much about the crushed coral.. it will all settle down after a bit.

[jeffb3t]

Don't worry about the cloudyness. It will go away in a day or two. The cobweb stuffI am not too sure about but woulnt worry too much. Take a turkey baster and blow the dust off your rocks though. If you can, put some of that polyfloss stuff they sell at the fish stores in a cloth bag like the ones you put delicate clothes in for the washing machine and attach it on the end of the overflow pipe going into the sump. it will help filter out some of the dust. Don't leave it in too long though or it will build up with nitrates. You can change it out every week to control that. As far as cheato, PM me your address and I can send you some. I have quite a bit right now.

[Sangogo]

Turkey baster blasting was much fun. :) Unfortunately a crab scurried across as I was blasting, despite all my efforts to clean the rocks of all crabs before putting them in the tank. >.< It'll probably take me months to catch this thing.

There's this psychedelic green colored mold(?) growing on my rocks, but I assume that it's fairly normal since my water is testing fine at the moment. Unfortunately, the light I bought is defective and I have to get it switched out this week, so my rocks have been in the dark. Other than these small worries, I'm having a great time with this tank. Best purchase ever.

[jeffb3t]

Rocks will be fine in the dark. besides, you have natural light infiltration to take care of them in the mean time. For the crab, take a pet bottle and cut the first 2 inches off of the top and shove it in the bottle. Punch a hole and tie on a string to yank it out of the tank. Bait it with a shrimp and you will have it out in no time. Its the best trap I ever used. What are your water readings now?

[Sangogo]

Ammonia is under 1.0, though I can't tell exactly what shade this light green strip is . . somewhere between .2 and .4

Nitrites are a bit above .5

Nitrates are still nearly 0. I know that I'm not done cycling until this starts rising, so I'm trying to be patient.

PH is rather low... near 7.8, though the test says that this is ok. I do have some marine buffer. Do I need to add this?

Salinity is at about 1.023. I will raise this slowly as I go.

I will try the crab trap this weekend. Things seem to be growing on the rock. A few things that look like feather dusters. Of course, for all I know they could be aiptasia. :) I noticed one of them retracting into its tube suddenly and then popping back out. Fun stuff.

Some weird orange looking stuff has joined the green stuff.... I blew off some of the cobwebby stuff when I was blowing the coral bits off the sand again.

[Sangogo]

hmm . . . using the dropper test, ammonia is about .5, but below 1.0.... which one is accurate?

[jeffb3t]

I wouldn't add any buffers. You tank is very new and will have fluctuations for a while. As far as the dropper test, Hard to tell which is accurate as long as its under 1. You are going to see all kinds of stuff start growing soon like diatoms and it will make your tank all brown looking on the rocks and teh sand. It is perfectly normal and will go away on its own so don't worry. Just be patient and wait for nature to take its course.

[Sangogo]

argh . . . I wake up this morning and find the corpse of a mangled hermit crab on the bottom of my tank, his shell nowhere to be seen. Should I be blaming the hitchhiking crab for this? Or do I have a different problem?

[fdokinawa]

thats very hard to say man.. you could have so many things hiding in your tank.

[jeffb3t]

As FD said, Very hard to tell...Could be the ammonia, could be a crab, could be another hermit fighting for the shell. Could even be what FD had in his tank...Octopus. Some hermits will die off and I would say this is a normal thing. Just today I say one of my hermits attacking a smaller one. I do recommend that if you get hermits, get the smallest ones you can. I don't like any hermits that are bigger than a nickel or go yen.

[Sangogo]

Turns out it was another hermit. I saved another from becoming prey to his own brethren, but I knocked over the live rocks in the process. I took this as a good chance to rearrange the rocks in a pattern that I liked better though. But I haven't seen 2 of the 4 remaining hermits since. Oh well . .. I think I am sticking to docile snails in the future.

My new light has arrived, but it came with no instruction manuals on how to hang it up. I called the distributor and they're currently in the process of drawing me a diagram. I will post pictures once it is up.

[jeffb3t]

So, what's the word on the new light?

[Sangogo]

The second light wouldn't even light.... (Imagine my utter frustration.) Turns out Minato-ku Tokyo has too many buildings and too little power for all of them. So I had to rent a car to return both lights and get one that could operate on lower voltage.

I picked up a blue LED moonlight while I was at it. I'm having them send me a second one though since it one has only enough light to shine on half the tank. I will put up pictures once both moonlights are up.

