My other hobby, even more beautiful than Orchids

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by BrassMonky

on the back wall is green cap and xenia

Green cap huh!! I like it, pretty cool I think..

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

A word of caution with Xenia, if you're growing SPS, I don't recommend growing Xenia in the same tank.

When Xenia are very well established and doing well, sometimes something in the tank will snip off one of the polyps, or a tentacle of the polyp, or even a pinnule off a tentacle. If any one of the forementioned parts of the Xenia lands in between the cracks of any SPS and survives, they can quickly establish themselves if conditions are right. This will in turn smother the SPS polyps that are growing in the recesses of their branches.

Xenia secret toxins that prevent the SPS from overgrowing it.

In essence, you'll get bald spots on your SPS with Xenia in between.

Once Xenia take off, they can take over the tank.

My Xenia never really took over my tanks. But I've seen other tanks where they have done exactly what I've said.

Just my .

[johnblagg]

when I fisrt saw this post I said to myslf "What could be more beutiful than orchis" sounds almost impossible but this is right up ther with them for sure.

I have always loved Nat geo programs of reef life LOL so I agree very nice

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

A word of caution with Xenia, if you're growing SPS, I don't recommend growing Xenia in the same tank.

When Xenia are very well established and doing well, sometimes something in the tank will snip off one of the polyps, or a tentacle of the polyp, or even a pinnule off a tentacle. If any one of the forementioned parts of the Xenia lands in between the cracks of any SPS and survives, they can quickly establish themselves if conditions are right. This will in turn smother the SPS polyps that are growing in the recesses of their branches.

Xenia secret toxins that prevent the SPS from overgrowing it.

In essence, you'll get bald spots on your SPS with Xenia in between.

Once Xenia take off, they can take over the tank.

My Xenia never really took over my tanks. But I've seen other tanks where they have done exactly what I've said.

Just my .

I heard that before about Xenias and the toxin, maybe that why I never got 1 before, but I sure like em" some of my corals grow so fast and spreading that I been able to frag a lot of them and trade them, I do like my SPS corals and was thinking of adding a few more, that staghorn coral grew a great deal since I had it and I don't even have metal halide, I got 8 40 wyatt bulbs in that canopy...

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Jeffery

I heard that before about Xenias and the toxin, maybe that why I never got 1 before, but I sure like em" some of my corals grow so fast and spreading that I been able to frag a lot of them and trade them, I do like my SPS corals and was thinking of adding a few more, that staghorn coral grew a great deal since I had it and I don't even have metal halide, I got 8 40 wyatt bulbs in that canopy...

Nice!

Yeah, certain Staghorns are pretty easy to grow. When I had them (I forgot the species name, it was thin branched with blue tips - maybe Acropora formosa?), they were grown under 400 W MH x 2 in a 40 gal acrylic tank, and placed around the bottom third of the tank.

I was growing Tabletops hence the strong lighting. Unfortunately the light was too strong for a few other Acroporas.

But, Favia spp. and Favites spp. do very well in the bottom half of the tank with intense lighting. They tend to grow very long and sharp sclerites under intense lighting and get very fleshy. This group is one of my favorite group of "LPS" corals.

I take it your lighting consists of T5 bulbs?

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by johnblagg

when I fisrt saw this post I said to myslf "What could be more beutiful than orchis" sounds almost impossible but this is right up ther with them for sure.

I have always loved Nat geo programs of reef life LOL so I agree very nice

The pictures does them very little justice, there is life in there that seem to appear out of nowhere, like these little beauties, there called Tunicates or commonly called sea squirts, they spend most of their lives attached to rocks, which I do have some, they look like small colored blobs, this is just a tiny example of the color and life you can find in a reef tank, rocks get seeded in the ocean and when they end up in your tank, sometimes these seeds survive the curing process and eventually show up in your tank.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Jeffery

The pictures does them very little justice, there is life in there that seem to appear out of nowhere, like these little beauties, there called Tunicates or commonly called sea squirts, they spend most of their lives attached to rocks, which I do have some, they look like small colored blobs, this is just a tiny example of the color and life you can find in a reef tank, rocks get seeded in the ocean and when they end up in your tank, sometimes these seeds survive the curing process and eventually show up in your tank.

