Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

It's funny when I look at those pics, I had dozens of rock rubble frags in my old tank, a few polyps of this
some of that. I remember now why I started that tank up against all the screaming inner voices against
it. I was gonna have a self-sustaining tank. When I needed salt, I was going to trade frags. New lamps,
frags. Fish Food...frags. But then I had the aiptasia outbreak and that all went to hell. You can't sell frags
when they all have aiptasia on em. I once told a guy he was FOS cause he told someone that they
were having aiptasia trouble because their water parameters were filthy. Apparently, and this is not the
first time this has happened, I WAS the one who was FOS. Less feeding and clean water and they just
died out. Or the shrimp all of a sudden just woke up and decided it DID eat aiptasia. Granted, I pulled out
almost all the rocks with aiptasia on em. But they can pop up anywhere at anytime. ANYWAY, all my frags
are clean now, I must have 6 green star polyp rocks in there, haha, and at least 5 of the Silver (purple) Muricea
gorgonians. I see green parazoanthus everywhere, too.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

My goal is to have them cover the back glass of my tank. sure beats algae.

Side note. I was talking to my friend last night and he was telling me about someone who was asking if star polyps were hard to keep. His response was "You could scrape them off with a paint scraper, put them in your back pocket, and drive home and they will still be fine."

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Do Star Polyps look like clove coral? Kinda like green grass in mats?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

yes sir. purple mat green extensions. CLoves are a little different but they are pretty close to the same.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Okay, another question...
How are polyps different than zoos?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Zoos and Palythoas are polyps. Often referred to as a "sea mat" In most cases each individual organism is a polyp. This also includes the dots on hard coral SPS Small polyp stony or LPS Large polyp stony.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Marc, I think my problem and confusion comes from the fact that I'm not sure what constitutes a polyp.
I was thinking they were all flat like little upside-down bottle caps, but I guess they have all kinds of shapes and sizes, right?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Yes they do have all shapes and sizes. The bottlecap looking ones are most likely zoanthids or palythoas. But most every form of coral has polyps.

below are 5 different kinds of coral in red are circled individual polyps. each polyp is its own organism and under the right circumstances can live on its own.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Thanks, Marc. That helps A LOT!!! :D
I think I have some palys and acans. No zoos, and that's what I like because of all the colors.
Are the first pic and the last pic acans?
I'm assuming a Kenya Tree is a softie, and frogspawn is an LPS? A gorgonian would be an SPS, right?
If I got all that right, I've come about 1000 miles in the last month. I learned lots of stuff, you're connecting all the dots for me. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

The first picture is of acans the last picture is of trumpet or candycane coral. both are LPS

Gorgonians fall into a different category because they dont create a hard calcified skeletal structure. They are actually sea fans.

Other than that you've got it down pat. One thing to differentiate zoos from pallys is the size. Palythoas are generally much larger the Zoanthids form more of a mat where you cant see their bases.

Side note: Be careful when handling zoanthids or palythoas. After fragging or even moving them be sure to scrub your hands and arms with soap under hot water. They are very poisonous if you rub your eye or eat food and this toxin gets into your body your boned. There is no antidote for them either. Easiest way is to just use latex gloves when fiddling with them.
This is meant for information only, dont be scared to hack apart a colony to send to your reef buddies. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I was showing the pics to Lisa this morning and caught that the last pic was an LPS. :noon:banger:noon
We have a cow's tongue, a pretty big one, and I get that it's an SPS, but I can see it might fall into a different category cause the discs that resemble it move around the tank.
I'm getting there.
I have a book, it's called the 100 best corals and 33 bad ones, or something like that. I've been reading on it for awhile. I'm going to go back through the critters to further familiarize myself with what's what.

