Timfish

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

Is today the first time you noticed the byssal opening or byssus damaged? Was the clam in a position where you may not have seen the byssus before? I have seen clams with the byssus badly damaged and completely open to the interior of the clam but the clam was still fully inflating it's mantle looking healthy for weeks or months before it died. This is why I will only by clams locally so I can see that there is no damage to the byssus and it is completely closed off so nothing can crawl into the clams interior. Ideally there is a piece of rock being held against it by the byssal threads but I'm happy if it's closed off and healthy looking.

Yeah, I've got a bunch slowly taking over well established purple and green watermelon mushoom colonies, turf wars in super super slow motion.

I usually see tehm reffered to as Yellow Stone Polyps. They do have a pretty good sting and can cause problems with some corals. I've had them release eggs in one of my tanks: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/12279-polyp-porn

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.

Thought I'd pass on this experience I had with a system getting hot last summer. It was a screwy case of a tank heating because the AC thermostat wan't changed, no fans failed, timers for the lights were not changed and there was not a heater in this system. When the owners went on vacation the tank went from it's normal 80 - 82 to around 90. The tank is physically located under the main ac vent between the kitchen and family room. When the family is home they are very active and somebody is always coming or going causing the AC to be frequently cycling. So the theory is since no one was home the AC was not cycling and cooling off the tank. Fortunately no animals were lost and most did not show any adverse affects from the heat except the brown BTAs. There are 7 clones all from one added about 2 1/2 years ago. All of them bleached out pretty quickly and shrank down to about 2" across give or take. It took about two months but 4 of the 7 started to color back up. From when the first one started to color back up untill the fourth one was completely colored back up was about 4-5 months. The two of the three that have not colored up, look kinda ok and do inflate and deflate but have not grown. The third has shrunk down to less than 1" diameter and I keep waiting for it to let go and dies but it's still holding on to the rock pretty tight. The attached picture was taken 10 months after the overheating and has one of the 4 that recovered next to one of the two that haven't changed.

Yeah, that thought never crossed my mind!

I would leave the R/O in the garage and just run a 1/4" polyethelene line. I would also add a drain line in case your float valve fails so you don't flood your house. Automation is fine but you have to plan for what happens when not if something fails. I have chosen not to automate top off in the past because the consequences of a failed float valve are much worse than the labor of moving water.

Yes, it was hilarious! But somebody owes me a new laptop now!

No, I'm not jealous at all. Congratulations!!!

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.

And smart! I knew one that would track back and forth following as it's owner (who hand fed it) would walk back and forth even if there were people between it's tank and it's owner.

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.

I vote tunicate also and I would consider benificial. It looks like it has a intake and an exit opening. If you use a bamboo scewer and bump it you should see them close up. I have mushrooms growing on the sides of clams so I doubt a tunicate will bother yours and leave it in place.

. . . Whatever you do, dont let it get above 85F, it will no longer work right. I had mine in the garage for a couple days . . .

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.

Purple Up is not going to help any more than any other calcium supplement. Aragamight is the dry powder form that I use as calcium supplement and works very well remineralizing RO. I've been rereading some stuff and the June/July 2005 issue of "Coral" had an interview with Richard Perrin owner of Tropicorum (coral farm started in '94) in which he said they discontinued the use of kalkwasser and calcium reactors in favor of CaribSea's Aragamight. Like Robb said the important thing is to monitor your calcium.

Every so often I'll try a product but end up stopping as I don't see any difference. My tank is not your tank though so go ahead and try it. As long as you follow the manufacturer's instructuions you shouldn't be hurting anything.

I've used a divider a few times but it's a hassle. The advantage though is the fish is able to establish a territory and hiding places in the rock. If your fish are really that aggressive you might consider calling yout tank fully stocked

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?

... I have also noticed less algae on the front glass. I would have to clean it every day with the t5s.. now it is optional. I still get some algae, but it is not near as noticeable.

This is good, right? Or do you need the practice? It would have been interesting to take light readings on the inside front of the glass. Presuambly the angle of incidence is less with the LEDs but it would have been nice to think of checking that when we took the PAR readings of the T5s and LEDs. Oh well, I guess I'll point the finger at you for that oversight

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.

Frustrating as it is you need take into consideration sometimes things happen that are totally unrelated. Your RTN might not have anything to do with your dosing regime. Also, in my experience sometimes the only known stresser event may have been weeks before corals showed issues.

The hermits crabs you could just drop in tap water for one or two minutes. DO NOT DO THIS WITH ORNAMENTAL SHRIMP! There are very few diseases that will cross between phylum and with scavengers we very rarely mix as many different species together like we do corals and fish. If a parasite for a fish gets transfered it's going to be in the water, highly unlikely a cyst would remain attached to a inverts during acclimation so don't ever put water the animal came with in any tank. This being said the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) certification guidelines dictate QT for everything.