Setting the whole thing up inside a baby pool. :-)
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OK, here is the 20 gallon as it looks 5 minutes ago. This tank was a junk tank for years, and is scratched up and seems to have some
diatoms on the glass that I missed, but you get the idea. My favorite fauna have to be the purple mushrooms, they are the sole reason
I did not chunk the whole lot. TOO fine to let go for free to some Ahole fish store. BUT also there is the purple gorgonian. These used
to be everywhere, now you can't find em. They frag so easy and grow superfast. They also clean the tank water with the thousands
of individuals that make up the colony. A few zoanthus species. Maybe more pics as I see stuff you would enjoy. Also note in the top
left corner, the upturned plastic bottle. The top has notched teeth that strain the top film from the water the way an overflow does.
The water that goes into it is piped directly to the waterfall filter. Imperfect system, but pretty dang effective til I get a HOB skimmer.
If it seems a bit undergrown, remember that the entire tank was stripped down and mostly all new structural live rock added only a few
weekends ago. You can't imagine the life that perished when I burned my live rock in fresh water for a few days, then pressure washed
it and put it on a rack to dry. SAD. This tank at 40 gals was CRAWLING with scuds and copepods and amphipods...crawling.
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Purtty.
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ill be trading some of my Green Montipora Cap for some Green star polyps and some eagle eyes zoanthids this weekend. Im excited.
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Very nice OLS!! I love the mushrooms the best, too. I just like to watch for the little stuff
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I'd suggest you get two, if they'll fit. There's little Coralife's that are real cheap. That way when one quits, the other will keep chugging until you realize the venturi tube is plugged with salt. :-)
The other stuff...
You're preaching to the choir. You, by no means, have a monopoly on stupid, my friend. :-)
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Your tank looks great, Brad. You should get a shipwreck or one of those diver guys that go up and down on bubbles, but aside from that, suhweet. :-)
That thing is gonna be spilling over with corals in no time, I'm waiting to see how long it takes to get back to the 40.
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Try a nano-cube like Lance has. The pic is just up there a few posts.
I always thought they were cool, and they seem to do a great job at keeping the water nice.
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Oh, Brad, I have some of that blue stuff like you have on the right. I just like it cause it's blue, and it grows all over Molasses Reef off Key Largo. It looks amazing waving around in the surge. It reminds me of the wind blowing the oats around out in the field.
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haha, I wish I lived closer to you, I got freaking star polyps coming out of my star polyps.
Keep em on the sand! Or sit em on a piece of junk rock on the sand. Anything they get within an inch of will
soon have star polyps growing on it.
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It's funny when I look at those pics, I had dozens of rock rubble frags in my old tank, a few polyps of this
some of that. I remember now why I started that tank up against all the screaming inner voices against
it. I was gonna have a self-sustaining tank. When I needed salt, I was going to trade frags. New lamps,
frags. Fish Food...frags. But then I had the aiptasia outbreak and that all went to hell. You can't sell frags
when they all have aiptasia on em. I once told a guy he was FOS cause he told someone that they
were having aiptasia trouble because their water parameters were filthy. Apparently, and this is not the
first time this has happened, I WAS the one who was FOS. Less feeding and clean water and they just
died out. Or the shrimp all of a sudden just woke up and decided it DID eat aiptasia. Granted, I pulled out
almost all the rocks with aiptasia on em. But they can pop up anywhere at anytime. ANYWAY, all my frags
are clean now, I must have 6 green star polyp rocks in there, haha, and at least 5 of the Silver (purple) Muricea
gorgonians. I see green parazoanthus everywhere, too.
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My goal is to have them cover the back glass of my tank. sure beats algae.

Side note. I was talking to my friend last night and he was telling me about someone who was asking if star polyps were hard to keep. His response was "You could scrape them off with a paint scraper, put them in your back pocket, and drive home and they will still be fine."
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Do Star Polyps look like clove coral? Kinda like green grass in mats?
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yes sir. purple mat green extensions. CLoves are a little different but they are pretty close to the same.
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Okay, another question...
How are polyps different than zoos?
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Zoos and Palythoas are polyps. Often referred to as a "sea mat" In most cases each individual organism is a polyp. This also includes the dots on hard coral SPS Small polyp stony or LPS Large polyp stony.
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Marc, I think my problem and confusion comes from the fact that I'm not sure what constitutes a polyp.
I was thinking they were all flat like little upside-down bottle caps, but I guess they have all kinds of shapes and sizes, right?
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Yes they do have all shapes and sizes. The bottlecap looking ones are most likely zoanthids or palythoas. But most every form of coral has polyps.

below are 5 different kinds of coral in red are circled individual polyps. each polyp is its own organism and under the right circumstances can live on its own.
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Thanks, Marc. That helps A LOT!!! :-)
I think I have some palys and acans. No zoos, and that's what I like because of all the colors.
Are the first pic and the last pic acans?
I'm assuming a Kenya Tree is a softie, and frogspawn is an LPS? A gorgonian would be an SPS, right?
If I got all that right, I've come about 1000 miles in the last month. I learned lots of stuff, you're connecting all the dots for me. :-)
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The first picture is of acans the last picture is of trumpet or candycane coral. both are LPS

Gorgonians fall into a different category because they dont create a hard calcified skeletal structure. They are actually sea fans.

Other than that you've got it down pat. One thing to differentiate zoos from pallys is the size. Palythoas are generally much larger the Zoanthids form more of a mat where you cant see their bases.

Side note: Be careful when handling zoanthids or palythoas. After fragging or even moving them be sure to scrub your hands and arms with soap under hot water. They are very poisonous if you rub your eye or eat food and this toxin gets into your body your boned. There is no antidote for them either. Easiest way is to just use latex gloves when fiddling with them.
This is meant for information only, dont be scared to hack apart a colony to send to your reef buddies. :-)
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