Our Tbs

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by smcnally
Brian, I used to have that problem with monti caps and digi. I don't really know what I did, but now they grow like crazy in my tank. Do you dose magnesium?

Yeah I couldn't keep digi until recently. My Magnesium was a little low (around 1200), but not terrible. But I now keep my Mg between 1300-1500 and so far the digis (knock on wood) are fine. I also keep my alk higher now 10-12 versus the old 7-8.

I might try monti caps in the future, but probably not for a long time as I'm focusing on breeding Pocillopora, digis and Manicina for the next couple of years.

Brian

[phil519]

Mushrooms, zoa, frogspawn, kenya tree and hammer corals all seem to thrive. All of them appear to have grown significantly. The one exception are the torch corals...for some reason they do not like the tank at all. In addition I've lost a lot of those nice brain hitchers...

No sightings of xanthid crabs but I still hear the clicking in the tank (and no it's not a mantis). I think it's a pistol but wonder what it's eating....do they like hermits? Mine appear to have cannibalized one another...

Oh and just when I thought I eliminated all the keyhole limpets...i don't know how they reproduce but I noticed the fuge and sump were covered with baby limpets...oh well.

[BrianPlankis]

Originally posted by phil519
Mushrooms, zoa, frogspawn, kenya tree and hammer corals all seem to thrive. All of them appear to have grown significantly. The one exception are the torch corals...for some reason they do not like the tank at all. In addition I've lost a lot of those nice brain hitchers...

I've seen more and more reports of torch corals not doing well in tanks, maybe they are harder to keep than people think?

Those brain hitchers require a lot of feeding, how often do you spot feed them? I had a total of five and I lost 2 of them. One of them was to predation by Eucinid worms, but the other I suspect I lost it due to low feeding.

I feed the remaining 3 brains at least 3 times a week and try to get food to all parts of the coral. They are now MUCH puffier than when I wasn't feeding them as much and one of them is even growing a new section

Brian

[smcnally]

Originally posted by BrianPlankis
I've seen more and more reports of torch corals not doing well in tanks, maybe they are harder to keep than people think?

Really? My torch coral was one of the first coarls I got when I started my first tank. It is still growing, and I've fragged out and traded about 15-20 heads that have all done well in others tanks. My torch recently had a polyp bailout which you don't see to often with them. Maybe there have just been a lot of poor specimens lately?

[patsan]

I've never spot fed the brain coral and its thriving. I don't understand why some people have problems with certain things and other don't.

[dwculp]

I mostly have problems with Royal Grammas and Ricordea mushrooms.

I dont really know where my problems with Royal Grammas come from. They just dont last, Ive had some of my fish for almost 3 years, but I cant keep a Royal Gramma over a month.

Ive treid Ricordea Mushrooms twice and I believe something is eating them as they dont last overnight in my tank!!!

Ive had TREMENDOUS sucess with nearly everything else. My green brain is HUGE and will probably outgrow my tank soon. When I got it, i was receding and lots of skeleton showing.

I bought a hammer coral a bit over a year ago and it only had two small heads on it, one of which could have been considered dead. Now it has a least 15 giant heads on it and is huge. The kids call it the "broccolli" coral.

My kenya tree coral has taken over my tank.

Most of the corals that came on the rock are3 still alive. I had one large "flat" brain type coral that came on the rock that appeared to have died, I even scrubbed the skeleton clean once when I was having an algae outbreak, it is even regrowing. Quite amazing.

[drk70]

Torch - Gone
Moon coral - Gone
Elephant skin coral - Gone
Orange Montipora - Gone
Kenya Tree - Gone

Pulsating Xenia - Grows like weeds
Zoanthids - grow but slow
Hammer - OK
Acropora - Growing
Purple Montipora digitata - OK
Green Montipora digitata - Semi OK
Trumpet coral - Semi OK
Fire coral - can't find a way to rid my rock of it.

Red slime algea - spreads faster than my xenia

Many of the corals and sponges are still alive that came on the rock.

[dwculp]

Kenya Tree coral gone????

Geez, mine is a weed, a pest that I cannot get rid of. In fact, I have cut piecies off and threw them in my QT tank which has low lighting and my 75 gallon fish only which has a single strip light for lighting and it grows in there.

I could probably throw it in my toilet and it would grow!

[drk70]

That is kind of the way my xenia are. I rip them off my rock and put them in my QT with lower light and they still grow.

