Polyps? Data?   2/1/08
Crew,
I have some growths on the back of my nanoreef. I have not been able to identify them, and sadly not been able to get a decent picture. currently living in the tank are a damsel, some reef hermits, red and blue legged, and Astrea snails. 1 zoanthid colony and 1 colony of "ballet dancers" individual yellow polyps. It looks like a *Parazoanthus gracilis *though I am only guessing based on the image. when my skimmer crapped out one me, I have a remora on its way now, the ballet dancers kinda went down hill, there had been something like 20 or so polyps now there are only 4.
these growths on the back of the tank do not look like Aiptasia, but do look similar to the polyps of the Zoa, they are a translucent white in color.
I looked at the images on the site and can find nothing that matches them, any idea what these could be?
<... how might one guess given the above description?>
should I worry?
<?... maybe>
they are growing on the glass and silicon, but not on the rocks. is there anything, other than the obvious improving water conditions, which I am working on by doing partial water changes twice a week now, of about 10% each time, to improve the health of the dancer?
thanks again,
Forrest
<Possibly knowledge gained by reading... Please start here: http://wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/index.htm
Cnid. Systems, Health... the Zoanthids... Bob Fenner>

Identification of Mushroom/Ricordea/Zoa's    01/13/2008
Hey Guys,
<<Hello, Andrew here>>
I love your site, its priceless to beginners like me! You save me hours of dead ends with all the posts! :)
<<Thank you, nice to hear>>
I recently decided to upgrade my fish only tank with Fiji live rock and a few easy soft corals...some small Zoanthids (about 7 baby polyps), a mushroom, and a Ricordea, all of which are pretty tiny as I have a 20 gallon tank for the moment.. looking to upgrade to larger more stable system when funds allow, and it will make most things such as selection so much easier.
Anyway, I need some ID's on what I bought so I can care for them better, and the guy at the saltwater aquarium store got on my nerves and I forgot to ask for more specific names. (They are the best within several hours drive, although they do push sales with little regard to what happens to them after :( ) So here is what they look like so far:
Mushroom- a kind of bright burnt orange color with a small stalk for a base (its a little bigger than a dime)
<<These will be Actinodiscus - or commonly known as red mushrooms. Keep separate from the other corals, can be a little feisty>>
Zoanthids- also orange\red color with a whitish core (tini tiny)
<<One manu different Zoanthid SP - Treat as any standard Zoanthid. Read more here. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/zoanthid.htm >>
Ricordea- blue\green and a little bigger than a quarter
<<This will be Ricordea florida - More info can be found here. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/corallim.htm >>
I have about a 1/4 inch of sand base with about 1 1/2 inch crushed coral on top (didn't want to lose my sand critters when I changed substrates). I am running a protein skimmer and a Penguin 150 water filter with carbon and an Aqualight 60w actinic\10,000k and about 6lbs live rock\ 14lbs or so dead live rock (just started buying live rock). The water filter pushes enough water around the tank but at low flow so I put the Ricordea where the water makes the slime move a little but not the Ricordea and also the Zoanthids. The mushroom I put to the other side where the water flow is lowest but still circulating well and consistent....is that about right? Everything I've read said mushrooms don't do best in much current and Ricordea like a little current to remove slime but like I said, the Penguin doesn't push very much. Don't know where I should put the Zoanthids so I just put them in the same area but about 4 inches apart. Don't know if powerheads are necessary or desired so I don't have them.
<<Ricordea don't need a vast amount of flow, the Zoa's need more flow again, not high though and the mushrooms are best to be placed in slow to medium flow>>
Being so small, is there anything I need to do differently? I figured I need to be more careful with the small ones than I would larger ones. Calcium is very high (just did 40% water change) but don't know if its harmful at high levels.<<Wont do hard at 500ppm, however the water change is good for bringing that own>> I bought some frozen coral food (mix of zooplankton and other stuff). am I doing everything right so far? Do I need to feed the mushroom usually? Some things I read so I really shouldn't supplement them much, just allow them light....
<<You sound like your on the right track with it all. Just be diligent with water quality, more info on feeding and habitat can be found in the above linked articles>>
Thanks for your willingness to help! Joshua
<<Thank you for the questions, A Nixon>>