FarmerTy

I only had them in my poorly-filtered nano tank when I was first starting it up. I haven't seen them since in other tanks I've had... the 65-gallon and 125-gallon, for the past 7 years. I only see the standard sponges you see on the backs of liverock.

Thanks Derrick. I may try sticking a ball valve and just choking back the drain hose a bit and seeing if that works, like you did. The gurgling is coming from the spaflex itself and not from the durso inlet elbow. It that doesn't work, I'll try ramping down my return pump.

I did vodka dosing Caleb if you ever want to find the ins and outs of it, drop me a line. Yes, it is literally vodka being put into the tank but you'd really have to check to make sure your current skimmer can handle it. It's just adding a source of carbon for the bacteria to use as a food source while they uptake nitrate and phosphate. Obviously don't use flavored vodka unless you want your tankwater to taste cherry-flavored. It was a lot of work IMO, I remember daily dosings and spreadsheets tracking the dose.

I hated my tuxedo urchin... one of the few things I put into my tank that I sorely regretted. Luckily he was easy to remove and send along to another home. Aside from the picking up and rearranging my entire tank every week, he started munching on my corraline algae... that's when he got the boot from my tank.

You're looking for long tentacle anemones right? Not bubble? AquaSD had some sweet purple one's awhile back. May check with them. I thought I saw some at Aquatek a while ago too but don't know about now. I'd check the Aquadome shallow anemone tank, they got all kinds of cool anemones in there, like tube anemones and such.

I looked for three years in Cali, guess all the cool one's moved here to Texas already. LOL.

Scubasteve, I went from a 10-gallon, to a 65-gallon, to a 125-gallon. I really wished I just went straight to the 125-gallon, would have saved some dough.

Ahh, the O.C. finally makes sense. I thought you were another California transplant.

I'm keeping an eye on this topic. I have the same problem but haven't gotten a chance to sit down and try to address. I have 2 overflows with durso standpipes, with probably only 1/8 holes drilled on top for air. I run spaflex down to the sump with separate hoses. It's noisy as all get out, with the main noise being gurgling, but only from the longer run of spaflex. The short run is quiet as a mouse. I understand this as too much flow from my return pump and that I need to dial down the Mag12 and it will flow nice and quiet. Am I understanding this incorrectly? Alternatively, I could try the reverse durso on the ends of the spaflex in the sump and drill larger air holes (1/2")? Thanks in advance for any suggestions for the plumbing ignorant. -Ty

Clint, what area of town are you at? If you are somewhere up north, I would like to be able to swing by on my lunch break. Otherwise, I think I'm out of luck. -Ty

No problem. Hope it helps you out!

That's interesting to read. Good link to the article Teg.

Well, I was thinking post-treatment, but only if you wanted to. No need to, guilt-free, I promise. Cool, PMed.

+1 Nothing like highlighter green water!

I dealt with it in my nano cube I had about 4 years. Looking back, I honestly think it was a water quality issue when I had the old tank. Something with small water volumes and their ability to be stricken with epidemics quite quickly. My guess is bacterial levels, but that's a total shot in the dark with no scientific backing. I treated with furan and it saved some of the colonies but others were melting away at a rapid rate. I did a couple of large water changes too. I honestly think just removing my zoas and putting it in someone else's tank for awhile to recover in a better quality environment would have been the answer. JMO, but I think the poor quality water I had in the nanocube caused the onset of zoa pox due to the poorer health of the zoas. It was an effect of the poor health, not the cause IMO. If you want, I have some packets of the Furan left after my treatment. Let me know if you want it. I originally found it at RCA those many years ago. I'll appreciate a frag of something I don't have but its definitely not needed and you can have it for free. LMK -Ty

Bannerfish - same with all of my natural CUC. They have just come on live rock I've collected over the 9 years of reefing and 3 different tanks I've had. I just realized on my 2nd tank that as my CUC died over the years, that if I left it alone, something came in to replace them. So, I just let it naturally balance itself out and didn't add any more of the "traditional" clean up crew when their populations declined (hermit crabs, astrea snails, emerald crabs) and then the populations of "natural" CUC starting to increase with the void.

Definitely digging the lighting you have and the aquascaping. Great balance of negative space too and spacing of coral colors and forms. Two fins up!