What really hurt my kenya tree was a longnose butterfly. I think it ate most of it.

[dwculp]

Same problem I think I am having with Ricordea Mushrooms. Somthing is eating them but I dont know what. Two polyps of Ricordea have disappeared overnight.

[dwculp]

Same problem I think I am having with Ricordea Mushrooms. Somthing is eating them but I dont know what. Two polyps of Ricordea have disappeared overnight.

[drk70]

Well my kenya tree was fine until the longnose went in so I figured that was the culprit.

[patsan]

Originally posted by drk70
Torch - Gone
Moon coral - Gone
Elephant skin coral - Gone
Orange Montipora - Gone
Kenya Tree - Gone

Pulsating Xenia - Grows like weeds
Zoanthids - grow but slow
Hammer - OK
Acropora - Growing
Purple Montipora digitata - OK
Green Montipora digitata - Semi OK
Trumpet coral - Semi OK
Fire coral - can't find a way to rid my rock of it.

Red slime algea - spreads faster than my xenia

Many of the corals and sponges are still alive that came on the rock.

You're elephant skin coral is gone? I loved that one.

[jnb]

well, there is one thing for sure - I am not having trouble with my swallowtails - remember you told me they were ok? I got 2 of them - females - a mth later one turned to a male and they both are doing great in all ways - the male has a blue iridescent mustache

Originally posted by patsan
I've never spot fed the brain coral and its thriving. I don't understand why some people have problems with certain things and other don't.

[drk70]

Originally posted by patsan
You're elephant skin coral is gone? I loved that one.

I liked them all!

[drk70]

Well I got new T-5 bulbs and new filters for my RO/DI unit today. I hope they help some of my algea problems. It can't hurt being this is the first time I have replaced them both since I started the SW tank.

[lossman]

Hi all,

Haven't posted here in a very long while. We had a major computer crash and it took forever to get everything back up and running again. Actually, we ended up having to buy a new computer and reinstall all our software. Our backup died at the same time so we lost all our pictures, e-mail addresses etc. What a pain!! Anyway, we haven't done too much with the tank. We decided to go off the strict Caribbean theme as it was too difficult to find the items we wanted. We lost our royal grama. Not sure what happened to it. It was there one day and gone the next. Very odd. Might have gotten too close to the condy and became it's next meal! We had a slight problem with some green hair algae and added a molly miller blennie to help with that. The molly didn't do too much so after we lost the grama, we put in a foxface. Between Foxy and Molly, our hair algae is now well under control. We also put in a small pink hammer head coral and it's doing very well. Our ricordias have had a huge growth spurt and I'm thinking of taking some of them out now. Our discasomas are also doing very well and spreading nicely. We finally saw a molt from our pistol shrimp and got a quick glimpse of him. It's about 3" long now. It must have a mate in there as we also have a couple of baby pistols. I took a couple of rocks out of the main tank and put them down in the refugium. That's when I saw the two baby pistols. They are about 1/2 to 1" long, blueish-grey in the front and pinkish on the tail. I'll try to get some decent shots of the tank and post them soon.

Sally

[bobt2]

pat, if you want zoas or mushrooms i could frag some for you.all you have to do is ask and come get them

[H2OLUVSME]

wow Dave, good to see you on here! Dennis sorry to hear about your losses Sally, sorry to hear about your CPU, good reason to upgrade though huh?

Nick your tank looks great dude!! i dont have the word to describe it, but that thing has developed into a reef!!

[jnb]

thank you!

Originally posted by H2OLUVSME
wow Dave, good to see you on here! Dennis sorry to hear about your losses Sally, sorry to hear about your CPU, good reason to upgrade though huh?

Nick your tank looks great dude!! i dont have the word to describe it, but that thing has developed into a reef!!

[dwculp]

I have not taken pictures in a LONG time so I decided to check out the camera and snap some pictures.

A few things:
1. I got the crummy camera.
2. My lights need replacing so the pics are very "green/yellow"
3. The tank needs cleaned.

Here they are in alphabetical order!













How many mini-stars can you count in the picture below??


Strombus snail eggs - around 40!!





A strombus snail

[dwculp]

Even more pictures!!











My newest coral is below, a Hydnophora - HORRIBLE picture of it. I am trying to decide if the stuff next to it is Aiptasia or not. I dont think it is, it spreads too slowly. Ive had the rock for 5+ months and the stuff has not spread off of it.


