my 14 gallon biocube

[E the gorgonian hunter]

so i did a little research and i think im going to go with the BEAN ANIMAL overflow system. of course it involves drilling but it is definitely worth it. if it was a product and not a diy, and said would you recommend this to a friend? i would say hell yes. its super quiet, efficient , and inexpensive.

[CarmieJo]

You don't want your pump to push more than your overflow so you want something that is a little less than 300 gph (or whatever your overflow is) at head.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

well bean animal is adjustable so it can handle anything, thats just another cool feature of a neat diy

[E the gorgonian hunter]

so my brother is in the keys on a trip, and he found a ton of these small brittle stars that glow green. has anyone ever had them before i heard they were reef safe and i think it would be a cool addition to my tank. so if you know about them please share they seem neat. also he is going to bring back some other inverts and stuff that i will share with you guys as soon as he shares them with me. (ooo suspense)

[CarmieJo]

I am not familiar with them. Maybe someone from that part of the country can give you some advice.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

well unfortunately my brother did not follow my advice and everything he collected died =(. i feel particularly bad because your not really supposed to collect over there. another thing is i have made up my mind to do a 90 gallon tank (if i can fit it in my room) the dimensions will be 48in long 18in tall and 24in wide. but the downside is the leds will cost more for the bigger tank so if i cant get enough money together than ill go with T5s the fixture will probably be a Tek but im not sure what bulbs to use. and then ill just save up for the leds.

[CarmieJo]

You can get MAJOR fines for illegal collecting. It is not worth taking the chance.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

im not quite sure it was illegal but in the future im going to avoid it any way or im going to get a collecting license.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

i just had a bit of an awful experience. my precious pom pom xenia started dying and i had no clue why. until yesterday, i had fed the tank with brine shrimp and one landed by the base of the pom pom xenia. all of a sudden a white worm with a few thin spread out bristles came out of the xenia and grabbed the shrimp. as you can imagine i was shocked. also the same day two new polyps grew by the base. the next day i came home and the polyps were torn and chewed on, so i made the connection and took the xenia and dipped it in fresh ro water. the worm came out and i sucked it up with a syringe and threw it away. so hopfully now my xenia will grow back.

[CarmieJo]

Did you take a picture of the worm?

[E the gorgonian hunter]

no i disposed of it but ill post a link to a picture

[CarmieJo]

no i disposed of it but ill post a link to a picture

Thanks, it is always helpful to know what preys on what.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

unfortunately i was unable to find any pictures or links to it if i do come across a link in the future ill post it but for now ill just give a good description.
it was white and thin, see thru, it had thin white bristles but were spread out and not clustered together like most bristle worms. it had black bead shaped eyes that were very noticeable due to the color of the body. it was living inside the xenia and it likes brine shrimp which if trying to catch it should be used as bait.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

oh and one more detail i forgot is that it likes to eat the polyps and not the stems or the main body so if u r looking to see just in case check for ripped polyps. (but it may eat the actual stem creatures like this never follow a strict set of rules)

[E the gorgonian hunter]

im a killer. i lost my hawkfish and two weeks ago i lost my firefish. i missed a feeding and then after that he would hardly eat and then eventually got too weak to eat and then died. and my hawkfish is a mystery. i got a call from my brother telling me it had died so i asked him to remove it for me because i was not able to go over to my house to do it my self due to finals (i had to study like mad) he then went to a heat game and did not remove it till the next morning and he looked for it but something had eaten it...odd. i dont believe it was due to anything foreign for 2 reasons. 1. nobody touches my tank due to the fact that i would probably kill them and 2. my cardinal fish would have also died. I am done with school today so i can start working on my 90 and fix up my biocube (and find the killer)

[E the gorgonian hunter]

it turns out it was my cardinal fish that died. and the cause was that the salinity shifted rapidly due to the lights and it was not used to it like my hawkfish so it died. this is just my theory but it makes the most sense. also something has been eating my snails i just got some new ones and now only one of them is alive the only snails left are my: small florida ceriths and my large florida cerith and i think my nassarius and my nerite. the ceriths are to hard to eat a crab or shrimp could never get into their shell and the nerite is too fast (wow thats a first, a fast snail) and the nassarius is always buried.

[CarmieJo]

Some hermits will kill snails.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

yeah I used to have a few in my display but they were always killing my snails so now i only have them in the back of the tank. sometimes they get into the display (not sure how) but I check every night to make sure.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

so after getting everything stable again and monitoring the tank daily, I decided to try sps again. I bought a yellow fuzzy acropora and after having it for 2 weeks with no problems i got a german blue montipora digitata. both frags are doing quite nicely. the montipora actually opened up the day after i got it, but the store only got him a few days ago so he is still brown. I also got another Buddha Cardinalfish that i hopefully wont kill. so thats all the updates for now expect pictures soon.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

well the summer just slipped away and now im back in school. everything in the tank is going well my acro got red bugs but i sprayed calcium on it and it killed 90% of the leftover coral and all the red bugs. the acro is making a slow but steady recovery. i also have some new additions to the aquarium such as a scooter blennie and yellow prawn goby a baby barber pole goby a really shy royal gramma and baby golden coral banded. some new coral additions are a toadstool leather some green and blue zoas and some weird yellow zoas, a purple digitata, an acan, a type of open brain like coral forgot what it was called but it was 95% dead when i got it now its doing super, and true blue xenia and silver tip xenia. some people say the true blue xenia are hard to keep but i have had it for a while now and its doing the best out of all my corals (except the frogspawn) they seem to like weekly dosing of iodide and clear water, i also feed marine snow and that helps allot. all in all everything is doing really great.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

one last thing I want to add is that IM GOING TO MACNA 2011 WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! hope to see you all there!

[rayme07]

Hey good to see you again and its great to hear you have gotten new additions! I would love to see some pics if you dont mind haha got to love the eye candy. Also congrats on going to MACNA I sure wish I could go but its too far away for me.

[E the gorgonian hunter]

well it is in the middle of Des Moines Iowa so i dont blame you its going to be hard to get these awesome corals back home

[E the gorgonian hunter]

Finally installing new led lighting! i will post pictures when its done

[CarmieJo]

Do you have it in yet?