Isn't that a lot more work?

[Dustin07]

so after we fought off that algae bloom back in April I feel like things had started growing a little slower in the tank. Of course I did cut my lighting down by 1-2 hours on both sides of the spectrum (morning and night), but I think perhaps my feeding had become less frequent as well. I think I was also under feeding. I have used benepets which suggested 1/4tspn but after doing some research I realized I should likely be doing at least a 1/2 tspn.

so lately I've been feeding benepets, at least 2x per week. 1/2tspn.
I mix it with frozen worms/misys for the fish and let the whole thing soak in a little selco and tank water until it's fully thawed and mixed. Then I just broadcast it to the tank instead of spot feeding like I used to. Everyone gets to eat at the same time, and it's very nutrient rich.

I feel like my whole tank is responding great to this approach. The downside, my benepets are nearly gone. So today I ordered some reef roids on amazon because they seem to be a major online crowd favorite despite my all my LFS's having no idea what they are.

I'm excited to see what comes of this. would love to start seeing good growth from my zoas again, I feel like they all slowed down a bit there in May.

 

[Dustin07]

My new guy seems to be doing well:

Volunteer blowpops

And... My new food arrived. Haven't tried reef roids yet so we will see. I've heard it can spike Ph so I'll watch that and maybe be aggressive on water changes...?

 

[Reefing102]

Haven’t heard of them spiking PH but spiking PO4. I personally never had issues with it though I broadcast fed not spot fed them

 

[Dustin07]

I believe I have a bunch of vermetid snails. I've been watching them up and trying to figure out what they were because at first they reminded me of small feather dusters. The reason they caught my eye is a local facebook group had a post about them and all the comments were really negative, like this infestation was going to destroy his tank.

But I did a little more research and landed on this post:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=982985

where nobody seems concerned...

 

[Reefing102]

Much the current view is they are negative. The primary reason is they don’t look good due to how invasive they can be. Second is because they send out “webs” to collect food which people believe irritates coral.

I’ve found they are generally harmless. Can be a bit annoying to the eye and create sharp points when grabbing rock but no major issues.

 

[griss]

I had some in my tank and let them go until some of them started irritating my Acros. Those that were doing do got their tubes sealed shut with super glue gel. Those that weren't close enough to irritate my Acros were left alone.

As Shane said, they're more of an eyesore (IMO) and are pretty sharp when moving rock.

 

[Dustin07]

Much the current view is they are negative. The primary reason is they don’t look good due to how invasive they can be. Second is because they send out “webs” to collect food which people believe irritates coral.

I’ve found they are generally harmless. Can be a bit annoying to the eye and create sharp points when grabbing rock but no major issues.

I had some in my tank and let them go until some of them started irritating my Acros. Those that were doing do got their tubes sealed shut with super glue gel. Those that weren't close enough to irritate my Acros were left alone.

As Shane said, they're more of an eyesore (IMO) and are pretty sharp when moving rock.

good to know then, I won't stress over it but maybe I'll remove or seal a couple of them from time to time when I'm doing normal tank work anyways. My feeding frequency is up so I find myself cleaning the tank closer to daily these days anyways.

How do they respond to a dip? Such as in revive?

 

[Dustin07]

Found an awesome deal on some torches today!!!

They have only been in my tank for about a half hour so aren't fully opened yet.

Grabbed two new pieces of dry rock and a red zoa to add to my garden as well.

Having learned from my mistakes, everything is glued down....

 

[Dustin07]

The red guys in back are my new ones. I think I'll split the colony in half. I wanted a little more color mixed in on zoa Mountain

 

[Dustin07]

 

[Reefing102]

Looking really great!

 

[Dustin07]

 

[Dustin07]

Looking really great!

Thanks! It's feeling a lot more pulled together. There are so many more nooks and crannies and interesting things going on now. In person, things feel a little more balanced and really interesting.

 

[griss]

Wow!

 

[T Diddy]

Very cool. I never got into zoanthids in the past. I decided to add some to my current tank, and I think I might just get some more. There are only two types in there at the moment.

 

[griss]

Very cool. I never got into zoanthids in the past. I decided to add some to my current tank, and I think I might just get some more. There are only two types in there at the moment.

I never really got into zoas until fairly recently. I think when the zoa craze took off years ago and people started naming them fancy names and charging and arm and a leg for them turned me off. I've since softened my stance and have 4-5 species of zoas in my tank currently. Once the upgrade is done, I plan to have a little bommie of zoas somewhere in the tank.

 

[T Diddy]

I was the same way, and still am to a large degree. It’s undeniable, though…zoanthids are beautiful space fillers, and zoa gardens are even cooler

 

[Dustin07]

beautiful space fillers, and zoa gardens are even cooler

I think that's a lot of it, and they are typically a cheaper entry level coral, it's what is see most commonly in the $9.99 tanks around here. Although it's always more like $30+ at say a petco. As my tank builds I'm becoming more aware of textures, perspectives, etc and the zoas make a nice bottom carpet in a lot of areas under taller stuff like the kenya trees. lower maintenance / risk than a nem, typically.

The past few months I've been telling my wife I wanted emphasis on adding more green, and I wanted more "flowy" corals so that's why the torches and hammer have been important to me to give the whole scene more "life".

I am hoping that the one large rock on the left becomes a full on zoa garden though.

The pink playboys and the utter chaos grow very very fast for me. so I'm sorta watching where they are while other colors fill in too. I've seen some AWESOME zoa gardens.

 

[Dustin07]

We have a hot spell right now like many people. I got home today and one of my new torches looked horrible, completely withdrawn the way my last one did in his last few hours before totally melting. I checked water temp and it was high 80s

I'm not sure what options I really have so I added ice and he's opening back up now. Rest of the tank looks fine and the forecast is for cooling temps....

I know he doesn't LOOK better in this pic but it's a lot better.

 

[Dustin07]

I also pruned our Kenya trees a bit as they were getting huge but can't get the clippings to stay in the glue on the frags. They look healthy and opened up in my nano AIO tank but I may have to resort to just using a bunch of crushed rock on the floor and letting them decide where to hitch ? Idk how they get free from glue...