My Reef Tank

I just recently acquired a reef tank. It's previous owner had let a burned out light remain dead for over a month, so most everything in the tank died. There are some signs of life though. I have one hermit crab and one snail. Then a couple of critters/plants I can't identify (circled in red). There are five or six of the small round white blobs. There are three of the white disc shaped things that look like a flat jellyfish attached to the rock. The third one (not shown) is free floating. I don't know if that's good or bad. Should I just let it find its own home or should I do something to help it?

This is all in a 20 gallon long tank. I got it in a 20 high but didn't have a spot for that. I have two full-spectrum. 2-foot, t-8's on it. I'm wishing I hadn't sold my only actinic bulb... *sigh* (didn't know I was going to have a reef tank then).

I would appreciate any helpful hints.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Not quite sure about the white things. Maybe if you can get some closer straight on picturese. They almost look like bleached out mushrooms in the last picture. The little balls, would be sponge. Sponge is good for filtering water. If they are mushrooms, the should color back up. The one floating will eventually find a spot and attach itself, but you can tie it down and it will attache itself to the rock and then you can remove what ever you tied it down with. People use a lace type material or thread and rubberbands.

Update on my Reef Tank. Wow! I put on a magnifying headset and scanned the live rocks. There are all kinds of critters in there! I found at least two tiny starfish. I never saw a starfish move that fast before. The sponges are not really white but have a slight greenish hue to them... and there are dozens of them. There are some critters that hide in holes and, so far, the only thing I have seen of them are these tiny translucent (almost invisible) tentacles that come out of the holes waving around and searching the surface of the rock. There are also some tiny brilliant red (maybe magenta) things that look like fans. The hermit crab is still the boldest of all the critters. He climbs all over the rocks and never tries to hide, even when I get close to him with a probe. I can now see why people are fascinated with reef tanks.

lilfishie, thanks for the help with identifiying some of those things. (now I don't have to call them "little white blobs"!) I can't get a straight on picture of the white mushroom looking things without moving the rocks. Then I'd have to wait two days for the water to clear agaiin. Maybe when that free-floating one finally finds a home, he will be in a forward facing location. They actually have just a bit of red on them near the center, that I can only see with the magnifier.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

SEAF wrote:Update on my Reef Tank. Wow! I put on a magnifying headset and scanned the live rocks. There are all kinds of critters in there! I found at least two tiny starfish. I never saw a starfish move that fast before. The sponges are not really white but have a slight greenish hue to them... and there are dozens of them. There are some critters that hide in holes and, so far, the only thing I have seen of them are these tiny translucent (almost invisible) tentacles that come out of the holes waving around and searching the surface of the rock. There are also some tiny brilliant red (maybe magenta) things that look like fans. The hermit crab is still the boldest of all the critters. He climbs all over the rocks and never tries to hide, even when I get close to him with a probe. I can now see why people are fascinated with reef tanks.

lilfishie, thanks for the help with identifiying some of those things. (now I don't have to call them "little white blobs"!) I can't get a straight on picture of the white mushroom looking things without moving the rocks. Then I'd have to wait two days for the water to clear agaiin. Maybe when that free-floating one finally finds a home, he will be in a forward facing location. They actually have just a bit of red on them near the center, that I can only see with the magnifier.

You haven't seen the half of it yet. There are critters you will probably never see. And there are some you will probably get that you dont want. Watch what you get from others. Clean stuff off good, including coral before putting it in your tank. One of which seems to pop up from nowhere and you may think it is a plant or coral. It is in fact an anemone called Aptasia. Google it. They make a product called Aptasia X to kill them. If you see these in the tanks at the fish store, you want to try to avoid buying out of that tank. These things will infest your tank and kill coral and they can get big enough to kill fish.

The little red things that look like fans are a type of tube worm. Sometimes called feather dusters. They are great to have. The rockworms with the tentacles are good part of your cleaning crew. They can irritate coral if you put any close to them, but they are not harmful.

You will want to get, if you havent already, a cleaning crew of snails and crabs. Blue legged and emeral crabs are great.

i would recomend against getting emerald crabs because they sometimes arent reef safe. i would go with scarlet hermit crabs, blue legged hermit crabs and astro and turbo snails. those white things look like mushrooms to me, but i could be wrong. i have some clear mushrooms in my tank and they stay in the dark so if it starts moving to the dark its probably a non photosynthetic coral.

So far, my cleaning crew consists of one Hermit Crab and one Snail (type unknown -pic below) roughly the same size as my Crab.

The consensus of opinion seems to be that my white rock dwellers are mushrooms. They don't shun the light, but rather, seem to embrace it. The third one has still not found a home. They started out attached to the rock by a singular tube-like leg and have since, molded themselves to the surface of the rock.

I had not seen the snail for a couple of days, so I dropped a tiny pellet of African Cichlid food into the tank at the front. The Crab nearly jumped off the rock he was on and made a bee-line straight for the food. He was followed shortly by the snail, who came up out of the sand and also went straight for the food. They must be able to "smell" it.

I Googled Aiptasia as well as Astro and Turbo Snails. Got a good lesson on the Aiptasia and a critter called Berghia for natural control of the pest. I found the Turbo Snail. Seems I have a few of the Turbo Snail shells in my tank. Couldn't find anything called an Astro Snail. The closest thing I found was called an Astrea Snail.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is a Nassarius Snail. They burry themselves in the sand and are great for cleaning up left over food in the sandbed. And yeah they can smell it. Funny how they do that. you can put the food at the opposite end of the tank and watch them race for it.
The nudi branches are not the most ideal ways to deal with aptasia. Unless you put them directly on the aptasia, they dont find them and will die of starvation. They are expensive considering how many you will need to take care of, I dont remember what size tank it is, but its about 1 per every 2-5 gallons and if there is not enough aptasia to support them, they die. Aptasia is the only thing they eat so once its gone, they die. And the aptasia can come back.

SEAF wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]