Yeah! they are almost all the way open! They are very vibrant! i'm happy with them for sure. Plus, the two frags were only 10 total, 5 bucks each. I bet they'll be open tomorrow all the way and i'll post a picture of them. The green ones look really nice above my hot pink shroom!!

My pep shrimp keeps stepping on them and they close up again for a few mins.. Maybe I should get rid of him? But wouldn't sexies step on my coral too? I dunno. Maybe they're closing because they're still being sensative to a new tank, so any pokage annoys them...?

I saw a new type of starfish? in my tank today. It doesn't move it's arms individually, it just kind of glides, maybe with little feet underneath it? Its in the shape of a star though, thats why I called it a star fish. It's gray black and white. Any ideas?

Alright, since most of the zoas opened, I decided to post pics tonight. I'm not sure I like my placement of the green and pink zoas (watermelons?) I thought it would be cool to grow them vertically, but I didn't take into account that the light source comes from above Duh. so I might have to move them. Maybe to the front left purple coraline rock so they have a nice little rock to grow on.




Here are the green on green ones, I really like their placement, I think that once they start growing, and once my pink shroom starts growing, it will be a nice little color contrast Also, I think it will also compliment the blue ric as well yay! Oh, i'm an art major, btw. So i'm funny about these things.



Here is my happy kenya tree. Though I have noticed that it doesn't have the snowflake-like bristles at the polyp ends... maybe they just haven't grown yet? or maybe it's really not a kenya tree but something similar..?


That's about it. I decided to get a little green in my tank because it was driving me nuts! Also, these frags were beautiful in my eyes and sooooo cheap! I know they are tiny, but I think I have enough patience to watch them grow and slowly take over

Update for today!

I decided to feed my ric a shrimp pellet It immediately closed up around it and started munching. I also put a tiny piece on my pink shroom, just to see if it would like it. It did. I closed up around it as well. Interesting.




^ the ric ate the whole piece I gave it.. You can still see it's mouth surrounding the last bit of food... What a piggy!

Things are looking good so far. Maybe that food will encourage the ric to grow and split. I think I might pick up some mysis shrimp for them too. I also saw some liquid food at the lfs that I might try. It states that it feeds pretty much everything in my tank, so it might be worth it. But it's $20 for a 4ozish bottle.. kind of steep.

next stocking ideas:
1) nass snail or ceirth
2) some more coral, perhaps a blue clove polyp or yellow something..
3)a yashi/goby pair
4) depending on ^ and bioload I might get a small clown goby or small damsel.

I was thinking about just getting a purple firefish and nothing else, fish wise, but I really don't want to have to worry about it being spooked and jumping out of my tank. As it is, if I get gobies I have to be careful.

I really like my small yellow watchmen goby, they don't swim around and so they aren't at risk to jump. Only get blue cloves if you don't mind them spreading all over your tank, it's almost has bad as gsp.

Yeah, yellow watchmen goby would be a good choice.

I was planning on getting gsp next But I don't mind them growing, I need to start filling out the space in my tank anyway. Maybe i'll think about it, and just get one, not both gps and blue cloves

If you go for a yellow watchman, they're really cool, put they will get bigger than Stonogobiops (yashias, draculas, high-fin red banded, etc). If I were you I would go for the yasha, they stay smaller and have a nicer color...IMO. Make sure you get a lid before you get any type of goby though, I had a little trima goby that jumped out right in front of me and my dog ran and ATE him before I could save him .

PS - Nice green zoas, I have the same ones in my 5.5g

Well it all depends on where you place it, I have two kinds of GSP growing side by side on the sand bed where it wont bother other corals.

my dog would snatch up a suicidal fish too!! Sorry you couldn't save him in time I will definitely look into getting a lid then.

Thanks! I love my zoas!! I hope they grow and try to take over part of that rock.

OO they can grow on the sandbed.. forgot about that. Yeah, I may get both then. I really want lots of color for my tank, but I want to plan carefully in order to get the most out of the small space I have.

I've thought about turning my 10g freshwater into a saltwater, because i've fallen in love with saltwater.. Maybe I should, I would just need a new light and a powerhead. (Plus all the saltwater sand/rock) Can you do HOB fuges for 10g tanks? Or would I need to do a sump? I have an ac30 on that tank and a 50watt heater. I'll probably wait on that until this winter, however, because i'm going out of the country for a few months and I wouldn't want my boyfriend, who knows nothing of fish tanks salt or fresh, to have to look after a nano and a pico with how fickle they can be... it's going to be tough enough to explain and demonstrate how to take care of my pico..

thanks for all the advice, it's been really helpful

Yea, you can definitely do a AC 110 Fuge mod for a 10g, the 110 is almost twice the size of an AC 70, but the 110s are pricey (around $80).

