new to the hobby, and new to the area.

[prestage3ek]

Hello everybody. My name is Nate. Im fairly new to the Bradenton area, only been living here for almost 2 years now. I moved here from San Francisco, CA. Im also new to the Aquarium hobby. In December I started up my first salt water project after a lot of time reasearching and being patient waiting for extra money to buy parts and stuff. So far after about 2 months now I have a pretty cool tank. All of my live stuff has been purchased from Marine Dreams in Bradenton. Laura and Jayme are awesome. All my parts, lights, etc. were purchased from Big Al's Online.

My tank is a 29gal. I picked up total about 25lbs of rock from MD, same goes for sand. I picked up a pair of tank raised clowns and a purple dottyback. Also have 2 kinds of Xenia and 2 colors of fire zoas, all from the big coral tank from MD. Here are some pictures from the beginning to now, hope you like.

First week

After Cycle

 

[prestage3ek]

 

[prestage3ek]

I realized after going through my photobucket account that I dont have any pics of the tank with the Zoos in it, ill take some soon and post those up too.

 

[sandman12]

This web site is the best thing you will ever find to help you be successful in this hobby. Looks like a good start, what lighyts are you running? Marine dream's seems to be a pretty good store. If your corals came from there big reef tank as you say I recommend you research flatwroms. Their reef tank is covered in them and you probably have them now too, buy some salifert flatworm exit and double the dose on your tank before they get out of hand like they did in my old tank (what a pain). Some one will give you a reefcentral welcome soon I'm sure but for now Welcome! And take your time!

 

[prestage3ek]

I bought a Coralife unit that has a 65w 10k bulb, actinic, and 2 lunar lights. I did find the worms that your talking about a while ago, I had a couple bristle worms too, I think I got rid of them all, I guess time will tell. The piece of rock that the Xenia was attached to I took out of my tank, I just ripped the xenia pieces off and placed them in the tank on the rock I had.

 

[sandman12]

Sounds good, there are more than likely more flatworms in the tank that you don't see. I would dose the flat worm exit before they get out of hand (aquarium architecture sell's it). You should check out some of the other LFS in the area as well, aquarium architecture and coral connection are both high on my list

 

[prestage3ek]

where is aquarium architecture? never heard of it, only places I have heard of are Coral Connection, Seascape, and KDs reef.

 

[a2fire2i]

Check out this post..

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1016931

 

[stevemc]

I just opened a couple weeks ago, and it is nice!

 

[cfmx]

I like your rock structure. Like everyone says take your time.
I had a problem w/ flatworms and let me tell you they can grow in numbers quick. I was lucky enough they where in my 12 gallon nano so I purchased Orchid Dottyback (which I don't think you can add because the the other dottybacks you have) and a 6 Line Wrasse. Needless to say my flatworms are no longer after 2 months. They will also eat small bristle worms.
My husband and & went to aquarium architecture on Saturday and the owners are great very knowledgeable with a beautiful coral and fish. They spent a lot of time helping us w/ questions. If you haven't gone I would suggest taking a look around. I believe they are closed on Mon & Tues but don't quote me on that.

 

[stevemc]

I meant IT just opened! Not I just opened!

 

[prestage3ek]

I stopped by AA today (not to be confused with another type of AA) the guy Chirs was very helpful, I was there for probably like 30 min or so, I ended up getting a Candy Cane coral piece he had, it looks awesome. I talked to Chris about a possible flatworm problem, he said he didnt want me to get any flatworm exit right now, thats its best to not dose if you dont have to. So far to be honest I havent seen any, I took the xenia pieces from the original piece they were on and got rid of the rock. Im gonna keep my eye on it, hopefully it wont become a problem. Also........ I was reading on DrF&S about caring for Candy Cane coral and it says it also likes the addition of micro-plankton? can someone recommend what to use for this?

 

[prestage3ek]

took some pictures this morning.

 

[prestage3ek]

 

[prestage3ek]

got the chance to take some pics this evening, hope you enjoy

 

[sandman12]

Sweet looking pieces! I wouldn't dose the phyto, cost too much. I dose phyto that I one at the MD meeting but when that run's out I'll only dose frozen cyclopeeze. All coral eat it, I believe it had alot to do with the success in my old 135g.

 

[prestage3ek]

So it seems it has been some time since I posted in my own thread, so I thought id take some pics and do a little update.
I recently picked up a Banggai Cardinal from Marine Dreams, he has been doing well. Also some of my Xenia pieces are moving around to other rocks, its cool to see their progress, everyday you can tell they have moved a little bit. Also picked up a Hydor FLO rotating deflector and hooked it up to my mj1200. I like the way my tank is now, before I just had the 1200 going in 1 direction, now the clowns seem to be moving to other parts of the tank instead of staying in the back left corner, I think it has to do with the fact that the water isnt being blown constantly towards them anymore. Anyways here are some pics.

Also I was wondering if anybody could help me out identify what this is. It been growing from my one rock rapidly over the last month or so, I didnt really notice it when I had the rock originally but its been getting bigger and bigger here lately. As you will see its purple and has branches and its kinda hard but you can touch it and it moves around. Any ideas?

This was it about a month ago
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/allmoterstage3/Picture1001.jpg
And this is it now

I dont have a camera that takes good upclose pictures so I know its kinda blury. Any input is appreciated though.

 

[sandman12]

Looking good.

 

[Agu]

Post the pic in the algae forum . My guess would be a variety of dictyota. Here's a closeup of a green variety. The flat growth and distinctive leaf structure look similar in your blurry pic.

http://www.algaebase.org/image_full.lasso?img_id=34186


If it is dictyota you want that rock out of the tank ASAP. It's highly invasive and thrives in a clean water environment. Attempts at manual removal only allow the algae to spread.

 

[prestage3ek]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9469575#post9469575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Agu
Post the pic in the algae forum . My guess would be a variety of dictyota. Here's a closeup of a green variety. The flat growth and distinctive leaf structure look similar in your blurry pic.

http://www.algaebase.org/image_full.lasso?img_id=34186


If it is dictyota you want that rock out of the tank ASAP. It's highly invasive and thrives in a clean water environment. Attempts at manual removal only allow the algae to spread.

I dont think its that, it looks too nice to be something like that, hopefully I can try to get a better picture tomorrow.