I've always wanted tunicates to thrive in my tanks. Never could get them to last very long.

How long have these been in there for?

They're gorgeous.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Nice!

Yeah, certain Staghorns are pretty easy to grow. When I had them (I forgot the species name, it was thin branched with blue tips - maybe Acropora formosa?), they were grown under 400 W MH x 2 in a 40 gal acrylic tank, and placed around the bottom third of the tank.

I was growing Tabletops hence the strong lighting. Unfortunately the light was too strong for a few other Acroporas.

But, Favia spp. and Favites spp. do very well in the bottom half of the tank with intense lighting. They tend to grow very long and sharp sclerites under intense lighting and get very fleshy. This group is one of my favorite group of "LPS" corals.

I take it your lighting consists of T5 bulbs?

Nope!! not T-5. just your everyday average fluorescent tubes, I got 2 marine glo bulbs, like 2 sun glo, 2 ultra sun trichromatic bulbs and 2 50/50 bulbs, at only 4.25 wyatts per gallon, many reefers told me my SPS corals would not do good, but they did great, you notice in that 1st pic of mine, there is direct sun right on the tank, and when the sun was on it for about 3 hours a day, the polyps on the corals extended to there maz, more than they did any other time of the day, they sure loved that sun light, I thought I would have some probleams with bad algae, but no probs at all and I coulden't keep the coralline algae off my glass it grew so fast.

[Jeffery]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I've always wanted tunicates to thrive in my tanks. Never could get them to last very long.

How long have these been in there for?

They're gorgeous.

Sorry!! those tunicates are not in my tank, I just used them as an example for johnblagg to see the beauty that can be found, I do have 2 small colonies of tunicates on my rock, 1 is red colored and the other is purple, I noticed them one day on the back side of my tank in an area that does not get a lot of light, were I also noticed orange sponge growing, I love the tunicates and its beyond me why you can't buy them, I guess its hit or miss to get them on your rock.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Jeffery

Sorry!! those tunicates are not in my tank, I just used them as an example for johnblagg to see the beauty that can be found, I do have 2 small colonies of tunicates on my rock, 1 is red colored and the other is purple, I noticed them one day on the back side of my tank in an area that does not get a lot of light, were I also noticed orange sponge growing, I love the tunicates and its beyond me why you can't buy them, I guess its hit or miss to get them on your rock.

Cool, cool.

A while back, I have seen Cat's Eye Tunicates (Clavelina sp.) for sale. These are colonial tunicates with an indigo body and a greenish-yellow ring around the cavities. They were around $35. But the problem was I kept reading how they don't last long in captivity and that there're no reliable bits of information on their long term care.

I've had many little tiny tunicates grow all over the place from time to time, but they just don't live very long. They definitely won't last long if you've got Centropyge spp. ("pygmy" saltwater angelfish) in there.

Same goes for hydroids or hydrozoans. I've even had tiny jellyfish floating around in the tank (they get lost in a large tank though). One time, I noticed a very colorful free swimming worm. It's pretty neat.

The hitchhikers that invariably make it in the long run are the fan/tubeworms. I'm not talking about the giant Hawaiian tubeworms you can buy individually. It's the tiny calcareous tube building ones that proliferate all over the place (not the Christmas Tree Worms either unfortunately, their symbiosis with Porites spp. is way too tight). Then there're the tiny bristleworms, isopods, and amphipods. Of course there are the little transluscent reddish-brown flatworms that can reach plague proportions if left unchecked and can cause problems. Rarely would I find a chiton.

Now that I think of it...the colonial encrusting sea squirts tend to live longer lives than the colonial or solitary sac-like sea squirts do.

Sponges last very long too, provided they're not exposed to air or choked out by algae.

Reef tanks are full of life. I'd love to have one again, but it's just not the right time for it right now.