Have you tried an urchin? I've always had good success with them for controlling bubble algae. Emerald crabs never did much for me but a couple urchins kept a 50gal tank I had completely under control and without them it was bad.

Steve, I think the Diadema urchins are most likely to eat Valonia, but they grow way too huge way too fast to go in to my 90 (or the 20). I did add a Tuxedo urchin to my 90 to see if he would help at all, and I don't think he eats anything other than coralline. An urchin in my Zoa tank would be a disaster since nothing is glued down in there! :eek: Which urchin are you thinking of in particular?

Mindy the tank is looking sweet, I'm having a very similar problem in the zoa tank I just can't seem to get the pest algae under control.

Finally broke down and purchased a tiny convict and 1 spot rabbit fish (Which will be re homed shortly after my problem is fixed). I would recommend them (as they have been working wonders so far) but the tank might be a tad bit small. Have any of the emeralds irritated your zoas? I stopped buying them after I watched one mow on my expensive candy apple greens :eek:, the whole colony melted shortly after too.
Levi

I had a tuxedo and a short spine white/multicolored one (not sure of the name), both ate the bubble algae but the white one did eat way more but it also grew pretty big, pretty fast. I stated with both in my 50 and once the bubble algae was almost gone I gave away the bigger white one and the tuxedo was able to keep things under control. The tuxedo definitely worked for me as I didn't have anything else in the tank that ate algae but perhaps these things are hit or miss or it may depend on what other food sources are available as I didn't have much Coraline. I did however often move the urchins into places with lots of bubbles manually and usually the area would be clean the next day.

If everything is loose maybe the best solution would be to take out all the corals and clean everything manually, with such a small tank how hard could it be?

Levi, the Emeralds aren't bothering any of my Zoas so far. *fingers crossed* If they do, I can just move them to the 90.

Steve, time is the issue. I have been working out of province since February, and I am only home for about 30 hours every couple weeks (6 hour drive each way), and am usually pretty burned out when I get home. I just added the Phosban reactor and crabs a couple weeks ago, and I can see a difference already so I'm hoping it will take care of itself. So far, in that tank there is 1 Astraea snail, 2 Emerald crabs, and some Stomatellas. I plan to rip the tank apart at some point anyway since I don't like the rocks that are in there...but when? I have no idea!

Current fish are True Perc and Blue Assessor.

Ok, here's some pics... :o

Oct 2:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...i/Oct22010.jpg



Same as above today...I guess they aren't RPEs!
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov120107.jpg



Look at the closed polyps...what do you see? Grrr! I just rinsed them under the tap and put them back. Tough ole Zoas. :D
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov120106.jpg



Blue Steels and Darth Mauls:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov120105.jpg



Purple Death and Tubb's Blues:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...i/Nov12010.jpg



Blow Pops:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ct220104-1.jpg


???
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ct220106-1.jpg



The uhm...greenery... :o
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov120109.jpg



FTS from today...not impressive! :o I need to put different rock in there, and clean it up. I'm looking for some Tonga branch for it.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1201010.jpg

RIP Coral the True Perc. A victim of carpet surfing. She lived in various tanks of mine for over 3 years. She was my oldest fish, and made the trip to SK from BC with me. She can be seen above in the last picture I posted. :cry:

:sad:

nice zoas the rpe's i have look like your second pic as well ive only had them for 2 days so im curious like yourself if they are or not theyve been opening up really nice ,now only time will tell if they color up any different:) i only got 2 polyps though:)

sorry to here bout your clown Mindy....I know what its like to loose an old clown:sad:

Thanks Doug and Lance...I'm still upset about it. People wonder why I tend to have lots of corals and few fish. It really bothers me to lose a fish. :cry:

Your RPE's are green too? Hmmm...weird.

yeah its hard to tell because mine are very small polyps but they are nice color red on the ouside but they have a green almost " halo " in the middle then a very green slit:) unfortunately ive never seen any large colonies in person just some small frags but all the pics i see online indicate that mine are different slightly, and after seeing your photo it looks just like yours :) i assumed they were red people eaters because they were red and had the slit but who knows lol:) they are still very beautiful:)

I totally understand.
When I lose a coral it makes me mad: losing a fish is different. I lost a fish last month, (first one in nearly two years) and it's still bothering me.

I felt bad enough losing a few new additions for unknown reasons with the Solana. I figure my current gang is going to be around a long time and of course I'm already very attached. Sorry to hear Mindy.

That really sucks that your perc took the dive. The whole reason why I got into reefs was for my mated pair. If they suddenly took a dive, I would be at a complete lost.

Your zoas look amazing by the way. Is there a specific product that you are using to feed them?

Your zoas are looking good, sorry to hear about the clown, it really sucks loosing a fish especially one you've had for a long time :sad:

Hmm, very unfortunate to lose an original critter like that, too bad, especially to carpet surfing. I have a Maroon female that's one of two fish I first added to my tank. The other original was a Blue Devil Damsel which I lost to some cancerous growth on its tail. Believe it or not, I was sorry to see him gone. Something about the first fish or two you add to a system, you get quite attached. My Maroon is now regularly producing clutches of eggs with her little mate and I can't imagine my tank without them. Not that I don't care about any of the other finned friends, but mama Maroon will always be a little special.

Only fish I've lost to carpet surfing was a lawnmower Blenny and I have a feeling it's because Maroon would take a little run at him from time to time. She may have surprised him enough to make him jump I figure. A lone clown leaping out of a tank is unusual. I imagine you'll be looking for another?

I won't be looking for another clown for this tank since I already have clowns in my 90. I'm not sure what to add with the Blue Assessor.

