[zhenya]

No,no I ment the green/white stringy looking stuff,I forgot what it called but I think it is an calcaerous algae of some sort. It is not a nussance algae

Maybe it's some more tube worms?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

No,no I ment the green/white stringy looking stuff,I forgot what it called but I think it is an calcaerous algae of some sort. It is not a nussance algae

Maybe it's some more tube worms?

You mean the white calcareous tubes? Those are small featherduster worms with a pale whitish crown that you can just barely see in the pictures. Look at the one directly above the red featherduster at the very top of the picture. See the crown? It's pale white and almost invisible. I have those things all over the place but they're not nearly as pretty as the large red ones. I have only five or six of the large red ones and some of them are in spots that are almost impossible to see.

[Ninong]

Gene,

You probably though it was Neomeris sp. algae:




I had some, but Primus ate it all. Remember?

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

You mean the white calcareous tubes? Those are small featherduster worms with a pale whitish crown that you can just barely see in the pictures. Look at the one directly above the red featherduster at the very top of the picture. See the crown? It's pale white and almost invisible. I have those things all over the place but they're not nearly as pretty as the large red ones. I have only five or six of the large red ones and some of them are in spots that are almost impossible to see.

I see it now,thanks

[Ninong]

Picture of Ricordea yuma taken just a few minutes ago. It's still looking sickly.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Gene,

You probably though it was Neomeris sp. algae:




I had some, but Primus ate it all. Remember?

That is it I thought it was that algae but now I remember that Primus liked it and ate it

Sorry about your R.yuma I feel however that it will recover after fission is completed.
I am having problems of my own as well,after switching to new bulbs(CoralVue) I have some corals starting to bleach a bit.Not severly yet and hopefully they will recover after acclimation is over. I did not put any shadecloth over the tank and just raised the fixture about 4" instead thinking that my Ushios weren't that old(8 month) to warrant shading. I was wrong,I think
My beautiful green plating Montiporas(the ones on the very top) are turning ugly dirty green/beige color.Anything that is in the lower section of the tank is doing just fine.Some Acroporas turning paler as well.What the heck I were thinking?

[golfish]

Well well well, looks who's got a tank Everything looks real nice Ninong. I bet it makes you feel like a kid again

Are you running the Amp Master 3000?

Ed at Sea Swirl is a standup guy.

Man! I sure miss my tank

Mark

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by golfish

Well well well, looks who's got a tank Everything looks real nice Ninong. I bet it makes you feel like a kid again

Are you running the Amp Master 3000?

Ed at Sea Swirl is a standup guy.

Man! I sure miss my tank

Mark

Hi Mark,

Sometimes I wish I was running the Ampmaster 3000, but I'm not. I purchased a Lifereef Filter System complete with sump, skimmer and both pumps. I was afraid that the Ampmaster 3000 would have been too much for my size tank. Maybe when I upgrade to a larger tank.

[Minh Nguyen]

Ninong,
How are your Ricordea yuma? I am sure they will recover well after the split.
How about some new pictures of your tank? I got a new Digital camera last week so I will post some new picture of my tank this evening.
Minh

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

Ninong,
How are your Ricordea yuma? I am sure they will recover well after the split.
How about some new pictures of your tank? I got a new Digital camera last week so I will post some new picture of my tank this evening.
Minh

Minh,

My Ricordea yuma do not look good, especially the larger of the two polyps. Here is a picture that was taken a day or two after the picture shown on Dec. 10th.




The picture below was taken yesterday and without a flash. There is a lot of reflection from the metal halide light fixture because this shot was taken from above with the pumps turned off.




The following picture was taken just an hour ago, with flash and with all of the lights on.



Neither polyp looks all that great but the lower polyp has a hole about 1" long where the mouth used to be. I am hoping that it is just dividing but I really don't know. This has been going on for at least a week now.


Here is another picture of my little baby ultra maxima taken from above. Notice all that nasty red turf algae that is starting to take over this rock, too.





I wish I knew how to use this camera, but I don't; however, here is a lousy picture of one of my two favorite frags. It looks purple like this under halides but under actinics it is a deep medium turquoise with purple tips.




This is a picture of the largest of the three frags that I salvaged from that Bali Acropora formosa colony. This is what it looks like under halides but under actinics it is a very deep greenish-turquoise with purple tips. It was supposed to be baby blue according to the original picture on the vendor's website. It's still nice, but the color is certainly different.




Here is the same frag looking straight down. The other picture was shot from the front of the tank.




