New Member

[Pinchy]

Hi,

 

I thought it was probably time I introduced our tank to pnwmas considering the fact that we have been displaying a poster advertising this site in our lobby for over a year!

 

I take care of a 125 g. reef tank in the "lobby" of a non-profit child care center in Salem. At this site we have 154 children ages 6 weeks through 6 years, including a full time kindergarten program. The children, parents, staff, and foster grandparent volunteers all love the tank and its' inhabitants. We have had the tank for 21 months. We purchased everything from Jason at Coral Reef and he set the tank up for us. He has been a great source of info. as we have done our best to properly care for the tanks' inhabitants, which include;

various leathers, mushrooms, zoanthids, polyps, and xenia (we have Current USA fluorescents, upgrading to T5's soon)

2 scarlet cleaner shrimp

1 Fire Shrimp

4 Blue Reef Chromis

2 False Percula Clownfish

1 Bangaii Cardinal

1 Fairy Wrasse

1 Blue Linkia - I'd like to find a new home for this guy. It has been in our tank since the beginning and lately it hasn't looked as healthy as usual. I am worried it needs a change of diet. We have 160 lbs. of "live rock" and a 4" sand bed, but not many new additions and not a lot of little critters. Maybe it has eaten everything in the tank that is on its' favorite food list and is starving. I'd hate to see that happen. I'd take it back to Jason, but I know he is gearing up for a move and I don't want to add to his list.

I have grown to really love this tank. It was as sad day when we donated the first fish I chose to the Oregon Coast Aquarium last August. "She" was a gorgeous, rapidly growing, territorial Sailfin Tang. Now that she has gone, I'd like to get another smaller, less territorial fish as our centerpiece and maybe something for the bottom of the tank. After that I "think" I'm done and will be all about maintenance and keeping everything healthy. Then I can start a tank at home! Maybe something even bigger!

I enjoy reading about everyone else's tanks, and look forward to continuing to learn from the posts in the forums. I also look forward to being able to post questions. I always seem to have something going on that I can't figure out!

 

Kim

[dsoz]

Hi, and welcome. Do you have pictures of your tank? I would love to see it.

 

dsoz

[impur]

Welcome to the site!!! Your tank sounds great, would love to see a pic as well.

[JManrow]

Welcome Kim,

 

I'm sure you will find a home for your Blue Linckia Star. Little seems to be known about the feeding habits of Linckia. A few references say that they seem to feed on bacterial slime and algae. I would agree more with the post at http://www.wetwebmedia.com/linckiafaqs.htm that they are opportunistic scavengers, and try feeding it some sponge based marine angel food a few times a week.

If you would like to receive Evite notifications about upcoming PNWMAS meetings and events, send me a pm with your e-mail address.

[CCR]

Welcome New Toad!!!! Please post pictures. It's great the kids and families can enjoy a tank

[Michael7979]

WELCOME!!!!!!!

[Pinchy]

Hey,

Thanks so much for the warm welcome. I especially appreciate the info. about the Linckia. I have tried feeding it directly, but it doesn't respond well and I don't have much patience. Part of the problem with having a tank in the workplace is that if I spend too much time playing, my boss notices. The Linckia is nothing like the brittle sea star we used to have (now terrorizing a Dentist office in South Salem). That thing was a monster. I swear it would have taken the tongs right along with the food. Everyone was afraid it was going to suddenly jump out of the tank and attack them, like some alien movie!

I'm not sure how this whole picture thing works. I'd like to add a page to our school website specifically for the fish tank. Maybe a web cam so that the parents can spend their work hours watching the fish (laugh) I've also heard about photobucket. What is the easiest way for people to view photos of our tank? I'm happy to show off our wet pets.

Oh, by the way, the T5's arrived today. It's a Current USA Nova Extreme Pro 72" T5 fixture with 6 39 watt SlimPaq 10K's and 6 39 watt 490nm actinics. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see what they look like on the tank. I'm taking before and after pictures today! My boss had better beware that I won't get much done today!

 

Thanks,

Kim

[Kevinmc]

Welcome Kim,

[ThePremiumAquarium]

Sounds great! I will have to stop by just to check it out. Jason has been an extreme help in all of my saltwater ventures and has become a good friend. I must be in his shop every other day or so. If you need a home for the linkia let me know. I have a 210 reef tank and 7 other tanks full of life and am pretty sure I could find lots of it to eat

 

I have had really good luck with orange linkia stars in the past, and have kept them for around a year or just over that each. It seems that all linkias are simply not suited for our tanks and as jmanrow was saying, we really dont know what to feed them. I have had a pretty good outbreak of sponge, so if that is what they eat, as many researchers have suggested, I may have a good setup for them now.

 

Get some picutures up asap. I want to see this beauty in all of its glory!

 

Garrett

[180Brandy]

Hello and Welcome.