Starfish

I discovered a new starfish in my tank today.

From Paul's Reef

I have no idea what kind it is. All I know is that it didn't hang out in that spot for long.

I have several other things that I'll call starfish for now although I'm not really sure if they are true starfish. I have at least a half of dozen of these guys in my tank. They kind of move like starfish but they are very small and their "arms" are different lengths. They are pink in the center and white on the outside.

From Paul's Reef

One of these guys is in the center of the picture above. To the left of it is my anemone in its shrunken state. You can see the pink tips of its green tentacles.

Thief

From Paul's Reef

Well, I've managed to keep my cleaner shrimp away from my anemone during feeding time. The problem is my Fire Shrimp has now figured out how to get a free lunch. At least it brings him out front where he can be seen.

How to Feed an Anemone

My Bubble Tip Anemone is looking better now that I have started feeding it again. It doesn't always have the bubble tips but they usually appear at night once the lights start to dim. I had stopped feeding for two reasons many months ago. The first reason was that my anemone would move after it was fed. I figured it didn't like to be fed so I stopped feeding it. The second reason is my cleaner shrimp would descend on the anemone and stick its claws inside of it and pull out the food.

When I started feeding it again I had to keep my hand in the tank to chase the shrimp away until the anemone was done eating. I soon got tired of keeping my hand in the tank for 15 minutes. My new approach is to simply pay off the shrimp to buy protection for the anemone. Instead of using one chunk of frozen food I now use two. The first goes to the shrimp to keep it occupied. The second goes to the anemone. This arrangement keeps everybody happy.

Still no luck getting a clown fish to host it though.

Reducing Nitrates

I haven't performed a water change for about a week and a half and nitrates are still around 2.5 ppm as measured with a Salifert test kit. It's hard to see in the picture below but the sample color is closest to the 2 ppm color.

From Paul's Reef

One thing that is really nice about the Salifert nitrate test is that once your sample is <= 10 ppm you can use the kit in low range mode. To do this you simply match the color my looking through the side of the vile and then simply divide the number of the closest color by 10. In the example below the closest color is 25. So my nitrate level is 2.5 ppm.

From Paul's Reef

Getting my nitrate to this level has taken a long time. I'm still not sure what finally worked. Was it the deep sand bed, the Chaeto algae, the algae growing naturally in my refugium or the new light bulbs? The most recent change was the lighting. After I replaced my bulbs is when I saw the nitrate level drop below 10 ppm.

One other variable I forgot to mention is that I ran out of Kent Marine Tech-I that I was using to supplement Iodine. I ran out about a two weeks ago, about the same time I replaced my bulbs. I originally started supplementing because my Xenia were not looking good. Right now they are pulsing faster than I have ever seen and rapidly dividing on their own. I will not add iodine again unless I see things degrading again.

Tomato Clown

From Paul's Reef

I purchased a small Tomato Clown over the weekend. I'm hoping that it will host my Bubble Tip Anemone. So far he is ignoring it. I also have an Ocellaris Clown that also ignores the same anemone.

The anemone itself doesn't look great. He has shrunk considerably since I purchased him last December. He probably suffered under my dimming lights. I also never fed him because early on it seemed like it would move if I fed him. I started feeding him yesterday after doing additional research.

Quite the Week

There was a lot of action in the tank this week. Here is the week in review.

I upgraded my lighting.
I may have observed my Tooth Coral spawn.
My nitrates finally dropped to under 5 ppm.
I divided my Colt Coral and a mushroom.

It's been a while since I posted. Here is an overall tank picture:

From Paul's Reef

Divide and Conquer

My Colt coral has grown huge. After giving my two sons haircuts yesterday I decided it was time to prune back the coral. Hopefully I can get the clippings to grow on some rubble.

I pruned a few small branches back with scissors. Actually, they are the same ones I used to cut my kids hair. I then stabbed each cutting with a round wood toothpick and secured each of them to a piece of rubble or live rock.

Here are a few of the clippings:

From Paul's Reef

From Paul's Reef

From Paul's Reef

And here is where one of the clippings was cut from its mother:

From Paul's Reef

I think on a few of the clippings I may have stabbed the coral too low. The toothpick looks like it has been pulled through the base of at least one of the clippings allowing it to float away. Hmm, looks like I need to develop the technique a little more.

I also divided a mushroom. I sliced the head off of one and secured it to a piece of live rock with bridal netting and a rubberband. Look for a picture soon. The mushrooms have begun taking off in the last few weeks. They started growing more rapidly before I upgraded the lighting,

From Paul's Reef