250 Gallon Starphire tank

littlesilvermax · #1 11-07-2006, 04:24 PM

Important Notice!!!!!!!!

This winter when I redo my flow patterns in my tank I am thinking about getting rid of many zoos. Anybody want to buy all my starboard off of me? It would include about 4 square feet of zoos!!!!

Obviously I cannot just sell little bits at a time. I need to know if I should order new starboard to replace the old stuff.

If somebody is just starting up a tank and wants an instant easy to care for zoo bottom this may be you ticket!

Zoos are almost indestructible.

Farrmanchu · #2 11-07-2006, 05:32 PM

You know I'm in for some of that if the price is right.

littlesilvermax · #3 11-07-2006, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farrmanchu

You know I'm in for some of that if the price is right.

I know you will be fragging those things like crazy! I don't have the time though.

Preliminary estimate is $300 over the price of the replacement starboard.

LostMind · #4 11-09-2006, 05:44 AM

I was going to ask if you were concerned the zoos would overgrow your tank

littlesilvermax · #5 11-09-2006, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostMind

I was going to ask if you were concerned the zoos would overgrow your tank

They do slowly creep up on my SPS. What I may have to do (if nobody buys my starboard) is every year take out my LR, sell the bottom pieces with zoos and put some new stuff in.

littlesilvermax · #6 11-23-2006, 09:08 PM

I posted this elsewhere but maybe more will see it here:
I have these stupid little pest anenomes, they are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter. They are not aptasia, or majenos.
I have had them for about 2 years, but now there are a couple hundred of them.

I have tried kalking them, it works, kinda, but there is no way that I could get them all. I can't reach all over the back of my rocks, let alone see back there.
Any ideas what fish or invert might eat these?
I have a CBB from Flatlanders, that is in QT as we speak. The CBB eats aptasia, but I can't seem to get him to eat these things.

Delphinus · #7 11-23-2006, 09:31 PM

Not a clue, but sure resembles a baby hellfire anemone (Thalassianthus aster). I don't know if that's what they are though.

I hate to say this but I would be leery of any biological control. First of all, in my experience, that tends to not work so good anyhow. What seems to work for others never works for me. ("My peppermints ate my aiptasia within 30 seconds of adding them to the tank! No scratch that! They had the aiptasia under control before I even put them in the tank! Yeah yeah!" <---- That's NEVER happened to me.)

But secondly, in your case, I'd be more concerned about whatever eats that -- will probably eat all kinds of other things you'd rather not have eaten.

OTOH, I had a xanthid crab wipe out entire colonies of zoos before I realized what was happening ... and yet he never ate the ONE AND ONLY AIPTASIA in that tank. So things have a way of knowing what costs more and those are the things they'll go to first.

Anyhow point of all this is ... I wouldn't be surprised if manual intervention if your best bet.

Edit: I googled it and hellfire anemone isn't right but the species name looks right. Turns out hellfire is a slightly different looking beast. But yours really do look like that Thalassianthus aster.

WWWD · #8 11-24-2006, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlesilvermax

I posted this elsewhere but maybe more will see it here:
I have these stupid little pest anenomes, they are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter. They are not aptasia, or majenos.
I have had them for about 2 years, but now there are a couple hundred of them.

I have tried kalking them, it works, kinda, but there is no way that I could get them all. I can't reach all over the back of my rocks, let alone see back there.
Any ideas what fish or invert might eat these?
I have a CBB from Flatlanders, that is in QT as we speak. The CBB eats aptasia, but I can't seem to get him to eat these things.

That almost looks like Anthelia, it's look to leafy to be aptasia.

WWWD · #9 11-24-2006, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlesilvermax

Important Notice!!!!!!!!

This winter when I redo my flow patterns in my tank I am thinking about getting rid of many zoos. Anybody want to buy all my starboard off of me? It would include about 4 square feet of zoos!!!!

Obviously I cannot just sell little bits at a time. I need to know if I should order new starboard to replace the old stuff.

If somebody is just starting up a tank and wants an instant easy to care for zoo bottom this may be you ticket!

Zoos are almost indestructible.

You should be able to pull them off the starboard very easily with a razor blade underneath like your peeling a sticker. Also if the zoos on the rocks are in mats they can also be removed with a bit more effort. If you start in one area with some metal tongs you can carefully pull entire mats of them free. I ended up doing this with some seriously overgrowning zoos. One issue is that pulling to many zoos free at once can release a lot of toxin into the water column so you should do it in stages. i ended up need eye protection as well as some of them ended up being squirters.

littlesilvermax · #10 11-24-2006, 05:52 PM

I have fragged the zoos many times bbefore off of the starboard.

The ones that were stuck to coraline came off real easy, others took A LOT of work to get off.

I have a few locals that want it I think.