Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Corals and Coral Reefs - by Eric Borneman

Question on how to ID a coral

Aguabeast — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:47:12 GMT

Ive had this same discussion a couple times in the last few weeks with people, and have never reached a 'satisfying' conclusion. The coral in question is whats often seen listed online as Cynarina deshayesiana. Ive seen 3 different arguments for the identification of this coral; according to your Aquarium Corals, it should be a species of Scolymia. Ive seen older references calling the coral Acanthophyllia deshayesiana, though Veron classifies that as a synonym of Cynarina lacrymalis. The last one Ive seen is Sprung's take on it- that Cynarina actually consists of 3 species: C. lacrymalis, C. deshayesiana, C. macassarensis (apparently assuming that Indophyllia should also be viewed as Cynarina).

Are your thoughts any different than what they were when your book was published? And more than that, how can a hobbiest- without having access to a University for resources and equipment- have any chance of getting a proper ID for corals in their care? Thanks!

How much PAR is too much?

Reefski — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:27:46 GMT

I am in the early stages of my tank maturation. i have had live rock and dead sand and a couple of corals in the tank for about two months now.

on a recent sunny day PAR values reached 1504 for periods as the sun went across the sky. as the sun moves across the sky the light will be intense for a while and then taper off down to 2-4-600 PAR and then high again as the sun is directly on the corals. the sun is now high enough in the sky to shine directly down on the corals without bouncing off the sides of the shaft. these values were at the bottom of the tank. i don't have much attenuation like with halides.

the corals i want in this tank are mostl SPS and some LPS as well, including Montipora's, Acropora, Millepora. euphyllia's, fungia, and a few others which can be in a shadier area. no soft corals. i have some areas of the tank i am shading with eggcrate on an angle and this seems to be helping the few corals acclimate, Acropora Yongei, montipora capricornis, birdsnest, and a couple Pocillipora. the monticaps lightened up considerably in this tank compared to a few inches under a 400 watt MH, both the green and orange morphs turned pastel shades.

most of the time the PAR values are at lower levels.

acclimating corals to this tank seems like it could potentially be a problem. however, i have not had any corals bleach but only lighten up, that's when i shaded some of them.

my tank seems like it will be lit almost like the reef crest.

Dana Riddle's work seems to show that corals get light saturated at values below what i am seeing in my tank. at values around 2-400 for different corals. is there an advantage for coloration or other advantages to the higher values?

again, most of the time the values are less and days are longer now than in the tropics but winter will come again. but then it is not summer solstice yet either.

i am hoping to be able to run my tank without supplemental lighting.

i live about three miles from the beach and for June and July we have many overcast days from the marine layer, now and in the fall are probably the sunniest days.

the color from sunlight may not give the look many people like for their corals but that is another discussion. it seems like if the coral is brightly colored it will remain so under this more intense light, after all this light has all the wavelengths. the perceived color may be different but the color is still there.

they are all growing well.

what do you think?

Stinky film algae

Puddles — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:27:35 GMT

I have developed this lovely dusty golden brown film algae on the glass, sand and rocks in my 10 month soon to be reef tank. It's been in the tank for a few weeks but I thought it was a simple case of Diatoms. But now I'm wondering if it maybe something else. I do a wipe down every couple of days in my tank and today was no different. I put the scraper in to do a quick wipe and pulled it out and got a wiff of the nastiest smelling odor I have ever smelled . I almost got sick from it. It smelled like sulphur. I have never had a sulphur smell in any of my tanks. Is this a normal smell from Diatoms or is this something else and should I be concerned?My Ca has been holding at around 410-420 ppm, Nitrites-0, Nitrates-5 ppm, dkh between 9-10,PH has been a stable 8.3,the phosphate was tested for me at the fs with a Salifert kit was barely even registerable on the kit. I don't run Kalkwasser. I buffer the freshwater top-off with a reef builder. I run 260 watts of compact lighting with 40 watts of normal output actinic. Here's a pic of what it looks like. I know of another MD member who has a similar algae issue as I do.

