Timfish

Interesting study that looked at Seriatopora hystrex, Birdsnest coral, and found distinct differences in survival strategies and symbiotic zooxanthelae associated with the depth of the coral. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111016212023.htm

After picking up pieces of iron with my magfloat and scratch acrylic I started using velcro for my mag float. I prefer to use the green as it shows both white sand and black iron well (there's a surprising amount in sand , you can see the ring that has built up on the old velcro where the magnets are) The original pad can be hard to remove and I usually have to use a pair of pliers. Spray adhesive works well and usually outlast the velcro. After experimenting a little I now leave the pad hanging out the sides, it often will catch sand and iron before it gets between the pad and acrylic/glass and being thicker it takes a larger particle to actually do damage. I use the stiffer "hook" side on the inside and the softer "loop" side on the outside. The disadvantages of using the velcro is it is thicker than the original pads so there is some loss of performance with the magnets slightly farther apart. Over time there is a hazing that develops on acrylic but it's not noticable from the front, it can only be seen when looking obliquely from the top or sides. I figure it's not any worse than what happens with the original pad and there is less chance of scratches that are more noticable. The velcro has about 1/16" margin that I overlap to avoid adhesive getting squezzed out. The adhesive will come off acrylic/glass with a little rubing but it's a hassle.

The first thing I would try is Novus 3 then Novus 2. http://aquariumsupplies.marinedepot.com/search?w=novus&modaf=null If the sctatches are too deep for the Novus products you can get one of the kits with different grits of sandpaper/laping paper going to 9000 or 12,000 grit http://www.marinedepot.com/Lifegard_Aquatics_Acrylic_Scratch_Removal_Kit_72000_Tank_Cleaning_Kits_for_Saltwater_Aquariums-Lifegard_Aquatics-RB1551-FIMTCK-vi.html Talk to Prof or Dave Pettet for more details

I ws curious and had an extra set of magnets for a Hydor Korrallia and busted one open. There was no copper but the "keeper" plate and the magnet would rust quickly if the plastic housing was cracked. Could be wrong but I'm guessing this is what you saw.

I'm assuming from you description it was very well attached to the shell and not just holding on like a snail would hold on. If so it sounds and looks to me like one of those fan worms that are often seen in sumps that make a hard calcium tube and I would consider benign outside of the physical irritation it was causing. If it actually was a snail I would be worried it's parasitic.

I would reiterate Subsea's reccomendation to get Delbeek and Sprung's "The Reef Aquarium" Vol III. They have a chapter on the different filtering methodologies and go into more detail than Palletta's "Ultimate Aquariums", not that I don't like Palletta's book as I highly reccommend it as well. The first two volumes would be nice to get also but now that they are going out of print expect to pay an arm and leg for new. An axiom I took to heart along time ago is the more complex an ecosystem the better it's stability. With this in mind I would encourage the inclusion of a sump and/or refugium. Very haphazzardly myself but when first starting out I urge people to test everything including water source before and after adding salt to it and before and after a water change. The more experience you have with what happens to the chemestry in your aquarium and how your animals react to it the better you will be able to identify problems in the future. After time you'll develop an "eye" for your animals and most likely be able to judge by how your animals look without testing. You should still test periodicly since established and healthy corals have the ability to acclimate to conditions which might kill a new addition. This is a good question! I've got Anthelia in several tanks but have never observed what you see in your tank but my tanks are quite a bit larger than your current system. I would second the reccommendation to use carbon.

You might check out Dutch Aquarium Systems, aka D.A.S., and AquaVim.com. Both have nice tank/stand setups with filtration systems. D.A.S. is available through a couple of the LFS. Deep Sea Aquatics is also available through LFS and have some nice stands to g along with thier tanks.

+1

My guess is a Epizoanthus sp. If correct they will need to be fed and if you're successful you'll have the usual problems of them fighting for space.

I'm dissapointed, I thought it would have you doing sumersaults by now! Hermits usually thin out over time anyway even without outside help. I'm pretty sure they're failry canabalistic and if they catch one of their associates as it's molting they won't hesitate to do it in.

A Ranfordii gobie, real pretty but my experience they are shy in bigger tanks with larger fish.

Any updates? Has the mantis taught you any new tricks?

I wonder how it would do in Grog's mantis tank?

Myself I would buy a new one but you could probably keep it in a ziplock bag with a couple of tablespoons of RO in your frig.

Yeah, that thought never crossed my mind!

