Bubble corals and hammer corals are very hardy. They have survived through urchant attacks, high nitrates and high salinity in my tank. However, the hammer coral was very small when I first got it and now it is larger than my hand. It grow twice it size (if not more) in about a year. The bubble coral was the fav target of my spiny urchan (which i ended up returning because it was a pest) it ended up almost dieing on me. It took about 5months to nurse it back to health. Mushroom corals seem to be the easiest of all the corals to maintain.

--- In Saltwater_Fish_and_Reef_Aquariums@yahoogroups.com, "Louise Tennant" wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am fairly new to the group and to saltwater tanks and I'm looking for some help.
>
> I have a couple of things in my tank that have arrive on their own and I don't know what they are.
>
> 1) They look like a brown seeds and when the water is agitated by the movement of the fish at feeding time this seems to upset them and them seem to send out strings that look like cobwebs.
>
> 2) These look like little shiny green balls. There is one cluster of tiny one and one bigger one of by itself. The bigger one is about the size of a good sized pea and perfectly round.
>
> I have also lost a couple of my corals to brown slime. Any suggestions here? All the others in the tank are happy and flourishing.
>
> I have a 29 gallon biocube and I change 5 gallons of water every weekend. I do check to water regularly and it seems to test okay.
>
> Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Louise T. (a different Louise)
>

The first sounds kinda like vermited snails except they don't look like seeds. They typically look kinda like a small swirled shell attached to rock (or what ever) with a capped opening. Look very carefully at where the webs are coming from! Vermited snails do cast out a long stringy mucus web to catch their food. What you are seeing isn't irritation, it's feeding! I have quite a few in my tank. Their webs can be ugly at times, but they don't typically hurt anything. I've read that they can irritate some corals, but I have SPS and softies by my vermiteds and they don't bug them a bit.

The second sounds like green bubble algae, irritating invasive stuff. I got some on a frag. Thought I'd cleaned it all off but didn't and now it's spreading all over my tank. Urgh! I'm going to get some emerald crabs, they supposedly eat the stuff. I also carefully (so as not to rupture them) pull off the larger bubbles and remove them when ever I can. The bubbles contain spores, when you pop them you release spores and spread them. Best to try to take steps to remove them if you can. If they grow too dense they'll prevent some corals from being able to open (various polyps).

Brown slime? What kind of corals did you loose? Some are specifically afflicted by a brown slime disease... can't remember if it's acans or duncans (thinking the later)... something like that! I don't have either and haven't dealt with it but I've heard it can be a challenge to heal a colony once it's infected. If you have any other of the same type coral that is healthy you may want to remove it from your tank and quarantine it until you are sure it's healthy and that your tank is once again healthy and rid of the slime.

Liz

----- Original Message -----
From: Louise Tennant
To: Saltwater_Fish_and_Reef_Aquariums@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 2:22 PM
Subject: [S&F and Reef Aquariums] Identification questions

Hello everyone,

I am fairly new to the group and to saltwater tanks and I'm looking for some help.

I have a couple of things in my tank that have arrive on their own and I don't know what they are.

1) They look like a brown seeds and when the water is agitated by the movement of the fish at feeding time this seems to upset them and them seem to send out strings that look like cobwebs.

2) These look like little shiny green balls. There is one cluster of tiny one and one bigger one of by itself. The bigger one is about the size of a good sized pea and perfectly round.

I have also lost a couple of my corals to brown slime. Any suggestions here? All the others in the tank are happy and flourishing.

I have a 29 gallon biocube and I change 5 gallons of water every weekend. I do check to water regularly and it seems to test okay.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Louise T. (a different Louise)

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