New to the hobby . . . figured I should introduce myself

Although I've already posted a couple of questions (and received very friendly and helpful replies), I figured I would introduce myself. I fell in love with an aquarium owned by my cousin, that he subsequently bequeathed to me after moving to a smaller house. It's a 90 gallon aquarium that's about 5 or 6 years old, I believe. It survived the move from Belmont to Albany, lots of buckets, and a lot of care and hard work. The only casualty was a hitchhiker sea slug of some variety.

The aquarium has a number of corals: stylophora, kelly green psammocora, a couple of acans, a valida, scolymia, and a whole slew of mushrooms. And three bubble tip anemones.

The tank also has a clown, hippo tang, yellow tang, sail fin tang, chalk bass, royal gramma, goby, anthia, 2 cardinal fish, a fire shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, and a bunch of snails and crabs.

I'm an engineer/entrepreneur, and the tank lives in my conference room, where it keeps many others entertained. I'm enjoying the challenge of maintaining all these creatures, and I can stare at them swimming around for hours. I'm already starting to think about adding more shrimp and perhaps a new fish. Random fact: I'm a moderator on the Acoustic Guitar Forum.

Oh, and there's a hitchhiker starfish that seems to be multiplying.





Very shy fire shrimp cleaning the hippo.

 

Welcome to 3reef! Glad that we are helpful. Beautiful tank you have there. Feel free to post any more questions.

The hitchhiker is a member of the asterina starfish group. Harmless typically, though some will eat corals, it's pretty rare ime. Some also find high concentrations to be obnoxious visually.

 

Va Reef, thanks for the information. I was actually talking about this hitchhiker in the case of the starfish (you can see his leg sticking out from beneath the rock where he basically spends all his time). I guess I have multiple hitchhikers. This star seems to be multiplying, and apparently I have a sponge where the new stars like to hang out.

 

Oh and one more question. What lighting schedule should I be using? I just bought the Kessil controller for my 2 A360 lights (but have not yet received). My cousin had the timer set to come on at 7:00 AM and turn off at 6:00 PM. What would be the most natural and beneficial lighting schedule now that I have the controller to use?

 

Welcome.

You sound like a natural, already knowing the correct names of your corals and fish, wow. The engineer in you is showing.

Quite the tank history, I am really impressed you've been able to successfully keep everything a live and healthy.

I am not familiar with the Kessil, 7 am to 6 pm is fine, there however should be a ramping up period. You'll probably have to start a thread specifically targeting those questions you have about the Kessil.

 

+1 on the ramping up and down. its not a bad habbit to research the climate of where our animals come from so any lighting schedule between 9-12 hours a day is considered adequate. the starfish in the photo is a small bristle star fish, harmless and a very good member of the cuc

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

 

+1 on above, I run my light for 12 hours, anything past that and you start to get algae growth typically.

The last picture you posted in your first post, is that what you're referring to as an acropora valida?

 

Welcome to 3Reef!

On the lighting, you just want to make sure you acclimate your coral to the lights. As far as times the lights are on, make sure you have them on when you will be home.

 

Great, thanks for the props.

Awesome! Thanks for identifying this starfish. It's been bugging me not knowing.

Yes, is that the correct name or did I get that wrong?

Well, in this case, the aquarium is in my office, so I actually like having them on during the day.

I just purchased the Kessil controller so I can ramp up and down.

 

I just believe it to be something else, maybe an acropora lokani? Do you have any more shots of it?