My new guts for my ro/di come in a day or two and I'm gonna be a mad water changer for the next month. I've also decided I'll completely quit using my diatom filter, as I think the silicates are what's driving my algaes.
For the first time in 14 or 15 years I'm starting to gain some confidence in this stuff, and all my critters are thriving. The ones I brought home that were all brown and nasty have gained some nice color, all except a radioactive eagle eye coach purse paly I bought. It was teenage girl raised, it'll take awhile to get it some color and move it up in the lights.
Another thing I found is that folks don't use lights as strong as me, or they don't tend to them like I do. I'm super anal about how clean they are and how clean my lids are and how new the bulbs are.
I had to move everything I got way down in the column, they couldn't stand the light.
I'm feeding live phytoplankton, frozen brine shrimp, and one of five other frozen foods daily. Soon I'll have live phyto that I grew and live brine shrimp (phyto packed) that I grew.
So things are just gonna get better as long as I can keep getting things to add up.
I just got the phytoplankton book I was waiting for, so we're moving ahead. :D
Thanks buddy!!! :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I would agree Scott, if you are getting stable, a diatom filter is useless. You are going to have a diatom bloom most times
that you dick with your sandbed or make major changes to something, but normally there should be imperceptible amounts
in the water column. I would think that diatoms are excellent food. Fanworms gotta eat, too. If the way the filter works
is giving you hair algae, haha, pull that junk.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I think I also confused Scott, I tend to call Protopalythoa by the name Parazoanthus. It has been a long time since
I cared about the nomenclature, lol. What I actually have is Protopalythoa. (And Zoanthids) HERE is a scary one for
you. What would you think if you saw THIS: (click pic from online, not my own)

I have some pest anemones that look ALOT like that, but I still think they were aiptasia and not NEOzoanthus,
as these are called. For sure not Majano. I am sure I have been killing aiptasia, based on how they multipled and where.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

careful with the frozen foods. In most cases they are littered with nitrates and phosphates.
When your RODI stuff comes in i would recommend rinsing the frozen food in it to remove the nasties.

I always let the cubes thaw in a shot glass then moved it to a small fish net and ran freshwater over it. then into the tank it went. Turning your pumps and powerheads ff during feedings makes it easier to spot feed your inverts.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

A double word of warning, SOME zoanthids are extremely dangerous to handle, not nearly all, in fact only a few
species can kill. The palythoa and protopalythoa are the most likely to be toxic, and all have the potential, so obviously like
wolfie said, this might be a time when safe is better than sorry. It is always a good idea to clean up or use gloves when
messing with zoanthids, but I do it all the time barehanded with my species and it hasn'tdajsflkd effectedoir;aljsd me yetasdjaksjd

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

You will cringe when you hear this, Wolfie, but last night I took a toothbrush to
some that had gotten into my Palythoa, and after reading your warnings about seamat in general,
I had to re-read an article describing the paly and protopalythoa as the most toxic of all, haha.
The purple base was easy to peel off of the polyps of seamat, but on porous rock it can be tougher.
Hopefully a toothbrush is more damaging than a back pocket, haha.



http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/inverts

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I usually use a brush and gather up the hair algae when it gets bad enough. Then I hook up my diatom filter and scrub the water.
Another strategy is to leave the crap and let it tie up whatever nutrients it's tying up. That's what I'm gonna do for a bit.
I'm just gonna do water changes and be done stressing. Everything is doing great, the hair will be gone soon enough.
I got zero patience with it all. I just moved this tank from PA to OH in January. The weather was crazy cold and I had lots of die-back. I should be thanking God that I have anything left, rather than b1thching about doing as
well as I am. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Those things are flat out hideous. Probably just cause they're colored like aiptasia, I suppose.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Marc, I got those rubber gloves today at Target. It's a good idea, I'm tired of getting stung and burned every time I get in the tank. :d
I've thought about messing with the frozen food, and I'll start doing it if you think it matters, after this...
My tank is a 90 gallon. There is about 3-4 inches of crushed coral/sanded in there. There's easily 200 pounds of live rock, I'd be afraid to really know. The tank is full to the top, half way out to the front (and further). I estimate there's 40-50 gallons of water in there.
I change no less than 10 gallons of water a week. If I see any amount of particulate, I change 20. Now that it's settled from the move, I'll change 10 gallons a week from now to eternity.
With that amount of change, and so much stuff to feed wouldn't it be better to leave the goo?
Say the word and I'll get some real close fabric and strain it and rinse it before I add it to the phyto and feed it with that 36" baster thing I got.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Excellent article, Brad. I started reading but I'm suffering zero retention right now. I saved it to my iPad home screen, I'll read it tonight when I can't sleep, or at coffee tomorrow morning.
It looks awesome, thank you!!! :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Im kind of on the fence Scott. You have such a large system that a few forzen blocks / week shouldnt make a HUGE impact. I have a setup pretty similar to yours but in one of my smaller tanks it became a nightmare. I always just used one of the fish nets I had laying around to rinse off the frozen foods even if you put the blocks in the net and run tap water over it it will significantly reduce the nitrates and phosphates you are putting in the tank and after that the coral, fish get fed. With the phytoplankton dont go overboard. When I used it i would fill a 3cc syringe and target the sps and gorgonians (with the pump off).