Thanks for the comments on the Zoas. I don't feed the tank anything except fish food. I dose 0.75 mL Zeovit Coral Snow once per week.

Magicians:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1520102.jpg



Carribean blues:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov152010.jpg



Purple Death and Tubb's Blues doing well now they have settled:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1520103.jpg

Those Magicians are pretty cool.

I believe these are Radio Active Dragon Eyes.

Hehe, ya I put the ??? over the wrong picture. :redface: Thanks though!

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...v1920104-1.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...v1920103-1.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...v1920102-1.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...ov192010-1.jpg

would KILL for some of the blue ones in the first picture! remember to keep me in mind when your fragging next time!

wow those are beautiful zoas, where are you getting them from? i want them all :lol:

Most of my Zoas have come from Bayside Corals in Saskatoon, SK.

wow you have to hook me up with a bunch of frags when its warm lol shipping in the cold does not go well

I'm not really at the point of fragging. The tank isn't very old, so it needs time to grow.

On Christmas Day I decided it was time to rip the tank apart and redesign having never liked the rockscape to begin with. I had bought a nice rock a couple months ago to go in there which matched another rock I have in my rock vat. Now that the new rock is cured it was time to redecorate!

Old rock:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...June520102.jpg



New rock:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Dec262010.jpg



New rock with Zoas frags back in it:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Dec2620105.jpg

Looks great Mindy and Hope your Christmas was excellent and your New Year will be Outstanding.

+1 looks good it will look nice once the zoa's take over:) happy holliday:)

what are the ones called in the second picture with the orange fringe??? i want some of those lol

Thanks guys! Happy Holidays to all of you as well. :)

Those are Oxide Oranges.

I really like the new rockwork. I agree with the previous comments that it's going to look great when those zoa's grow.

wow! great tank! your zoas look great! any chance of some fish pics in the near future?!

Ryan, I have been trying to take a pics of the clowns, but they are skittish.

------------------------------
Wow, this journal is due for an update! Almost a year! :o

No good news for this tank though...it REALLY suffered in the last year with almost zero growth of the Zoas. I lost a bunch of Zoas...most of the blue ones are gone. The Darth Mauls gone, the African Blues gone, Magicians gone. Sooo sad... :(

The tank was rampant with Grape Caulerpa and Halimeda for many months. The heater died about 6 weeks ago which caused the tank temp to drop a couple degrees overnight which was enough to spur the Caulerpa into going sexual. I did a big waterchange and ripped out all the Caulerpa, but the Blue Assessor died. :(

Since then I rearranged the rock, and sorted out the surviving Zoas and Palys. Still have some nice stuff left. I have a SWC 120 cone skimmer waiting to be installed, and a little sump for it too that has to be finished up. I am going to drill the tank for a tiny Herbie overflow, but I am chicken because I can't find any info regarding if this tank is tempered or not. :eek: I am going to drill the back pane, and I see no reason for the front or back to be tempered, but I'm still chicken. Since Zoas are tough I'm going to drain the tank most of the way, and drill it like that. I can't just drain the overflow section because it leaks a bit about 5" up from the bottom so it won't hold the tank water out. Maybe next weekend...?

I am considering trying out the AI Sol on this tank. That won't happen until after Christmas though. I am interested to check out LEDs firsthand. Not on my 90 gallon reef though! :eek:

Here it is now...looks like it did when I set it up. :o There is a juvie pair of Clarkii clowns in the tank, but they are hiding from the camera. Wusses. They aren't permanent residents.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov102011.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1120113.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1120115.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...Nov1120116.jpg



EDIT: Ok, I got a pic of the Clarkii from the couch. :lol:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4.../Nov152011.jpg

To check if the glass you're wanting to drill is tempered, a pair of polarised sunglasses & a notebook computer (or any small LCD display screen such as a tablet, maybe even a cell phone screen) will usually do the trick. LCD screens on most of these devices are also polarised to help make them sunlight readable. Look through the glass at the LCD screen with the polarised sunglasses on and rotate the laptop. The laptop or other device you're using should have a white screen on it for this to work properly. Just open a blank page with Notepad or some other simple word processing program. As you rotate the LCD screen, if the glass is tempered you should either see a changing pattern or the screen on the other side get dimmer/brighter as you rotate it through at least 90 degrees. Hope this makes sense, if not a search will likely bring up something with a graphic example of what I'm talking about. Seen a few on other forums.

sorry to hear about the troubles Mindy......I dont know what it is about magicians/mauls/lunars/etc/etc palys......my track record with them sucks......Ive tried them in the light, half in the light, completely shaded, in some flow, out of the flow......lost dang near every one Ive tried.....I have some magicians now that I thought had completely melted but have now grown back to three heads....they are somewhat shaded and in some pretty good flow.......


polarized glasses work without a LCD screen too....you just need to know what to look for and have the proper lighting.....if the glass is tempered it will look rippled or checkered, like when you look through the side windows of your car....

Someone works with a polarimeter for a living :lol:, I'm +1 with Doug on this one Magicians and similar morphs have horrible track records in captivity. Makes me wonder if it's something in excess melting them or something they are lacking, funny thing's these zoas be that's for sure.

The Magicians are up for debate, those are tough to keep ime. The African Blues and the Darth Mauls were doing very good and were in my tank for 1 year and almost 2 years respectively. They grew very, very slowly though. The Grape Caulerpa took over, and smothered the Zoas which I think is the main reason for their demise. I need to get that darn sump put together, but jeez I have a lot on my plate right now!

That's a pretty fancy trick with the sunglasses! Hubby's sunglasses are polarized, but mine are not, and he won't be home for another 10 days or so. I don't think the tank is tempered...