I added snails to help clean up the rock and sand, so I quarantined the hermits to the sump for now. (I didn't need them making dinner out of my snails yet...) Oddly enough, I found 5 hermits.... I had 5 to begin with and this doesn't explain the dead hermit body that I found the other day. Unless they molt....

My water readings have been stable since coming down from the spike (ammonia is under .5 consistently). I still have a piece of wool in the wool box that I have been changing out. I know I should probably get rid of it (due to potential nitrate issues), but the water still looks dirty to me and I have two packs of the wool that I got for free. Once I run out of wool, I will stop this practice. I also changed some water this weekend.

I also bought two small "debasuzume," which are related to cobalt damsels, but much, much more tame. I know not everyone likes the idea of "starter fish," but I read up heavily on it and thought I would get two small ones and try it out. I acclimated the fish and added some StopAmmonia after adding them. I do have an ample supply of natural seawater on hand in case of disaster though and test the water at least once a day. So far so good.

[fdokinawa]

you sure it was a dead hermit and not just a molted shell?

[Sangogo]

I'm guessing now that it was just a molted shell . . . otherwise, it doesn't explain the count. (Unless I had a hidden stowaway) At the time I was like, "GYAH!!!! Hermit parts!" And since most of their bodies are fairly soft, I just never thought about it.

[jeffb3t]

Most likely a molt. make sure you do small water changes since you have fish in there now.. once a week will help them out a lot. I don't recommend any fish until the cycle has finished but since you have them, do what you can so they don't stress out. How is your skimmer doing?

[Sangogo]

I pretty much guessed what I was in for when I was given the starfish, which I was told are more sensitive than the damsels are. Thus, I have been changing the water every 2-3 days, just about 5 liters at a time, though I am thinking of upping that just in case. Ammonia is currently at less than .25, but nitrates are pretty high according to one of the two tests I ran today so I finally took out the wool and changed some water.

Skimmer is doing great. I throw out the gunk every two days. My cooler doesn't go on very often (I live in a dark apartment), so I don't get much evaporation.

[jeffb3t]

Lucky you with the cooler not staying on. My cooler funs 24/7 and I finally lost one of my corals due to the heat. It was a finger coral. I am kinda bummed about it but I knew it would happen eventually.

[Sangogo]

How high does your temperature get?

I think my tank climbed to 27 degrees once yesterday, but only very briefly. It generally sits around 25-26 degrees, which is what I have been told is normal reef temp in Okinawa, but I wonder if I should set the cooler down a notch so that I won't have any more 27 degree spikes.

[jeffb3t]

Well, the main tank hit 89 a few days ago but I have since put a fan on the sump to keep the temp sitting at 83 -84 which is good considering the heat outside the house. The clam tank sits at 87 but doesn't seem to be a problem at all for them. They all look really good and full of color. I wouldn't worry about the temp spike you had. I would worry if the temp goes up to 30C though.

[fdokinawa]

mine is sitting at 26-27 right now.. so yea, your good.

[jeffb3t]

Sangogo, Do you have a spot ready and lights for cheato yet? I have some that I am ready to send to you.

[Sangogo]

the long awaited update:

Nitrites and Ammonia are very low and Nitrate is just starting to get under control.

Jeff sent me some Cheato and a frag, and since my new lights are now all up, here are some pics. (Thank you, Jeff!!!!)

the zoos!
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/?action=view&current=06-07-12_01-091.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1

zoos up close: http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/?action=view&current=06-07-12_01-071.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch3

Zoos are doing very well. Now all polyps open and I swear it's growing really quickly.... There seem to be more polyps than before.

Fish are doing well. And the lights work well with the current timer.

the tank: http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/06-07-12_01-081.jpg

the lights:http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/06-07-12_01-08.jpg

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/06-07-12_01-07.jpg


the sump: http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/06-07-12_01-10.jpg

I also love tropical plants and in order to get more light out of your plant lamp, you are told to cover walls and surfaces with foil. I figured the same principle could work here, so I covered the back of the sump, left side and door of cabinet with foil to reflect the light back. Looks weird, but it does work well with plants.

Don't mind the silly poster in the background. I accidentally ripped a bit of the wallpaper, so the poster is there to hide that.

[Donstuprich]

Cool man! Looking good!

