hi everyone, i’m aware that this sub has a no selling policy, i am not looking to sell. around 6 months ago when i first set up my aquarium, my LFS sold me a small sand-sifting star, to help with debris in the sand. i had a strong copepod population and they told me he would be fine. doing research afterwards of course i saw that sand sifting stars are not recommended for small or new tanks (mine is both those things). but i couldn’t return him, they told me to just see how he does.

he did well for 5 months, looking plump, active, under the sand 90% of the time, able to right himself. i would bury mysis shrimp and algae pellets following LFS advice and just hope he’s eating. but unfortunately in the past 3-4 days i’ve noticed the tips of his legs are white and appear to be degrading. i’m almost 100% sure this is due to him starving. as such i am looking for anyone in the Netherlands, specifically around South Holland (Delft, Rotterdam, Hague, etc) with a large established tank who would be willing to take him (for free of course), cause i really dont want the little guy to die. :(

Looking for ID on the small things with a green/blue ring, and pinkish stalk/foot? I’ve spotted 3 so far, but I can’t get an angle on the third.

Idk where these came from considering the only thing I’ve added in the past few months is a tail spot blenny, and some berghias.

Hi friends! My husband and I are new to the sub/hobby and on Oct 2nd we started our first saltwater tank (I’ll put the specs below). 2 days later once filled with RODI water we put in Dr. Tim’s and 2 gladiator clownfish, 12 blue legged hermits and 5 turbo snails to start our fish-in cycle.

Our parameters were doing good for a few days I think but have been staying pretty stable with ammonia at .25. I don’t think we’re over feeding, we’re only feeding what the clowns can immediately eat. I’ve read that a partial water change could help but I’m just so anxious to mess this tank up and hurt our fishies. We have started having brown diatom algae growing on parts of the glass, rock and sand.

If anyone can offer us some advice I’d appreciate it! We’re trying to be as educated as we can be, we realize we were underprepared getting the tank but we’re excited to learn!

Tank Specs:
- 75 gallon Aqueon Megaflow overflow tank/kit
- Bubble Magnus Curve 5 Elite Protein Skimmer
- 1 2k icecap gyre flow pump
- 1 4k icecap gyre flow pump
- Fluval Reef 4.0 LED
- Caribsea Ocean Direct live sand
- 60 lbs of Caribsea liferock
- marineland heater
- eshopps reef sump 100 4th gen
- API saltwater master test kit
- bottle of Dr Tim’s all in one saltwater (for 80 gallons)

Parameters:
10/2: 1.025 salinity, 8 pH, 78°
10/4: ammonia 0, nitrite .5, nitrate 5
10/5: ammonia .25, nitrite .5, nitrate 5
10/6: ammonia 0, nitrite 1, nitrate 10
10/7: ammonia 0, nitrite .5, nitrate 10
10/8: ammonia 0, nitrite 1, nitrate 20
10/9: ammonia .25, nitrite 1, nitrate 20
10/10: ammonia .25, nitrite .5, nitrate 10
10/12: .25, .25. 10
10/13: .5, .5, 20
10/14: .25, .25, 10
10/15: .25, .25, 10
10/16: .25, .25, 10
10/17: .25, .25, 10

Had this fella for about 3 months now and its put on some nice size! Very happy with the temperament and coloration its giving the tank. Only gripe would be it does not care to eat nori at all LOL as you can see though it spends most the day grazing

I recently got him and he was getting bullied by my starry blenny, I currently have him locked up in a lil container inside the tank so the wrasse can get a moment to chill he’s just now coming out more and I noticed this on his face? Not sure what it is, I’ll test my waters when I can I’m currently busy but this makes my anxiety worse lolol

After a Southeast Asia trip with loads of snorkelling and diving it's really made me think about my previous purchasing decisions for my reef tanks.

I'm still going to keep reefing, and I'll keep everything I currently own, but I'm going strict captive bred fish only and aquaculture corals for as many as possible.

Too many low fish population reefs in poor condition. Not to say this is everywhere and always but it's enough to make me want to change my practices. Any other reefers follow a strict captive bred and aquacultured only?

