It begins - first coral is in

[bighabeeb]

Unsure - have another thread in hte identify section asking what the heck it is

LFS had em in red like this guy, and also in inverted (Green outside, red inside) - assuming its as hardy as they say it is, I could see doing an entire segment of my tank with them. They said keep it low in the tank, little to nowater circulation

[bighabeeb]

It does indeed appear to be an open brain or Wellsophyllia.
Its purty

[bighabeeb]

So rolling right along - should have a royal gramma and a couple heads of duncans to add this week. My wife is flat out in love with the open brain and wants more of them, so it looks like I need to rework my aquascaping a bit to make more room on the substrate for them. Fed it for the first time and I admit, it was pretty awesome to watch the thing pucker up and then suck down some mysis.

Here's the tank so far, with a close up of the open brain, post eating

[boardsurfer]

Looking great so far, Mitch.

[mr_X]

nothing likes "no water circulation" FYI. a gentle current is best. i just got a couple of them as well. they are very cool.

[bighabeeb]

Yep - by "no circulation" I more meant "no direct circulation" - just circulation bouncing off the tank in its general direction, as opposed to being directly riffled.

Just got 3 frags from reefs2go of various zoas - will be adding them soon and will pop up some pics when they open up.

[bighabeeb]

So. 3 frags from reefs2go were both itty bity and DOA. Not a very happy first mail order situation. They only give store credit for DOA, so I guess I have to give it another shot - hate the idea that more animals might die though, so will probably fork over for overnight shipping instead of the default 2 day that they used last time.

In other news, got a nice big hunk of green star polyps this week and have them in my "shady spot" - they've opened up and are incredibly cool to look at! Hoping to pick up either a toadstool or some duncans this weekend post water change, along with a new fishie (royal gramma should be in by now).

Once the water change is done and the stuff is in, I'll post some new pics: it's definitely coming along!

[carey]

All three frags were shot when you got them? I was going to order several frags from them and now I'm worried....

[bighabeeb]

Originally Posted by carey

All three frags were shot when you got them? I was going to order several frags from them and now I'm worried....

Yea unfortunately it looks that way. They were delayed an extra day at the post office which may have caused the problem.

I will mention that the zoa frags I received were also incredibly teeny tiny. While I know they only say 5 - 7 polyps, this was almost silly. 2 of them were at least on rocks - the third was on a small curl of a shell with no polyps visible on arrival. I tried to go in to pull it out and take a photo to send them, but one of my hermits liked the curl and took up residence in it.

R2G has been pretty easy to work with: they've issued me a credit for two of them already (the third MAY be showing signs of life) - and have told me to check in early next week and let them know if nothing pops out and they'll credit that one too.

[carey]

I live in Florida and they are located here so I figure it would be next day shipping. Think that might help? They are having a super zooa sale and i wanted to get in on it. lol All the reviews always say how large the corals are and how great, youre the first one I've read of having any issues with them.

[bighabeeb]

Originally Posted by carey

I live in Florida and they are located here so I figure it would be next day shipping. Think that might help? They are having a super zooa sale and i wanted to get in on it. lol All the reviews always say how large the corals are and how great, youre the first one I've read of having any issues with them.

I take those reviews with a grain of salt. I'm sure they're great, their customer service has been very on top of things etc. WIth zoas you can't exactly expect 7 polyps to be on a huge chunk of rock - but I admit that when they arrive all closed up its even tinier than I was expecting.

[mr_X]

zoas are sent from indo without even any water in the box. the colonies are wrapped in wet newspaper in then put in plastic bags to save on weight. it takes 2 days for them to get from indo to here, Via a stop in california.
when i get them, it's not uncommon to have to wait a week for some of them to open. some open immediately though. just a FYI.

[bighabeeb]

Here's the updated pics:

[Sniperhank]

I have my first order from reefs2go as of...a couple hours ago. We'll see how the stuff I ordered compares to what I ordered off of saltwaterfish.com. The zoas I got from them were ok for 10 polyp...but it was the plastic disc they came on I couldn't stand. Everything else was atleast on a fragment of a rock...I understand fragging and breaking corals off...but give me some base to work with atleast.

Your stuff was probably DOA cuz of the hold up, plain and simple.

My local SW buddy ordered pods off of them. They showed up alive but died soon after. That is the only other bad report I've heard about them. She's giving them another shot with a pistol shrimp I added to my order for her.

[Sniperhank]

Is that black stuff under your GSP cyano?

[bighabeeb]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

Is that black stuff under your GSP cyano?

Nope - just a dark piece of rock. It's not that black in reality, just that way in the photo. That particular area is slightly shaded as well, so it's not getting too much light.

[Tmyboy]

Originally Posted by bighabeeb

In your experience is there anything that really REQUIRES mh at this point? I mean obviously there's different strengths of T5, and a bajillion different bulbs. I'd really love to be able to keep a clam in there eventually, but everything that I've read says "unless you have super duper uber-hailides, dont even bother trying 'cause that clam will be deadski"...

My fixture is the deepblue solar extreme - I'm planning on swapping out my bulbs for ones with a bit more of a blue tinge to it as the stock bulbs are very yellow, almost bordering on green.

Everything I've read and heard say that clams need mh lighting. period.

[mr_X]

you can keep clams under t5, halides, or LEDs, providing they are the right ones (right wattage and reflectivity....)

[bighabeeb]

Yea - had a long chat with the lfs about clams - definitely something for future consideration.

[bighabeeb]

Hooray for the 40 dollar coral tank. Picked up a nice chunk of zoas tonight. Tank was mostly small uninteresting mushrooms, but they had a couple of these colonies - may go back for another tomorrow Was acclimated for about an hour, and open the way it is now about 5 minutes after being put into the tank. Flipped on the day lamps just to get a photo or two.