It's a decent mixture of snails + two hermit crabs. I can't say anything bad about any of them thus far. They all have their own little responsibility and job to do... and they do it well. My tank looks really good and I'm very happy with it thus far.

Half the joy is looking forward to going home after work to just watch my tank and what little inhabitants I have thus far.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Fuge light = the the light that came with the pico when you get the current light for the tank. That is if you still think you might upgrade the light in the future.

I can't believe everyone complimented you on the CUC. No offense is meant, but the Margarita snail is cold water, and will die if left in your tank. The bumblebee snail is a predator on sand fauna, and doesn't really do anything to clean up the thank.

Besides that, looking good though.

Good point. Yeah, I definitely plan on upgrading the light in the future... got the chaeto in the mail today from Needreefunds. Looks great! Nice and green and smells very fresh...






My Margarita Snail is doing good... if anyone is the most active in the tank, it's the Margarita. At my LFS (not that this means anything) but the Margarita Snails were in the same tank as all of the other CUC species. I did a search and did find that they're usually able to be acclimated to higher water temps.

For the BumbleBee Snail... he's never even been on my sand. He stays on the rockwork and grazes on algae. I did find the carnivorous part but the few articles I found did say they're able to graze on algae, as well... so they must be omnivorous to some extent...? Hmm...Regardless... the tank is clean and looks good. Hahaha.

Heh yeah... working at an LFS I understand how confusing it can be for a customer to see the wrong kind of critters in reef tanks... Unfortunately it can't be helped (we have the same situation at our store, and no matter how many times i bring it up, it doesnt seem to make a difference) ... I guess the point is that a margarita may survive in warmer tank, but might not thrive... and I have read where bumble bees are not reef safe I really wanted some, actually had them bagged up when a co-worker brought me an invertebrates book and gave me the DL on em... I guess the best advice is to keep an eye on them and make sure they are doing well and not munching your coral or your good stuff lol... good luck with em!

cant wait to see where it goes from here!

Great setup you got there! Where did you get your rocks from and is it uncure? why so much purple coraline. what dose you using?

That's definitely going to be my plan. So far, so good... but I definitely will not hesitate to bring either of them back. I'm not as concerned about the Margarita because it honestly does seem to be doing okay. Aside from that, if the Bumblebee is an actual predator... I will be more apt to watch him more closely... and I will.

I really appreciate the heads up to you and eschaton! Thanks...





Thanks!

I got my rock from my LFS. It was in his holding tanks for upwards of 5-6 weeks... so not really "uncured", per se.

As for the coralline... I was actually thinking I wish there were more on the rocks! haha. I'm not dosing anything. Just doing regular water changes and maintenance. Nothing else. My salt mix is Tropic Marin Pro Reef.

Thanks for stopping by...

...did a water change this morning and everything looks good. I ordered the submersible LED's from In-Tank yesterday. They're backordered and Steve is on vacation... so he said they should ship sometime next week.

...picked these up this afternoon from my LFS. Not sure what they are but I got a frag of 13 polyps or so. If anyone can ID them, let me know your thoughts!

Here they are shortly after acclimating them and placing them in the tank... they're slowly beginning to open.

some type of zoanthid, i dont know a common name for it

I know it's a zoa.
Just wondering if they had any kind of fancy pants name.
Like 'Lemon Yellow Gumdrops'... the new hot craze of all things coral.

they look like bff's?

Mean Green Baby Eaters

LMAO!! Niiiiice.

Little Baby Brussel Sprout Zoas.
I'm gonna patent them. Don't anyone take that name.

Those look very nice. Congrats on the first coral.

Ha ha! That's a good name. I tried looking up the zoa directory for you but couldn't find a match. Personally I'm not too keen on all these insane zoa names. As long as it looks good and you like them, that's all that matters. Congrats on your first coral!

I looked, too. Couldn't find anything even close... so, who knows?!
But yeah, I like the coloring and I think they're cool. They're opening up more and it's pretty exciting to see.

*yay!*

Thanks for the replies!

they look like these:

http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gall...;g2_itemId=2406

i may be wrong, but that what id guess

^^
That was my closest guess too.

Yeah, I saw those, too... I think that's a really good estimate. I'm gonna try and take a better photo tomorrow once they've been in the tank for a day or so. Maybe I can get the whole cluster open at once. I'll shoot the photo and post it up.

sicky gnar gnar

Woo pretty!! Congrats on the first zoas!

Thanks!!

Here's a couple of other better photos I took just before lights out.

One of the guys on the local forum at RC advised it may be a variation of "The Green Bay Packers" zoas...

