Hi All,
I am new to this hobby so please be kind, but I look forward to gaining the knowledge of all you experienced reefkeepers and sharing the questions and frustrations of all you newbies like me.

My tank was set up on Dec. 27, 2007. I used LS, LW and LR. I am going slow even though the LFS's tell me I can stock. I test my water using API master saltwater and API master reef kits every other day and so far things have been consistently within range.

Here are a couple pix from the past couple of weeks. Sorry for the window glare. I promise to have better shots next time I post.

I did swap out the stock pump for a maxjet1900 that I read about others doing on the AP's. I think we are getting a pretty decent flow now.

The tank looks good, and you have come to the right place the people here have more information than they know what to do with and aren't afraid to share it. You have also learned the most important lesson in keeping marine fish, "the only thing that happens fast in an aquarium is a disaster" . However if you have been testing for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite etc. as soon as your cycle is over you can begin stocking slowly, I found the podcasts were excellent to get me pointed in the right direction.(The podcasts are available from itunes or download directly from the podcast section of the forum.

Oh and welcome to TR:welcome:

nice rocks, welcome reefmum. Dont worry, we'll be gentle_ish...muhahaha

ok - so far you have a decent clean up crew, a fish & a small colony of coral on the right yeah, or are the eyes playing tricks! Your rockwork looks nice , plenty of potential

a small colony of coral on the right yeah, or are the eyes playing tricks! l


i see some small polyps on the left V...lol i think yer eyes ARE indeed playing tricks on you, haha.


anywhoo.... welcome to forums and your tank does look rather spiffy. i like the orange-shelled snails in there. =D they look cool. good luck with it, and hope to see some great progress with it. =)

I like the aquascape. What are your plans as far as fish/corals?

:welcome: to TR ReefMom! Looks like you're on your way. Your aquascaping looks like it has great potential. Look forward to watching your tank mature. Hope to see more pics in the near future. Glad you found us.

Hello ReefMom . :welcome: to TR. We are glad to have you aboard.

I like your aquascape, most especially the pinnacle piece. I am of the slow and steady camp and applaud your decision to not throw a ton of fish in your tank right away. With this attitude you will be far more successful in the long run.

Hi everyone, thanks for the welcome. I was just trying to take an updated shot but my timer shut the lights off and I do not want to disturb my light cycle, so I will do that this week. Here is my current inventory.
2 clowns
1 pulsing xenia(sp) frag
1 hammer coral frag
1 sixline wrasse
1 green chrome
1 button polyp frag
1 feather duster
2 peppermint shrimp (who by the way along with Joe's Juice did a phenominal aptasia cleanup)
4 nessarius snails (though I can only spot 2 topside at any given time)
4 red leg hermits
1 blue leg hermit
10 snails that I think I have logged wrong in my book so I will not name them here, but I believe they are astrea, trochus and orange cat eye. along with 3 star shaped snails that I never got the name to before I started writing down my inventory. I have been diligent about writing down test results though so don't yell at me yet ;-)

when I can post the photo you will see that my frags are quite small. I am not sure yet if that is a good decision or bad one. I am trying to keep costs in check while allowing room for more. Don't worry, I will not overcrowd. I have read that the hammer coral should be kept apart from others cause he may sting any other corals, so he is currently at the base of that right front rock (not shown in the pix) and the button polyps are now halfway up that same rock and seam to be liking the location much better. The feather is at the base of the left front rock and the xenia came on a nice chunk of rock that we were able to wedge between the front middle rock and a back support rock. It seams to like that spot. It also creates another swim through. We have quite a few with the way the rock is situated. Being scuba divers my husband and I tried to make it as close as possible to the reefs we've had the pleasure of visiting.

How long does it usually take for polyps and soft corals to start growing?

Oh, I almost forgot... I have spotted on 2 occasions what appears to be a bristleworm. It is thin and long (still haven't seen the full length) he only comes out at night. I caught him eating after midnight yesterday. He swallowed a pellet that was left over from the others in the tank. It was tough to see cause he stays towards the back and I am shining a light to try and glimpse him. We have only seen him twice and I wasn't able to get a photo because he stays so concealed. I am reading mixed opinions about what I should do with him. Right now I am just keeping an eye on things. Any thoughts? Its bristles almost look like they are legs moving, not bristles, but I am sure that's just from having to view him in the way I have. He was shining bright green with the light yesterday. My rock is Fiji/Tonga.

Thanks all, promise to have some new pix soon

if you didnt know about this yet, i believe its true.......

if you get a red light and shine it in your tank to look around at night, the critters in your tank cannot see the red spectrum, but you can see them...it will be easier to look around in your tank at night, in case your interested in whats going on in there.. =)


...if that is actually true....i hope i didnt just make a fool of myself...lol

Yep, I have a red light for night viewing.

Bristleworms are a valuable part of your cleanup crew. They eat detritus and decaying matter. On occasion you will hear someone say "Bristleworms killed my critter." But, what really happened was the critter died and the bristleworms were just doing their job cleaning it up.

i see some small polyps on the left V...lol i think yer eyes ARE indeed playing tricks on you, haha.


im looking at the tank from the other side :D

im looking at the tank from the other side :D

oh yea...thats right...ur on the other side of the world...so of course you will see from the other side... :tongue2:

Oh my gosh, it looks like something terrorized my pulsing xenia last night. It looks like the tops were eaten off and now he's just all shriveled up into himself. What could have done such a thing? Everyone seamed to be getting along fine and there is not that much in the tank yet.

Hey Reefmom !

How are your pulsing xenia doing today ? were the really eaten ? or were they just just shrivelled up and recovered, the polyp's emerging again later ? I took a look at your earlier stocking list and don't see anything there that would eat Xenia. I did have a green serpent star once in my tank that munched a Xenia colony. Sometimes Xenia colonies do crash for no apparent reason often to return again later.

Hope all is well.

Hi John,
2 pieces are just stalks. The rest are very shy and starting to open up. So it looks as though something definitely got them, we just don't know what. LFS says even if our unidentified worm is in fact a bristle we would see other evidence of destruction, not just the xenia. My zoo frag(I think I misnamed it above as button polyps) was knocked off the rock last night though it is still all in one piece. Sorry everyone... as I said, I am new to the hobby. It was a very discouraging weekend. Everything is still alive, but battle worn. I am afraid to add anything for fear it will not survive. Maybe the frags I am getting are just too small. I just didn't want to overcrowd the tank but it seams they are all getting trampled by snails and hermits.

From the description it sounds like the xenia is getting stung. Where is your hammer in relation to it?


Common bristleworms don't eat living things unless they are decaying! On the other hand, I have never seen a green one. Mine are orange or brown in color. There is a xenia eating nudi. Nudi of the Week is is Phyllodesmium sp. (http://www.slugsite.us/bow/nudiwk05.htm)

Hey ReefMom,

http://www.theculturedreef.com/welcome.gifto Talking Reef Forum, the friendly place to get and give advice on reefing.

Pulsing Zenia sometimes can be hard to keep until established, then it appears to be like a weed. Give it some time and I'm sure it will be OK.

Dick

the hammer is on the floor at the right side of the tank and xenia are towards the left halfway up the tank.

the worm is actually a grayish/silver color but when I shine the light on it, it reflects green on top. I don't think it's the worm, only because I spied it that one time eating leftover pellet. the rest seam to be coming back though they are shy now. But there are definitely 2 that are just stems now.

Hammers can have sweepers that are pretty long but that seems like it would be a stretch.