I have an AC70 fuge on my 10 gallon and it seems to be doing a pretty good job so far...

Ok, so the concensus so far is that I can do a HOB fuge on a 10g tank. Thats good to know, thanks guys! The ac110 sounds like it would provide major flow, meaning I might not have to get a powerhead, but the ac70 is very affordable.. I don't know, I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I really want to undertake another saltwater project.

What makes me want to is the fact that I can have a couple fish as well as corals. maybe a small/baby clown pair. At least until they get bigger and require more room. It's a lot to research and think about. I feel that there's a large difference between 3g and 10g... but maybe there isn't..

AC 70 and Koralia Nano would be a great combo.

As far as fish, http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703 is a great guide to look at since you're deciding on fish. I say definitely get a yasha/pistol pair, they are the most interesting thing I've ever seen in an aquarium.

I have the AC70 fuge on one side and the Korallia 1 on the other. Works good so far...

Awesome, that does sound like a good combo. Thanks for the link, i'll definitely be browsing it. I think I will get the yasha/pistol pair for my 3g pico. Do you know if the pistol gets along with peppermint shrimp? If not, then I will get a different small fish, like a goby. I'm going to be looking into getting a glass lid made soon, so no worries, by the time I get a fish, I will most likely have a lid.




That's good news! Thanks for the input! I'm seriously considering switching my fw into a sw now Doesn't seem like that difficult a switch. I'll probably do this in July or so. That's when i'll be back in the US.

I would need:

new light,
larger filter for fuge,
powerhead
salt water/rocks/sand.

Might have to save up for it

Today I went and bought two cerith snails, yay! They are already burrying themselves in my sand. Which I have to say, is messy on one side. But i'm sure they'll help clean it up

So now my CUC is:

1 tricolor hermit
2 astrea snails
2cerith snails
1 baby stomatella (sp?) hitchicker
6-8 brittle starfish hitchhikers
1-2 of those other starfish that I can't remember the name of. Its a semi-unwanted hitchiker that i'm not too concerned about.

I think that's it. Pretty good crew. I wish I had another crab, but my pep shrimp will help out so.. my tank should stay crystal clean.

My lfs has pistol shrimp! but no yashas....... So i'm forgoing the fish for now. But I think I do want a pistol shrimp yasha pair, and a yellow clown goby. That's it. I shouldn't have a problem with that bioload, and if I see a problem escalating, i'll take someone back.

I just caught my pep shrimp picking on one of my green zoas!!! Maybe I will have to take him back after all...

Update:

So, my new zoas are doing fine, I decided to move the red and green ones to the red rock centerpiece. I think they will all get light this way. Before, I had them vertically, but not all the polyps got light. I think the spot I put them will be fine, and it will look nice when they grow out. Only thing I can forsee that I might not like is that the red in the rock and the red in the center or the zoas are similar and they may blend too much, whereas I like contrast in color so you can really see everything.

My pep shrimp is really starting to pick at my kenya tree I like him a lot, but my spot feeding isn't working I guess. So I will be catching him and taking him back tomorrow. It might be an aggravating adventure, but I guess we'll see. Also, my hermit crab is way too big for my tank I feel. He keeps getting stuck in between my rocks. He moved into the new larger shell I brought for him, which is good, but at the same time, now he's a giant in among everything else. I think I might have to take him back as well and get some smaller hermits.

I'm sad about my shrimp!! Maybe I can replace him with some sexies.

I have a TON of tiny white bugs visible ont he glass of my tank walls. I think they're copepods. In which, this is a good thing. If not, then I don't know.

Pep shrimp offically gone I bet someone else will buy him, he is very very good at eating aipastia. I had to rescape to get the little guy out too... that was annoying. However, I put my center rock at a more vertical angle, which I like a lot more. It gives me a good sandbed in the front. SO I guess the outcome of rescaping was good.

So, since my tank levels are perfect and everything's happy, including my new snails, I bought myself a present to make up for Peppy. A little yellow clown goby. I just couln't help it, he was so cute. Plus, i've decided against going with the larger yellowtail damsel. I'm going to stick with my small goby (he's actually medium sized ) And possibly get three sexies and a green banded goby and be done with fish. I don't want to go with the yasha/pistol pair after all because I want sexies the most. And I decided on the clown goby. I don't want to overload the bioload.

