Update On My Corals

[Pazzoman]

Ok here are my corals so far:

Pic 1: Button Polyps
Pic 2: Some kind of polpys/zoas if anyone knows exact name will be appreciated.
Pic 3: Some kind of sponge (Orange Sponge..if not mistaken)
Pic 4: Some kind of polpys/zoas if anyone knows exact name will be appreciated.
Pic 5: Red Mushrooms

Few questions along with these pics lol

1: Can mushrooms sting other corals?

2. Can polpys/zoas be literally touching eachother and be fine?

3. Also this is random, but I've notice that my stored rodi water with salt and PH hired leaves a white/cream residue on the bottom of the tub (not salt) when stired immediately lifts up off the floor and makes the water pure cloudy white..normal?

4.Also thir is a very thin layer of greyness on the surface of my water any idea why?

5. Any other tips or recommendations will be greatly appreciated?

Thanks A Million

 

[Kevin8888]

Nice, Totally didn't see the thread... as generally I only look at threads asking for help on obscure topics haha (since i have obscure knowledge). Corals look good!

1: Yes, mushrooms can sting, but generally not a big problem unless they are on top of SPS/LPS (because those are more sensative), but that said, try to keep them away from other corals, like you should do with all corals any way, room to grow and all that.

2: zoas/polyps generally have no issues with eachother, even when different colour morphs and what not, its like nems, you can put 2 LT nems beside each other no problem, its when you put a LT with a carpet you mite encounter problems you know? That said I have seen Pallys and Zoas on the same rocks with no "overt conflict" but generally I have seen the pallys end up taking over the rock.

3: Not sure what that is....

4: Likely organic gunk... its why I like using an "overflow" to my sump, skims the gunky film off the top.

5: Your "unknow" polyps are likely (about 99% sure) Zoas of some type, as for specific names... hard to say, alot of the names are meaningless and only reffer to their colours not actualy verieties. I love your orange seafan sorta looking sponge!!! sponges are one of my fav "corals" bright colours, interesting/random shapes, and fragging them is no big deal, as they don't really care that you do haha (though only with big healthy ones, and done under water of course).

 

[Pazzoman]

Kevin thanks a million for the replies on both threads lol,

1. Thanks I feel more knowlegable about my mushrooms now lol. So now I don't have to worry if differnt mushrooms start crossing eachother.

2. Thanks for the clarification on that part as I always wondered on the "poly packs" of differnt polys/zoas on one rock.

3. I found out from my lfs that if you keep prepared saltwater longer then 4 days it build up fungi which when I placed it in my tank today the water was very very cloudy.

4. Guess my canister filter aint gonna help...so is my skimmer...sucks but in a few months I plan on removing everything out of the tank and put in an over flow (I dont really like the little box look for some reason)...then the sump.

5. Thanks for the complements of the sponge lol and further detail in to this polyps.

I guess your the "to go guy" for reefing/fraging help, when my water is in tip top shape I will be adding more corals however my nitrates went up a little more....dam canister filters.

Thanks again

 

[Kevin8888]

What you could try, to keep the top water looking cleaner, you could get a cup and "skim" the surface gently and really slowly in an attempt to scoop it off, yes it will be slow but mite help. Ya not a fan of canisters with salt tanks, I find they only work well when cleaned WAY to often haha, I've had to clean the filter floss/sponge daily for good results (by clean i mean rincing off the gunk and the like)... so was to much work most days so I abandoned them... but that was on a rather sensitive SPS reef so I wanted everything absolutely perfect. If you put some macros either in your tank or sump or in a fug (hang on or w/e), then you will likely have less problem with the nitrates, but could be wrong. That said you may already have some, in which case, maybe more light on them? or 24hrs light on them, to increase how much they can use up? Alot of people are surprized how much a few algeas can do for a tank in stabalizing the parms, though they need regualr thinning so they don't get shaded by them selves and start to die off haha.

 

[Pazzoman]

Yeah, will give the "skim" technique a shot with a brine shrimp net. Yeah the fx5 can be a pain to clean daily...or even every other day. Also maybe you can help me out with this question or refer to me to a site. I'm confuse on how a sump actually works. How does it catch large debris like fish food and fish waste? I guess thats when the filter sock come's in handy.

What really bothers me is the dimension of the stand of the tank...difficult to get a good size sump because it's shape as a bow front... pain the a** for lights and filtration devices.

Sorry for all these questions lol

 

[Kevin8888]

Essentially a sump is a place to put your equiptment and filtration. You allow water to flow directly from your tank via an overflow or a "siphon" pipe, I personally preffer the overflows as they clean the surface water, as well as they cannot flood if the pump fails (unless you set it up wrong) the problem with overflows is that unless its built into your tank, you would have to modify it to make it possible.

SO, once the water reaches the sump via w/e type of pipe is carrying it, you can do a few things, it can dump straight into the sump, it can pass through a filter sock (needs very regular cleaning), can go through an algea scrubber, can go over a wet/dry/carbon, or could just pour through a standard filter sponge. You see the versitility? You can make your sump filter how ever you like this way, also making cleaning the filter easier theoretically haha.

Generally people have either their skimmers submerged, or piped into the sump (depending on the style of skimmer), where the skimmer collects and skims a portion of the water that enters the sump, then returns it to a different part of the sump. Generally a good idea to have different sections in your sump closed off by barriers that only alow the water to flow one way via a water fall effect or something similar, you can find designs all over the internet.

At this point the water is generally returned to the tank, unless you have a calcium reactor or other "auto-doser", in which case these would dose this "clean" water before returning it to the tank.

 

[Pazzoman]

Thanks for the info as I've heard of some of the equipment you've mention but never searched it. Also do you use UV sterilizer? They have underwater one's where it just came out and one of my cousins has it in his sump...but I heard it was bad for corals. I get paranoid of ick even if I quarantine before adding fish.

 

[Kevin8888]

I have never used one in a reef, I have used one on QT tanks that had "questionable" fish in them, just to be safe, as well as in hospital tanks for fish with infections or ich or anything like that. They are counter productive for my reef systems as they kill the things I want, such as the live phytoplancton and zooplanctons that I put alot of effort into culturing and keeping alive out side of my displays haha.

 

[Pazzoman]

Lol thats interesting you grow your own coral foods? Probably if I get one it will only be running in a quarentine tank or if suddenly an ick out break occurs in my main tank, I could probably stop it from effecting other fish.

 

[Kevin8888]

Yes I do. It's a lot of effort, but saves money and improves the health of my fish and corals. I also grow macros to feed my herbavors.