Our Tbs

[patsan]

The tang ate all the hair algae I had in my tank.
We don't have any hair algae in the TBS tank, so I don't know if the blenny would eat it or not. Our PITA blenny seems to be happiest just digging up the sand and making the water all cloudy.

As far as weather......not fair!
This was the snow at it's worse that I saw when we had the blizzard last week:

After that, we were nice and warm in the 50's this week, and it melted all the snow. We had fierce winds yesterday, and now today the cold. As you all know, I hate the cold with a passion. But, I have to say...this winter has been one of the mildest I can remember. Hopefully it won't last much longer. I can't wait to be in shorts again.

I got an email from the guy who bought my tank + lights. He sent me a few pics of it, and it's awesome looking. He plumbed it together with his 120g. I had asked him what he thought of the T-5 lights..because he was really leery of buying the lights.
He said he has noticed a few of his sps have faded a bit, and the T-5's are not as intense as his halides...which he knew would be the case. But he said his lps and softies are doing better with the T-5's than the MH's, and the clams are holding their own. He said he's pleased with them so far, and even more pleased that the new tank is running him less than $25/mo.

[patsan]

Originally posted by lossman
I'll have to play with pictures tomorrow and see what I can come up with. Otherwise, you all will have to wait until Pat and Bob come visit us (with Pat's most awesome camera and clicking abilities!!)

Oh please!! That's not until the end of April...the beginning of May when we visit you......so you NEED to take some before then.
Just set the camera on the basic setting (I can't rememer the size right now) so the pictures are bigger than what you've posted in the past. Maybe 640x something??????
Then you probably won't even have to re-size them. I never resized any pictures I took with my Olympus camera. I didn't take them at higher resolutions...just regular and they still came out pretty good.

[phil519]

As I've been home on a brief vacation - I decided to stay up late to see if anything "new" is in the tank. Surprisingly enough - a couple things I noticed, that I'm hoping you guys can help id.

The first is a common sea star that I've read either is absolutely harmless or eats corals. Odd how this one is missing some limbs - but here's the pic: (caught it moving from the substrate to the glass)




The second is a continuation of some snails pat and I have noticed in our tanks. I believe I've located the "resting" spot during the day for some of mine:



Finally - the nastiest / weirdest critter find in the tank. It appears to be a worm but appears more slug-like rather than a hunter. Either way I was tempted to dust off the "claw" and crab the guy. Exposed to my flashlight it slowly retracted back under the LR. It appears to be at least 1~2 inches.

Retracting:


Extended one hour after lights out:


Any help is appreciated. I cannot remove the LR the worm-thingy is under. Given that it's been a year I can't figure out whether it is a net positive or neutral. Obviously doesn't attack the fish.

Thanks.

[lossman]

OK, I messed around with adobe and here is what I came up with.

[lossman]

And a few more pictures, now that I got the hang of resizing.


We fed the tank some live brine shrimp last night. The condi made sure she got her share!!


Hitchhiker brain corals


This ricordia was eaten down to about a half dozen little polyps. It has now grown back to twice it's original size and it has a couple of babies growing under it's mantle.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by phil519
The first is a common sea star that I've read either is absolutely harmless or eats corals. Odd how this one is missing some limbs - but here's the pic: (caught it moving from the substrate to the glass)

Asterinid species of stars. More info here:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rs/index.php

VERY likely that it is a harmless grazer. Unless you see it eating a coral, just let it be. It is missing an arm because it reproduces by dropping an arm. If you look closely it looks like your star is growing three more arms.

The second is a continuation of some snails pat and I have noticed in our tanks. I believe I've located the "resting" spot during the day for some of mine:

It could be a Collonista sp. of snail, but could also possibly be a trochus species of snail. How big are they? But without a crisp clear picture of the snail withdrawn into the opening of the shell these are just guesses

Finally - the nastiest / weirdest critter find in the tank. It appears to be a worm but appears more slug-like rather than a hunter. Either way I was tempted to dust off the "claw" and crab the guy. Exposed to my flashlight it slowly retracted back under the LR. It appears to be at least 1~2 inches.

Retracting:


Extended one hour after lights out:


Any help is appreciated. I cannot remove the LR the worm-thingy is under. Given that it's been a year I can't figure out whether it is a net positive or neutral. Obviously doesn't attack the fish.