As for coral, i'm just letting what I have grow, and if I see something I want, i'll get it. My hot pink shroom went form being the size of a nickel to a little bigger than a half dollar! it got large really fast. My ric has also gorwn larger. I have many new budding polyps on both my zoas. My other two shrooms seem to be doing fine. I believe the purple one is splitting. The green hairy one is hanging ten. Next thing on my list is some gsp for my sandbed or the front rock. However, I think I want some green or blue shrroms on the front rock. I'm sticking with softies for this tank. maybe I'll get one hard coral way later.

Aww, sorry you had to return your peppermint shrimp. So, is the clown goby eating? If you're having trouble feeding him, try some cyclopeeze, they'll usually go for that if they wont already eat frozen or flakes.

this is a nice start off but the key is patience and everything in your tank will be happy later on. Just to know: i did and overloaded and my tank went in to failure mode. Well if you having problem adjusting the big piece of rock u can wrap in a towel and break it smaller so u can scrape it easier for your corals. Keep up the good progress.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I haven't tried feeding my fish yet, I will try tomorrow. Right now he seems alright, still a little stunned I think. He's perching on my rocks which, to me, is strange because he wasn't doing that at the lfs. Then again, I wasn't watching him constantly at the lfs like I am now. I don't have anything in my tank that can spook him, so no worries there. Actually, just a moment ago, it looked like he was eating some of the copepods I have in my tank off a rock. I have hundreds of them, so it looks like he may have been snacking on them. So far, he really likes the branched rock on the right side of the tank. He just sits on the branches like a bird I really love the splash of yellow he adds to the tank.

I will take my time, no worries. I only got the fish because I was so sad about the shrimp, but i'm totally aware that these tanks typically need time to grow. I probably won't get another thing for my tank for another week. I may pick up some new coral when my light comes in. But that's about it. I definitely won't get anymore fish, etc. for at least another month. I'm more interested in letting my corals grow atm.

As for my large centerpiece, now that it's more vertical than before, I like it a lot more. Before, I didn't like it very much because it was taking up a lot of the sandbed, but the position it's in now seems to be working out. Thanks for the towel idea, that would be wise. If I were to break it up, I may not have thought of that.. heh

^ he's a natural born model.

Here is a fts:

^my kenya tree is POed. No idea why.
birds eye view:


^ my ric has gotten a lot bigger in the past week. Not sure if you can tell from my pics, but it really has grown quite a bit.

my hermit crab checking out the local property on the market:


I tried to take pictures of the copepods, obviously the white dots on the glass:



That's all folks

Just saying, in 5 gallon tanks, max amount of fish recommended is 1... unless you have a neon goby pair..... The green banded goby is awesome, and starts off small, but it does get larger, as your yellow clown will... Just take it into consideration that it might not be the best option to get another fish. However, some sexies would be awesome for the tank, as well as many other inverts

Nice tank by the way

thanks!

Yeah, i'm really ok with just one fish. I probably wont end up getting the gbg in the end. I definitely will not overload the tank I really want some sexies!!! I want around 3. That should be a good number to have.

He ate today! frozen, and he gobbled it a lot of it up. I think he'll be fine, feeding wise. he's starting to perch on my hot pink shroom. The color combination it reminds me of the 80s haha

I had to get rid of my Pep Shrimp as well b/c he was attacking my new Frogspawn. I had to pull pretty much all of my rocks out to catch him, which sucked. I think I stressed him out too much trying to catch him b/c he didn't make it through the night. :-(

Better him than my coral though. Hopefully I can get my clown's next weekend...I'm excited.

Sorry to hear about the shrimp I had took mine to the lfs right after I caught him. I don't know if he's still alive, but hopefully he is. Sucks that he attacked your frogspawn. They are really opportunistic. I thought with spot feedings I could manage him, but nope. I guess my corals just look that tastey. Yay for clowns!! That's exciting. You know what i've realized yesterday, that my 10g fw tank is actually way larger than that .............. it was marked wrong on the box I think. I was looking at the 10g tanks at the lfs, and they were a lot smaller than my tank is.. I think it's closer to a 15g to 18g.... I'm going to take the measurements and do the math to find out because now i'm very curious to know exactly how much volume my tank has.

Nope, the volume of my tank is approximately 2400cm cubed. Meaning, there are 10.4 gallons of water in my tank... The tank at the store must be either taller and thinner than my tank, or it's less gallons. my pico is 3.7 gallons including fuge volume

I feel like a nerd now

Looks awesome... I like the new additions!

