# More Updates: Montis and Chalice Settled in. Urchin up to the usual



## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

just thought i would do my usual update. the urchin is still carrying the green hair algae...not it is starting to grow quite nicely on him. looks like he brushes it out every morning.lol

the montis and alien eye chalice are doing quite well. everything is now mounted on liverock except for one small piece of lime green monti cap.

the fish area all doing great.

ive re-glued some zoas to different rocks so that they can grow out better. i found a couple of "gems" in my small zoas. ones that i never noticed before!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

looks fantastic, this thing is going text book excellent job..


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Great pics there!


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## StryfeMP (Apr 26, 2007)

Thats just sweet, makes me want to start a saltwater setup.


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## acb (Nov 9, 2004)

your tank looks very nice. I just set up my tank. when did you add corals, how big is your tank, and how long have you had your system running for?
thanks, adam


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

i moved far too fast (imo). but before i did anything i went and invested in the best equipment i could get my hands on. it was pricey, but it makes things SOOO much easier.

i set up this tank in september or october (cant remember off the top of my head...maybe late september?). It is a 24 gallon "aquapod" cube tank. First off i added live rock to the tank and fuge. i let that run for about 2 weeks. then added some clean up crew...then i waited another week or so, then i added a small rock with a couple of mushrooms on it, a zoa rock, and another SMALL zoa frag. a few days later i noticed that i needed a larger CUC, so i added them. shortly after that i added two small clownfish. another week or two and a local reefer (very experienced) reckoned that it was time for me to add some cool stuff into my tank. so he sold me a cheap frogspawn frag, and gave me a free orange digitata. after that it was balls to the walls for me. if i saw something i would most likely buy it, although i really had to stop myself a few times. i ordered online twice, and got some cool zoas and shrooms. now when i find a local reefer selling stuff i debate whether it would work in my tank or not.

i do LOTS of water changes, on top of skimming the tank and using a HOB fuge.

one reason that ive been building up a tonne of frags is that i want to be able to "give back" to the local reefing community and be able to sell some stuff from my tank. so if i buy something...and it outgrows the tank, it will simply be fragged and sold. instead of me worrying about it overgrowing the tank.

at the moment i think my tank is at a good level. it has a lot in it, but not too much. i also dont have a huge bioload. just one smallish clown, 1 small royal gramma, and a really small twinspot blenny. along with my inverts. that said, if i see any ricordea or zoas for sale i jump on them. im starting to build up a kickass zoa collection, and my rics and other shrooms are doing pretty good as well. i have zoa enthusiasts in the US who keep emailing me wishing i lived in the US so we could trade frags.lol


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Looking good Puff. Hey..that coral on the upper right...the tree like stuff...is that easy to care for? I was looking at some and almost picked it up..I really like the look of it.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

the pulsating xenia? some ppl have a lot of trouble with it...others (like myself) have no trouble at all with it. i started with a small frag of it. immediately it adhered to a larger piece of live rock, then split and spread into the two you see there. it's pretty good stuff!

mind you, in the right conditions is spreads FAST, so you have to keep an eye on it. but i dont think it's ever to hard to find ppl to take small frags of xenia off of you for cheap, as some fish LOVE to eat it (some triggers and others i think). this stuff even grows up the plastic back wall of the overflow!! i had to cut it off of the wall because it grew right up to where the water is skimmed and got stuck in the slots.lol

my favourite thing about it is that it is a GREAT water quality indicator. if a usually pulsing piece of xenia all of a sudden isnt pulsing (they do close up at night) then the first thing to check is your water. usually that gets them going again, and your water is back to good.

keep in mind that some types of xenia dont pulse at all, while the pulsing variety will pulse at different frequencies depending on flow and lighting (from what ive seen)


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

That certainly could the the stuff I am talking about....I will look into it.


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## acb (Nov 9, 2004)

Ive had my tank running for a few weeks now, and i cant wait to get some corals. Anyways, im really interested in zoas, ricordea and shrooms. Ive heard they grow fast, but ive never had a coral before....so could you explain to me how big/ fast they grow in like a weeks time? I have the same view on giving back to the reef community (once i get set up). also if the rate of fragged corals goes up, the rate of corals taken from the oceans goes down. 
thanks for the info puff


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

you wont really notice growth on a weekly basis. but they grow fast for a coral.

my zoas that i got early in december are starting to multiply now. as are a couple of the rics. zoas are my favourites, followed by ricordea. i used to like shrooms, but once i got my first rics my shrooms have been relegated to the back of the tank.lol

another cool type of mushroom to check out are "rhodactis"...im not sure how the hell you spell it right..but i got one as a freebie in an order and it is the coolest thing. you give it some cyclopeeze and it folds up like a tulip to eat it, then expands back out. there are pictures of it somewhere.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Puff - Great looking tank. Keep up the wonderful work, and you will be fragging the "overgrowth" of those corals in no time.