Thanks.

This is most likely a chiton, which are by far one of my favorite hitchhikers. They tend to eat film algaes and sometimes coralline algae. Completely reef safe unless you have an acrylic tank, sometimes they can scratch that with their hard "tongue". I would replace the word nastiest with most beautiful creature in your tank, but I'm biased I have at least two of them in my tank and one of them is pink/red in coloration, very pretty.

Brian

[patsan]

Phil, your snails are a lot larger than the ones Bob & I have found in our tank.
Ours are white tiny specs. Slightly larger than a pin head. Seems like foxface likes them.





Sally....Great Pictures!! I can finally see them! Take more for us to see now!

[BrianPlankis]

For those of you that don't follow my thread, here are some pictures I took over the last few days:

Here are some closeup pics of the Columbellid snail (mis-identified Strombus grazers from ipsf.com) egg mass. This thing is TINY, probably about 1/2 the diameter of a #2 pencil eraser, so these pics are the best my camera can do with a 4x magnifying glass in front of the lense:

Day1:


Day3:


Not much difference huh? But all four babies are moving around inside.

Here are my new green striped "watermelon" shrooms:

Under 10K:


Actinic only:


Some more pics...this time of recovery and growth! For those of you that don't remember, I briefly tried Crystal Seas bioassay salt in my tank and several of my corals didn't like it. The most striking one was my "colt" coral which completely bleached.

Here is a picture of it bleached, but starting to recover, it was a brighter white before this pic:


And here is a picture of it yesterday fully recovered under actinics (under actinics it has a nice green tint in the polyps):


My green hairy mushroom also shriveled up, but now is happy:


My "eagle eye" zoas also shrunk and closed a lot, but have flourished since the switch back to Kent.

Here is a pic just after I got it back in June 2005:


And here is the new growth as of yesterday, there are almost as many polyps on the back side as well. This colony does have some kind of black sponge growing between the polyps, but doesn't seem to be affecting it at all.



And finally my zoa rock that has recovered as well.


Brian

[patsan]

Nice pics B....
I know what you mean about trying to get the closest picture of the snails. Ours are so small, even with my macro lens, I can't get a good picture of them. Possibly if they weren't situated where they were, I could do a little better, but am limited to taking them on the glass where we find them.

I'm glad to hear your corals are coming along better with the Kent Salt. I love that zoa! Looks like it's doing great now.

I can't wait to get our lights back. I believe Sunlight Supply will just be receiving them from us today....so it'll be a little longer. I wonder if FedEx works (delivers) on holidays?? Anyone know?

[BrianPlankis]

Well,

I just discovered my oldest bisma worm ejected from its home this morning and obviously dead. So it was removed to prevent a nutrient spike

I'm trying to find a more steady supply of phyto so I can dose daily. Does anyone buy LIVE phyto online? Not DTs, way too much phospahte for me. I have a local phyto guy, but he can't keep up with demand.

Brian

I hope you get your lights back soon! I'm sure your corals miss it!

[patsan]

I think the shipping costs would kill you on the live phyto Brian.
What have you been using?

I picked up some DT oyster eggs today and can't wait to try them out.
Also can't wait to get the lights back.

I was looking to see if the LFS had any new fish. They had the clown goby's, but only yellow ones and I wanted a green one.

They also had 2 female swallowtail angels, which I have never seen there before. Now if they had a male.....I'd be a happy person. Just not meant to be today I guess.

[BrianPlankis]

Pat,

You are probably right on the shipping costs We have a local guy that does 3 varieties of live phyto and then mixes them into a 2 liter for sale. I've been using that for months, but he can't keep up with demand, so supply is spotty and I sometimes drop to 1/2 cup of phyto per week until I get a new 2 liter DTs phyto is expensive and full of phosphate so I try not to use that.

I also feed DT oyster eggs, mysis and cyclopleeze, but I doubt bisma worms eat any of that except possibly the oyster eggs.

I'm going to get some Selecon soon and add that to my phyto drip and foods to hopefully raise the nutritional value.