Allelopathy in Filterless System

Sweet Reefer — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:59:02 GMT

Aside from the apparent ideal of keeping a single species in a closed system with regard to minimizing allelopathy, what is the most useful level of taxonomic grouping to limit oneself to when making stocking decisions and are there any concise references of compatibility among corals? Thank you.

Another picture to share

Fastmarc — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:08:36 GMT

Since I have been diving (last 2 1/2 years), it was not been until recently that I have started seeing staghorn (Eric, help me out with the scientific name here) corals. I have seen old pictures from dive buddies of forests of staghorns that stretched for ever (I'm sure Eric could attest to this also). I even remember seeing them maybe 15 years ago while snorkling.

Now i have noticed that areas I have started seeing them is also where I have started seeing an increase of long spiny urchins. To me this made some sense as the presence of these urchins resulted in sometimes large areas of freshly 'scraped' reef, so I would guess the conditions would be more favourable.

Now while swimming through what seems like endless reef covered in algae (as the background suggest), the this little 'trying' one caught the corner of my eye. There is litterally no staghorn anywhere near by.

A small miracle perhaps?

I just take it as a sign of hope.

weird montipora polyps

Marie1 — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:01:00 GMT

Hi Eric, I have a montipora digitata that has some strange looking polyps. It hasn't appeared to affect the coral, growth and colour appear to be good but there are patches of polyps that, for want of a better description appear to be overinflated. It doesn't seem to be contagious, I have other montiporas that have never done this and this coral has been like this for the last year

Would you have any idea what would cause this?

sg. 1.026, temp 82, cal 380, alk 8dkh, nitrates ~5

Seagrass Substrates

Sweet Reefer — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:18:07 GMT

So the reason one has to wait so long for the sand bed to mature before planting seagrasses is to allow sediment to build up for the roots to have something to draw on. The freshwater planted people put down substrate rich in minerals and use various fertilizers to provide adequate nutrients to the plants they grow. Some "low tech" approaches involve ordinary garden dirt.

I wonder if you could lay down a layer of good chemical free dirt mixed with sand then top with sand to keep it contained and bypass the long waiting period for seagrass. Or the manufactured planted tank substrate like flourite or eco-something. I think this might just be crazy enough to work - I'll try it if I can ever find any seagrass.

Stephanocoenia

Sherri — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:32:46 GMT

Hi Eric -- me again!

I have a very large (8 inches +17 year old) Stephanocoenia coral that I received when I bought some coral rock from TBS. It has gone up and down in my tank but was getting really healthy. Now all of a sudden it is down but it is not uniform. I changed the flow several times including turning it off but that does not seem to be the issue. I have two potential causes that I want to test out with you.

One possibility is that I have been gradually (over several months!) increasing my calcium in the tank and it now sits between 400 and 450. Prior to this it was 320 - 350. What is the calcium rated at in the Caribbean? I actually don't think this is the cause because the upper portion of the coral is still okay.

The other possibility is some blue tipped hairy mushrooms that I added to the tank. I removed one and am planning on removing the other one. The Stephanocoenia and the mushroom are about 5 inches apart and have absolutely no contact. But the flow would be such that the water would primarily flow from the mushroom to the lower part of this coral. And if looked at this way including the pattern of the withdrawal of the polyps on the Stephanocoenia it's the same as having a bright neon light saying that it is the hairy mushroom. But everyone says their weapon is touch not chemicals.

Can you shed any light?

polyp bail-out

sjames — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:57:58 GMT

Hello all,

(hope i posted this to the correct forum)

I was curious if anyone has any pictures of the progression of polyp bail-out on a frogspawn or other similar branching coral?

Im trying to identify whats wrong with my frogspawn.

The area where the tissue was attached to the branch (below where the polyps are) has started to come off to varying degrees on 3 of the four heads. Its not receeding in any particular direction, most are like vertical lacerations that slowing become larger.

The advancement has been quite slow, its been going on for probably 3 weeks now with no apparent issues for the coral to this point.

