The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[shilala]

Brad, that Goniapora is doing great, too. The pinking stuff with blue eyes, I'm pretty sure that's what you guys said it was.
The yellow polyps continue to fail. I got a tip in the link you gave me. Those stars will irritate and not allow stuff to open and starve them out. When I go swimming, I'll do a hardcore inspection. I've heard of getting the crabs, but the starfish? ewww.

[Wolfgang]

Originally Posted by shilala

Here's a new thing...
I have these little critters on my glass all over the place. They amount to tens of them, not hundreds or something like that. I've been watching them grow steadily, and they grow fast. I haven't been cleaning the glass so they have lots to eat as they grow.
My guess is that they're offspring of my red starfish that recntly died, or they're urchin babies. The kicker is that they have six legs, my red star had five. They could be brittle stars that came in on new stuff.
Will you guys let me know what you think?
Here's a pic from my phone, hope it turns out...

Looks like astrea stars. Ive got thousands of them in my tank. No harm to sps lps or softies. most of them are harmless algae grazers only a few species actually fo after sps.

I have a lot of those Astrea too. They eat the dead stuff and algae and as far as I can tell they cause no harm at all. Mine have from three to seven arms. I think they go through the pumps every now and then.
I see one in the pink area on the lower rock in the picture with three big arms and some small nubs

My yellow damsel laid eggs in a big patch on the front glass then ate them all the next day. I watched her laying them. I think the male is supposed to swim over them fertilizing but he wasn't doing that. The clowns raise batch after batch of eggs but I have yet to catch them hatching. If they make it through the overflow into the refugium and don't get into a return pump or skimmer they might survive. It would blow me away to one day find a baby clownfish in the refugium.

[shilala]

Brad, I moved my yellow polyps, there's nothing wrong with them. The great big spiny urchin I have was constantly crawling over them and irritating them. He's doing the same to some other stuff. I think it may be time for him to go down the road.

[Wolfgang]

GF is finally gone so i get to start a new reef adventure. More info in the next few weeks.

[shilala]

Looking forward to your new reef adventure, Wolfie.

I have two hermit crabs crawling around with Pulsing Xenias on their heads. It's pretty damn cool, that's all I can say. I have a youtube of it that I just put up. My video skillz are pretty bad, but once it's halfway through, it's not bad. It's only 3 minutes, so there's that.
You can check it out right here.

[OLS]

Calling all Aiptasia zappers........anyone want to ship me their shock-boil unit for a week in exchange for the return of
your unit plus some tasty cigars?? Just PM me if anyone wants to play.

Originally Posted by OLS

Calling all Aiptasia zappers........anyone want to ship me their shock-boil unit for a week in exchange for the return of
your unit plus some tasty cigars?? Just PM me if anyone wants to play.

I'm going through a redesign or I would just send you one. It seems regular pencil lead graphite doesn't last long. I have to take apart the ones I made and get carpenter's pencil lead for them.

[shilala]

I'll send ya mine, Brad. I sent a pm.

[billyrayvalentin]

Question for the resident reef experts.

I'm starting a 29 gallon reef tank after keeping a cichlid tank for a few years. I started with just 30 lbs of sand and saltwater a few weeks ago. I then put in about 6 lbs of live rock a week later. I added live rock each week for the next couple weeks and got up to about 26 lbs as of a few days ago. I did my first water tests last night and it showed 0 for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Is it possible that my tank has already cycled and is ready for a clean up crew and fish?

Also, I had a HOB filter with a bio-wheel running until earlier this week, and I've had a new model maxi-jet power head running in circulation mode the whole time. The setup was running without lighting until about two weeks ago when I added a dual t5ho fixture.

[shilala]

I think you could throw a couple damsels (or something hearty) in there and a cleanup crew.
Realize it's going to take a good year until it becomes anything like what you want. I've got over 15 years in my base material and there's more things living in there than a person could ever count in a lifetime.
Have fun!!!

I remember all the weird blooms and cycles mine went through for a couple of years until it settled. Get ready for red algae, diatoms, hair algae, weird bugs, little snails and who knows what else, to go through population booms in there.
You didn't mention a protein skimmer. A must have, in my book.
Clown fish are hardy, too, and a little nicer than damsels.

[shilala]

I've been busting my ass to try to curb the astrea starfish issue with little to no results. It's like if I cut one head off, two appear. They are EVERYWHERE.
While they don't seem to cause any damage to the coarls, they'll crawl all through them and irritate them into staying closed.
I'm planning on getting one or two harlequin shrimp. All they eat are starfish. I figure there's more than enough reproduction here to feed two forever and they may hold the population in check, yet leave enough to feed them. I have tons of rock so there's a never-ending supply of stars on the undersides that will crawl out and present themselves for dinner.
I have two other shrimps in there nopw, I can't think of the names of either. I think one is red and gold strped down it's sides, the other is a goirgeous blood red with white spots.
I am worried they'll fight, but not enough that I'm not willing to give it a shot.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

I remember all the weird blooms and cycles mine went through for a couple of years until it settled. Get ready for red algae, diatoms, hair algae, weird bugs, little snails and who knows what else, to go through population booms in there.
You didn't mention a protein skimmer. A must have, in my book.
Clown fish are hardy, too, and a little nicer than damsels.

Good point on the protein skimmer, Lance. It's an absolute must. I run two in the event that one stops working for any reason. I check them regularly, but sometimes not regularly enough.

[Jefft72]

Wow! I didn't realize that there was a reef tank thread on CA! Reef tanks are my main obsession, while cigars are a new found hobby. I have had my 55g mixed reef tank for about 2 years now and am currently waiting while my 150g system cycles.
I believe it is just about complete on the cycle and now I need to scape the rock work. Once that is complete then I can move my 55g inhabitants into their new home.

Here is a shot of my 55g mixed reef tank before I moved from Austin to Houston.

[billyrayvalentin]

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

[Jefft72]

Originally Posted by billyrayvalentin

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

Just a note on damsels, in general they do get territorial and can be a pain to remove later on once you have other fish in there that are more desirable. Chromis are a type of damsel that are typically less territorial.

With regards to the question of your tank cycle, you have added live rock and may have had enough die off to start a cycle, but if you have not been testing the water and been able to see ammonia increase, followed by nitrites and nitrates, then the cycle may or may not have happened.

You can toss a piece of raw shrimp into your tank to fuel the cycle, without risking live fish.

Reefcentral.com is an excellent source of information. You may have a local reef club around you as well.

Good luck and go slow.

The tank this morning:


And the clowns don't wait even one day after the previous eggs hatch to lay a new batch:

[OLS]

Originally Posted by billyrayvalentin

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

It is likely too late now, but you should not remove the HOB filter for awhile. It is generating stuff that you want
by nature of it's bacterial cultures it tends to casue to flourish and grow in it's filters, floss, balls, etc. The skimmer
is nice to have running too, but I wouldn't pull my HOB filter until I was a couple of weeks into my cycled tank. It is
creating nitrates, but you kind of want that in the beginning. But I am no expert, god you should see my
tank's current state.