It's very difficult for me to take any pictures with Primus. He is always getting in the way, especially if he sees me close to the tank. Comus is hiding just inside the entrance to the central cave, just to the right of the upside down Hermes or Aphrodite. Oh, guess what? I finally found a partial molt from Hermes or Aphrodite the other day. I was worried for a few hours until I finally spotted both of them at the same time.




Comus, my Orchid Dottyback, hides when I take pictures. Primus gets right in my face.




This is my other favorite frag, my blue Acropora tortuosa.




This is what my purple rimmed green Montipora capricornis that Zhenya gave me looks like under actinics.



Those are two separate frags that I mounted about an inch apart. They have just about completely filled in the space between them.


Here is another shot that I took late yesterday evening before the actinics went off. That's my little Holothurian sand cuke on the front glass.




My red nuisance algae problem is only getting worse. I will probably get a long spined urchin and see if that helps. I really don't want one so if anyone knows of any reasons why I should not get one, speak up.

I special ordered a pair of Australian Cirrhilabrus scottorum from The Marine Center in Dallas and they just came in a few days ago. http://www.themarinecenter.com/wrass...saustralia.htm They are scheduled to be shipped to me this Thursday for Friday delivery. I was torn between those and a pair of C. lineatus: http://www.themarinecenter.com/lineatus.htm The Australian Scott's are $249/pair, the Lineatus are $259 each. Randy told me he just received 20 Australian Scott's and a few Lineatus but he said they will probably be all gone, or almost all gone, before he even posts them to his website this weekend. I think I will put some white eggcrate on the top of the tank on the rear sides. I will have to cut it to go over the Sea-Swirls. Then I will probably add additional height to the black acrylic shields at the top and bottom of the tank. The only reason I want to add to the bottom shields is because I want to conceal more of the deep sand bed. I think I would rather if just the top 3/4" was visible. These shields are removable so I can always check to see what things look like whenever I'm curious.

[Poseidon]

Hey Ninong, all is looking good except that Turf Algae... I can't find it anywhere online either. Looks like a real PITA though. I like those Ricordea Mushrooms a LFS in my area has some and they want $30.00 per POLYP!!! I can't see spending that much cash on a Mushroom. But then the same LFS has some baby blue Zoo's that are VERY COOL, but at $50.00 per polyp??? The owner has a piece with 40 Polyps on it, he said he'll sell it to me for $2000.00!!!! YIKES!!!!

I'll keep looking for the Turf Algae, and see if I can find anything on the Long Spined Urchin, I was thinking of getting one of those myself, just cause they look cool!

[Ninong]

Mike,

My Ricordea florida pieces are doing great even though one piece is really in too much shade -- it gets only reflected light from the sand bed as it is fully under a ledge -- but my R. yuma is not doing well at all lately. It did fine for several weeks and the smaller of the two polyps even doubled in size but something went wrong a couple of weeks ago.

I might get a Diadema urchin, but only as a last resort. I'm concerned that my rock structure is not secure enough for one of those and I figure that sooner or later I will stick myself with it.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

...and I figure that sooner or later I will stick myself with it.

Keep your hands out of that tank,George, and you should be OK
Better him grazing that nasty stuff then you getting inside of tank and scrubbing it. I don't think it will dislodge your rocks at all...you just have to pay attention where he is if you need to get into the tank. The last pics are great,George.

PS. Did you ever posted a picture of the R.florida?What color is it? I gave away my big rock of green R.florida but two polyps gor left behind and are growing

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Keep your hands out of that tank,George, and you should be OK
Better him grazing that nasty stuff then you getting inside of tank and scrubbing it. I don't think it will dislodge your rocks at all...you just have to pay attention where he is if you need to get into the tank. The last pics are great,George.

PS. Did you ever posted a picture of the R.florida?What color is it? I gave away my big rock of green R.florida but two polyps gor left behind and are growing

Gene,

I have a few loose rocks in my tank and two of them have very important frags attached. I would hate to see them upside down on the sand bed one morning. I haven't checked my baby max in a couple of days but the last time I checked he still hadn't attached and I don't want to find him "rearranged" either. If I do get an urchin, it will be a small Diadema just to see if it eats the stuff. I wonder in there are any Tangs that would eat it?

Yes, I have posted pics of my Ricordea florida in this thread. There are a couple of closeups in this post: Pictures of Ninong's tank in progress.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Yes, I have posted pics of my Ricordea florida in this thread. There are a couple of closeups in this post: http://www.reefland.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=598

Thanks for refreshing my memory,George It's a very pretty Ricordea.

When you say blueberry,does it mean blue color? All I ever had was the green variety and still it was very pretty,blueberry must be amazing looking.