Did you take into account the amount of water that's displaced by rocks and sand?

No, I was only calculating the volume that the tank could hold potentially, not how much it currently holds I could get a rough estimate by weight or size and figure out how much volume my rockwork takes up, but i'm too lazy.

Update:

My fish is doing great! He caused a tiny ammonia spike, but I did a water change. He's eating the food I give him as well as picking the copepods. He plays with his reflection in the glass of the tank, that's pretty cute. My kenya tree doesn't like him though. Ever since I got him, it hasn't been open Maybe with time it will be alright again. My pink shroom has trippled in size which is great. I'm unsure of how they reproduce, I thought they just split like rics do.. Not sure. I hope it does though because I want to trade the frags for different coral at my lfs..

That's about it.

Cool, happy to hear he's doing ok. Do you have a top though? If not, there's always the chance of him jumping out...

No I don't, but i've researched the gobys and i've read and heard that they are the least likely to jump compared to others like watchmen, gbg, etc. So far he is very happy. He swims around the whole tank, perches on all my corals and rock and plays with his reflection in the glass. And I don't have anything in my tank that can spook him. no shrimp and my hermit crab is mild mannered. I'm not that worried about him jumping at the moment. My concern with getting a top would be the temperature becoming too high and I don't want to over complicate my tank with a fan or cooling system. If I were to get a top, I think I would just get a clear mesh of some sort so he couldn't jump out (if he did). It doesn't seem likely though. I will look into that this weekend. I really wouldn't want him to jump, hopefully he won't.

So I woke up this morning, turned my tank light on, and unplugged my heater. About three minutes later, I noticed that my filter wasn't running.... I looked at the powerstrip and it was barely unplugged. Either I accidently knocked it out when I unplugged the heater, or it's been unplugged since last night. I'm hopeing for the former. But everything in the tank is fine.

My kenya tree is opening again. Took it a week to open after I got the fish. Apparently, it didn't like the fish at first. I lost a cerith snail.. No idea what happened there.. the other one is fine and dandy. Can they correct themselves when they fall over? I know that astrea can't. So when I see the cerith knocked over, I just correct them anyhow, like I do the astreas. However, this cerith snail falls over much more than my astreas ever did...

I should be getting my light this week. My lfs guy didn't order it last time, because he was sick and not at work. It's alright, I'm not in a rush. Would my corals do better with an upgraded light? Yes. Do they need one right this moment? No.

My fish is happy, and not jumping. I feed him everyday and he's eating. He still likes to perch on the pink shroom. I don't think it minds.

Thats about it for now! I want to get some new coral when I get my new light. Some gsp I think.

Nice update.... but you didn't post a pic!

Ok, i'ts been awhile. I've been too busy to post lately, but here's an update on my tank. I got my new light and slowly adjusted my tank to it. I increased the photoperiod an hour or so over a week and now it's consistant at 9 hours a day. My coral has brightened up quite a bit. My hot pink shroom was turning an orange color, but now it's hot pink again. My zoas are increasingly bright and growing. I used to have only 4 polyps of the neon green zoas, now I have around 12. The watermelons aren't growing as fast, but there is definite growth. Oh and my kenya tree is 3 times as big and a new kenya tree has started to grown on the opposite side of the tank...it's very small and only has one branch so far, hopefully it grows to be as big as the other one.

Sad news: both my cerith snailes died..... One died around a week after I brought it home and the second died only a few days ago. The second one kept falling off the tank walls and not turning back over. So I thought it was similar to the astrea snails and I would flip it over and he would continue on. However, I missed him flipping over once and he died. I talked to my lfs about it and they said that cerith snails are supposed to be able to flip themselves over. They said that they have no idea how old the snails are when they get them and it is possible that this snail was very old. We came to this conclusion after my water was tested and was perfect. otherwise, why else would it die so abruptly. Another cause could be my mischieveous hermit crab.. Maybe he flipped him over, who knows. Anyway, I replaced the snails with a very small narcissus snail who is cleaning my sandbed with vigor. No more problems there.

In other sad news: My clown goby contracted ick. No idea where or how. I've been useing natural-ish methods of getting him better over the past couple of days that my lfs recommended. Giving him pure RO water dips (for three mins at a time) once every three days. This seems to work very well. Most of the ick has dropped off him and his vibrant color is returning. He's still consistantly eating well, though he does look a little thin.. I may feed my tank twice a day for the next two days or so, just to be sure that he plumps up again. I also got a cleaner shrimp. My lfs has seen (through their own personal experience) that sometimes cleaner shrimp will actually eat ick off the fish if they let them. Who knows is this will work, but my fish does look a lot better today. I don't know if it was the ro water dips, or if the shrimp is picking the ick off him at night. Unsolved mystery. The good point is that he is getting better.