Grosse Gurke said:


> the pulsating xenia? some ppl have a lot of trouble with it...others (like myself) have no trouble at all with it. i started with a small frag of it. immediately it adhered to a larger piece of live rock, then split and spread into the two you see there. it's pretty good stuff!
> 
> mind you, in the right conditions is spreads FAST, so you have to keep an eye on it. but i dont think it's ever to hard to find ppl to take small frags of xenia off of you for cheap, as some fish LOVE to eat it (some triggers and others i think). this stuff even grows up the plastic back wall of the overflow!! i had to cut it off of the wall because it grew right up to where the water is skimmed and got stuck in the slots.lol
> 
> ...


As stated above this coral (Xenia) will grow like a weed. Super Fast in the right conditions. The pulsing polyps are amazing to watch when they get going, and the larger the colony the cooler it is to watch. Do note: that Xenia does have a trend to melt away for no reason sometimes. I had it happen to me once. I had a farm growing of this stuff, and then one day it all melted within two hours there was nothing left. I have found that if you add several different types of Xenia to your tank, they tend to stabilize each other out. No idea why. Thus, if you pick up some palm palm, then add some long-bar xenia as well to the tank. The mix between the two looks great, BTW.

Definitely look to buy some from a fellow reefer, or LFS. Xenia is notorious for being a poor shipper.

Once you get the xenia established in your tank, if you really want it to start reproducing FAST you can do a few things to help it. If you just place it on some LR it will grow thicker and start splitting on its own, but if you want to reproduce faster do one (or all) of the following:

1. Place the Xenia on LR that gradually slops up from where it is located. Make sure that it can touch the side of the next LR, and it will attach, then that stalk will start "walking" up the LR leaving smaller bit of xenia along the way. It will work itself up to the highest point, and leave little drops of its base along the way. Each of the small parts of it base will develop polyps, and then grow.

2. Place the Xenia next to the glass. It will do the same thing as #1 and move up the glass leaving smaller xenia along the way. Once the Xenia start growing strong on the glass, you can take a razor blade and scrape it off with one swoop for easy placement somewhere else (or to trade).

3. Frag it: one it has growth thick, or slips into two stalks you can take a pair of sharp scissors and cut one (or both) stalks off. Place the tops some where else (see below) and the remaining base will re-grow. Then, you go from two stalks to four in no time.

Xenia attaches very, very fast. Normally within 24 hours a stalk of xenia will attach to LR. What I normally will do is get some LR rubble (make sure the rubble actually has some weight to it, because the xenia WILL float away), then after I cut the stalk place the LR rubble on the base of the cutting. I make sure the top of the xenia cutting sticks out from under the LR, and within a day the polyps will be extended, and within the week the cutting will start moving up the LR rubble.

I know you did not ask about all that, but I feel very typie today, so there you go. The reason I shared that is that xenia is great, and IMO a large area filled with it looks even better. So, if you want to speed up the process, that is how.

I have had too much coffee this morning


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

holy crap! the xenia spread another inch up the back wall overnight!!

ill try to find a picture that better shows the placement of my xenia, as i did exactly what coldfire said in his point "1.", about the gradually sloping rock.

these pictures were taken over a period of about 6 weeks. first pic was taken December 2nd. the last picture was taken on January 12th.

Notice how it splits, then spreads REALLY fast

December 2/07









December 10/07









December 19/07









January 2/08









January 12/08


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i wont put xenia in my tank and have isolated my green star polyps to a rock the size of a base ball. i would like to let it take over a section of my rock but im afraid it will get out of control


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Yeah, GSP will get out of control, and it is a pain in the HO-HA to get them under control. Everyone always says to just pull them up, to control/properate/etc, but that is much easier said then done.

Good looking Xenia, Puff. I love the movement of that Long-Bar Xenia. I have a nice cluster of that in my tank as well.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

my gsp is luckily not spreading too fast, but it looks super healthy. it's kind of isolated in the top corner. it seems that it doesnt want to grow DOWN the rock, but instead it content in staying up on top of the rock. it hasnt spread down at all. this is good though, as if it doesnt spread down then it has nowhere to spread at all! it's been a month or two (probably 2) and it hasnt spread down at all!


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