BEFORE
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...0/DSC_0314.jpg

After
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...0/DSCF1341.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Aiptasia don't have the "mouth" that those things have. Majano don't either.
A clue about Aiptasia is that their common name is Glass Anemone. They can be very fast at reacting to touch and even a large one can disappear quickly. Zoas and Majanos are very slow by comparison.

I had star polyp almost take over my tank, then disappear suddenly. Then it was the Xenia, which is now ok. Now it's the Rhodactis (hairy mushrooms) that are taking over. These things would be $25 apiece at the LFS but I take them out and flush them down if ever I can pry one loose. They slowly carpet other things and the divide. Even funnier is he Sarcophytons (toadstool coral) that are going for $50 that are constantly dropping fingers that grow into new units. I throw these out sometimes too. I have a pineapple coral that is starting to overgrow everything around it but I don't care. I have no time to worry about the appearance of my tank now. Maybe sometime I will just turn all the top rocks to the bottom and let everything start back again and get some new stuff. Let the strong survive. My fish are doing fine. I wish I could work more on my tank.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I use a great big syringe and target the critters directly with the food soup I make. I feed every other day. All my pumps and power heads turn off with one switch. When I find time to hook up the wave maker I got, it has a feeding button on it that shuts everything off.

How'd you kill all your stuff, man?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

feeding too much with frozen cubes. This tank was a 23 gallon tank. Algae grew and whe i went on vacation the fish sitter didn't understand my instructions and double fed. when i got home the rocks were not visible underneath all of the algae. the lack of light killed everything.

Currently I only feed Spectrum pellets to both the fish and my coral. Im adding a solid media reactor to my tank this weekend. Next reef SMR1. Wonderful product.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

That's painful.
I'd like to put a stock tank under the steps in the basement for a sump, something that'd give me a nice 2 or 3 hundred gallon buffer. Just jam it full of sand and plants.
I just worry that the more equipment you get going on, the more chance for problems there are. I'll give it some time and see how things go. I think I'll be fine once the ro/di guts get here. That should put a halt to the little trouble I do have in a month or two. If not, I'll start thinking about options.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Hows this for a sump?

http://masc2279.no-ip.org/Plone/corn...0003.jpg/image

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

;) Part of it needs lighting to set up a refugium. :D

Just kidding.

Not that refugiums aren't a good idea. They act as a nutrient stripper and 'pod breeder so if you have one in your system they're great.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Man when I think of the trouble and automation I had going on my 40 gallon. Now I am 1/4 the power
consumption, but twice the work. Fair trade, I guess. I DO miss my auto top-off a little. And I miss
the extra 20 gallons of sump capacity. And the space. And my wrasse.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

