Sweeper Tentacles

Both my frogspawn and leather are growing. It seems as if my frogspawn knows the leather is there. It is putting out sweeper tentacles on the side closest the frogspawn . On occasion thay have extended out far enough to sting the leather. How does it know its there? It has never put out sweepers before this week. Does it sense the reduced light due to the proximity of the leather? Perhaps it could just smell it. I've heard of the chemical warfare between corals. So far it has been simply cold war in my tank.

Flatworms

I discovered some planaria flatworms in my tank. They are only on two corals that are right next to each other. I haven't seen them on any live rock anywhere.





I pulled the mushrooms and the candy cane out of the tank, swirled them in tank water, brushed them off and put them back in. I ended up with a lot of flatworms in the container but I certainly didn't get all of them off.



I decided against using Flatworm eXit for now. I'd rather keep chemicles out of the tank. When the flatworms die they can become quite toxic. I'll probably purchase some and use it to dip the affected corals and new corals outside of the tank. In the meantime I purchased a spotted mandarin. I'm hoping he will develop an appetite for them. It's been a couple of days and so far it doesn't look like he is touching them.



This guy looks pretty skinny. I didn't realize how emaciated it was when I bought it. I hope he finds enough pods in the tank. I have an upward climb with him.

Tooth Coral Under Actinics

I Want To Pump You Up

About a month and a half ago I upgraded my return pump to an Eheim 1262. I had been using two 802 power heads for return pumps from my sump. The flow with the powerheads seemed decent enough. However, it was not enough to sweep all the bubbles out of my overflow tube. This was especially true when algae started growing in there. On a few occasions enough air accumulated in the tube to severely reduce the flow. This would result in the level in my tank rising to counteract the reduced flow. There were two or three times when the center brace of my tank ended up underwater.

It seems somewhat counter-intuitive but increasing the capacity of your pump actually reduces the probability of an overflow disaster. The new pump is powerful enough that small bubbles are swept out of the overflow tube. Since getting this pump I have yet to see even a small bubble at the top pf the tube. I no longer have to worry about an overflow occurring through this mechanism.

The pump, although expensive, is great. It is extremely quiet. I simply cannot hear it run. All I here is the relaxing sound of water flowing through my system.

Meet My New Frags

After a bad week at work I decided I deserved to reward myself with a little gift. Well, actually nine little gifts. Meet the new frags:

Multi Color Millepora


Blue Polyp Stylophora (Cat's Paw)


Either an Echinata or Tenuis


Wicked Tri Color



Forest Fire Digitata


Tri Color Plana


Kiwi Strawberry


Red Planet


Blue Vermiculata



I bought these from Madfrags Online. I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Justin was extremely helpful and even emailed me to see how the frags were acclimating to my tank. I had been looking for some colorful frags at my LFSs but I couldn't find anything that really stood out and was at a fair price. He has some really nice pieces available and he has them priced very fairly in my opinion. Some of these frags he even through in for free. I'll definitely purchase frags through him again.

I spent this morning arranging my tank to accommodate all the new frags. I added a few pieces of dry rock that I had left over in the process. At the rate coraline has been growing in my tank again it won't be long before these bleached rocks are nice and pink. Here is how the tank looks now.



I was running out of holes in my LR for the frag plugs. I discovered that the plug breaks off the disc easily if I hold the disc in a pair of pliers and snap the plug off with another pair of pliers. The disc can then be epoxied to any rock with reef epoxy putty. Yeah, I'm relatively new to this.

Some growth pics

Montipora Digitata
Jan 19, 2009


June 9, 2009



Bali Green Slimer
Jan 19, 2009


June 9, 2009



Monti Cap
Jan 25, 2009


June 9, 2009

New Corals

I picked up four very small SPS frags last Sunday 6/7.

Miami Orchid. My child BTA is in the bacground


Green Birds Nest


Purple Digitata (behind the Ausie Acan)


And finally a teal something or another. Looking at it essentially from the top down.