Last year I put in this bubble coral which has been doing great. I put it around 8” away from a little patch of zoas I placed on the same rock work. Unfortunately, the zoas zoa’d and now they’re crawling up the bubble coral’s exposed skeleton and even restricting a small portion of it from opening fully.

I was getting anxious about it before but since the heads closest to the bubble coral are closed / partially closed + bubble coral are said to be hostile af to other corals and have a powerful sting, I was hoping it would fight the zoas off. But the zoas do not care about repeatedly being stung, and they are continuing to try to grow over my bubble.

For now, the bubble coral has been very healthy. Lots of tissue down the skeleton, inflates fully in the day, lots of tentacles around breakfast/dinner and night. But I’m worried.

Is there some sort of substance I can rub on the zoas to make them back off? What do I do to stop them from smothering my poor bubble coral?

Im aware I shouldn't be chasing numbers rather than maintaining stability. Why is it that I cannot for the life of me get ph, mag, and nitrate to increase. Weeks of dosing magnesium, ph buffer, and heavy feeding. Stopped kalkwasser kh is up to 11 calcium is 440 magnesium 1300 ph is chillen around 7.8. Zero nitrate. Are the macro algae sucking it up? Do I need more fish? Kinda stumped here, thanks everyone.

Is it a) shedding
B) splitting
C) dying

Parameters are stable for months and all other coral seems unaffected. Nitrates at 1 and PO4 at 0,02, kh at 7,5. Again, stable.

The pair of clownfish have been hosted by the leather for months and I doubt they recently injured it.

The white marks and tearing started a few weeks back and I only noticed how big they were this morning when cleaning.

As I have been leaving early and getting home late, I mostly see the corals at night and this one always shriveled at night.

Hi everyone,

I am about to pull the trigger and purchase the following equipment. The last time you convinced me that Red Sea tank are not safe, so I swapped it with waterbox. Could you please tell your opinion about all the devices that I need to start the tank? Do you think something is better to be changed?

Thanks again for your help!

A paguritta hermit crab that lives in an old Christmas tree worm hole. The rock is about 5" across and houses a mix of inverts including a few clams and about 20 different christmas tree worms of different colors and patterns.

My feather duster work has not come out of his tube for 7 days. This is after one of my cleaner shrimp kept fiddling with his feathers. I am leaving my tank for 7 days and I’m worried if he decomposes it will crash my tank. But I don’t want to remove him if he’s still alive in there. How likely is it that he’s alive after 7 days of not coming out?

Just set up a 150L cube, what fish are colourful and reef safe that I can put in this tank? Already have 2 clowns and a starry scooter blenny in there

Tank crashed about a month ago thanks to a certain flatworm products which I might have overdosed 🤣 lost most of my sps and few lps. Glad to see the tank is slowly recovery and luckily all the fish survived 😆

This generator is a lifesaver. Hope everyone is ok. Peace and love. (Don’t mind the GSP lol)

I noticed that the polyps on the green slimers base have stopped extending at all and its not encrusting, how ever polyp extension is great and it is growing, is whats happening at the base a result of the base getting not enough light? Or is this stn?

Pic one is today and the last pic is before i noticed the recession

Not new to saltwater, but haven't had a saltwater aquarium in over a decade.

Picked up a complete setup with install for 2.2k

Lights are radion xr15 G4 pros

So I have a 75 gal that I plan on eventually converting to saltwater once its freshwater inhabitants reach the end of their natural lives. In the meantime I like to daydream and plan though.

My local LFS has suggested that I could get certain species that grow too large for the tank, and just return them for store credit once they start getting larger.

Would this be ethical? Or is it crazy stressful for the poor fish and not something an ethical keeper would do?

I can say my LFS is a good place, and I'd know any fish I returned to them would receive excellent care, and that they do all they can do to vet customers, and are willing to decline sales if they think it's necessary. They are also less than 30 minutes from me, so there wouldn't be a lot of bag time.

But would it be ethical to buy a baby tang knowing full well I intend to bring it back in a year (or 9 months or whenever it got too big) and replace it with a new baby tang?

I don’t like moving the lid to feed, so i decided to just put this tiny funnel and leave there for easy access.

I’m not actually trying to eat this but like I could imagine how nice and juicy this is to bite into it reminds me of a chicken leg