sorry for not getting an update up here sooner, but ive been incredibly sick with some bad food poisoning for the last week and a bit...so i havent had the energy to do it.lol.
New FTS
well i recently added a small CUC. a few hermits, 5 small nassirius, 3 cerith, 3 small astrea, 1 trochus. i also bought a very small fighting conch and will be feeding it some seaweed and see if it wants to try some pellets or other bits and pieces.
everything is doing good. im getting a small amount of green algae, but the CUC is taking care of it. the water parameters are great.
i also recently added a couple of small frags. first off i got a small (3cm or so) piece of LR with some nice zoas on it, i also got a piece of live rock (around 3-4") with a few polyps of 2 or 3 types of zoas. i also got a small rock with a blue mushroom on it. i got the frags from a local reefer who i have always admired the tanks of. he gave me a great deal (also picked up some chaeto from him). when i went to put the mushroom in the tank i discovered 2 really small red mushrooms on the same piece of LR.
fast forward to today and i was at the LFS. i saw some nice stuff but wanted 1 other type of mushroom to keep to satiated for a while. i eventually found a piece of rock with 3 really nice browish coloured shrooms with bright green stripes. i asked about the price and it was 20$...which is cheap at this place. so i got them.
well i got them home, acclimated them...and went to put them into the tank...as i turned over the rock to inspect it (as i was giving it a quick scrub) i found what i thought to be another mushroom. as i was looking at it...IT MOVED! "WTF?"...it was one of these things ive seen in another persons tank... a really flat slug/snail thing with a small shell...only the shell on this thing looked almost like an opal, and the meat on it was white. i later searched and found the name, stomatella! this thing is hilarious. works up a storm as well. i put the mushrooms into the tank and another "wtf?" they have completely changed colour! now they are full irridescent green with a purply background...?!?!?
new shrooms are on the bottom rock. blue mushroom on top.
after the shroom rock was in the tank for a bit i noticed some life popping up. about 5 more tube worms!
anyways...on the top piece of my aquascape i was having this vegetation going absolutely crazy. i got a couple of members of the CUC to try to deal with it, not expecting anything at all...but giving it a shot. well it seems to be working! they've cleared off a couple of decent sized patches so far. the main critters that seem to be doing the most on the vegetation are 1 of the ceriths, some of the hermits, and a few of the nassirius.
the fighting conch is also a hoot. there is plenty for it to eat right now, but i found him scaled one of the sloped pieces of liverock, picking away at things all the way up. i thought they were supposed to stay on the sand level?lol