That is exactly the nightmare I had imagined, I just couldn't put it to words.
If you took off all that stuff except a hose coming in and one coming out, and add a light, that's what I want. :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I've always wanted my sump/cooler/refugium/etc. in the basement. Then there would only be the two pipes and a lot less electrical stuff.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Lance, my basement is nice and cold. That's kind of a concern. I'd probably end up having to add a heater to the sump, and insulate and cover it, whereas my tank holds perfect temp right now.
Come summer, I'll re-evaluate and see if it gets too hot. If that be the case, I'll just raise the light and take off the glass tops.
Keeping stuff warm here is far more difficult than keeping it chilled.
I'm with ya, though. Just a refugium to make critters and plants and get a real biocycle going. I could get the skimmers and filters off the back of my tank and there'd be less noise. That's all I'm looking for. I have a perfect place to do it, too. Right under the steps in the basement. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I never thought to ask you guys about this, my bad. My brain doesn't put the ends of the spaghetti noodles together very good some days. :D
I just offered this stuff yesterday on my reef club's site, had no takers out of 24 lookers.
I just jammed the food in a small priority box and it fits great. I can send it asap if any of you guys can use it, or if you just wanna try it, or you know someone who will put it to use, whatever. I'll even send a treat for your troubles, I think I can get something else in there. :D

Here's the text of the ad...
"Hi Guys,
I have posted for free some Instant Ocean Herbivore Diet Seaweed Blend and Seaweed Grazing Block. Both are brand new and unopened, I pulled them out of a couple buckets of salt yesterday.
I read them, they look neat and all that stuff, but I'm not going to put them to use.
If you're not familiar, they're single serving no-spoil feed. The big pack has packets like ketchup packets, the grazing blocks are little short cans that put you in the mind of a votive candle (but bigger around) with a lid.
If one of you guys can use them and want to stop by and pick them up, they're all yours.
I'm in Streetsboro, my number is 814-771-09 one two. Feel free to call or text, my first name is Scott.
Thank You!!!
Here's a pic, the embedded image is too big to post and I'm on the run, no time to resize it...
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad96 ... f606f8.jpg
...and here's the pic...
http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/c4f606f8.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Sending pm

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

You forgot to send it. :)
Make sure you send me your address, too. The most recent I have for ya is Cherry Hills.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Tonight I'm gonna tape a toothbrush to a yardstick (or my yard long baster/feeder) and clean my thing that looks like a blue gorgonian but it's not. It's pretty badly hair algae grossed-up and I'm afraid if I don't clean it, it'll be dead. THAT, I do not want. It is an amazing catcher of hair algae, just by it's form and nature.

My radioactive eagle claw south dakotan burger king palythoas are changing color, as I guessed they would. They are turning from all brown to what appears to be a purple center, yellow cat-eye slit, with red fringes.
I'll tell ya, if they continue to get colored up the way they look like they're gonna, I will have the dead sexiest mat of squishy things you ever laid eyes upon. I'm bigtime stoked. :tu
Everyone gets fed tonight and they're all staring at me. I'm the most popular guy in the room right now. Actually I'm the only guy in the room, but by the look of all these critters, I'm DAMN important. :r

Marc, I checked out all the NextReef stuff. It seems like really well built stuff. I have a canister filter and I keep some ceramic media and floss and foam. I just keep that for a biofilter. How's come a fluidized bed is better? Because of all the extra surface area of the media?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

the surface area and because they are constantly moving the nasties dont build up in them like it would in filter floss or bio balls. The owner of the company is a personal friend of mine. If you (or anyone else are reading along) even are thinking of adding one to your system let me know.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I want one, bud. An MR1Monster Complete with 2 gallons of media.
Can you score that stuff? I know Next Reef doesn't handle the media, per say, but it said they built their stuff around some Dr.'s media design. That's the stuff I want. I figured since they're in cahoots and used that media in design/build, they probably have tons laying around.
4' of tubing sounds a bit light on the "complete" side, too. (The complete package gives you tubing and pumps and I assume some over the back j bends and down tubes and stuff.) This is gonna go under my tank and replace the canister. 4 feet of tubing doesn't seem like that's gonna get it, ya think?