I was thinking about getting a purple pseudochromis as a friend for my clown goby. It may be too much fish for the tank though and the fish itself may not be happy in only 3 gallons, but I do have a lot of nice rockwork that it can hide in... i'll have to research it more. They have some really small ones at my lfs though, about the same size as my clown goby. I know they rough up shrimp. However my cleaner shrimp is much larger than my clown goby... I wonder if the size of the shrimp would make a difference. Many sites argue on tank size... but they seem to have the same tank requirements as yellowtail damsels, which a lot of 3g pico's have, at least on this forum. Anyway, i'll have to wait until the ick is purged from my tank. around 6-8 weeks. So by then, the psuedochromis at the lfs may be too big anyway and i'll move on. Do yellow clown gobys like having fish friends? I don't even know...

anyway, if anyone has feedback it would be appreciated, thanks!

As far as i was aware ceriths can't turn them selves back up right.

Yeah, i've heard mixed views on this.. at least the nars snail won't cause trouble

How's your tank doing? Any update??

it's doing well, thanks for asking :-) So far, my fish has lost pretty much all the ick. He is back to bright vibrant yellow again. So now I just have to wait a couple weeks until I get my new fish (if they are still small). Also, i'll be adding some gsp to the tank soonish. Oh! I have a new baby hot pink mushroom. or at least I think it is.. It has the same basic shape and texture/color of the big one, except its very small, smaller than a dime at least. I hope my mushroom is spawning. I don't really know how they reproduce. I thought they split like rics do.. maybe not? I know the kenya tree started a new "bud" on the complete opposite side of the tank... My narcs snail is doing a great job with the sand so far, so that's good. I have this strange stuff growing on what I thought was purple bubble algae.. its bright neon orange dots on the bubbles.. They weren't apparent when I bought the algae though.. so I'm not sure when they sprung up or where they came from... Maybe it's not bubble algae, but some type of coral and i've been mistaken this whole time about it (it seems to have appeared since my new light)..?

other than that, buying new things for my pico might take awhile. I'm planning on turning my parent's freshwater tank into a planted freshwater tank as a present, so my funds will do towards that atm. Shouldn't be that bad cost wise though, we'll see. I also would like to buy some new plants for my own planted freshwater tank as well.

How is your pico doing PSYS?

Hi! So good news, my mushrooms are all reproducing my budding! I have two new purple mushrooms and one new pink shroom. at least, of which I can see. There may be more, but I don't want to prod anything in my tank atm. I've read that mushrooms most likely reproduce when the rock is more crowded, so hopefully, when these baby mushrooms get big, they're growing fast, I'll get a surplus of shrooms! Then I can trade some for new coral at my lfs.

I'm giving my clown a bath right now in some RO water. His color looks great, but the white ick is still on him, more so than it was yesterday. I just really want him to get better. He's still eating fine and his color has returned, so I think he is getting better. Just have to get rid of all the ick.. What's cool is that once the bath is done, you can literally see the ick that has fallen off him in the bottom of the bath (tupperware haha). That means it's working in my eyes. Hopefully another week of baths will allow the ick to completely go away. That and water changes. I really want to get that playmate purple psudochromis friend for my clown, but I will NOT get new fish until the sickness is completely gone. Anyway, that's all for now.

Updated pics: nothing much has changed, just a few new budding corals. No new corals yet. Though my parent's newly planted freshwater tank (as of last night) looks beautiful. Bought them six different kinds of low light plants and eight cardinal tetras to have a nice bright school swimming around. Along with their mollys and such. Oh the new pics were taken after I put my fish back in the tank, however, he's mad at me for netting him out in the first place, camera shy.

Here's a pic of the ick that has fallen off my fish ....Tons fell off today.


bath time layout.


full tank shot with new light


new shrimp loves the camera, total diva.


new budding shroom


the new purple shrooms are hard to see in this pic, but they are above the big one


orange neon dots on grape algae? Anyone know what it is?



Can't get a pic of the new baby kenya tree because it's at a strange angle in my tank, macro can't get to it. It's doing well though.

Everything is looking very good, that cleaner shrimp is sweet.