There is no sign of any brown jelly, or anythig else where the tissue has become detached, just clean skeleton and clean tissue.

The frogspawn is located on the bottom in a low flow area.

This is a relativly new setup (3-4 months) but all other organisms seem to be doing well.

specs are 120g (48x24x24)Bare bottom, (180gal system vol)

temp:76.5, sg:1.026, pH: 8.1-8.3, alk: 10dKH, cal: 420ish, mg:1400. po4: .015, nitrate: 0 last i checked.

lights MH/t5 combo 250w XM10ks

livestock:

4 acroporas

2 montiporas

1 turbinaria mispelled? (scroll coral)

1 unknown.

1 small pulsing xenia

1 maxima clam

Fish:

red lip blenny, royal gramma, bar goby, pair of clowns, yellow tang, kole tang.

Others: clean up crew, hermits and snails.

Any advise would be appreciated, thanks.

Interesting

Eric Borneman — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:30:31 GMT

For years, one of my favorite fish is Oxymonacanthus longirostris. I have seen a few large tanks with lots of Acropora housing them, but have not kept up with long-term success. I recently purchased one (tried to purchase a pair and will look for the opposite sex) because I felt I had enough in one tank to support an obligate corallivore.

Upon putting the fish in the tank, who was a little skinny having probably not eaten since collection, she immediately went straight to a colony and began examining it, ignoring all the other residents and them largely ignoring her. She began picking here and there, and a few days later had gained weight and found another species with more fuzzy polyps. Its interesting because the polyps of that colony now stay closed during the day, but open at night when she sleeps. And she sleeps in an Acropora colony. Two days after getting her, before lights on, I saw a very limp fish in the colony and thought, "damn, she died." I went to remove her, and she quickly went deeper into the colony. awoke when the lights came on and started feeding. She ignores all food at feeding time and the bustle of fish around her eating, concentrating on Acropora. A week later, I see no evident loss of Acropora as her nips are not concentrated and spaced all over the tank. The only difference is the daytime polyp extension of the corals.

So, is this perhaps a reason that corals stay shut during the day in the wild, and open at night, but are open during the day in tanks? Lack of corallivorous fish? Anyway. I am enjoying watching, and the effects of her grazing thus far on any colony is not even apparent.

Photos attached, including the normally fuzzy Acropora with its polyps retracted after her grazing it for awhile.

Frogspawn has white bugs

flynnstone — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:33:44 GMT

My frogspawn and Brain have not been opening for two weeks now. i notice tiny little white bugs on the Frogspawns, but cannot see them on the Brain. they move fairly fast. i have been to other popular sites but no one has been able to help me with this issue. all other corals and fish in the tank are unaffected. i have tried iodine dips for 15 minutes, with no noticed results.

i was told to come here by two other sites. i hope you can help. here are some pictures...

Elegance Coral fragging

Scott Osborne — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:59:49 GMT

I've had a very nice Aussie elegance in my system for sometime now. As it seems to be hardy and a loved specimen I would like to frag it and spread it around. I've read the article Steven Pro wrote about fragging and seem to understand it. I am looking for pointers and perhaps a little encouragement that everything will go well if the fragging is properly done.

Thanks
Scott

The WEIRDEST algae i've ever seen

jonnyloback — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:08:48 GMT

Can't really get any pics right now.

This is the ODDEST algae I have ever seen Mr. Borneman, and am rather stumped over it. From what I have seen of Dinoflagellates, they are either stringy or slimey (like mucus). These growths also occur within a matter of days, not weeks from what I have noticed. For about 10 days I have had an alga covering my substrate and it appears the only reason that it is coating the sides is because of some "dust" that has adhered to the side and been there since before the Alga arrived. It is a brown powder that has about an 1/8th inch long strand coming off of it here and there.

Here's the kicker though. Lights go out, alga lose pigmentation. Light comes on, alga regains it's pigmentation with an hour or so. ?