The reason I picked the big one is for volume and surface area. I figure that way, there's plenty of reactive bacteria to instantly take care of my feedings ( I plan to jam this tank slap full of corals, to the hilt).
If that doesn't fly because the bacteria needs food to stay alive, I get that, too. In that case, I have a 90 gallon undrilled, and I'd like as much ass as I can get benefit from without hurting the system's process, if that makes sense?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

If the gorgonian is worth it's salt, you should be able to remove it in the morning and gently scrub the
hair off of it. They should be fully sucked in in the morning, and if not, pulling it out of the water will do it,
haha. But a gentle rub with a paper towel should do it. GENTLE. Others may disagree, and I would
certainly err on the side of caution, but they are reasonably tough. You an also cut an arm off and NOT
rub that one and you'd have transplant stock were something to go wrong. Simply scrape gently with a
razor blade along the length of the bottom and expose 3/8 of an inch of skeleton and super glue that to
a chunk of rock. It will quickly grow over the wound and the rock and be a new piece. Super glue a dab,
stick gorgo to rock, hold and immerse in water after 5-10 secs.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I cleaned her up with a bottle brush and it's all good to go. It deployed all it's polyps before dinner. I'd have just let it be, but I really like it and didnt want to take a chance. I knew it was tough and I wasn't afraid to clean it at all.
Thanks for the fragging procedure, I'll want to grow a nice stand of this stuff. It sounds super easy.

On another front, my gloves are no good. I made sure they were unpowdered latex. They still had stuff that came off of them in the tank. I'll get some better ones that actually fit me.

Last night I flushed a giant killer/bulldozer hermit crab. Today saw theendof two giant bulldozer snails. There's a couple more crabs that gotta go cause they're too big, I'll catch them when I see them.
There will probably be something in the paper tomorrow about all the manhole covers in Streetsboro being moved. I'm just gonna stay quiet.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I need to post a pic of the snail I banished a few months back. I had seen a pic of the
Zoanthid eating snails, but could never catch the one that was eating my prize specimens.
I looked at night for a slug or snail, no luck. Then one day I am rooting around in the
early morning and passed the tank and see this ping-pong-ball-sized snail MOVING like a
jet over a rock, and SHOCK!...it was one of the bad snails. I skanked it and threw it in my
live rock punishment tank. That killed it, it had no zoanthids to eat. But I kept the shell,
as I like to say, as a warning to others. I'll snap a pic for your IDing purposes, Scott, just for
the future health of your Eagle-Eye Cherry delights.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Gorilla grabs are the common ones that are hitchhikers on live rock. I absolutely hate them. I have about 30 red leg hermits in my 90. They love when i remember to feed the tank all of them come scurrying out. :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Haha, I think I have 4 Blue legs, and everytime they smell food they start climbing the palythoas...they know!
Freaking theives, as bad as my shrimp.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Of these two that went for a toilet ride, one was the black and white striped kind that everyone has. Astrea, I think?
The other, I have no clue. He had a basically white, non-descript shell, with 70% of it being really nice purple algae.
The black and white ones were real sensitive to electric. They told me one of my skimmer pumps was leaking electric in the tank cause they kept crawling out of the water. I'd find them outside the back glass and laying on the floor behind the tank. The other snails didn't care about the electric at all.
The crab I tossed was as big as a ping pong ball, easy. The snail, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. The smaller of the two snails was a freak in itself.

I was just trying to take pics of some of my stuff, but my battery was dead. So now I'm gonna wash my car.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

K, so I charged my camera battery yesterday. The lights just came on in the tank. In an hour or so, everybody is generally fully deployed. I'm gonna try to take some pics. Yay!!! :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

FINALLY!

I picked up the nextreef reactor today and the guy sent me home with a colony of Green Star polyps, eagle eyes, and a purple lip green montipora.

Pictures when everyone is happy.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Where'd you get your reactor at, man?
I still didn't email Justin, I haven't stopped long enough to do it.

No pics yet, my guys still aren't ready. They're camera shy, I suppose.:sh

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I picked it up directly from Justin. He had a factory second laying around (scratches on the clear tube) that's how picky these guys are with quality control. That's who I got the coral from too. I traded himself some of my stuff. Worked out well. I still need a pump for the reactor though.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I gotta email him. I'll try to do it tonight.

Rather than mess around with pics, I just took some video of my tank. It's a lot easier that way. So here it is...
Video of my Reef Tank.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

your tank looks great! :D

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I finished up that article late last night, Brad. I very much enjoyed it, thank you!!! :tu