Oil_Fan

I'm looking for a suggestion or 2 on corals. My problem is I have a couple of emerald crabs and every now and then they've been going after my yellow polyps. I've probably lost about 8 or 10 of them now.

Is there anything that they're not likely to touch? I currently have a 36" Coralife 50/50 96 watts for lighting.

agsansoo

Try mushrooms ! I can't remember hearing of anything eating them. Your lighting is low in wattage. I would try straight 10K bulbs instead of 50/50. I would also stick to soft corals for now.

Tom

Go with shrooms, they are so good for the tank. They look really cool and if you add a few in one corner and the odd one from time to time in a different spot in the tank, they will slowly move to where the older ones are. They look really cool when they all group together and are of different colors too.
Tom

Oil_Fan

Just so I understand what I should get for new bulbs:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=13313

They list 3 lights that are available for my fixture. I'm guessing the last one is out of the question. I currently have what I believe is the 50/50 (at least the label says it is) which has one True Actinic 03 Blue and one 10000k bulb.

Are you saying that you'd replace it with the 10000k set? And I'm guessing that both bulbs are the 10000k.

agsansoo

Yes. The reason for both bulbs being 10K is more PAR for the corals growth. Actinic bulbs do nothing to help corals grow, they are just for looks. Your actually only running 48 watts of good light on a 96 watt 50/50 bulb. How many 96 watt bulbs do you have ?

Peterpiper

My understanding was that the light coming from a Actinic bulb, blue light spectrum is required as penetrates deeper into the water??

Oil_Fan

agsansoo, just the 2.

agsansoo

I need to make a sticky on lighting !

par = photosynthetically available radiation. Most lights are designated to have a wattage rating, but this doesn't really mean much. How much par you want is dependent on the kind of livestock you plan on keeping. If you have mushrooms and such (softies), you don't need too high of a par rating. If you plan to have clams and SPS, you want a ton of par (so mh or T5 lighting). A 20,000K bulb often makes 1/2 the PAR of a 10,000K . It may penetrate the water deeper, but at only half the par. Hope this makes sense. The only way to know for sure is to test your lighting/tank with a per meter.

offminded

i'm surprised wolfgang hasn't expressed his hatred for emerald crabs here yet...i have two emeralds and some mushrooms...so far so good as the emeralds haven't messed with the shrooms yet...

Oil_Fan

Well you can add me to the list of those not liking emerald crabs. I finally had to pull them out of my main tank and put them into my quarantine tank.

Yesterday the LFS that I go to was having a huge sale. I picked up some mushrooms, a flame angel, yellow tang and some other miscellaneous stuff. They had prices that in some cases beat even Liveaquaria.com!! Anyways, at one time or another last night, both crabs started in on the shrooms. And that was after feeding the fish and making sure I put in some emerald entre for them. ggrrrr...So out they came.

So if anyone in the Atlanta area would like a pair coral/macro algae hunters...

offminded

that's really interesting...i have had my emerald for a week and he has been an angel...but ya never know...

Oil_Fan

Don't get me wrong...I do like emerald crabs. They have personalities and are quite interesting. I just won't let it rip up my corals. I've been trying to increase my feedings (within reason) the last couple of weeks and that still hasn't been enough.

I've probably lost close to half my polyps and then they started in on my new mushrooms and the green brain that I also bought.

FishyCat

Try feeding them some nori. You can find it a lot of grocery stores. My crab ate a bunch of my zoas and I finally had to move him to my frag tank. But he's also rather large. I think once they get to a certain size that is when they go after the zoas. I have a smaller one in a different tank and so far he doesn't bother anything. But we'll see what happens when he gets bigger.

Oil_Fan

Their size could be part of the problem. They're both something like 1.25", maybe more across. What I may do is trade them back for a pair of smaller emeralds.

Oil_Fan

To go back to the lighting...

I currently have a couple of choices as to what to do. I'm convinced that I need to upgrade my lighting. I could go straight 10k 96 watt bulb to replace my 50/50.

The other option is to invest in a better light fixture and just be done with it. MarineDepot.com has the Coralife, 36" 96 watt 10,000k and 96 watt actinic for $225 plus shipping.

linky:
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt...s~vendor~.html

Suggestions?? I really don't want to drop $500 for MH ones but would be willing to spend a couple hundred dollars.

Jon_Flynn

Mushrooms are a great addition to add some color to your tank.
Perhaps some frog-spawn, or maybe a candy cane would do well in there, too.
I also like galaxy, bubble, and tounge coral. Just some suggestions.

I have a crab as well, and the polyps that are in my tank never seem to be bothered by him. Perhaps they're in an area where he frequently moves around, and is crawling over them, thus stressing them out. I know my little guy has knocked over my hammer, and up-rooted my spawn a few times, but some epoxy takes care of that.

Hope this helped

-Jon

Oil_Fan

I did get some frogspawn and my clown fish love it!! I'm also planning on a couple more mushrooms of different colors. And then maybe a leather. Once I get the corals that I want, then I'll replace my emerald crabs. I really do like the guys but the ones that I had enjoyed my polyps a little too much.