I know that Dino has light sensitive organelles that are known as eyespots; that get aroused when light hits them and causes the carotenoid pigments to tell where the light is coming from. I do not know however if the pigment only becomes active when the lights are on. Then some Dino also have an ocellus which refracts light on to a retinoid membrane.

I don't know if the above tells you anything, but I would figure the pigmentatio due to light might. Hopefully it's not time for me to bust out the ole' precision PH monitor and start dosing Kalk again.

Back from travels

Eric Borneman — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:44:04 GMT

Hi all:

I just returned last evening and will be catching up with posts over the next days. Thanks, Chuck and Steve, for your work and thanks for everyone's patience.

Brain with Tentacles

Bill1426 — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:49:57 GMT

Is this normal for a closed brain to have these tentacles ??
They will disappear after the light has been on for a short time.
The brain will also swell after the light has been tuened on.

Montipora nudi's and a six line wrasse.

Mike O'Brien — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:46:50 GMT

Well I treated for red bugs in a seperate qt tank. That was a great success so far. But after I was done, I figured I'd use the tank to house some frags. I had a few frags in my tank, one a plating montipora, and I put those into the QT/now frag tank. After a few days I noticed some tissue loss on the Monti and I didn't think too much about it. Well today I noticed two good sized nudi's eating away at the thing. Of corse the first thing I did was go and start looking at my tank. And there on the mother colony was the start of some damage at the base where it meets the rock and I could see some smaller nudi's on there as well. I have a bunch of different montipora and all are growing fast with no damage at all, up untill now anyway.

So here is where I started to think. Just a few days ago my sixline wrasse somehow made it into the sump. That is another story, but anyway, I have a pair of clowns in the tank and they eat their eggs all the time, so I figured I'd keep the wrasse in the sump because I knew they would be spawning soon. Which they did today BTW. Then it dawned on me. The wrasse must have been eating the nudi's. The frag was growing great in my tank, and just a few days later it's half gone.

Well needless to say, the trap is in the sump to catch the fish. I just wanted to share what I think might be some good luck with a fish.

Recycling of seagrass nutrients

charlesr1958 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:57:20 GMT

Having delved into a bit of seagrass bed nutrient dynamics, a thought occured to me that I have not seen mentioned and if I don't get this down as a question now, I will forget.

During the much windier (is that a word?) parts of the monsoon season here, I can go to the beach and tell which way the wind has been blowing and how hard by just the huge mounds of cast off (dead) sea grass blades that have been washed up onto shore. Being that seagrass derives its nutrients from its sediment (DSB), its leaves should contain a fair amount of nutrients, including carbon. With the amount of dead leaf litter on shore and it breaking down, it would only take a larger wave or rainfall to wash what must be nutrient rich water back into the ocean, where the near shore filatmentous algae would then be spurred to even greater growth, thus recycling or transporting the nutrients that were once found deep in the sediment of the grassbeds and into the filamentous algae community. Now if the wind were blowing offshore, then those blades of seagrass would most likely end up sinking into the deep ocean and adding their nutrients to the very deep benthic habitat that in turn would break down (release?) the sequestered nutrients which could then find their way back up into the light by upwellings and fuel the plankton, which in turn...feeds just about everything else.

I think...

Chuck

Kenya tree coral in trouble!

xltom — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:53:53 GMT

Hey there everyone,

I recently had to move my rock work around and while doing so tore a kenya tree a little. It is decaying around the tear. This happened before to a green tree coral I had and it died. The kenya tree thrived in my tank and after just a few months I had already cut frags from it twice and it was ready to be cut again. Should I try to cut a few frags off the injured coral and get rid of the rest? Any advice would be appreciated but the faster the better. Anyone know why this coral can be cut with scissors and heals in like a day, but a tear near it's attachment seems to be a death sentence?

