Re: Powder Blue fdg., nitrates, anemone ID, reading -- Brenda's Opinion 1/29/08 This is my first post to this site, and I thank you for the help the information here had already provided. Had I found this site a year ago, instead of relying on a lot of bad advice from the LFS it would have saved many animals. I have three questions which I've split into separate sections hoping this makes it easier for you. First an intro to my tank Equipment (Plan/hope to upgrade to 150+ gallon with wet/dry, refugium, MH/PC lights, plenty of live rock, wavemaker, etc in 6 months as funds allow) has been running for a year, first as FO, then FOWLR, now moving very reefward, though we need to stop and catch up on equipment 65 gallon with All Glass hood lights (only 30-40 watts, I think); Fluval 304 with Bio-Max, carbon, Phos-Zorb and filter floss; 40 lbs live rock, 55 lbs substrate (crushed coral, aragonite sand, live sand), Prizm skimmer, 200W heater - will definitely add powerhead(s) in next few days, may make other upgrades but will likely save money towards better system and get my animals in there ASAP Parameters: NH3 & NO2: undetectable for > 6 months, NO3 40-50 ppm (20-30 ppm from using conditioned tap water, switching back to RO), <Good. NO3 issues are adequately addressed on WWM> Ca 410 ppm, Alk 14 dKH, pH 8.3, salinity 1.025 (a little too much fluctuation from evaporation here, will work to correct), temp 77-8 F, 24 gallon changes every 2 weeks Livestock: 4" Kole tang, 3" Powder blue tang, 2.5" Humu humu, 1" flame Hawkfish, 3" Blenny (tentative ID as black or brown Combtooth), 2x 3-Stripe damsels ~2", 11" Snowflake eel, urchin (sold as Christmas urchin, though I can't find anything similar - morphology similar to pincushion with purplish/brown body and white and orange spines), assorted hermit crabs (~20, mostly Clibanarius tricolor and Paguristes cadenati, but 1 each Dardanus megistos, Clibanarius vittatus and dwarf yellow tip hermit), Ophiarachna incrassata, serpent star (think it's still alive somewhere, but missing most of its legs, suspect Dardanus megistos), flame scallop (still alive after 10 months without target feedings, and doubled in size), orange tree sponge, tube anemone, Holothuria atra, 4 Nassarius snails, 2-3 limpets, and several coral hitchhikers, including an open brain (did have a period of decline, but not really improving or declining now) and several mushrooms 1) My powder blue was a recent purchase, and I knew I was taking a chance, since he was very thin, but he was cheap so I decided to try. (I had really good luck with the last three "bargain" tangs in my tank, a 4" yellow, 7" yellow and a 6" Regal, having cured Ich and HLLE in all specimens, before failure of the Fluval's pump suffocated all) After reading more on him, I realized just how much of a challenge I had ahead of me. He's active and eating and has gained some weight in the two weeks I've had him. Other than algae sheets with Selcon and Zoë and Spirulina brine shrimp, what can I do? <See WWM re New Life's "Spectrum" fish food line> I know, finally a QUESTION 2) This was an interesting find: a conch shell with 6 anemones, two small tubeworms and live barnacles. Trouble is the anemones were sold as curlicues, which from comparison to other pictures online, they are not. I was told they are nonphotosynthetic and just to feed a small amount of whatever animal based food I was feeding the fish (pellet, flake, frozen). Can you ID these guys, and give me any insight as to their care? <Mmm, am out in Hawaii, away from my in-print ref. works... but this species is "on the tip of my tongue"... ARE non-photosynthetic, or at least facultatively so... but can't recall much else re> They all have an orange mouth, which on most is surrounded by a thin purple ring. Also their colors didn't show up well in these pictures. One has a darker purplish hue to the tentacles and another has orangish tentacles. They are aggressive feeders of whatever drifts to them, even taking large pieces of krill intended for the eel. <I do hope BrendaF or LynnZ will respond in time re... Will place in there in-folders> 3) Switching back to RO (got lazy about packing 24 gallons at a time upstairs) should drop nitrates by half, but I'd like to reduce them further. I have quite a bit of nitrogen being produced in the sand bed, but not enough of it comes to the surface. I attempt to rake the sandbed regularly, but this is of marginal effectiveness at best. My Nassarius snails have survived quite some time in the tank buried in the sand, but I don't think they surface enough to really be effective. Seeing as my wife is set on another porcupine puffer (one died 9 months ago when heater was accidentally left unplugged after water change, another during suffocation mass extinction) what do you suggest as an animal that will provide good sifting to bring the deep nitrogen to the surface? Thank you so much David <Read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/marsiftfaqs.htm and the linked files above. BobF> <<I'm not positive on the ID, but I believe this may be a Corynactis viridis, commonly referred to as a Jewel Anemone. Brenda>> >Thank you Bren. BobF<