Nice zoas! They kinda look like sour apple zoas but have more blue in them. Whatever they are, they look great!

Hey! Thanks a lot for checking them out... I really appreciate it. Yeah, the coloring is awesome. I like 'em.

Congrats on your first coral fellow Wisconsinite.

Thanks for checking out my thread!!

Nice frag those are Green Bay Packers, pretty sweet since youre from WI

For sure! I will definitely be tagging along.

Oooh pretty zoas. I like the colors, I'm sure you have already convered this but what kind of corals are you looking at (although minds change as time goes on)?

What LFS are you going to? Same goes to you ReefMan? It seems like everything around me doesn't exactly have the awesomeness I see around NR. But then again I don't have a tank I just lurk and do research so I don't have too much experience with saltwater and LFS I just go to look around/admire.

Right now, since I'm just using the stock 9W lighting that came with my pico... I'm pretty limited to zoas and 'shrooms. Once I upgrade the lighting to more powerful PC lighting like the pretty common 2x18W fixture made by Current, I'll branch out into various LPS corals... acans... rics, etc, etc. I'm really wanting to stay focused on color contrast with my tank. I don't want too much of any one color, in particular... regardless of how cool the coral looks. I just want an array of contrasting colors that compliment each other well... while still remaining within the boundaries of my lighting requirements.

I bought those zoas at Reefs Aquatics in Green Bay off Dousman Road... They had a really nice selection of various frags. But their prices were really high. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure they have one of the best (and only) selections here in the Fox Valley.

I hope that helps?

Thanks for checking out my thread!!

I'll have to check that place out. It'll be a trek but most of the times it worth it.

Yeah, color variety seems to be the most visually interesting. It seems to get almost bland with too much of the same.

Are you doing inverts only or maybe an itsy bitsy fishy?

My main focus will be corals but I am going to end up with an itsy bitsy fish of some kind. It's still up in the air. I know what my limits are with the tank... so, I'm not thinking too extravagant. Probably a simple Damsel... something that adds a splash of color to the tank. I just don't want to get too much of any one color in the tank... I just find it all sort of starts blending together when that's the case. *shrug*

Reefs Aquatics in Green Bay is having a sale 03/24 - 03/30 on all their zoas... buy 1, get the 2nd for 50% off. I got a flyer via e-mail from them... so I'll hafta go that weekend and see what I can see.

Thanks again for checking out my thread!

** UPDATE!*

I came home from work this evening to find two walls of the tank completely covered in little white pods. Well, they're some kind of pod, anyway. They're definitely moving... whatever they are. I tried to catch as many of them with my camera as I possibly could. But they're so teeny-tiny!!

All of the little specks are moving.


I took a couple of other photos over the course of the last couple of days, too.

I really like those green zoas

Thanks, man.

Nice work Psys! did u ever find out what are those white tiny things yet?

Copepods! Enjoy them while they're plentiful. Once you have a fish in your tank you won't see too much of them outside of your fuge.

*UPDATE!*

Did my tank maintenance yesterday morning. Everything is still looking really good... and not only that, everything is thriving and growing. *yay!*

The amount of copepods in my tank is unbelieveable. I wiped down the glass yesterday morning while doing my tank maintenance... and an hour later, all of the glass was teaming with copepods just crawling around. Very cool, indeed.

Went to my LFS yesterday and bought a product by Magnavore that is pretty much identical to Chemi-Pure Elite. None of the LFS stores in my area carry the Chemi-Pure Elite... they only seem to carry the regular Chemi-Pure. Anyway, the product I purchased is "Pura Complete" by Magnavore. I placed it in a small filter media bag when I got home and placed it in my AC70. I can honestly say the water looks "polished" today. It also has a nitrate and phosphate remover, as well. And since we're all dealing with pico tanks and not much water volume, I figure... it is a good precautionary measure.

The submersible lights I ordered for my AC70 'fuge is still on backorder from In Tank. They were supposed to be in earlier this week... but I guess not. What I'm having to do is keep my stock pico light (since it's the only thing I have as far as lighting goes) over the main tank during the course of the day... and then have the same light over my AC70 at night. I don't want my chaeto to die... and I guess I expected the submersible lights to be in my hands much sooner. Bleh.

The coralline algae in my tank is definitely growing... certainly not by leaps and bounds, but there are little specks of bright green and bright pink coralline algae growing on random spots on the rocks. That's really good to see.

I also met a fellow reefer through the local section on RC... we have a "Fox Valley Reef Club" that is central to the reefers here in the Fox Valley. Anyway, I met a local reefer named Mike who has a 210-gal AGA tank in his home along with an enormous tub you'd use for watering livestock filled with little frags. He was kind enough to let me stop by yesterday and pick out a couple of frags. So I got these two little pieces for $20.