Pocillopora Update

Talfish — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:18:34 GMT

Thought I'd send a few pics showing the progression of my Pocillopora babies

More growth on the heater... the heater is no longer in working order, it caused a few problems while I was on vacation. I haven't decided how to deal with the colonies on the heater yet.

xenia research

forestal — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:06:30 GMT

Hi Eric, hope all is well with you...sorry havent been posting much, but work /kids has me online maybe 30min/week lately

My wife and I were talking about my growing of xenia and how not a lot is known about how/what they eat.

I have the supplies but havent got around to secitoning my sweeper tentacles(i will), but we thought it shouldnt be too hard to take various foods, find a flurescent tag (dont know where to get), feed different colonies different foods and frag/section to look to see what are they eating if at all

i dont think possible on a home scale but if so then adding somehow tagged carbon to see over a period of time what its uptake rate is to determine is it a filter feeder

from this finding the ideal food for them other than just feeding fish in the tank.

My wife is actually excited about this so we are more likely to move forward quicker and we can do this as an actual study

any thoughts on what to look at, how to come up with a flurescing dye (i am thinking soaking the foods [cyclopeeze, oyster eggs, rotifers, etc] in the dye that we can then look at under scope on sectioning or even grossly.

i have a better camera lens for the scope i can use on my high powered scope so this should help with imagry.

let me know your thoughts and while doing this i can section my galaxea sweepers and do some pics of those as well

take care

montipora color

troypt — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:39:09 GMT

I have a superman montipora that has lost much of the blue color of the skeleton. The polyps are out and are still a nice red color. I also have a green montipora with a purple rim that has lost the purple color on the rim. Both corals were placed low in the tank and have slowly been moved higher until they are now about mid level to slightly higher.
The tank is 135 gallons with 2 250 watt 14K MH. I haven't tested ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite for awhile, but have never had a problem. Calcium is 380 (I have struggled to get this higher as it has been in the mid 300's for the past few months, but I have finally been able to get it to start to rise and am working on getting it to the mid 400's.) Alkalinity in 11, and no phosphate per the test, temp is 78-80 degrees, salinity is a hair above 32 ppt. Other coral colors seem to be doing okay.
Any suggestions to help the color would be appreciated.
Thanks
Troy

A worm you probably wouldn't want in your tank

Fastmarc — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:04:14 GMT

Thought this is a photo worth sharing.

species for first addition

salTasos — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:18:38 GMT

hello Eric

Please your advice for a new establish tank

which species are good for first addition?

Thank you in advance !

My frogspawn has a big bubble growing out of it

Jmoney — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:47:23 GMT

My frogspawn seems to be doing well and growing, but my problem is that a bubble looking thing is growing out of it. is this bad? if so, what do i do to fix it?

I have a 150G tank, with a 20G sump and a rdsb with 100lbs of sand. I feed the fish twice a day alternating between pellets and frozen foods, including bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, plankton. about twice a week i put in marine seaweed on a clip. i target feed the corals about once a week using zooplankton made by brightwell aquatics.

corals: frogspawn, a flower pot, brain coral, birds nest, 2 feather dusters, a few mushrooms and two anemones.

Fish include: a pair of maroon clowns, yellow tang, 3 chromis, 1 horsecrab, 2 monos, 1 royal gramma, 1 diamon goby and various hermit crabs and snails.

lighting: 2 - 150w mh 14k's and 2-96 atinics. on for 8 hours a day. the rest of the time i have 4-1w blue led's.

for water movement i have 2 hyrdor korlia #4's.

water parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5-10, alkalinity 8, ph 8.4, calcium 400, phospates 0, salinity 1.0024. All my test kits are API.

Started back in 2002

newclean — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:54:37 GMT

Eric,

I am interested what you are currently feeding. Although your previous threads, here and RC, were all inclusive, I wonder if you have made some changes to your original recipe (2002), new for 2008? If you're feeding the same stuff, thats fine. I am compelled to ask for two reasons: the new and unusual foods products available to hobbyists, and the constant evolution of our husbandry through sharing information and experimenting independently.

