Fishy Business

55+ Gallon Acrylic Tank in Oakland Chinatown

My belief is sponges are good. I read a paper (i'll try to dig it up) that there was a relationship between sponges and SPS, and it makes sense why more established tanks keep better SPS since they have more sponge growth. That could be total horseshit but it makes sense and may help explain that classic mystery.

People usually say my corals have pretty good color - my approach is good light, good flow, and a metric fuckton of fish poop. YMMV, but that works for me.
 
Good luck with the new corals! The staghorn will be most difficult (will need higher flow/light that I'm not sure your tank is capable of). Don't feel bad if it dies. Good idea to borrow the PAR meter to see how much light you're getting in different spots too.

For sponges, I only scrape them off if they encroach on corals (they rarely do and tend to get eaten by my urchins/crabs).
 
Good Morning!

I wish I could have joined you all for the behind the scenes tour at Steinhart. I run a program in the city that helps students save money for college, so the past couple months have been busy with graduation. For my birthday in July, I decided to treat myself to new clown fish from HTA. I have had them about a month and they seem to be doing well!

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However, I have also noticed a few of my corals struggling over the past month.

#1 This purple coral used to have small flowly tentacles and now it is closed up like a clone.
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#2 This one appears whitish.

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#3 This looks like it almost has something eating it from the inside.
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#4 Also, some look more brown than bright/colorful than when I first brought them home.

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#5 Fortunately, several of the new ones I got from the coral swap have maintained their color and appear to be thriving.

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I have been using live phytofeast thanks to the gift card to reef nutrition I won at the coral swap. I also had been using some reefroid samples I got at the coral swap, but I have stopped since I noticed the discoloration the past few weeks.

Also, thanks to everyone who responded about the sponge. I removed it recently once it started to encroach on my coral. Previously, I noticed one of my coral got decimated after a sponge grew there and I removed a bristle worm. After math a few month later pictured below. Looks like some new polyps are emerging though.

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With work I have not been monitoring my corals as closely as I should. Welcome any tips! Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Mohan Kanungo said:
Anyone able to ID this and have a sense of whether it's good or bad to keep?
View attachment 57066
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I have one of these as well! No idea what it is. It has very slowly moved by about 2 inches from a few months ago. Doesn't encrust or grow but seems to use these tentacles to attach itself and slowly move. I've never heard of a sponge being able to do that, but im very uneducated on sponges. Would really love an ID
 
I tested for alkalinity and it was low 6.4. I'm gonna monitor and adjust with buffer, test regularly. Will keep you posted on whether things improve! Thank you all for the reccs.
 
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