# Complete Tank Picture Update



## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

Today i decided to take a bunch of pictures of my tank because i felt that it was looking pretty good today. unfortunately i also got some bad news. i got home last night and could only find one clownfish...that was weird, as he was there a few hours earlier when i was feeding. well i finally found him...BEHIND the tank...which means he aired over the fuge...cause he was right in the middle of the back of the tank...on the carpet...dried up









FTS








w/ Flash








the "bitch" clownfish. larger and more aggressive...most likely caused the man to commit suicide (aka Typical woman)








my new Bimaculatus Blenny. awesome little guy.








another shot of the blenny








blenny in one of his hideouts...the algae clip...lol








one of the hermits








a sexy shrimp, with the digitata that arrived basically dead in a shipment that i have revived








shot of the shrooms








purple/yellow ricordea, purple w/ pink skirt shroom (splitting for me







), and the free green tonga shroom the guy gave me. this was taken before feeding time.








taken right after feeding time...(at first i was like "WTF?!?!?!")








this was taken right after it opened up








another shroom shot








purple/yellow ricordea








my other shrooms








shrooms under actinics








green striped shrooms








orange digitata with the GSP in the background








blue mushroom with the frogspawn (no aggression so far)


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

*Zoas*

zoa garden
















zoa rock








shinshine zoas on the left and some other types on the right








sunshine zoas








no clue what these are...they're weird








more zoas








Devils Armour, Tequila, Man of Steel, Maracas








Actinic Shots








Tequilas under actinic








Devil's Armour or Armageddon








oxide reds in the middle. REALLY BRIGHT


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

damn that is alot of pics.. VERY NICE.. looks like alot of happpy coral..

you should let the clown continue to dry out, i have a dried out sailfin tang some where, its kind of cooli want to put clear coat on it and see if it brings out more of the colors..


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

i still have the clownfish. you should have seen the look on my gf's face when i told her i kept it...CLASSIC! it was confusion combined with humour, mixed with a dash of concern...

i want to get another clown soon. im going to get a small one because this one that is still alive was the larger one, thus will most likely turn into the female.

i think as the zoas grow in that it will look pretty sweet in the tank. im also looking forward to the purple mushroom splitting, which it is doing at a decent pace.


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## scotty (Oct 3, 2007)

totally awesome! I've







eaten a bag of popcorn looking at your pics.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Puff said:


> i still have the clownfish. you should have seen the look on my gf's face when i told her i kept it...CLASSIC! it was confusion combined with humour, mixed with a dash of concern...
> 
> i want to get another clown soon. im going to get a small one because this one that is still alive was the larger one, thus will most likely turn into the female.
> 
> i think as the zoas grow in that it will look pretty sweet in the tank. im also looking forward to the purple mushroom splitting, which it is doing at a decent pace.


when i told my room mate what i was doing with the tang he flipped out, luckily it was winter so i put it in an empty flake food can and put it in the garage so there was no smell.

just wait until the green star polyps star to spread. that stuff will cover your entire tank if you let it. but its easy to just cut and peel them off the rock. that stuff should just be given away to begginers it grows like cheato


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

yeah, im keeping an eye on it right now. where i have it positioned was well thought out. there is only 2 small points at which the GSP rock touches any other rocks. one on the bottom...where i dont care if it spreads (not much place for it to go that way.lol) and then there is a small area (less than 1cm squared) that touches another rock. that point is where im keeping a close eye on growth.

the xenia seems to be spreading faster than the GSP.lol. luckily i placed it in a place where it can only spread up a branch of live rock for the time being, until it spreads down...but i will be waiting with scissors in hand for that time as well.lol


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

This NO kidding has to be one of the Gorgeous tanks I have ever seen!
I love that its small an dcontains all of the colors and everything about it!


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## Chapz (Jul 9, 2007)

Looks nice.
Way better than my set up.
I just need to find out how to take care of soft corals like yours Puff and Nismos tank.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

puff that tank needs either a kenya tree, colt coral or toad stool leather


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

ive been debating a toadstool...but im not sure where the heck i could put it!...actually i have one idea...

my gf wants me to get a monti cap...she's in love with them.

im not a huge fan of kenya trees (at least what ive seen around here), and i know i can get dirt cheap colt frags from the guy who gave me the digitata and frogspawn.

hey nismo, do you by any chance dose Iodine? i was reading that a lot of coral's colour benefits from iodine (about 1 drop per 25 gallons)


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Puff said:


> ive been debating a toadstool...but im not sure where the heck i could put it!...actually i have one idea...
> 
> my gf wants me to get a monti cap...she's in love with them.
> 
> ...


i don dose specific elements other then alk/calcium.. i do use kent coral vital occasionally and coral accell ocasionally, but other then that water changes provide most of the eemental replanishment.. there are a million products that claim to do something and if someone uses them and sees teh slightest change they will claim what ever to support their own use of what ever produt but ultimately focusing on dosing each individule suppliment can cost alot for test kits and chemicals and drive you crazy and worst case cause mroe harm then good if mistakes are made.. aside from chemicals such as iodine and magnesium and stronium there are the dozen or so types of photo andzooplankton that all claim to have some difernt bennificial effect, it is to a certain extent marketing but can also have positive results if used properly.

