Lily's first reef! - updated

*Very* interesting discussion of the zoa predation. My zoas look like crap, and now I'm wondering if I too have a problem with pestilence.

Looks like I'll be doing a late night or two with the flashlight.

April your tank looks lovely BTW!
Thanks so much. Seriously, i love getting feedback from those reefers more experienced than i am, as well as new hobbiests, and if i actually help somebody, that's even more awesome. :)
You should see the difference in continuing my comparisons above. It's astounding. I'll post the latest pic of those same polyps above, maybe sometime Monday.
And no lie these things are the most insidious predators i've ever seen in my life. I've seen films of tigers pouncing on their prey and it wasn't as dark as these bastard spiders. :lmao:
All totaled i caught 52. 52 folks. And i caught every damn one of them. None got away.
*eye twitch*

Glad your finally rid of those nasty spiders. The tank looks great!
Thanks for the feedback, sometimes i wonder if i'm doing ANY thing right and am critical of myself. So it's good to have a non-biased eye who doesn't look at it every 15 minutes :)

Just wanted to say hi!!!! Lookin good!!!! :wave:
Dude! How are ya? *waves back atcha*

Awesome video. I was there a month ago but
didn't go all the way to the ocean.
Thanks for sharing.
You bet, thanks. :)
Wasn't Hawaii awesome? I wanted to stay longer.
 
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New pics showing new growth, and new yellow, blue and red zoas, and rainbow paly :)
1yellowbluered.jpg


The Rose nebulas are going bananas with the growth and are going to someday take over the world :lmao:
rosenebulas1126.jpg
 
wowo - I like those rose nebulas and glad to see how healthy everything is looking. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you got all those pesky spiders
 
sister, Jesse, Lynn and Psteeleb,Ralph thanks! I actually caught one last big poppa spider and found another couple spider egg sacs in the area i found him in. And i went to town in them like ninja warrior. More on that later.

Lynn, i bought six or seven new zoas and palys from Vivid. *squee*
When i figure out how to take a decent photo, i'll post pics of each new one here.

Someone asked me about this light acclimation we do when we get new corals or when we change out old bulbs for new ones. so i thought i'd just video it for him and then i figured i might as well post it here too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OhR5oWRhE0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
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lol, so Doug just taught me how to crop the photos i took, so people can see them closer up.
i've been using this program for resizing my photos.......and i became aware that i've been doing it wrong for years. lol.

On that note, here are (so-so but closer) pics of the new zoas i got from Vivid Aquariums a couple weeks ago :)

this photo is without flash-the tubbs blues zoas and the purple ringed zoas i already had (also from vivid) but the new one is the blue and green bullseye paly by itself
this photo is with flash
bluezoas.jpg


this photo is without flash
bluezoasflash.jpg


Here's a pink paly with fluorescent yellow skirt and yellow mouth. 'pink mojito' on the site. It's Hard for me to get a good one of it's fluorescence
pinkmojito.jpg


These were called on the site Blue devils palys, King midas zoas, rainbow paly they all seem very healthy
kingmidasbluedevilsrainbow.jpg


The ones on the left are new, they were listed as 5 eagle eye zoas with 1 Fruit loop zoa.
These are the most fluorescent corals i've ever seen in my life. The five are fluorescent orange and blue faces with green day glo skirts. And the other single 'fruit loop' zoa has the reverse; fluorescent green and blue face with fluorescent orange skirts.
The ones on the right 'raptor's rainbows' are the palys that had gotten pulverized the most by the spiders, they've compltely recovered their skirts and color, and have grown from two polyps to nine!
:-0
fruitloopeagleeyesraptorrainbows.jpg


Here's the metallic red palys on the branch and the green and yellow zoas that were almost completely eaten, they are totally recovered and have grown from 9 to 19 polyps and the yellow ones went from having only one left, to 18.
redpalysbranch.jpg


Here is the new green with purple rim monti cap frag
lengsyemonticap.jpg
 
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1. Changed out the aging 14k hqi bulb.
Purchased and installed a Phoenix 14k hqi as a replacement.
My corals started exhibiting light shock. The green torch, purple frogspawn, trachyphylia, acans, zoas and palys.
Including the zoas that came back after the spiders.
*sigh*
Oddly, the ricordea is loving the light because they're growing like they're on steroids.
Anyhow Doug made a screen for the top of the tank with trim all around and it sits perfectly on top.
This screen is the only things that stopped the continual bleaching.
Now my corals are bouncing back
from the light shock. Unfortunately i lost two small zoa colonies.
The new 14k light is also bluer than the previous 14k.

2. I have a question i hope someone can help me with. These sparkly pink palythoa are going bananas. It's great that they are, with the exception that they're now starting to grow into and on top of my lobo, taking over the rocks that three other types of zoas and palys reside. And now they are nearing the trachyphylia.
So my question is, will me trachy be alright when the palys eventually touch it?
Or should i think about trimming the palys back away from my trachyphyllia?
 
nice additions

if you are concerned you may want to trim those paly's back
but from my limited experiance in general an Lps will not be taken over by a zoa or paly. I say limited as I can't attest to how an open brain will deal with palys but of the LPS I have they have always won the space battle over zoas and paly's
 
Thanks! :)
Yes, they don't bother any of the other lps. i'm glad to hear they won't overgrow lps in general.
These rose nebulas are the craziest things, lol. The big pink panther colony is being encroached upon and have dwindled to around 50 polyps, meanwhile they nebulas are almost touching the gb packers and dm paly colonies.
lol. I'm glad i have the rest of the zoa and paly colonies on the sand bed and away from those koo koo nebs.
 
totally awesome! thanks for the update! Your taste in zoas and palys are exactly like mine! I have some of those eagle eyes and they grow quite fast! they are covering half my rock in just 8 months! I got them as a tiny frag just like you!!

I've got to say you are so lucky you have a decent LFS!!! I have been searching and searching for new zoas or palys and I've got nothing! I'll probably have to order online if the 2 upcoming frag swaps don't turn out well!
 
Thanks Lynne!
We do like the same zoas :)
Most (not all) of the zoas i got from Vivid Aquariums. I knew when i ordered some online i would get some from Vivid. I have two kinds from liveaquaria dd, and two bought local. I don't buy them for the 'names' but i bought them for their certain colors. :)

Vivid Aquariums
Sour Apple paly
Pink Mojito paly
Rose nebulas paly
Fruit Loops zoas
eagle eyes zoas (newest)
King Midas gold zoas
Tubbs blues zoas
PPE paly
SunnyDs paly
Raptor rainbow paly
original Rainbow paly
Magician paly
Candy apple Red palys
Blue Devil palys

I got these at my lfs
ring of fire zoas
green bay zoas
pink panther palys

I got these from Live Aquaria
KOs nightmare paly
Darth maul paly
Asterina pink zoas
 
Looking very very impressive now abril, great Job there girl it is becomming a quality system already, can't wait to see it in a few more months.

Mike
 
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