This full tank shot is embarrasing:

[jmait769]

Great pic’s dwculp Great shot of the snails!

Here are some pic's of the coral I have gotten recently and keep this TBS thread active!! I love my rock and still enjoy some late nights with the old red flashlight! Tank is at about the 7th month stage.

I had some yellow dots I had posted about back in June and Richard said they were Boring Anemone’s.



It is quite remarkable how far they have bored into the rock. Some are about ½” deep! You can see that the rock is getting very pores. Most of the softies at the bottom of this first pic I purchased at the LFS. Mushrooms, toadstool and Monti Cap were from hobbyist here on RC (via overnight mail).



My poor camera skills did not capture the true color on the right hand coral but it has real nice blue tips. Sorry but I cannot remember the names of these corals!





You can see some small frags in the background (center) I hope to swap with some local reefers.



Can you spot the Sailfin Blenny?



Purple Condy (which came with the TBS rock) and my Anemone Crab who is watching the Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.



Finally a picture of my new sump which I’m very happy with.



Jay

[techreef]

Wow, very nice Jay! I haven't yet added any corals to my tank. I have to admit I'm a little bummed out about my tank after my brand new midas blenny got massacred by 2 cirolanids. Haven't added anything new since. I have kept up trying to eliminate problem organisms though. I haven't spotted the cirolanids since that one day on the blenny, but I have nabbed 4 more gorilla crabs and 3 more whelks. i have played tug-of-war with a ginormous gorilla crab, easily 4" across now, but can't catch him when he's not protected by caves and rock. he has a 1.5" neighbor crab who also concerns me, but that one stays near the entrance of his burrow and is super skittish, so i've had no luck with that one either. top it off with a green mantis that gives me the Italian salute regularly (kind of like its spunk. wish they weren't predatory!) and I'm feeling a bit down about my new water world. thanks for posting pics of healthy fun setups! i want a nice tank like yours!

the weird thing is that the cirolanids haven't killed the carpenter's flasher wrasse or the 2 tiger gobies that have been in my tank for 1 and 3 months, respectively. i don't get that at all. it makes me kind of think that somehow the cirolanids are dead, but I know that the second I add a new $50 fish to the display, BAM!, they will be back out, sucking it's blood. sigh.

I can safely add corals though. what do you think would be a good beginner's coral for me to start with? I don't think I want xenia, because it seems to grow too fast like a weed. Oh, and is the name of your beautiful blue coral montipora something?

[jmait769]

Well, thanks Techreef! It has really come together with a lot of work, money and patients and I too have had some setbacks.

We had a Scooter Blennie that was perfect. Had him for 4 months and then found him on the floor. I have my tank covered with egg crate and the only thing we could think of was that he swam onto one of the CL nozzles and somehow ejected himself from there. Very sad day for my wife as it was her favorite.

On the Cirolanids. I had a strange occurrence with what I thought was them. I purchased a purple firefish in June and looking him over one night I saw some critters jumping on and off of him as he laid on the sand. I read up on Brains article and set about setting up a stinky trap. I caught two and then I noticed them shooting from the rock to the top of the tank. I got a fine screen net and started catching them when they would take off. I spent two nights doing this and I have never seen them again. I’m not entirely sure they where cirolanids but they had the large eyes (I tried to take pictures for Brian of them but my camera nor I was up to the task). Also, and I have no evidence to support this except observation, but I thing my needle nose Hawk fish was eating them too.

I have caught a few hairy crabs and I have a few left. I do not see them messing with any thing so far and have caught and removed them when opportunity strikes. I have a few living in the sump.

I’ll try and name the corals but I’m not confident I have the right names. I have an orange and green Montipora Capicornis. The SPS are Acropora (I think) but I have no idea on the names. I should know so will have to research those. I really like them. I have had to start adding lime water and watching all water parameters closely. I added an AC JR and I cannot say enough about them. Well worth the money and I wish I had gotten it sooner. Main thing is it keeps the water temperature within .5 degrees and the PH monitor.

I’m no expert on what to get first but for soft corals I have had good luck with the zoo's and for hard corals I really like the Montipora Capicornis. I bought them from someone off of the Propagation Thread here on RC. I have had good luck with purchasing from fellow reefer and having them shipped here.

Hopefully you have gotten rid of the cirolanids. I had a lot of down days too and the learning curve is long (never ends)! Keep working at it and have patients. Well, that is what I tell myself especially when I look at the checking account!!

Jay