The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[Sparkss]

We had a top off incident (forgot and left the top off running, filling the sump.. over night).. managed to drop the salinity to around 1.024.. uugghh.. I hope nothing gets too stressed in our tank from that.. I really need to get that darned ATO set up.. *sigh*.

Stressed as I am out various tank topics, I decided to go to a happier place.. and took some picts of corals at lunch time today. I am hoping to get some IDs for these next couple of corals, since I have no idea what they are (or even where most of them came from, most all info lost in the tank migration chaos and confusion)

So any IDs on these would be appreacited

#1. (it is a very vibrant red/purple with blue hues.. almost glows, hard to capture in a pict though)

#2. (forgive the pict on this one.. it is just hard to get a good shot.. I was hoping to go more off of the shape than the color.. as with most, it looks alot better in person)

#3. (even worse than the previous one, but even harder to get a good shot.. it is an olive colored base with light blue tips... again I am hoping that the shape will help people ID it)

#4. (it is much more purple in person)

 

[Sparkss]

#5. (Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank)

#6. (Just thick and hairy, although not quite "furry")

#7. (Not a great shot, it is furhter back and I cannot seem to get a good pict of it. Sort of some interesting highlight on it already though.. I am not really expecting to get an ID, not from this shot anyways)

 

[Sparkss]

Here are some that I don't need an ID for.. I just think they are neat so I wanted to post picts of them

Here is a cool granulosa (we just love the colors in this guy).

Here is a yuma baby that we scored in our travels over this past weekend

#5. (Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank)

And our idaho grape that is finally starting to recover and color back up (it had a hard time with the tank move)

(Not a great shot, mainly because it is at the back of the tank and also at an agle through the glass.. a really bad combination, but the best I could manage at the time )

 

[jnarowe]

Hey Tom, what is that on the left side of the last pic?

OK, the other last pic!

 

[Sparkss]

Here are some cloeups of the ones we got from Warren up in SacTown . This first one just seems to glow nuclear from inside.. I had to manual focus because the auto-fous could not lock onto the deep, rich colors

Some other kewl one from his collection :

and this one has gotten some interesting coloration to it.. I can't really place my finger on what color to call it, but like the others, I like the contrast between the base and the polyps and also the poly's shape. And the color in the picture us pretty accurate for the coral.. it is almost a dark slate blue color, with maybe a hint of red/purple to it, overall (not highlights or hues)

I wouldn't mind a general ID/Genus on these, since they all appear to be the same type of coral, just different color morphs. We have had them for going on 4 months now, 1 + month of that in our new tank, so I am not really expecting their colors to change drastically from here on out.. but who knows ? . The first one just seems to get a deeper and richer green every time I check on it

 

[Sparkss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9485018#post9485018 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Hey Tom, what is that on the left side of the last pic?

OK, the other last pic!

you mean pict #7 ? That is a gorgonian. Grows like a weed.. that is the photosynthetic gorg, aside from it's overall brown color it is pretty cool because it has large, intricate polyps that are like small feather dusters that it will grab food from the water column and pull it in.

 

[jnarowe]

nice. I totally want one of those. it does OK with your flow and light? And you don't feed it anything special? very cool.

 

[Sparkss]

nope.. nothing special at all.. and it is one tough bugger.. in our old tank it was too close to the hydnophora and would periodically get knocked over by a fish or what not and fall into the hydno (which is a particulaarly nasty LPS). That gorg lost anywhere from 2" - 5" off of each branch once every other month. Within a couple of days it would heal over and start growing again. Now that we have the room for good placement for it I wholly expect it to get quite large . I think we got it at an LFS for $15 or something.. they are typically not that expensive because, well, they are brown

 

[jnarowe]

I am gonna get one. Thanks for the input!

 

[Sparkss]

Just for you Jonathan

EDIT : Now the coral I am looking for is another pink jade.. to replace one that we lost to AEFWs last year grrrrrrr

 

[jnarowe]

It's awesome Tom.

 

[tacocat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9476547#post9476547 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sparkss
everyone
Why can't we get back to the happy topic of water change system options ? I really like the idea of a WC sump, like Hector pointed out... but don't have the room

A water change tank doesn't have to have traditional tank dimensions. It can be shaped like a drum or cylinder.

 

[Sparkss]

But no help on IDing the corals in the numbered picts ?

 

[jnarowe]

saw one of those gorgonians at the LFS today but it didn't look too hot. I told the owner that when he gets one in I would take it. He also had a nice crosshatch but a kept my wits about me and left it there!

 

[Sparkss]

crosshatch triggers are reef safe, at least that was my impression .

Well, we moved a few rocks around and the wife fragged a bunch of our zoas up and spread them around... so the area we opened up by moving the rockwork was quickly annexxed by the zoa garden

I will take some pictures tomorrow, after we pick up a few frags from Tim and a few zoas and a fish from Paul

 

[jnarowe]

You obviously haven't studied a crosshatch's mouth! :lol:

 

[Sparkss]

we scored a couple of fish and a bunch of corals.. both SPS and some real nice zoas. The fish were a gold angel, a magnificent rabbitfish and an orange shoulder tang. The angel came from a reef tank that was taken down the other 2 from an LFS. All 3 were and are eating.

We did some moderate aquascape changes Friday, prior to picking up the angel (we didn't know we would also be getting the other 2 this past weekend, only the Angel). We wanted to be done with major mucking about in the tank prior to inctroducing the timid little guy. After getting the frags we spent Saturday afternoon mounting the zoas (which were by and far the largest number of frags compared to the couple of SPS) on various plugs and loose rocks. These are now littering the sand bed to the front of the tank. This will change once we get the prop tank operational.. but for now that is where they will have to stay. I joked with my wife that it looked like a kids play room with toys scattered about the floor *sigh*. The SPS we got, although fewer in number, were all straight up winners. a bit shy of a dozen, almost all LEs. They are still recovering from their dip.. but do all have PE and color.. just not quite at their "show best".

Here is an FTS that you may be able to get an idea of the changes we made :

Again, try to ignore the scattered plugs on the front sandbed

Here is a shot of the right side :

the center :

 

[Sparkss]

and the left side :

and more of an angle to see the alcove on the left side of the tank :

 

[Bax]

Great! Hope the gold flake behaves

 

[Sparkss]

not a gold flake.. a golden angel. it is a pygmy angel, and this one comes from an established reef tank where it behaved for several years before the owner tore down the tank.

On a separate note, I want to get some top down shots of the tank to better show the aquascaping... there are tons of canyons, cave, nooks and crannies in the rockwork now (even more so than before) and the layout feels more open (aside from the zoas laying all around the front )