34G SPS Solana

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Tuxedo urchin - may not be spotless clean but at least they munch coraline so might be better than nothing and you don't have to do any of the work...

What about the anemone though? Would the urchin stay away?

Once the anemone expands, it takes up much of that sandy area you see on the right.

[Delphinus]

I have a blue tuxedo in with my 2 - no issues with the anemone. Now, dressing itself with zoanthid frags or GSP - that's a different issue. Actually, right now, the only GSP I have left is what grows on the blue tuxedo. It's been wearing the GSP for 2 months solid and I swear it's just growing on him (they're all out and everything). I don't have the heart to pull the stuff off him since it seems to be a rather symbiotic relationship..

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I have a blue tuxedo in with my 2 - no issues with the anemone. Now, dressing itself with zoanthid frags or GSP - that's a different issue. Actually, right now, the only GSP I have left is what grows on the blue tuxedo. It's been wearing the GSP for 2 months solid and I swear it's just growing on him (they're all out and everything). I don't have the heart to pull the stuff off him since it seems to be a rather symbiotic relationship..

I think I will stay away from the urchin because whenever I see them, they are always covered in corals. I would prefer just to figure out a way to do it by hand than have an urchin pulling up all my zoanthids.

I really wish I had put a black acrylic sheet over it when the tank was empty like some other Solana owners have done. I could try now but it would be kind of hard and I couldn't glue it down.

[Delphinus]

Hahah, yeah, I hear ya. Although, FWIW, it bears mention that there is a simple solution, and that's glue stuff down that you don't want relocated on you. I find with zoanthids and zoanthid frag in particular that are always glued onto the most ridiculous of small rubble (my personal favourite is snail shells ... if you ask me, it's not just drinking and driving: friends don't let friends glue frags onto dead snails!!!!), if it's not an urchin that picks them up, something else will in the dead of night and one day you'll be wondering "Hey didn't I have some zoanthid frags there? Aw man."

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hahah, yeah, I hear ya. Although, FWIW, it bears mention that there is a simple solution, and that's glue stuff down that you don't want relocated on you. I find with zoanthids and zoanthid frag in particular that are always glued onto the most ridiculous of small rubble (my personal favourite is snail shells ... if you ask me, it's not just drinking and driving: friends don't let friends glue frags onto dead snails!!!!), if it's not an urchin that picks them up, something else will in the dead of night and one day you'll be wondering "Hey didn't I have some zoanthid frags there? Aw man."

Yeah that's a good point. Most of my zoas are actually growing on large rocks now. I thought maybe the urchin could actually rip chunks of zoas off of the rocks. Is this not the case?

Do they bother SPS? I have (as you can see) quite a bit of SPS relatively close together on top of that island and I wonder how gently the urchin can move around them? I just don't want to put something in the tank that I regret...I seem to do that with every tank but so far I haven't with this one. I have been very careful about what goes into this tank. Especially since its so small.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I finally figured out how to adjust the whitebalance in photoshop with RAW files and I think my pictures are finally getting a more accurate color to them. I had been trying to figure out how to get all the blue out of the photos (that isn't seen in real life) for months and I never realized its as easy as using an eye dropper in the whitebalance editor in photoshop to select something white (sand) and it will adjust everything else accordingly.

Here are some shots after whitebalance adjustment. I tried to get some top down shots but it was impossible so this is as close as I could get. They get a tiny bit distorted because of the angle I shot from but still kind of cool.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Not feeling so great tonight, so home taking camera phone pics. Not the best quality but decent. They uploaded kind of small too.

I found some Zoa eating Nudibranches the other day. Got the few I saw out and haven't found many yet but I am sure they are there, so I picked up a Sixline wrasse hoping he may eat them. As soon as he acclimated, I blew the zoas off and one nudibranch came off...he ate it right away! I found one more after that and he ended up eating it too. So far all my zoas look fine and are growing still. Pretty easy to tell when the nudi's are on them since they close up.

Anyways, the wrasse (hes tiny):



Some random shots:



This is my favorite coral. Just so tiny still!



Picked up 3 small Tuxedo Urchins for some of the hair algae I have and to hopefully keep the back wall a little cleaner. I hope they eat coraline!