Thanks,
Carson

Brain exposing skeleton

IronMan1492 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:48:39 GMT

My brain (Trachyphyllia) isn't happy. When I bought him a couple of months back, he had about 20% of his skeleton showing (never will I do that again, but at least it was on sale!). Over time, more and more of the underlying skeletal structure is showing, so the polyp is obviously receding. I feed it a couple of times per week by dropping food pellets directly on it, and the mouth will open up and consume the food. Occasionally he'll puff up to a very large size. I do frequent water changes and the parameters are where they need to be. At least all of my other corals (soft and hard) and fish are happy. Just the brain... at this rate, he'll be dead this summer.

I'd certainly like to nurse it back to health if possible/practical. Any advice (other than don't buy a damaged one to begin with)?

BBC article on coral seeding

Eric Borneman — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:05:38 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7357121.stm

Treating With Vitamin C

Pufferpunk — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:25:52 GMT

It looks like I've made a huge hit with my new method of treating my tank with Vitamin C. For those that don't wish to read all 11 pages, here's the short version (although Qs/answers & many of the results are posted in that thread).
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1252294

I started this 3 months ago:
Some of you have heard my complaints of losing entire colonies of zoas/palys that have been wonderful for years & for no apparent reason, got pinched/stretched, covered with brown & melted away, while colonies right next to them are fine. I read somewhere about raising your coral's immune system with vitamin C.
All I found was this article:
http://www.athiel.com/lib2/pguide/vitami1.html

I decided to try vit C. At 1st I used 1x1000mg in the tank morning & 1 at night (tank is 90g/20g fuge/20g sump). I didn't see much improvement in my zoas, so I raised it to 2000 morning & night. I really think I'm seeing improvements! The last straw was seeing my really nice colony of Tub's blues closing & pinching/stretching & getting brown. I knew what was coming next...

I have been dosing Vit C for about 2 weeks now. I put the whole tablet into the sump, where there is most agitation, where the water dumps in from the overflow. I have rubble in there, to help with bubbles so I'm sure the tab fals in between. That's also where I do all my other dosing.

Now, most are open & looking great again--only a couple are still closed. Same with some of my other faltering colonies. Recession has stopped completely & my zoas/palys have never looked better or more colorful.

I just tested:
dKH 8.5
pH 8.2
Ca 430
NO3 1
Exact same parameters--nothing changes, even after 3 months of dosing.

Before & after pics:

See all the new zoas below the older ones?

See here for dosing amounts: http://www.athiel.com/lib2/pguide/vitami1.html

What I didn't expect was the healthy corals to start growing so much. My other zoas/palys are huge & much more colorful & my SPS/LPS are growing like crazy!

You must add the C after your filtration system ( skimmer/carbon, etc.) or it will remove some of the C.

Selecting herbivores for different algae

charlesr1958 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:34:22 GMT

While researching Kelp, I ran across a paper that linked to what I thought would be a helpfull website in selecting the proper fish species for specific algae species control. So in keeping with what should be proper/natural control of algae within a display tank while allowing a macroalgae refugium or turf algae scrubber to do all the work, this webpage ought to be of help.

http://www.incofish.org/herbitool.php

Chuck

Seaweeds preferred by herbivorous fishes - G. Tolentino-Pablico & N. Bailly & R. Froese & C. Elloran - Journal of applied phycology Nov. 2007

help zoas not opening

artur — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:56:54 GMT

I have like 7 frags of zoantids two of them are the same color and every one are great but two of the same color, those of the same color are closed and have been like this for 2 week, the prior couple of weeks all of them were ok!

Its kind of wierd that only two frags of the same color are closed and every other are fine

What should I check for?