Brian

[patsan]

Have yout tried the reef chili yet? I really like it. Brian Kelley also mentioned recently that he tried a different one. I can't remember the name now, but he seemed pleased with it so far. The reef chili is supposed to be good for all corals, fan worms, sponges and clams.
Not to mention it's inexpensive and doesn't need refrigeration!!

I used to use the DT phyto, but it got just too expensive and I honestly don't know if the LFS kept it stored properly. If they didn't, it would be useless.

[BrianPlankis]

Good suggestion Pat, I might give reef chili a try. I've been waiting of a paycheck to come in though, trying to do all purchases with cash in the bank first

I think the next check will be an ASM G2 skimmer, Selecon and reef chili

Brian

[patsan]

Ryan ships out the reef chili immediately, which is nice. Order it on his web page rather than ebay.

Are you going to get the small bottle of selcon or the selco (from Brine Shrimp Direct)? I always wanted to order the golden pearls from them, but the shipping was too costly...so I never did.

You'll love the ASM skimmer. I still wish we were able to use the one I had with Bob's tank. It is so much nicer and easier to clean than the MR-1.

[bobt2]

pat, pw had a huge shippment of fish in on friday, i bought a dispar anthais that already eats well.. on a side note when i bought the rock from you it was for my fo tank. guess what, it now has a few corals that i fraged from my other tanks. so now i bought new lights and a po4 reactor and have 3 reef tanks. but of course i'm not going overboard!

[patsan]

Originally posted by bobt2
pat, pw had a huge shippment of fish in on friday, i bought a dispar anthais that already eats well.. on a side note when i bought the rock from you it was for my fo tank. guess what, it now has a few corals that i fraged from my other tanks. so now i bought new lights and a po4 reactor and have 3 reef tanks. but of course i'm not going overboard!

I read about pw having lots of fish in the LIRA forum. I wish it was closer to me.

I figured it wouldn't take you too long to start adding corals to that tank. If you recall, I even mentioned it to you when you were here....and you said "Nahhhh".

Help, I'm hooked and can't do a thing about it!

What fish do you have in that tank? I guess that depends on what corals you add to it.

[jnb]

snow pic is awsome

Originally posted by patsan
The tang ate all the hair algae I had in my tank.
We don't have any hair algae in the TBS tank, so I don't know if the blenny would eat it or not. Our PITA blenny seems to be happiest just digging up the sand and making the water all cloudy.

As far as weather......not fair!
This was the snow at it's worse that I saw when we had the blizzard last week:

After that, we were nice and warm in the 50's this week, and it melted all the snow. We had fierce winds yesterday, and now today the cold. As you all know, I hate the cold with a passion. But, I have to say...this winter has been one of the mildest I can remember. Hopefully it won't last much longer. I can't wait to be in shorts again.

I got an email from the guy who bought my tank + lights. He sent me a few pics of it, and it's awesome looking. He plumbed it together with his 120g. I had asked him what he thought of the T-5 lights..because he was really leery of buying the lights.
He said he has noticed a few of his sps have faded a bit, and the T-5's are not as intense as his halides...which he knew would be the case. But he said his lps and softies are doing better with the T-5's than the MH's, and the clams are holding their own. He said he's pleased with them so far, and even more pleased that the new tank is running him less than $25/mo.

[jnb]

how is this (selcon) used and what does it benefit? the info at the site follows: and does not describe it so I can figure out if its beneficials to what to what? I need to feed more and got away from phyto as my instinct was it added too much phosphate (bomber of barebottom threadl calls it phosphate in a bottle)

latel I have been thawing out mysis and other frozen foods and washing them with ro water before feeding to get rid

do I have a nitrate or phosphate problem - just trying to avoid one and I have this red fuzzy algae taking hold even thought phosphate and nitrate are showing to be zero

I want a swallowtail


SELCO (Self-Emulsifying Lipid Concentrate) was developed by Artemia Systems in Belgium and has been the benchmark artemia and rotifer enrichment formula to the aquaculture industry.


SELCO is rich in Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (HUFA's) and contains particularly high levels of the essential Omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Just 10 drops per liter or quart of water is sufficient for enriching thousands of artemia nauplii and adults, as well as rotifers.

SELCO is not intended as a feed for rotifers, artemia, or other zooplankton, but rather a short-lived immersion treatment that via ingestion and surface-coating of zooplankton vastly improves the lipid content and nutritional value of the zooplankton. SELCO has been shown to increase both survival and growth in marine fish larvae.

