wasp

Saw this, about the size of a 50 cent piece or a tad smaller. It looked like, and i thought it might be, a baby urchin. But when I touched it with some tongs, Pow! it was gone in a flash, into the rock. Definately not an urchin. The spike things seemed hard to the touch. Sorry about the crude pic, with my limited skills it's the best i could get.

Hmmm..... We seem to have a new geek in our little club! Welcome Fishwife!

Who is he? Anyone we know? Obviously it was not destined for a pond, for it to arrive packaged properly somebody knew what they were doing, he must have had other plans for it. Got a link to the article IAmElmo?

Wanna swap? Could increase my tank volume

Oh No - No Sand!! Ha Ha just having you on Reef! :lol: Interesting all the brown crud around the tank and in fact even the rocks are brown, just wondering if the tank is high in silicate, and also if diatoms are helping feed the sps. Almost no algae though. The guy is a fanatic, feeds the fish 8 times a day. Must be at the tank all the time. However his devotion certainly is producing awesome results. It is a great pleasure to look at a tank where everything in it is in great health, not one thing looking less than primo!

Nice Blenny, i think it is the same as the one i used to have, and they do have quite a personality. At some future point i can imagine you might get rid of even more of the rock, it looks good at the moment, but in a couple of years when corals have grown a lot you might find a bit more will have to come out.

There is an opening at the back, if a predator can gain access to that, the clam is doomed. But having said that, it seems hard to believe that little squiggy could fit 2 entire clams in her gut in one sitting. I'm tempted to wonder if squiggy is getting falsely accused and there is another, unseen, but even more evil menace lurking.

Nice one swampy!

Wow, it's a big one!

Hi Jasmine, a 60 cm cube is small but OK, my first "reef" was 60 cm x 30 cm, less than ideal but had it for a couple of years and was able to keep a number of soft corals and small fish. For lighting, i would recommend either a 150 watt metal halide, preferably with a 14,000 k bulb, or some flourescent tubes. A new 150 watt MH is fairly expensive but they can often be purchased 2nd hand on trade me for perhaps 50 bucks or so, but you would have to replace the bulb with a marine suitable one. If you decide to go with flourescent lighting, a general rule of thumb, if the plan is to grow corals, that you need a minimum of one watt per litre. This will not be enough for all types of corals, but will be enough for quite a few. You need to use marine suitable tubes. The cannister is not a good idea for biological filtration if you want to grow corals. Instead, put cured coral rock in the tank, the bacteria in the rock do the filtration. The reason for this is that using a cannister for biological filtration allows nitrate to build up to levels that are harmful to the organisms we keep in a reef tank. BTW it is hard for people who have been fresh water tank keepers, to adjust to the idea of not using a cannister. But a marine tank will do better without one. And before getting all set up, it is a good idea if you can, to find some nearby reef keeper and see if you can look at their tank. You will learn heaps just by doing this and can help you get started on the right track.

Yes I can remember that, we were all trying to talk Evil through setting up his tank, and, I've got to hand it to him for keenness and positive attitude! He did actually get it going and for a while things were OK, kinda. But in the end the lack of funds and ability to get the required equipment was the finalising factor. However, if you really want to do this Dixon, just set up your 20 litre tank with some seawater diluted with 10% fresh water, a heater, the little skimmer you are planning, and somehow incorporate some Seachem Phosguard to keep it clean. Put in some cured coral rock and for corals just grow mushrooms and zooanthids. Some of these are low light and can grow simply with light from a window. NO FISH. 2 or 3 small rockpool shrimps, not too many as they have to be fed. NO OTHER LIVESTOCK. If you can keep this running OK for several months, you may be able to try some other corals, but ask here first so we can tell you if it's suitable. Don't take what I say as an endorsement of this 20 litre plan, but at least you could get you feet wet in this marine hobby, and maybe move on to bigger things in the future. If you do set this tank up drop me a pm and I will send you a couple of suitable mushrooms for it in the post. But I'll only bother to send them if the tank has a functioning skimmer.

Chopped mussel is a good food for them. I don't know about the particular one these are but sounds like it might be a problem. IE it's saying "feed me so much it will pollute the tank, or I'll rip your corals to shreds!" Sometimes we have to make the hard decisions, I had one of those green fish eating brittlestars, which came very close to catching a fish one time that I saw, and i don't know how many times that i didn't see. this despite that i fed it heaps, so i had to give it away. There are many brittlestars that will starve to death before eating a coral so you guys must have got a problematic type.

This is not normal brittlestar behaviour, sounds like it could be super hungry. Can you name the species, or if not, post a pic? Then one of us can tell you what to feed it.

Heck David I don't know how many times I've gone to wipe that bug off my screen! :-?

Fish-unit was having a little joke!

Be interested to see how you go with that sailfin, and what you did. If it's hole in the head, do you think there is also secondary infection?

how big is your tank Saphire? Both those corals can sting their neighbours.

Did the Stop Parasite arrive?

As per Evilknievil, if you have a spare powerhead, hold it with your hand and blow all around in the rocks with it. Quite a surprising amount of crud will come out. Do this shortly before your waterchange and vacuum the sand when you do the waterchange. IMO you can never vacuum, and stir things up too much. It is not stirring things up for a long time, then doing it after there is a lot of crud built up, that can cause problems. But your tank looks fine at the moment, nowhere near the crash you mentioned.

Edit, double post

Nice one Mark! Give it a year or so to mature and grow a bit and it's going to be WICKED!

Used to have this problem if I dosed Salifert Strontium. IMO there is something not right with the product. I now dose a different strontium with no issues. Don't dose again for a week or so & stuff should come right. Then dose each thing in isolation to see which one is the problem. All this assuming you have dosed in accordance with label instructions & not overdosed.

Love those pics Puttputt!