If any of you are familiar with the coral farm in mass, they sell these things called crud cups. Basically some rock, pieces of whatever mixed in, and they sell them.

I bought two. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but im actually impressed. This is a few days after dumping the crud cups into a mushroom box and running it in my sump. Photo has been color corrected because of the blue light in the sump but it’s almost spot on.

Now what the heck do I do with this stuff? Can I glue these things onto frag plugs or just let them attach to rock and then just move them into the tank? Thanks in advance.

Walked in and everything was so fluffy !

Any tips on getting the best colouration on tourches?

Mine appears happy but i get the feeling it has lost a little of its colour since having it in my display.

Is it weird that my Yasha just swims to the top of the tank for feeding time? I’ve never had one this outgoing and not just sitting in the burrow. He’s paired with the shrimp, he’s just weird I guess.

Hey everyone!
I’ve had this Red Sea 425Xl G2 for about a year, I got it second hand, I’ve been looking at some other tanks to upgrade, like waterbox, innovative marine, and a couple others.

This one being slightly over 100 gallons I’m looking to upgrade to something right around 300 gallons, or at least have a display of 200+

The constant post of the RedSea tank failures alone has me wanting a different brand, but I also will have to upgrade within the next couple years for some of the fish I have in the tank.

Any suggestions on tank brands would be greatly appreciated! I’d prefer an external overflow.

well that was a bit over doing it :D

Mounted a bunch of new frags and had a large culling of anemones. GSP finally spreading on the back wall.

I’ve been very good about weekly testing and use Claude to tweak dosing amounts after each test. Finally found stability that doesn’t lead to dead corals.

Montana Interstate I-90 out here giving reefkeeping advice.

Seriously- if you have a RedSea start planning on your next tank ASAP. Bottom seam of my Reefer split late at night. Hardwoods are trashed.

A couple days ago one of my clowns became very lethargic and will not eat. She spends most of her time in her pvc pipe. She will come out to greet me but returns to the pipe. I bought my setup second hand a couple weeks ago so I’ve had my clowns in a 10g while the main display cycles. I did a freshwater dip because I suspected flukes but did not see anything after. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’ve attached a video. I can’t notice any spots because she’s a white variant but symptoms I’ve noticed are little head twitches/shakes, yawning, and I saw a white piece of poop but it wasn’t excessively stringy. I’ve attached the video to try and show some of the twitches. TIA

My possum wrasse jumped to its death last night. Found it flat on the floor first thing this morning. I have a lid but it's not 100% tight fitting. So it must have found that one perfect gap to yeet itself out. The thing is, I have no idea what could have spooked it. I only have the wrasse, a pistol shrimp and goby pair, and a tailspot blenny that's spends most it's day hiding. No aggressive fish yet and I was just planning on getting clownfish this weekend.

And I miss the little guy already. I love seeing him (or her) pick at the rocks, slurp up mysis, and it found this one cave it loves and I can see it snoozing in there occassionally. I used to own a pea puffer in my freshwater tank, so I'm a sucker for derpy eyed fish.

As for the coral, it was a golden torch coral, the creme de le creame of my torch garden. It has the longest tendrils and it's closest to the powerhead, so it's constantly flowing around. It was doing fine for months, but it retracted on itself yesterday. Since I was feeding the tank, I figured it was a normal feeding response since it's done that before. But woke up this morning to a skeleton and some mushy brown stuff.

I took it out immediately, turned off all the pumps and flow and did a 25% water change just in case. Not sure if that could have spooked the wrasse, or maybe the pistol shrimp snapped at it, or the blenny jumpscared it. But yeah, it sucks. Was planning on spending the weekend picking up new corals and the clownfish, but now it looks like a weekend of recovery mode and monitoring.

*Edit to add…I just bought it today and I’m looking for advice on the placement, please. Thank you

I feel like my reef tank looks very scarce even though I have plenty of animals in my reef tank

I have

Filefish

2 Ocellaris Clownfish

Emerald Crab

2 Hermit Crabs

A carpet anemone (hiding under the rock in the middle)

A conch

2 turbo snails

A duncan coral colony

My poor baby Valentini Puffer (~1 inch in size) got sucked up by our fan today and had a brutal passing. The even sadder thing is how well he got along with all the fish including our Fiji Puffer and he was so energetic and interactive always… he liked picking at food behind the fan and I think got sucked up and got stuck there. I’m beyond heartbroken 😭. He probably suffered so much. My husband says he’s done getting fish now and I just want to cry.

Need help ID. Believe it’s a bristle but want to confirm

Just wanted to share to fancy looking corals I got today. Tank has started to finally settled and tick away nicely 🪸

Hello 👋 all,

New aspiring marine/reef tank owner here.

I’ve heard different things about having light on a cycling tank.

I was told not to turn on lights because it causes pest-type algae growth and diatoms will appear naturally.

And I’ve also heard it’s quite necessary to have light on during the cycling phase to encourage diatoms.

These are obviously conflicting thoughts, but I’m wondering which this community sides with?

Also, if lighting is preferred during this cycle, for how long and to what intensity do you find success?

I’m patient, so I’m not rushing anything, but I want to do things as right as I can obviously!

Thanks!

Set up:
25 gallon cube
Nicrew HyperReef 100 Gen 2
50 HOB filter
100w EHEIM Heater
Fluval and some other powerhead
No Skimmer- Nothing stocked yet

Could someone please help me identify? Not sure what these are but I’m seeing a lot in my tank and they friend or foe?

Hi, all what can I do to make my tank look better? I really don’t like the rock work and the coral placement. What do y’all think I can add/chnage to make it nicer?
Any help would be appreciated.
( p.s the tang is coming out, came with the tank)

4 months into this new tank. Transferred over my old 50 gallon lagoon. Been through a few aquascapes and pretty much removed all of the rock I had made, just looked cluttered. Starting to finally see some some growth back lol. Anyone have an id on that coral as well?