Sherwin's Gallery
New member
Hello everyone, I am very new to the hobby of reef-keeping but I absolutely love it. I personally own an Art gallery in Lakeview and I look at reefs in the same way. So beautiful to look at and enjoy on so many levels. A close friend of mine in the burbs got me into the hobby after seeing all of his tanks and setups. I have always wanted a nice set up for my place and I finally got my first start! a 55gal tank, perfect for its location in my home. Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated. I have not gotten any fish although I plan to by the end of the week. I do however, have a Mexican Turbo Snail, a few Emerald Crabs, blue and red legged hermits and some other smaller snails (per recommendation of my friends in the hobby and business)I have a few small corals growing, as well as some fresh hitchhikers that seem to be popping up in the rocks. I forgot the name of one of the corals my buddy gave me from one of his tanks, there is pics in my albums of what has been placed and or hitchhiked as of date. I have had the tank for about almost 2 months now, just cycled and all that is in there has been added within the last 2 weeks. Again, I'm a newby so all advice and suggestions will be taken with great appreciation. View attachment 7242View attachment 7243View attachment 7244View attachment 7245View attachment 7246View attachment 7247View attachment 7248View attachment 7249
I'm sure you are used to it owning an art gallery though as art isn't the cheapest thing either 
Looks good so far. I have a couple pointers for you though. Make sure your tank is fully cycled before adding anything else to it. I'm not sure what is going on but most of the palys look closed up and so do your Duncans. I wouldn't want to stress anything else out. Also it looks like your rock has some Aiptasia on it. You probably want to get rid of it now that you have a chance and don't have much in the tank. You can do so by trying to zap it with something or taking out the rock and possibly drying it out. One last thing I'm going to advice is to ALWAYS do your research before doing or adding anything to the tank. Don't always take ones word on something or depending on the LFS their word specially. Some LFS are just out to make the money and don't care about you or the livestock. Well hope this helps out and hope to see you around often!
You could also try to kill it as described above but since your tank is still relatively empty it might be easiest to take out the rock and manually remove it. You'll probably notice that it will shrink into a crevice in the rock so make sure you scrub the crevice clean. A quick rinse of the rock with fresh water to rinse the slimey aptasia off won't hurt anything or those polyps nearby. Just make sure you don't put the rock back in your tank without rinsing it off otherwise it will still spread. Also, never try to scrub off an aptasia in your tank becasue that will cause it to spread.