I discovered it really isn't wise to try and remove the frags off their plugs. I nearly damaged the pink zoas because of that stupidity on my part. I got advice that in the future, you can use a dremel to cut away as much of the plug as possible... and then simply epoxy the rest of it to the section of live rock you want. What do you guys end up doing??

* unknown pink zoas *


* another shot of the unknown pink zoas *


* Goochsters *


* another shot of the Goochsters *


* FTS!! *

Oh! Nice zoas.

When I get zoas on a frag I just slice them off the frag with a blade, glue it on a piece of putty and glue the putty on my rock. Becareful with cutting zoas though, they have palytoxins and you definitely don't want zoa juice in your eyes.

Thanks!!

OK. Question... how do you slice off the frag with a blade? Flesh and all? Just slice it off?

I read the How-To article about gluing frags... and I undestand gluing the frag to the putty... and then applying more glue to the putty and attaching it to the live rock in your tank. That's definitely what I want to do. But I'm so scared about just slicing that off the frag plug.

For those pink ones, I nearly cut off my finger and destroyed the zoas... so I'm not really wanting to risk it with the Goochsters I have. But I'll admit... seeing them on that frag plug on my sand bed is driving me crazy. I think I have OCD about my coral placement right now. I have this little picture in my mind about how I want things... and that isn't it.

Those Zoas look awesome! Nice find.

The local reefer who sold me the frags told me he uses ceramic plugs. So I used some wire cutters and cut the post off the frag plug holding my Goochsters. Then I used some epoxy to place it on my live rock. I'm seriously ticking off these Goochsters 'cuz I keep messing with them. Bleh. I need to leave them be. Now that they're securely on the live rock, I feel better.

Pretty much, just slice it off as close to the frag plug as you can. Be sure to use a very sharp blade so you can do it as swiftly as possible. Your zoas won't look too happy at first but they'll be fine. You'd be surprise how strong and resilient corals are and over time you learn to be less gentle with them and soon you'll find yourself ripping and cutting them apart without qualms.

I understand the OCD, I have that problem myself. But it's also important not to stress your corals out by moving them around too much. This is why I "quarantine" new frags on my sandbed for a week while I contemplate on an appropriate spot to put it in and in the process letting the frag acclimate and adapt to my tank. Your layout will change over time as you add more so it's also a good idea to leave some frags loose so that you can easily move them around later on. Also keep in mind that zoas will grow and spread and you should give them enough room to do so.

Remember though, that the frag plug will be covered at some point. Place a few together on the sand bed and you can get a cool little zoa garden started.

^^
That too.

That's a really good point. It's now easy to see how the 3-gal. pico almost forces me to be not only conscientious of what corals I want to keep... but where they're going to eventually end up in the tank.

Last time I'm touching these Goochsters. I swear.

Here's what I did... I did cut off the post on the frag plug and then I removed them from the live rock and placed them back on the sand bed right at the base of my live rock. I don't want them to be confined to that one area ON the live rock itself. I can't possibly predict what I'm going to get in the future... and I don't want to run the risk of ruining that by using some silly epoxy for one small frag of zoas.

So for now, the Goochsters will remain on the frag plug (minus the post) on the sand bed.




My thoughts exactly.



Great minds think alike.

I can't afford to give away prime real estate ON my live rock this early in the game.

Looks good.Your in a good area up there to get alot of deals from the fox valley crew.I have alot in my tank from them guys.......

+1

They seem pretty knowledgeable. Next meeting is 04/11... so who knows? Maybe I'll get more goodies.

Is it Friday yet??

ugh. Today sucked. Bleh.

On a lighter note, I'm visiting another fellow reefer on Sunday for more frags! I can't wait!!

On a different note, there is some really bright green... and I mean, fluorescent lime green coralline algae growing on the top of the rock on the left hand side in my tank. I'll post pics this weekend.

On another weirder (is that a word?) - my girlfriend and I find ourselves looking at the tank non-stop. Sometimes for several minutes at a time throughout the day. And it makes me wonder... what in the heck were we looking at before I set this thing up?

On a more depressing note, Oshkosh got 7-inches of snow yesterday. Se7en. Yes. SeVen. You have got be kidding me. Will this winter ever end? Tonight's forecast? Freezing rain. And then it plummets to 18 degrees on Wednesday coupled with single digit wind chills. Lovely.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday evening. [/sarcasm off]

I really wanna go fishing.