First Coral In The 100, hehe

[inwall75]

Originally Posted by turbo4603

LOL, i have a question, somethin i shall lok into later, can you have too much skeleton in your tank, rising your calcium levels so high that it can mess up your ivestock??

Live rock is essentially dead coral skeleton mixed with dead coralline algae that's been sitting in the ocean for hundreds or thousands of years. That's why it's so porous. The calcium carbonate skeleton that reef-building corals put down is already porous but over time, weathering and the actions of worms, crabs, etc make it even more porous.

You want to know what I've done with dead flowerpot skeletons that looks pretty neat. Frag some zoanthids onto it. Once the entire skeleton gets covered, it looks cool.

[Birchell]

That is a sweet idea!! How do you frag zoo's? Just scrap one off, and place it on the flower pot, and let it mount??

[turbo4603]

Awesome idea for the zoos, and thanks for the feedback! But is my hypoth...(educated guess) correct, skeletons do help with the calcium levels?
Look Birchell someone else is awake!!!

[turbo4603]

I think Curt just got off line, the way i do it is i get a small colony of 4-5, and with gel superglue stick it to were id like them to be. and there they stay!

[Birchell]

cool, but how do you get them off in the first place??

[turbo4603]

This might be an incorrect way of doing it, so someone please correct me if im doing it wrong, but it has worked for me fine.
I bought a couple of those Ceramic razors from my petshop, and a carefully cut five or so between each other off, then scrape it with the same razor off the rock very carefully. Then i place it were i whant with Gel superglue.

[Birchell]

works for me. I have a little colony that came as a hitchhicker to my yellow polyps, and i would like to get a few off and make a new colony. The yellow polyps are always stinging the zoos, and they cant grow like they should.

[inwall75]

Originally Posted by Birchell

That is a sweet idea!! How do you frag zoo's? Just scrap one off, and place it on the flower pot, and let it mount??

If you don't wear glasses, buy some goggles. Then you can try to razor blade them off the rock they are on. Alternatively, I usually use a flathead screwdriver that I've grinded down to be sharper than normal and I try to chip the thinnest piece of rock possible. It's MUCH easier to glue rock to rock than a sliming coral.

Originally Posted by turbo4603

Awesome idea for the zoos, and thanks for the feedback! But is my hypoth...(educated guess) correct, skeletons do help with the calcium levels?
Look Birchell someone else is awake!!!

First off...I wish I was asleep. I have sleep apnea and sometimes when I stop breathing, I know that I'll be up for hours. Skeletons won't help with Calcium levels unless the Calcium is VERY low and the pH is also very low. Think of how a Calcium reactor works. You put Calcium carbonate into it and then you purposely drive the pH down to 6~6.5. You could use coral skeletons in a reactor but the reason we don't is the adsorbed phosphates.....reactor media has much less in the way of phosphates.

While there can be a small amount of dissolution...it's just that. Very small. For instance the LR in your tank might be from 2000 years ago and it's still here.

Live sand doesn't dissolve and buffer the water like is commonly thought either. You will get some dissolution at the very bottom of the sandbed but the Calcium and alkalinity is rarely going to make it to your tank.

[inwall75]

Post to explain the goggle comment. Mushrooms, and zoanthids are notorious for squirting you when fragging.

Zoanthids have very little palytoxin compared to palythoa and protopalythoa. However, they do contain some. Your eyes, nose, and mouth all have mucus membranes that will absorb this poison readily. Keep your mouth closed when fragging them too and wash your hands well after fragging and never touch your eyes, nose or mouth until you do.

(BTW....this is why during cold and flu season you should wash your hands regularly. Most of us touch our mucus membranes and we don't even realize we are doing it....then we get sick).

[turbo4603]

Awesome explanation, thanks alot inwall.
God bless sleep apnea! Just kiding!!