if you go on the big reef sites (rc) and look at the endles thread about what to feed corals or what to dose there are a thousnand posts to support each method and for every method there are a dozen amazing tanks to support the products so its ind of up to the person as to how complicated they want to make the mantenance of their tank.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

there are a number of factors that will affect the color of corals and it varies depending on what types of corals but one of the most common is lighting. if corals are exposed to higher levels and intensity of light then they were acclimated to the they have a tendency to become washed out.. this is all realted to the zooanthily that lives in the coral, it produces diffent colors and intensity of colors to adapt to absorbing the amount of light its getting to maximise the photosynthetic process.

im sure i didnt explain some part of that quite right but that is basically whats going on.. i belive iodine boost teh zooanthily ability to acclimate to changes in lighting conditions so this is interpertid as increasing or giving better color. alot of reefers will give there corals an iodine dip or lugols dip (i think lugols has iodine in it) before introducing them to their tank.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

ok did some quik reading to see if i was full of S or not and the other reasons for iodine dips are to kill off un wanted parasites, and some claim that soft corals require lots of iodine along with shrimp for molting purposes but no one can find any had evidence of research that its necessary to dose iodine to meet these demands or tha dosing iodine wil increase the success of these creatures.. tpretty much every multi element suppliment like reef essentials and coral vital and all salt mixes contain significant levels of iodine so i would say it shouldnt be necessary to dose it especially in a system tehsize of yours.. maybe in a huge system where there are much higher demands for it and water changes are not as large and it would take an obsurd amount to cuase considerable damage.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

i think i might try dosing iodine in the tank. for dips i do 1 drop of Lugol's Solution per cup of tank water. so i take a cup of water, 1 drop of iodine...and there is my dip/bath. seems to work pretty good. i dipped my rainbow paly that wasnt doing so great yesterday. today it seems a bit better already.

ive spoken to some zoa enthusiasts that swear by iodine dips. some ppl do iodine w/ freshwater for the dip, but i use iodine w/ tank water to minimize stress. but if you are concerned about zoa spiders or zoa eating nudis then the freshwater + iodine will definitely smoke them

another great alternative (that i used and it worked brilliantly) is a peroxide dip. i did a 1:4 peroxide:tank water solution. i used it when a batch of zoas arrived covered in white and closed up and nasty looking. the peroxide solution melted the fungus right off, and the zoas' colours came back really fast after that. but i would recommend the iodine dip over the peroxide dip if you have the proper iodine...but the peroxide dip saved a bunch of zoas for me.


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Puff said:


> *Zoas*
> 
> zoa garden
> 
> ...


"blue mushroom with the frogspawn (no aggression so far)"
How are they aggressive? arent they just like plants?
Excuse me I know NOTHING about this subject and would love to learn.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

notaverage said:


> "blue mushroom with the frogspawn (no aggression so far)"
> How are they aggressive? arent they just like plants?
> Excuse me I know NOTHING about this subject and would love to learn.


corals in the reef environment have to compete for space to grow so they have chemical war fare when they get too close to each other this is more common with sps and lps corals then with soft corals. also some corals have sweeper tenticals 9mostly lps) that can release toxins to sting other corals and possible food..


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

so i got a new fish and a new invert today.

i got a royal gramma...i know...evil fish...but i watched all of them spread throughout the store and got the smallest, least aggressive one. it was out and about mingling with my blenny and clownfish within 10 minutes of going in, and is a really stunning fish.

i also got a small tuxedo urchin. the astreas i have were doing great at getting some of the algae, and they dropped dead for some reason in my tank, so im trying this guy. he is pretty small right now, likes to pick things up, but hasnt pissed me off yet. i know that if starved they will start stripping your coraline, but i have a nice variety of algaes growing in my tank, and i also usually have some marine algae in a clip on the side of the tank, so i THINK the urchin should be fine. first sign of it doing serious damage and it will get sold, but ive wanted an urchin for so long.lol


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

strange that your snails are dying, ive had the same two astreas for almost a year they seem to be pretty hardy..

when you find the empty sheel is there anything unusual about them like a hole int he shell or a mucus sourrounding them?

what about other types of snails or hermits?


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

1 hermit got off-ed, but it was another scarlet reef hermit (my favourite one) that did it. i guess he REALLY wanted that shell...lol. but yeah, only the asteas have died, all of my nassarius, cerith and trochus are going strong. my stomatella population is increasing steadily (on purpose).

it's really weird. but ill see how the urchin goes, as they are pretty funny to watch. im going to have to glue down all my frags though, they love to camouflages themselves.


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## Fish Finder (Mar 25, 2005)

love your tank and esp your zoo's. Can't wait to see the tank in 6 months when every thing at least doubles in size. Keep up the good work


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

seeing as i lost a clownfish i was debating whether to get another one, or go for another fish.

i ended up choosing to go with a royal gramma. i didnt manage to get a good pic of it, but this fish is BEAUTIFUL. it's also great because it uses the rockwork in the tank! the blenny is out more too! you can see it in the full tank shot. the purple and yellow fish. hard to get a good close up though 









i also got an urchin! a red tuxedo urchin. beautiful little thing

Updated Tank Shot (went to move somethign and had to redo the right hand side...but im getting a bit more rock this week and im going to redo it)









Urchin








mouth open








mouth closed








reaching for algae


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