Copingsaw's 15G ADA TBS

[Copingsaw]

I've been having trouble keeping zoa's and acan's in this tank. There are certain parts of the tank that seem "safe" and others where they will get destroyed when the lights go out. I am fairly certain my problem is a pest and not water parameters or anything else. I can literally move a thriving zoa colony to a certain part of the tank and the next morning several heads are shredded. I then move it back and it does fine again.

I've got several potential suspects: Whelk snails, gorilla crabs, red mithrax crab and pistol shrimp. Anybody have any guesses? I'm working on ridding the tank of the two that are considered pests: the whelk snails and gorilla crabs.

New photo's:

Full tank Shot 12/31/10. My flower anemone has moved into the upper left corner of the tank under the return from the filter. He has turned a really nice shade of dark green. Unfortunately, it's hard to see from his current position.

Green ricordea and orange skirt zoa's. The rics are winning the battle for this rock and have been slowly pushing the zoa's out.

King Midas zoa's. These guys look fantastic under actinics.

Not sure what this zoa is called. Can anybody id it?

 

[Copingsaw]

I've been keeping a running account of the tank on the Houston MARSH web forum but have been neglecting to update this entry.

Aside from the addition of twelve maxi mini anemone's and several new zoa frags, the tank has changed little since my last post. Overall, I have been very happy with this tank as I believe I have been able to accomplish my goal of keeping it simple.

After over a year, I am facing my biggest challenge yet: red slime algae. I'm suspecting the sand bed is becoming my enemy. I probably should stir and vacuum it but I don't, mostly because it is covered with random corals and frags. While I have had no problems with green algea, it's been a few months now that I have been battling the red algae and it's starting to get old. The problem isn't bad but I haven't been able to conquer it. My strategy has been chemi pure elite, a reduced light cycle and reduced feedings. It has helped but not solved the problem. I've tested for phospates and the reading is fairly low but, from what I've read, the tests can be wildly inaccurate.

Some new pictures:

Full tank shot:

I've been stocking up on Maxi Mini anemone's and now have 12 of them in the tank:

Another angle of the Maxi garden:

 

[Johanv]

Any updates? what happened to your flower anemone?

 

[Copingsaw]

The tank was torn down last week and all contents transferred to my new 80-gallon rimless. I do not have a thread on ReefCentral for the new tank.

The tank surpassed my expectations and was on cruise control the last few months. With a new baby and a new tank, time has been limited and I even bumped the water changes to every 2-3 weeks to no apparent detriment. The red slime cleared up and all the inhabitants were doing great. The flower anemone is alive and well in my new tank. I hated to see the tank go but I know from past experience that maintaining more than one tank can often wear you out.

Here is a farewell FTS: