Blog Comments

possibly a withering away duncan? I would put it in an area of higher light and less flow and see how it expands. Then post more pictures.

It has a skeleton. I dont believe it is a mojano. The mouth has a light orange border/rim.

Is it purple centered with green polyps? Kinda looks like a manjo to me, if so its a pest and needs to be removed.

Good stuff in here. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Thanks for the reading, very interesting on the colors. Gonna have to try some of that and see what happens.

Yes, I have. I've seen green house systems with corals-only that ended up being very pale, but once the owner added some yellow tangs to the system, the corals' colors enriched. I wouldn't go fallow (fish-free) with SPS; perhaps you can do like Jessy plans and add a bunch of tiny fish. EXCEPT the yellow clown goby - that one will chew up your SPS polyps for sure. I named mine Fang for a reason, and after a while I couldn't take it and siphoned him out of my tank.

You can still use the AquaC Remora or the CPR Bakpak II (or whatever CPR makes nowadays) to skim your tank. I see that company every year with new HOB skimmers, but I need to make the time to determine what they are named, I guess. The Aqua C Remora is a good skimmer if the injector is kept clean. I had one on my 29g and never regretted it.

here some good reading on coloring of sps http://reefbuilders.com/2008/09/03/g...-vivid-bright/

Every place I've been to that has coral grow out tanks have fish in them, never seen one that doesn't. I even believe Marc has stated that that the fish poo helps the corals. I've never fed my corals specifically either & some SPS are growing at almost a inch a month. I hope someone who has a COLR (coral only live rock?) chimes in, I would be very interested in how it works.

i dont think fish contribute as much needed nutrients as thought(most coral farmers dont have fish in grow out systems), thats why you feed your corals. my filtration on my tank is a skimmer and bio pellets and a phosphate removing media. my nitrates stay very low. as for coral i keep a mix of everything, softies of all kinds, sps of all kinds also, acros, montis,caps, digis, milis, birdnest and have no problems. i do 10g water change every two weeks, as for dosing i use esv two part and mag, also trace emlements. feeding for coral ranges from coral frenzy and fuel(amino acids) which is dosed one each day and cyclops . lighting and water flow are the other big things needed. any other question feel free to send me a message, you can see my tank/tanks in my blogs.

Thats the whole reason why I want to go strictly SPS on this tank. I have mainly softies in my other tank, and while I could make the changes neccesary to grow sps in it, it would be at the cost of my dirty water loving zoas and softies.

SPS do require a "cleaner" enviroment than other corals but still need the poo to grow along with good lights. Thats what makes keeping the SPS so challanging its balancing the amount of bad with the good. SPS love A LOT of flow, and some go with the bare bottom so they don't get sand storms.

I have crushed coral in my tank (mixture of LPS, SPS and zoa's) I have the flow needed without the sandstorms.

In my tank personally I try to keep Nitrates below .05ppm, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Alk 11 ppm, Cal 450 and Mg 1300. I know the Nitrates are a little high but I feel that stability is the key. On my bi-weekly checks I usually don't see any major fluctuations. I don't dose anything as well, the simpler the better IMO. I have good growth on all the corals but I can't keep a birdsnest alive for more than a month or so. Again I know it due to the high Nitrates, but if I get them down then the Zoa's don't do well.

I could be wrong on the no fish thing, I'm hoping others will join in as well.

I already know that the glass isnt tempered.

And I thought sps needed extremely clean water, so I thought no fish and a skimmer would achieve that. Guess I am misinformed.

And I dont want a barebottom tank. I was just asking since people have said its the best way to go in a sps dominant tank.

Without poo producing organisms its gonna be hard to keep a SPS tank. The poo feeds the SPS, I'm sure there are other ways around this but I wouldn't want to try it. As for the bottom and it being scratched up you could use the white cutting boards for a bottom. I personally hate the look of a bare bottom but understand why some want it.

As for the skimmer why? If you have no poo producing organisms, then in theory you have no protein to skim off.

Also before you drill make sure the glass your drilling isn't tempered or you'll end up shattering it.

Your Goniopora gives me something to work towards. It's gorgeous!

Good luck on fixing your zoas.

Thanks Sam, Ill get on it.

Sounds like zoa pox. I had a really bad case on all my zoanthids. I finally beat it with one Furan 2 packet to a cup of water dipping every day for three days. You need to get rid of it before your other zoas get infected. It's tough stuff and might not die the first time but have patience and try again after a few days. It took me over a month to get rid of it.

Yea, it had a strong current going across it when it was being dipped. The stuff thats on it are the swollen, little white bumps on the polyps.

That gonipora is lovely! I wanted that thing tonight, but didn't pull the trigger. Congrats.

With the zoas, I'm very tempted to tell you to dip it in hydrogen peroxide as that seems to be the latest cure for pest issues, but I don't know the concentration and/or risks to your polyps. Since they are closed, they are somewhat safe, but I wouldn't do it long. The image appears to show some stuff on the zoas, but I can't tell what I'm seeing. Have you taken a turkey baster to it already, and perhaps used a very soft toothbrush to remove anything?