Tangs are quite picky if you ask me,George. I think if Primus is not touching it not many tangs will either I have three different tangs and they are mostly filamentous algae grazers.I see them going after it at the overflow and some other places where I have it growing. I can't even begin to guess what type of algae you have,for all you know it might just die out on its own but it is a big chance to take to let it grow uncontrolled,I think.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Thanks for refreshing my memory,George It's a very pretty Ricordea.

When you say blueberry,does it mean blue color? All I ever had was the green variety and still it was very pretty,blueberry must be amazing looking.

The vendor, Palmetto Reefs, called that color "Ultra Blueberry." I guess you could just call it dark blue if you want to.

Speaking of my rock structure, I just noticed that I accidentally rearranged both of my flat curved pieces of Kaelini the other day when I was fooling around with that red turf algae. Both pieces are about an inch closer to the front glass now and they touch each other over the entrance to the central cave. That's going to be tricky to rearrange because the large heavy pieces of Kaelini resting above the rear part of those two pieces are what keeps them from sliding right off the structure. I may have to consider getting things in a more stable arrangement.

[zhenya]

Hi George,

When you said you were fooling around with that red lagae,did you mean that you have tried removing it? If yes, how did it go?

Also, could you use something to tie those two pieces down to your rock support? I always liked those two flat pieces untill I saw that red algae on them If it was me...I'd just put them outside for a month to dry out and then scrape it clean with wirebrush I've done it to some of my large rocks during winter month...set them outside and freeze them for a spell(week or so),then soak them in seawater and scrub really well.Rinse and put back in the tank.I know that it was a dead rock after that treatment but it becomes live again in a few days to a week

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Hi George,

When you said you were fooling around with that red lagae,did you mean that you have tried removing it? If yes, how did it go?

Also, could you use something to tie those two pieces down to your rock support? I always liked those two flat pieces untill I saw that red algae on them If it was me...I'd just put them outside for a month to dry out and then scrape it clean with wirebrush I've done it to some of my large rocks during winter month...set them outside and freeze them for a spell(week or so),then soak them in seawater and scrub really well.Rinse and put back in the tank.I know that it was a dead rock after that treatment but it becomes live again in a few days to a week

Gene,

I meant that I was "fooling around" with it to see how it would react to brushing with a toothbrush (zilch) or scraping with a metal tool (nada). You have to scrape the surface of the rock away to make a dent in it. I didn't take any of the rock out of the tank because that would be a major chore. The red turf algae is on four major pieces: The two curved flat Kaelini pieces and the two long Kaelini pieces. Plus there are some small signs of it elsewhere. I might consider removing these rocks if that is my only alternative but if I do that then I would re-do my rock structure at the same time, which would be a major disruption. I don't believe removing a few rocks would have much long-term effect because I imagine that the spores are all over the tank by now. It was probably dormant inside my Kaelini rock from the very beginning because the only things that I have added to the tank are the three small Ricordea rocks and none of them show any signs of it.

I don't want to make any major changes until after my two new Australian Scott's Fairy Wrasses have settled in. They are due to arrive around noon Friday, so I have to get busy fixing the top of my tank between now and tomorrow night. Oh, and I can't tie those two pieces to my rock support structure because it is buried at least an inch under those heavy pieces of rock that are under the flat curved pieces. I have even considered removing the upright cast acrylic rods but that would be relatively easy on the left side of the tank but a lot harder on the right side because that side is tied into acrylic rods that go under the base support structure on that side. I had to re-check my original pictures in the early part of this thread to be sure about that. The uprights are not attached to the base supports at all, so they can come up without removing the base supports but that would still be a considerable disruption to the DSB. I would probably have to remove all of the coral frags and both clams to a separate holding tank for maybe 24 hours. I think the fish would be OK staying in the main tank. I have to think about that idea some more because if I do it, I might throw out ALL of the remaining Buna Spiney live rock in the tank. I don't like it. I would like to keep all of the Kaelini and Tonga Branch rock and then add some more Tonga Branch. But that sounds like too much work if you ask me, so I'll probably just hold off until I upgrade to a larger tank and then do it right from the beginning. There are so many things that I would do differently that I will have to make a list so that I don't forget any of them.

[madman19710]

im pretty sure i had the same algae i did everything i could to remove it no luck now the 2 rocks have a new home in my back yard this was only after it wiped out a whole colony of clove polyps very tuff stuff.

[PopeShawnPaul]

Dang, I remember back in the day when you were planning this tank Ninong. Glag to see you got the HQI metal halide lights. Nice Tank!