George, hopefully someone will chime in on the best food as I do not know myself. I'd imagine the juice off frozen foods you feed your fish would be beneficial, as well as fish poop. Oyster feast? Reef Roids, reef chili, or any type of those fine particle powder foods?

Rapid tissue necrosis - all the skin literally melts away from the calcium carbonate skeleton in less than 24hrs.

George, I'm sure you heard enough about the clam but when they are that small, they are typically more dependent on filtering food for survival. Once they get larger in the 3-4" inch range, they are more dependent on light for a source of energy. I also remember clams utilizing nitrates in a system and that clam propagators will actually add nitrates to their system. Don't know if that will help the ability of the clam to survive but just wanted to pass along what I've read in the past. I am by no means a clam expert... this is just the information I came across when I tried to keep a small clam alive myself. I lost that battle, but the nipping hippo tang didn't help out with that either.

James - Well maybe that's why my sand is free of cyano but the rocks and backwall get a light coating every couple of days. Dshel - My brother had bubble algae on his corals that I was coral sitting for him. 1 month in my tank and all of his bubble coral disappeared. Didn't actually see anybody eat it directly but I suspect my posse of tangs (hippo, sailfin, and yellow) may have done some damage as well as my water parameters. Bannerfish - The conchs are definitely fun to watch. Which other CUC are you talking about?

Hello Austin Reefers, Just throwing it out there as a conversation piece but with my 125-gallon I started about a year ago, I decided I was going to do a different approach on my CUC selection. Out with the hermit crabs, emerald crabs, astrea snails, turbo snails, and whatever typically constitutes a typically CUC that I had in both my tanks before. I decided on a getting a more unique clean-up crew that was also very effective and keeping it as natural as I can. Here's what I ended up with and I am very happy with the results. Mainly because most of the work is being done by a CUC that naturally reproduces in the tank. CUC I bought: -2 fighting conchs (sand stirrer, eats algae film) -2 tiger tail sea cucumbers (sand stirrer, cleans sand) -4 nasarrius snails (sand stirrer, eats excess food or dead/rotting items in tank) -coco worm (filters water) Naturally reproducing CUC: -asterina stars (eats algae film, coraline algae) -amphipods (eats excess food, detritus, dead/rotting items) -copepods (eats plankton) -mini brittle stars ( eats detritus, particulates in water) -bristleworms (eats excess food, detritus, dead/rotting items) -mini feather dusters (filters water) -stomatella snails (eats algae film) -small limpets (eats algae film) -miniature limpets (my best guess, almost look like small fish flakes that are always on the bottom of my frag plugs; eats algae film) -various small snails (eats algae film) -peanut worms (eats detritus) -vermatiid snails (eats particulates in the water) -spaghetti worms (eats detritus that settles on the sandbed) -sponges (filters the water) Aside from the fighting conchs, nasarrius snails, and coco worm, everything else naturally reproduces in my tank so there is always a balance to my CUC. If there isn't enough algae, some of the natural populations of stomatella snails and limpets decline. Not enough particulates in the water and the mini feather dusters and vermatiid snail population declines. If there's an overabundance of algae or particulates, the populations will increase with the supply. You get the point, self-regulating population of CUC that never has to be replenished and adjusts to the specific needs of the tank (minus the removal of cyano I have from the biopellets I've been running... too bad mother nature hasn't made a reef safe muncher of cyano yet... I know some may eat it but not enough consistency for me to try these other possibilities as its hit or miss). Just wanted to share my experience with others and the benefits I see with it. It won't work with every system. Having a large volume of water helps and also diversity of natural critters from live rock helps too. As always, there is more than one way to skin a cat and everyone has mostly found a way that works for them. Just wanted to share my experience. -Ty

"Can you tell me more about the insect killer as a coral dip? Have YOU tried it? What dillution?" Duncan7 - check out the link here. I've used it personally, but only on SPS. I have not tried it on other types of coral. I just take about a cup of saltwater from my tank, drop about 2-3 ml of the insect killer in it, mix up the water really well, then put my coral in it for about 5-10 mins, then pull it out and dunk it in another cup of saltwater from my tank, wait another couple of minutes and then put it back in my tank. http://web1.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1965880 For red bugs themselves in the tank, interceptor is the best trick once they are in your tank. The dipping helps to not ever introduce that into your main tank and have that problem.

Digging the coloration on your meteor shower cyphanstrea

Yeah, get that hawkfish Dave so I can buy him off you. Haha! -Ty