Artur

Duncan death ' overfeeding ' question

Graveyardworm — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:36:48 GMT

Back when my tank was having strange problems I also had a Duncan die and I just chalked it up to the pile of other tissue recession deaths that I was experiencing. Now in our club forum a question of " Is overfeeding a coral possible ". My opinion was that they would until their gut was full and then they wouldnt be able to eat anymore. Sherri whom I think you're a bit familiar with in your forum here pointed me to a discussion another site where the consensus seems to be that Duncans can be overfed and it results in strange bubbles in the tissue on the stalk which basically pop exposing the skeleton then the tissue recedes until the polyp is dead, pictures are provided there which are identical to how mine died. So now I'm wondering since I was feeding mine every night if I wasnt overfeeding, and the overfeeding resulted in death. I can provide the link if you would like to take a look at the photos. Thanks for your help.

green bubble tip in bad shape

scubanoah — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:44:57 GMT

Hi Eric. I doubt you remember me but you helped me nurse back a yellow fiji leather that was in very bad shape a while back. I get free corals from the LFS every once in a while when they have had them so long that they are near death. or at least they think they are. you did a great job helping me last time with what little info i could provide you so i figured i would try and pick your brain again if you dont mind. yesterday i got a football size green bubble coral from them that is in really bad shape. it has been in bad shape for a long time and they just kept thinking it would come back. they finally gave the thing to me so now i am going to do my best to bring it back. it does still have a little tissue on the fringe of it so it may be possible? it only has tissue left all the way around the very edge and all of the center is just bare skeleton. i will try and get you some pics. i currently have it in my QT by itself just under some power compacts and mild flow. is there anything i should be doing to try and bring this thing back? thanks for your time.

Cynarina

charlesr1958 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:52:09 GMT

While diving the reef wall for my own enjoyment and to get away from students and enjoy my own thing, I came across what I believe is a Cynarina lacrymalis at 62 feet deep. Not having seen one before and the fact that its coloration really jumped out against the wall I had to look closer and made the decision to collect it for my tank. I didn't feel too bad about doing so since it was obviously not doing well, evident by it having at one (or two) times been reduced and had to regrow.

Anyways, just wanted to share what I thought to be an unusual find for me.

oh, and up on top of the reef wall (30') I saw what looked like a really nicely colored acropora, but it turned out to be a macroalgae! Which is now in my tank and am glad to see that the tangs ignore it (for once). Makes a nice filler near the Acanthastrea sp. that tends to have an attitude towards other corals...

Chuck

I cannot keep a birdsnest alive for more than 6 weeks!

mysterybox — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:06:51 GMT

Can you help me explain why I cannot keep a birdsnest alive for more than 6 weeks? I have repeadely tried with all kinds & places in my tank. My stony dominated reef tank is almost 3 years old. I have acros, montis, & a scroll coral. No issues at all. They are all thriving. No direct flow at corals.

Fish: Yellow Tang, Royal Gramma, 2 False Pecular Clownfish, 2 Dragonface Pipefish, Talbot's Demoiselle, Yasha Gobi

Stony Coral: Rose Millepora, Green Millepora, Blue Tortuosa, 2 Tenuis, Montipora Capricornis, Orange Digitata, Montipora Purple Digitata, Turbinaria Peltata

Other Inverts: Crocea Blue, Crocea Green, Pistol Shrimp & Peppermint Shrimp, Scarlet & Blue Leg Hermit Crabs, Cerith, Top Crown, Zebra Turbo, Nerite, & Nassarius Snails, Blue Tuxedo Urchin, Black Brittle Star, Various Bristle Worms, Feather Dusters, Pods

Equipment: 55 gallon drilled 48" tank, 30 gallon sump w/ refugium (race caulpera), additional CPR refugium Chaeto, ASM G-2 skimmer (mod pump), 2-150 watt AB 13K metal halides w led, 2 phosban reactors 1 phosar HC 1 carbon, EVC B-ionic, Cooling: sump fan, 2 Tunze Turbo Streams 7095 controller 3,360 gallons per hour

Parameters: Alk: 11.2/4.00, Calcium: 450, Ammonia 0, nitrites: 0, Nitrates: 0.470, Phosphates: <.024 (merk), Silica: 6.9, PH: 8.2, Salinity: 35 or 1.026 , Temp: 82F Strontium: 9.02, Magnesium: 1300.