[fdokinawa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7723142#post7723142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Donstuprich
Cool man! Looking good!

lol.. Sangogo is a woman. :D Me and jeff were talking about that the other day.

But yea, tank is looking real good..:rollface:

[jeffb3t]

Very good. I am glad you like the frag. I will send more later on after the tank begins to stabalize.

[Donstuprich]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7725369#post7725369 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fdokinawa
lol.. Sangogo is a woman. :D Me and jeff were talking about that the other day.


Doh' :D :lol: Tank still looking good!

[Sangogo]

Hahaha, I'm not sure I know many men who would use sango as a name.

I tried something I saw on the forums. Someone said you can stick chaeto between two rocks in the main tank and it seemed like an interesting idea. I put a little between two rocks and went to sleep. I wake up and it is completely gone, not a trace. I guess it was consumed by the tank inhabitants pretty quickly. So much for that idea. I was pretty amused. :)

[jeffb3t]

Don't worry though, If you need more, I got plenty for everyone.

[Sangogo]

Thanks. :) I only stuck a small amount between the rocks, so I'm in no danger of running out any time soon.

The post I had seen said you could grow it in the main tank this way and it seemed like an interesting idea, so just wanted to try it. How fast should I expect it to grow?

[jeffb3t]

How fast it grows will depend on lighting and the water quality you have. Mine was under 150 watts of VHO which is pretty strong. I reduced the lighting to 75 watts and have minimal nitrates but it still grows rather fast in my tank. Normally I would say it will double it's size in a couple months. Try to sell the extra you harvest to a shop or trade for coral if you can. The ball I sent you is about the size you want to keep it at.

[vest0830]

that tank is really comming together!

[jeffb3t]

If anyone feels like chipping in with a frag and a few $, we can send some frags up there to help stock this new tank. I say in about a month , it will be ready for some additional eye candy. Let me know if you want to.

[Sangogo]

Thanks for the offer, Jeff :) I hope you all had fun at the get-together. It rained in Tokyo like crazy that weekend.

It's been a crazy few weeks at work, but it's been nice to come home to the tank. I ordered two small mini-corals on ppm and added a small coral from the LFS during the last few weeks.

The lfs near work had dottybacks on sale for 800 yen, so I've added one of those too.

Nitrates have been at less than .25 on one test, undetectable on the other two. Ammonia wavers between 0-.25 on one test (undetectable on the other), depending on how successful I am at getting the dottyback to eat. Nitrites and phosphates are undetectable. Seems pretty stable. I change 1-3 gallons of water twice a week.

Cheato has grown over twice its size though. So much that it's blocking its own light source. I know you said I should trade it, but I haven't the faintest idea on how to go trading. Do I just bring it to the LFS and beg them to take it off my hands? Can I keep it in a bag in the fridge for now?

[jeffb3t]

I would just take it on down to the fish shop and see if they want to trade for something. if not, you could just give it to them or see if there is another reefer in the area that wants it.

[vest0830]

I have a few frags in the back side of my new tank. If these take to the branches...they will be shipped up to you.

Its a 6" tonga branch with a muchroom and 2 lathers that will hopefully attach. We will see how this goes. Its my first real propogation experiment. I cut them and attached them with rubberbands...so I say 3 weeks and they should be good. We will see...

[jeffb3t]

Frank, Make sure if you secure them with rubber bands, it is not too tight. Just enough to hold it down.

[jeffb3t]

My bad, didn't finish before I posted. It can be a pain to cut the rubber band off if the coral decided to try and grow around the band like I had happen one time.

[Sangogo]

New update:

I bought some corals from PPM's website over the last few weeks, including one of their "gems of the day" which has a tiny disc coral and a tiny carnation coral. (I don't expect the carnation to survive, but I liked the way the disc coral was arranged on this rock. Unfortunately, the addition of the carnation made this little pebble pretty expensive.)

I think I have a mantis. I have been seeing little tiny shells strewn about and I saw a dark crustracean between my rocks that can curl up like a lobster. Of course, it ran away before I could do anything and I called Jeff in panic.

Since adding the clown, I don't feel any real need to add more fish to my tank. (I suppose I should add a buddy for the clown eventually.... and a tang might be nice just for the sake of someone to eat my chaeto.)

