Reef System in Progess

[lizarddoctor]

Thanks again for the quick ID and link gm333. I have been trying to add the links whenever possible now that the pages are starting to get a little longer rather than skim through liveaquaria searches. They only seem to list what they have in stock to sell and that little goat critter would have been nearly impossible for me to acidentally browse. It was one fish that I have seen in other reef aquariums around town so I figured that it would be a safe addition as long as I kept it small enough. It measures about 2-3 inches, but some of the ones I have seen are nearly a foot long.

About the bubble coral though, do you think that I have the wrong ID for it? Every time I do a search across the net, I can only find white or green. It is as if the red variety doesn't exist. The more pictures I look at are leading to believe that it is a frogspawn coral instead, but even then, the description and the colors that mine is showing doesn't match up. It has a dark maroon bubble top and when extended shows a nice bright green on the stalks of each arm. Quite a site when it hits it's daily peak.

Nereaga, when the time comes for an upgrade... just go big. The only reason my tank is so small is that was all the space that I had at that location. Since it is on the second floor, we almost couldn't get the tank into the house. Took 5 people to lift it. The tank I am looking at for fish/eels or sea-turtles is a little more of a square (.8 meters x .8 meters x 1.2 meters) with a slight bowfront, but taller that the current tank and has some really nice furniture already built in for the entire system. If my wife lets me have it of course . That one will cost me 4,000,000 VND (around 250$ USD) complete. I am sure that some patience looking around could pull a great big tank at a reasonable price for years of learning.

[gm333]

If it is the pic below the red mushrooms on the right, that is definitly frogspawn. A good chunk of it I might add, it looks very nice, the tips are a good purple color, you cant find that size around my area for less that $150.00.

[lizarddoctor]

Yeah, that's the one. I think that it is for sure too just haven't been able to match the colors with one on the net yet. I have been searching for a good pic all over the net for the last hour to compare it to. I had my pic of 5 of them the other day, but grabbed that one since it was the only one which showed off green arms. The other ones were either solid purple or a solid lighter color of off pink.

150$? Wow. I knew that I was in the right country to be running a reef system, but I had no idea how lucky I am to have the stores so close. I am not trying to be a goof, but I picked it up for 40,000 VND (2.50$ USD) and that was at the store price. This whole experience is really making me wonder if I shouldn't see about getting an export license and learning the ropes of what it takes to start getting live quality stock back to the States. I would have to cover some overboard shipping costs to maintain the livestock in transit, but even then, I could easily cut that 150$ pricetag down if I had the means. Teaching vs. Export?

[Nereaga]

Yeah I want a bigger one already and Im only 4 weeks into my 55 gallon, but once again thats all the girlfriend will let me have here. I am already drooling over a 150 gal or so tank... I am sucked into this hobby head first an there is no stoppin me... keep them pics comin man!!!!

[gm333]

I have to correct myself and say that I was wrong in the ID of the supossed frogsspawn upon further inspection of your pic, the coral is actually a hammer coral, I just took a quick glance at it the first time. Here is some info on the hammercoral. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...catid=1645&N=0
The tips may actually be purple, what lights are you running?

[lizarddoctor]

Ok, it is a hammer coral for sure. When I did a google search for a pic, an identical one popped up with the exception of the green underneath the bulbs. I just updated the page with the correct ID.

http://z.about.com/d/saltaquarium/1/...rcoral_400.JPG

I'm embarrased to say that I don't know much about the lighting. The guys at the store just brought over a pair that matched their coral tank and I haven't investigated them very closely. One is white and one is a darker bulb similar to a dark room. They are large enough to span the entire length of the tank and I have the darker one in the middle as I cut the white one early to try and simulate the sun going down. I should go down and check them now, but I turned them on an hour ago. I will check them tonight when they are off a bit.

Here are two new additions today. I went to the store to buy a few more cleaner hermits since one is still alive in the tank, but came home with these.

A Feather Star or Sea Lilie if I am not mistaken... It moved off the rock to the left to take up this position.



and this gigantic slug. Not sure exactly if its a sub-species of Sea Cucumber or a Nudibranch, but these two pics show off it's size and movement speed. Took only about 3 minutes to make it from the bottom left of the tank to the top middle of the back. Licks the glass like a happy puppy though.

[gm333]

Its looks like a type of seaslug or cucumber. These guys come in lots of different forms and are usually hard to ID. Look here to see if you can find a positive ID, there are hundreds of these slugs so it may take awhile to go through the list. http://www.seaslugforum.net/specieslist.cfm
The feather stars are awesome but I have heard they are very hard to keep in an aquarium.

[Reefbabe]

Sweet setup! Love the long nosed filefish!

[Radom]

Looks very nice.

[lizarddoctor]

Thanks for the comments. The feather star seems to be doing ok. Closes up when all the lights are on, but I see it moving all over the tank when the lights go down. The tank seems to have settled in a bit, but I have had a few happenings in the last few days which have changed the environment a little.

First, I finally caught the lunare wrasse with a home-made bottle trap and some brine shrimp. It wouldn't take the bait inside, but it swam into the trap to avoid my net sitting near the entrance. I was happy to get it out as the destruction it caused was starting to add up. I immediately took him back to a LFS and was given this anemone in an even trade. 10 hermit crabs followed in now that all the fish in the tank are invert safe.



and I also picked up this one too to add some color in the bottom. Parked itself near the other brown/yellow one and the clowns are all clustered in the left bottom corner as a third green anemone is behind the rocks that these two are on.




I also had some casualties. That gigantic slug seemed to be too interested in the larger intake near the top of the tank and I found him belly up today. Third time was the charm as it wasn't the first time someone had to pull it free. Thanks for the link gm333, but I never matched an ID before he keeled over. That site is quite overwhelming for searching purposes. Also my Scopas Tang was found dead. I am not sure the cause of it's demise, but it might have thought the slug was food and got a belly ache from it. Too bad since the lunare wrasse isn't there any more to chase it around. Either way, the ammonia level has risen a bit in the tank and I changed out as much water as I had left in reserve. Tomorrow will come a complete partial if the levels don't come down.

2 fish and one slug gone/2 anemone and 10 hermit crabs added. Hopefully the new cleaners will live in peace and not pieces