My fish died today I tried many things to make him better, and all the ick was pretty much gone. But he wasn't looking to good yesterday, very thin and he didn't eat. Very sad. Especially since he was my first sw fish. I still have no idea where the ick came from, especially since i've gotten everything from the same lfs. He must have had it when I got him.

I guess i'll just get coral for the next month or so and then look into fish again maybe.

Sorry about your loss.

Thanks El Fab

So i'm having problems right now. I think I have some really bad algae in my tank including dinoflagettes (or hair, I can't decide which it is and I can't get a good picture of it) and blue/green cyano. I'm thinking it's the dino-algae because of the sudden appearance of the blue/green cyano. Oh and I also have diatoms.

I also have a worm that looks like a bristle worm (it could be a fire worm) it's at least 3 inches long, at least, and its grey with two rows of white bristles along it's sides. i think it's a bristle.. but it's huge....

I'm going to try to get all the hair-like algae out of my tank by sifting the sand with a fine net that I have. Also by pulling it off the rock that it's on. It's mostly in the sand bed. I'll do that later this afternoon. I guess if it still gets bad this next week after I attempt to take a lot of it out, it may be the dino- algae........ Then who knows. That stuff seems pretty severe.

and to top it all off, my HOB fuge has a crack and started leaking. more on that later


On an ok note, I got a leather coral, which is doing perfectly fine.

Hopefully bad things happen in threes and now you'll get some good stuff happening! Apparently its bad to disturb your sand bed too much due to gas release how ever i've not had issues. Just thought i'd let you know people have warned me so...Sorry to hear about your fish! How did the hob break? The worm sounds like a bristle worm, i have tons of them in my tank, atleast 10 i'd guess, i counted 15 hair worms on one peice of rock earlier!

Yeah! hopefully so. I just need to get my tank in perfect order before I leave country (middle of may). It would be very difficult for my boyfriend, who is watching my tank, to control crashes or huge algae blooms while i'm gone. He's not really into fish or tanks, but he's slowly getting interested, he really loved a scooter blenny he saw at the lfs yesterday heh. But no fish until I get back (July 2nd) As for disturbing the sand bed, I purposely did this morning to break up the diatoms, and I didn't even think about the other algae. whoops. I don't think it'll do anything, and i'm starting to think it's just hair algae that had some bubbles caught in it. Thanks for the warning though.. hopefully I didn't mess it up more so than it already is.

I'm sad about my fish, but I'll probably get a damsel when I get back. I was going to get a sand sifting goby also, but I have three narc snails now that seem to be doing very well. I probably won't need the fish in the end. And I won't worry about the worm anymore, thanks. I was just surprised at how large it was and I usually have red/black worms, not all gray worms. Also, I read the Barny the worm article link haha!

The HOB cracked a bit on the part where the over hang conects to the actually chamber. I leaks a bit drop by drop. Not that significantly though and i'm going to seal it up with super glue.. I actually wouldn't have noticed the leak if I hadn't accidently knocked my desk. Some water sloshed out of my fuge onto my subwoofer LOL When I was mopping up the water, I noticed the crack.

Damn, thats gash about the hob. Superglue should hold it though. I am after a juvinle yellow tail damsel. They are awesome, i was looking through some pics i took in the bahamas last summer and saw one and was like man one of those would be sweet! I really want to make a big custom tank in my room with a refugium in one end and hardware behind an overflow wall. Would have it as a bahamian biotop with the fuge being mangrove based. Anyway i digress. Good luck with the tank! Hope it all turns around for you!

That tank idea sounds sweeeeeet! When you do your bahamian tank, give me the details! or make a thread, which i'm sure you will I really want to do a finnex tank or a 40g breeder tank later on. just something over 20g I think. I would love to do something without a sump though, or at least with an in tank sump, just because I really have no idea how to do those.... Needs a lot of researching, which I haven't done yet. I really want a baby/young yellow tail damsel now too.

I took a net to my tank and sifted out a lot of algae. It looks like hair algae, so i'm not going to worry about it. The only thing that worries me is that my hermit would not eat it... makes me suspicious. I also clouded up my tank quite a bit, so now all my little guys are mad. It was cool seeing the narc snails lift their arm up so high though, I think they were lost heh. I just need to get my nimble in the mail so I can clean the glass, which is very bad right now..

So when I get back, I was thinking about getting an 11 pack of rics from coral morphic. Seems like a pretty decent deal, and it would give my tank some really nice color diversity. Plus I like rics a lot. Has anyone ordered coral from them before? Any insight?