Self Supporting Reef Tank

huskerreef — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:34:41 GMT

I was thinking the other day about a self sustaining system and if there is such a thing. Can a system be set up that will take of its self? What I am wondering is it possible to set up a reef tank with fish that will be self supportive. Can a captive system produce enough pods, food to support fish that will in turn produce waste that will feed corals and the liverock and sand bed will be enough to biologically filter and maintain water quality. I am sure this is not a new thought but have not seen much on this. I guess in a nutshell could you for example set up a 180 with a determined amount of LR and sand, fish, corals, no skimmer, no feeding, no suppliments, just water changes and good lighting. Minimal human intervention. Just curious.

New to the reef's

fishin99 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:27:18 GMT

I am 25 and having served in the Marine Corps for awhile getting to travel all over the world and back. I became very interested in ocean snorkeling off Okinawa Japan and have grown up with freshwater tanks. I have dabbled in saltwater fish tanks. I have just remodeled my house and built 2 tanks into a wall with access to them from the back side (under a stairway). Currently I have a 65G and 29G with filtration hooked up between the 2. I will tell you everything that i have in hopes that I can get some ideas in what I can do or what I should not do.

My filtration is ran off a Rena FilStar XP1 with a 18w UV sterilizer. I have a Red Sea Prism protein skimmer, 2 100w Rena heaters. My lighting is I believe Oceanic 2 96w PC with 3 LED night lights 1 is actinic and the other the 10k.

I am thinking about putting a larger tank in my basement to run some type of a sump when I get he money. The tank has been running since Oct/Nov 2007. I have a couple feather dusters and a bubble tip anenome. I also have about 60 lbs of the black/white sand in the 65G and 40 lbs of course argonite int eh 29G. I also have a cleaner package from Marine Depot split in the 2 tanks.

Do I have the right or enough equipment to run a reef tank? If so any ideas on how to start it out? Is there anything to stay away from or not to buy/do?

I will post some pics of the remodel and all soon.

Lance in Nebraska

Brown jelly infection.

RyanNi — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Hi Eric, sorry to bother you again with another question. I just received a brain coral (favia, favites or something similar) that came down with an infection nearly immediatly. It's bad and I've already considered throwing the coral out, but you helped me before and I'm using your idea again. Cleaning the coral, painting on iodine, higher flow, etc. It stays clean for about 12 hours or less. Here's my question, would a UV sterilizer help at all? This is in a QT tank by the way. What else can I do? I absolutely hate this nasty stuff, it kills corals and it stinks so bad I had to open all the windows after cleaning it. Any ideas you can give me would be helpful!

Allelopathy

Mark — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:30:06 GMT

Hi Eric,

Could you expound a bit on how allelpathy works? Given the huge dilution effect of ocean currents, it seems counterintuitive to me that excreting noxious compounds would be a biologically efficient manner of attack (or defense) for any organisms other than those in either very close proximity or direct contact. I could see how a concentration of such compounds in the slime coat or mucus of a coral might be effective against immediate neighbors, but I'm wondering if there's much merit to the attributions of hobbyists claiming that corals several feet away in their tanks are affected by others.

Thanks,

Mark

Coral Color

adagosto — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:30:31 GMT

I have noticed over the years that my euphyllia seems to have lost much of its "umph" in its color. The color loss has taken a long time, but, nevertheless, it has lost some of its beauty.

While at the same time it has nearly doubled in size and doing extremely well, it would be nice if I could bring back its color.

Any suggestions on enhancing coral color?

BTW. The lighting is 1x250wt MH, 15K. And 4xT5's (white/blue). All the lights are reletively new.

Thanks.

Adam

Gorgonian in trouble?

tonig — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:00:45 GMT

Hi I am concerned that this Gorgonian has lost tissue on its base and dosen't seem to be coming out as much. Polyps showing on only a small portion. Have had it for two weeks and don't remember seeing this on its base stem. Initially it had all polyps out. My water tests are O.K . (nitrate is a little high 2-6) and I have been feeding plankton . Do I need to move it? Is something eating on it?Thanks Toni