It was pretty frustrating to see most of my animals happy as can be and the Brown BTAs melting in front of my eyes. Check your phospates. Most frozen and fresh seafood form the grocery stores have sodium triphosphate or polyphospate added as a preservative (active ingrediant in Spic and Span). Frotunately the Rose BTA is also doing well but for some reason whenever I want to go over to pick it up my friends say it would be inconvienent and I need to call back next week.

My display tank has 12 brown BTA's that are from a clone line started with a BTA purchased in 1997, 1 Rose BTA, 2 Green BTAs and a Teal w/ Pink Tip BTA. A few weeks ago I was out of town for a few days and had a friend feeding my fish. The day after I got back I noticed both Green BTA were dying along with several of the Brown BTAs and the rest of the brown BTA's didn't look very good. The Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking kinda wilted but was opening up as was the Rose BTA. Immediatley I did a 15 gallon water change and put a internal canister filter on the tank with carbon. Checking with my friend (who has taken care of my fish numerous times over the years and will in the future) she fed some medicated frozen food to the tank once the day before I got back. I did leave instructions for her to feed the medicated food to my quarintine tanks twice daily and pellets to all my tanks once daily. The Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking kinda wilted but was opening up as was the Rose BTA. The next day (2nd day back) I syphoned out 3 more of the Brown BTAs and this is when I noticed the tank was running about 84 degrees, it ususally runs about 78 but the thermostat on the heater appeared to be sticking. At this point the Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking ok just not as full as normal, the Rose was wimpy and I could only find 4 of the Brown BTAs all pretty sad. Everything else was looking as good as ever including fish, brittle stars, cucumber, Protopalythoa grandis colony with about 20 polyps, Blue Coral and assorted leather corals. I contacted a friend and moved the Rose BTA to thier tank. Over the next week the remaining Brown BTAs slowly declined while the Teal & Pink Tip looked better and was inflating more. I also had access to a Brown BTA from the same clone line as mine that was in another tank and added it back to my tank. Now after 3 weeks I have only one of the original 12 Brown BTAs left, it is inflating, has not bleached but it only about 1/6 it's former size (as far as I know, there could be a couple behind the rock). The Teal & Pink Tip looks great and the Brown BTA returned to this tank looks great. So my dilemma is what caused the dieoff of just the Brown BTAs? It seems unlikely that just one feeding with medicated frozen food would have caused it but on the other hand I've seen Brown BTAs from this clone line in warmer water over the years and when exposed to excessive temperatures it doesn't kill them without bleaching them first which did not happen in this case and it doesn't appear to have adversly affected the Teal & Pink Tip BTA. So lessons learned: $&^% happens, always give explicit instructions on what to do (which I did) and on what NOT to do (which I didn't) and never trust a thermostat.

I'm pretty sure my cats would haunt my dreams if I did something like that to them, safer to cremate them and keep their urn on my dresser.

In my autofeeders I use New Life Spectrum mixed with powdered krill and/or freeze dried krill run through a food processer. What I look for in dry food is grain products don't show up 'till 3rd or 4th ingrediant.

Derrick makes a very good point. Whatever kit you use the reagents can be damaged by temperature and are going to age so also check experiation dates.

Chip, you don't mind if I save the .jpeg of the PAR readings and pass it on to people as "a" reference for locating corals do you?

Hey, look on the bright side, it's easy to keep! If it was my rock I would get a bucket of watwer from the aquarium, take it out, scrup off as much of the offending polyps as possible the use either salt or kalk paste just on the spots that were left. Many sponges that grow voluntarily in systems will tolerate a few minutes our of water but I would keep dipping it in water so the sponges don't start to dry out. You might be able to leave the sponges under water while your doing the scrubbing and pasting maybe? If you have to deal with them in situ make sure you do as much as possible to get everything out and do a big water change, all the stuff floating or around or decomposing will add to the nutrient load of your system.

If you're talking about removing the plastic end that has the pins mounted in it your odds of success are very poor. They are glued onto the bulb and if you did get it off the leads for the bulb are only about 3/8" long so almost impossible to reattach. The Light Bulb Shop on Burnet Rd. has the square sockets with leads. You would have to dismantle the fixture, cut the leads to the old sockets and use wire nuts to attach the new sockets. The square pins actually are not square but rectangular, one diamension between pins is about 2 mm longer than the other diamension. The two pins on one short side corespond to either the left two or right two pins of the straight pin setup. I've got a hammer if you get real frustrated.

What they said. (Actually I'm just trying to up my post count with this response. )

This may work: http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-supplies/PM-F46B.html It would have to fit around a perferated pipe that threads or slides into the bulkhead fitting. Make sure the pipe is open and not capped so when the spong filter clogs it does not back up and flood.