Previously Going, Now Went Marine

[SkiFletch]

Taxonomically it's usually Zoanthids and Palythoa that are mixed up. Hard to definitively tell between the two sometimes. Zoanthids tend to be smaller while palythoa tend to be larger. I'd GUESS you've got zoanthids there

 

[ben1987]

Are those powerheads on? water looks very still to me. Need some surface adjitation to get some oxygen in there!

nice coral btw

 

[Straydum]

thanks guys yes they are on though the waves are only at the back of the tank so its not really visible. tomorrow's the long awaited trip to the farm where all the livestock is at before export and all. pictures soon!

 

[Straydum]

picked up another few pieces of rock, two clowns, one firefish, one yellow watchman goby, two colonies of zoos/polyps and a hammer coral. everything went in awhile ago and the goby and firefish are hiding somewhere. here are some pictures

 

[Straydum]

bad news. one of the new clown doesn't seem well. its the smaller of the two and its currently at the front corner of the tank swmming as though trying to keep itself up straight

 

[kj23502]

How's your water parameters since adding the new rock?

Sorry to hear about your clown

 

[Straydum]

the little clown is gone. stuck onto the filter cover this morning the bigger one looks okay but not promising.

water stats this morning are as follows,

nitrate: ~20ppm
nitrite 0.00ppm
alkalinity (kh): between 180 and 300ppm
pH: 8.4
ammonia: 0.00ppm
sg: 1.026

the firefish looks good. swimming around and all (though not eating and instead spitting out live brine shrimp). the remaining clown also ignores the live brine shrimp. only the goby (which somehow has a busted lower lip) and the cleaner shrimp is eating like crazy

 

[kj23502]

man, you're having a rough go at this. sorry man

 

[SkiFletch]

Ouch, sorry about the clown. Mysterious deaths are all too common even when the best of precautions are followed. Any other symptoms other than the troubled swimming?

 

[Straydum]

thanks guys. nope there wasn't anything else. i scanned the body for white spot and all but it looked healthy the larger clown is always swimming as though fighting a current and still not eating. i was hoping it would host the hammer coral or the bubble coral but no luck yet. should i get another clown in there to make it two?

on a brighter side, everyone else is eating. the firefish and yellow tail damsel are taking live brine shrimp. the watchman goby and cleaner shrimp, like always is eating whenever food comes by

i'd post pictures soon!

EDIT: pictures,

anyone knows what's this pink coral?

yes that is a bag of cheato there around the water output unless i find it a better place

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks good Straydum. Watch out for that hammer coral. Showing it's skeleton is never a good thing like that...

Out of curiosity, have you verified your salinity measuring device?

 

[Straydum]

thanks! is the hammer supposed to be totally covered until the bottom? or do you mean the sides?

i'm using a hydrometer which seems to be pretty consistent with the readings. just a question ski, my mushroom and the orange polyps seem to be touching each other the one of the sides, the polyps there are almost white and aren't opening. is it something to do with the mushroom? (as seen in picture four, the top mushroom area)

 

[SkiFletch]

With the hammer, I mean the part that sticks out towards the viewer in the center. Its showing almost like the "teeth" of the skeleton, or the skeletal ridges. That's not a great sign. Not much you can do but give it good water quality and cross your fingers though.

As for the polyps, you've probably got a little coral warfare going on there. Often times Zoanthids and mushrooms work to a stalemate, but sometimes the mushrooms win...

Thats the thing with hydrometers, they "seem" like they're working until you wake up one day and your corals are all closed up because the hydrometer has drifted on you. Check out the realm of knowledge sticky, and on page two I've linked to a DIY verification solution. I highly reccomend using it.

 

[Straydum]

the hammer looks better at the moment, the teeth can hardly be seen and all the other sides are overflowing with the coral heads but i will still keep a look out for it. the mushroom would probably switch places with the pink coral there and hopefully the orange polyps gets better. thanks ski

the Reef Aquarium Salinity: Homemade Calibration Standards article is going to take quite awhile to finish

 

[Straydum]

the zoo colonies aren't doing well (not all of them). there's this one particular frag that seems to be 75% closed and withering away. to make things worst almost all my colonies (3 out of 4) have been spotted with nudibranches on them. i did a freshwater dip and it got rid of a couple of them (including a shrimp like pod). anyone has any other methods?