Just adding coral a few at a time. One coral caught brown jelly, fell on another and spread it to the second coral. Second coral seems to be making somewhat of a recovery since I cut off the most infected branch. The first coral (my most expensive one, a rare bright pink nephthea) has mostly melted away, but I hope the little stump left will eventually grow into something. If not, I already have a special order at another store that should fill eventually. :D

Water vitals pretty good. Ammonia and nitrates aren't always at zero since buying the sun coral, since the sun coral eats a lot, but doesn't digest all of it....

Here are some pics.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/pinktosaka.jpg Gorgeous until it melted away. I will never buy frm that store again. They said it was just a little weak and would recover. (Was too lazy to flip the pic when I uploaded it . . being that this coral barely exists in my tank now, no point in reposting on photobucket.)

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image012.jpg my stupid dottyback who got himself caught in the crab trap

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image015.jpg cute shrimp that like to crawl on my hands when I move rocks.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image036.jpg my fabulous sun coral that takes an hour to feed everyday...
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image030.jpg Ignore the crab trap in towards the right.
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image033.jpg
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image038.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image035.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/sangotank/Image034.jpg

[Donstuprich]

I like the way you stacked your LR. With regards to your sun coral, do you target feed each polyp? What are you feeding them?

[jeffb3t]

Very nice. You have a great looking display!

[TPS-Dive]

That's a nice looking clown. Here a pic of its distant cousins living on the reef's in Okinawa.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i196/TerryDive/P7300011e.jpg

[Sangogo]

Don,

I scoured the net and forums on how to fed them. I was most worried about dirtying the water since I have it on a rock where any sort of "cap" made from a bottle probably wouldn't fit very well. A few people said to take them out of the main tank and feed them in a a separate small container filled with tank water. So I do that.

In the small container, I put in some red plankton and swirl that around with a turkey baster until the polyps open. Then I throw in mysis shrimp cubes. When I first got it, it wouldn't eat by itself, so I had to use a syringe and stuff a shrimp into each polyp. Now, I only do that with a few of the polyps. After an hour or two, I take it out and put it back on its rock in the main tank. Of course, this method sucks during the week if work has kept you at the office until 1 am, but I stay diligent and do it everyday despite that.

[fdokinawa]

wholy crap that sounds like a headache... beautiful coral though.. wonder if any of my corals need hand feeding.. lol oh well.

[Sangogo]

hmm . . . Dottyback is gone. It was looking kind of weird on sunday night; had a white string-like thing hanging from it and something that looked like a gallstone or something. It was also in a nasty mood and attacking anything that came near it. Haven't seen it since. If I have a mantis, I'm sure the mantis would have easily finished it off.

I'm not sure whether to be sad or not, since the dottyback was probably the least intelligent thing in my tank and made it hard to choose less aggresive tankmates. But it was rather cute and it had a bit of personality. I guess I'll get another once I get more tankmates. I did a waterchange (about 15 liters) just in case. Everything else looks fine. Shrimp keeping walking into the mantis trap. (Hell, dottyback got himself into this trap within 10 minutes of me setting it up....)

[Donstuprich]

Wow that's a lot of work with your sun corals!

Every other day I turn my off all my pumps 20-30 mins after the lights go out. I target feed each polyp with a pipette (sp). I give about about 2 mysis shrimp targeted to each. Nothing else. I also target my brittles at the same time too. After about 10-minutes, the sun coral open back up after eating and I turn all the pumps back on.

I know it can be a pain with fish in a tank. I read to feed fish first then target feed each polyp when they are open. They grab the mysis and pull them in. Working for my so far. Just my 2cp. I go through a cube of mysis a week so far just target feeding my sun bunch which is about the size of an egg.

[vest0830]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7805526#post7805526 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vest0830
I have a few frags in the back side of my new tank. If these take to the branches...they will be shipped up to you.

Its a 6" tonga branch with a muchroom and 2 lathers that will hopefully attach. We will see how this goes. Its my first real propogation experiment. I cut them and attached them with rubberbands...so I say 3 weeks and they should be good. We will see...

Checked my frags last night. My fragging worked :)
Jeff was right (again) I split one of my lathers with the rubberband, but I have 100% faith that I now have 2 lathers rather than 1. :cool: :p . They seem like they are going to be fine.

Whenever the frags are ready to send up, LMK.

-frank

[jeffb3t]

So how are the leathers doing?

[Sangogo]

Sounds great, Frank! I'm not sure what leathers are called in Japanese. A Tosaka type?

I hope you guys have fun tomorrow at the coral farm!