For best results, follow these simple instructions:

- Do not enrich nauplii in their hatching water! Prepare a new cone or culture vessel for the enrichment process using fresh seawater. Adjust salinity to 35 - 45 parts per thousand (ppt); temperature, 28 degrees Celsius; and maintain vigorous aeration.

- Harvest the newly hatched nauplii. Gently rinse with fresh water (an Artemia Sieve works well for this step) and transfer to a clean culture vessel. Stock at the rate of 5,000 - 10,000 newly hatched brine shrimp per liter in the new culture vessel. Do not feed nauplii at this time - they are absorbing their attached yolk sac. (Remaining nauplii can be fed to other tanks or stored in the refrigerator for later feeding or enrichment.)

- After approximately 18 to 24 hours from time of transfer to clean culture vessel, the nauplii will have molted into the Instar II feeding stage.

- Shake SELCO bottle well.

- Add 5 mls. (10 drops) of SELCO per liter directly to the culture vessel. Add no more than 10 drops of concentrated SELCO per liter. Insure that the aeration is vigorously mixing the water column.

- After approximately 12 hours, the intestinal tract of the nauplii should be fully enriched with SELCO. Harvest enriched nauplii and feed immediately. Unfed enriched nauplii can be stored in the refrigerator for later feedings (see "storage" under the Tech FAQ section).

Store SELCO in the refrigerator.

Order today and start improving your aquarium's nutritional needs with our complete line of specialty products.

Originally posted by patsan
Ryan ships out the reef chili immediately, which is nice. Order it on his web page rather than ebay.

Are you going to get the small bottle of selcon or the selco (from Brine Shrimp Direct)? I always wanted to order the golden pearls from them, but the shipping was too costly...so I never did.

You'll love the ASM skimmer. I still wish we were able to use the one I had with Bob's tank. It is so much nicer and easier to clean than the MR-1.

[patsan]

Nick, the selcon is good to use with your frozen shrimp. It adds nutritional value that the brine or mysis are lacking. I will usually add some selcon or marine c to the frozen foods as they defrost.

I think, and I may be wrong, that the selco is a more concentrated form of selcon. I remember reading a whole thing on it a while back, and I don't remember where. It may have been in one of Marc's (melev) posts.

Speaking of foods....besides the oyster eggs I got yesterday, I also picked up a container of HBH "flake frenzy". Since I overfeed all the time, and knowing Bob and I will be going to Florida and leaving the tank to be fed by our daughter while we're gone.....I thought this would probably be easier for her to do rather than give a "pinch" of all the different type of flake foods I usually feed each day. This flake frenzy should satisfy the needs for all the fish we have in the tank.

[jnb]

thanks

Originally posted by patsan
Nick, the selcon is good to use with your frozen shrimp. It adds nutritional value that the brine or mysis are lacking. I will usually add some selcon or marine c to the frozen foods as they defrost.

I think, and I may be wrong, that the selco is a more concertrated form of selcon. I remember reading a whole thing on it a while back, and I don't remember where. It may have been in one of Marc's (melev) posts.

Speaking of foods....besides the oyster eggs I got yesterday, I also picked up a container of HBH "flake frenzy". Since I overfeed all the time, and knowing Bob and I will be going to Florida and leaving the tank to be fed by our daughter while we're gone.....I thought this would probably be easier for her to do rather than give a "pinch" of all the different type of flake foods I usually feed each day. This flake frenzy should satisfy the needs for all the fish we have in the tank.

[skippy2]

I soak selcon with cyclop-ezze twice a week for the fish and corals.
I want to try Reef chilli but my paypal account is screwed up. Do they have a physical address so that I could send a check?

[patsan]

Originally posted by skippy2
I soak selcon with cyclop-ezze twice a week for the fish and corals.
I want to try Reef chilli but my paypal account is screwed up. Do they have a physical address so that I could send a check?

Not sure Peggy. Email Ryan at sales@reefchili.com and ask him.
He's usually really good at getting right back to you, and is very willing to work with you.

[skippy2]

Thanks Pat. I just sent him an email.

[bobt2]

pat. if you go the lira forum on rc theres a link to pw with the fish now in stock