Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

i'm looking to extend my gardening skills and was just wondering what some might suggest. i have a 29gl w/2 65wt 50/50 pc's for light. Already have a blue kenya, galaxy coral (about the size of a baseball) green star polyps, green button polyps and a finger leather. Would like to stay w/ones that are easy for a beginner since i am mostly a virgin when it comes to SW. So please be gentle and let me know what you think... LOL. Also how hard are brains or hammers to keep? Thanks!

Pulsing Xenia and you can get it free from most any of us.

I feel that any of the euphyllia are easy to care for: hammers, torches, frogspawn, etc.. They seem to like a good bit of light and because of their stony base I would guess have decent calcium requirements. At least I've had very good luck with them, I just feed them about 1-2 times a week, halides about 6 hours a day, and have had no recession, only steady growth. Just remember if they are in a high flow area their sweepers will get very long.. and they are nasty mean.

I'm a newby also.. so take this as you will.. I have not have good luck with closed brains they seem to like water richer in nutrients than what I provide... but have had very good luck with open brains, I'm able to feed these easily. I have one closed brain.. that was receeding badly.. moved it to my nano where the water is very turbid and it is doing much better, but have 3 open brains that are doing great in the large tank where the water is less nutrient rich. Just my experiences so far.

I've got some Pulsing Xenia if you need some. It spreads like Kudzu.

Brandon, what do you "feed" your hammer/frogspawns? I have acquired a branching hammer, and it's looking great, but I have no idea if I'm supposed to feed it.

small pieces of stuff.. This is just my observation, but the branching euphyllia species seems to be able to take larger pieces than the single base type. I usually feed very finely chopped shrimp, scallions, silversides, mysis, etc.. soaked in zoe or selcon.

The frogspawn is the one that is a pain to feed because his polyps aren't "sticky" and it has a hard time holding on to things.. while my little octopus is very sticky and easy to feed. I wish I knew a better way, (*Anyone??), but I'm using a piece of rigid airline tubing with a toothpick on the end , and just barely put the piece of food on the toothpick.. put the bit of whatever somewhere close to the mouth, twist the tube a bit to get the food to release and pull it away.

Snakeman wrote:I've got some Pulsing Xenia if you need some. It spreads like Kudzu.

i would like to try some. Are their any special needs? Feeding and such? i was told what i have already doesn't need to be fed and are supplied soley by light. i keep my calcium around 480 and do not add anything else because i do weekly water changes to replinish lost elements. Let me know if we can work something out. Thanks

I just put some black powder in my tank and some planton it every once in awhile. I don't think you have to do much. It just seems happy to be there. When do you want it?

I believe xenia would live ok in your toilet if you added a tablespoon of mortons salt.

Anytime would be good for me, how about this weekend? i don't have anything to trade though.

Snakeman.. if you're going to mobile, or cnovak is coming up.. make sure you come see me 1st.. I'll throw in some other low-light stuff.

Xenia needs Iodine to survive AND grow. It is the iodine that helps it pulse too. Get you a little container of Kent Tech-I and dose once a week. Xenia grows fast and is fun to watch. You will be begging some of us to take some of it after a while.

Good luck!

Elizabeth

Alk is important for Xenia too. At least 8dKh. I don't think it will die until alk gets below 3-4 dKh though.

So water changes aren't enough? I guess i'll have to run out and pick some stuff up plus test kits. Is their anything else that would be a must for good growth. i just don't want to be spending all my time dosing my tank. What would be a good list of must have items? Currently i do not use anything except calcium chloride, i have a bottle of Kent micro-vert but have never used it because i was weary of the effects on my water quality. Thanks

I think that my Xenia grows at a normal rate. I took one of my Xenia covered rocks out about 9 months ago and scrubbed it clean. It is now covered with Xenia again. I keep my alk pretty high (12 dKh) and I do a 6 gallon water change every few weeks. The only things I add are: kalk, B-Ionic and food for fish. I do have some Korralinth additive that I use when I think about it (at most once a month). I might get an alk test kit (Salifert) and add either baking powder or other buffer to raise alk and add iodine or something like Kent Coral-vite every once in a while. I have some extra Xenia too if you want some. I live off D.I.P. near the interstate.

~Scott

i'm supposed to get some from Snakeman this weekend so i think that will be enough for now. i do aprreciate the offer though.