Ref-eeeew-gium

My refugium is looking really gross lately. In addition to the Chaeto algae there are all sorts of other algae growing. Algae is growing out of the PVC pipe as well as all over the glass. There is also green pond scum growing on the top. Certainly not something I would want to have in my main tank but in the refugium it's fine. As long as the algae is working hard consuming nitrates they are welcome to stay.

Frogspawn: One Year Later

So I was looking through some earlier pics of my reef tank and realized I bought my Frogspawn frag one year ago. Here is a picture of my Frogspawn on November 20'th, 2007. When I bought it it consisted of a single polyp.

From Paul's Reef

Here is how it looked by December 15'th. Still a single polyp but noticeably larger.

From Paul's Reef

This coral spent the first few months in my tank falling of the ledge I had put it on. I finally moved it to a different spot where it calcified base fit snugly. It has stayed in this spot since. (EDIT: You'll be glad to know that Murphy's law is still in effect. The next morning the Frogspawn had fallen out of its nook.) By January 6'th it had split into two polyps.

From Paul's Reef

By April it consisted of four polyps.

From Paul's Reef

It now has grown to six polyps. The sixth polyp is still in the process of splitting. It is well defined but still doesn't have its own calcified base.

From Paul's Reef

This coral has done very well in my tank. It has continued to grow and lived through and even prospered during my high nitrate phase. It has done well under my PC fluorescents even as they aged and dimmed. I would recommend this coral as an excellent starter coral.

Fever?

My open open brain coral still hasn't fully opened up. My nitrates are down to 1 ppm. I have replaced my light bulbs and even added more light. So why hasn't my open brain coral responded by opening? It still mostly stays tightly closed up. I remembered that over the summer I raised the tank temperature so that the fluctuating temperature of the house would would have less of an impact on water temperature. Come to think of it, my open brain coral was closed most of the summer. Perhaps it didn't like the elevated temperature. Maybe all it wants is lower temperature water. So, on Saturday, I lowered the temperature from 79 to 77 degrees F. The next day the coral opened up more than I have seen in months. See the picture below.

From Paul's Reef

However, by evening it was deflated again. It's deflated every night when I come home from work. The picture below is how it looks every night and the way it has looked since summer.

From Paul's Reef

The picture below is how it used to look. I took this picture back in January 2008. Unfortunately, I wasn't logging my tank conditions back then so I don't know what my temperature was.

From Paul's Reef

I'll probably lower my temperature a little more this weekend to observe the results. Everything else seems fine with the temperature at 77 deg F.

Brittle Stars

Tonight, after all lights but my actinics turned off, I was looking closely at my tank. After a minute or two I spotted a small white Brittle starfish. A few seconds later I saw another very close to it. I looked in another part of the tank and I saw yet another. Within a few minutes all of my kids were looking and we saw about 5 more. It appears that they are all over the place. They are all very small, no larger than a nickle from foot to foot.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

This piece of Xenia is getting ready to split again. It has grown a foot and will soon plant it on the rock. The piece of coral will then split between the new foot and the old one. A new piece of coral will grow from the site of the old foot.

From Paul's Reef

More Starfish

Lots of starfish sightings this weekend. Looks like the small starfish I've seen and described yesterday are Asterina Starfish. Looks like some people say they will eat some types of coral. I haven't seen them doing anything nefarious just yet so I'll let them be.

For the first time I saw one of these guys on the front glass. I slapped on the macro lens and started taking pictures. On Saturday I said I wasn't sure these guys were actually starfish. Now it's pretty obvious they are.

From Paul's Reef

I was hoping these guys would grow up to be a really nice big colorful starfish. Looks like these buggers will stay tiny.

I also got a glimpse of a white brittle star. The picture is very poor. It's the best one I could get before it disappeared in the rock. It's near the center of the picture below. Not much to look at right now.

From Paul's Reef

Clone

A while back I described my attempt at dividing a mushroom and my Colt coral. I had mixed results.

First the good news. The diving of the mushroom worked out well. The mushroom next to the shrimp in the picture below is the clone. All you need to do is slice off the disc and leave the stem. Place the disc on a new rock and hold it in place with some bridal netting from your local craft store. Wrap a rubber band around the netting to secure it. Let it sit there for 3 or 4 days until it attaches to the new rock. That's it. This was very easy to do provided you can hang on to the piece you cut. The first one I cut slipped away. Somewhere in my tank I may have another one growing.

From Paul's Reef

Here is another picture. You can see the clone above the parent colony.

From Paul's Reef

Now to the Colt coral. This didn't work out so well. I should only done one piece but I tried several. Each of these failed. The problem with the Colt coral is that it is too soft and slimy. The toothpicks I used to stab them and secure them in place eventually worked their way through the soft flesh of the coral. The coral would then float away. I also tried to loosely rubber band the pieces to a stone. No matter how loose I made the rubber band it eventually worked its way through the coral and it would float away. I'll have to do more research on this and try again. I would also like to figure out how to divide my Xenia. It's growing like crazy.