New corals, new invert

I'm trying to increase the pH in the 55g reeftank, so today I hooked up an airpump in the garage that pushes in "fresh" air into the tank. The outlet of the tubing blows into the intake of the protein skimmer, but I'm not sure if that will make much of a difference. If this doesn't work, I'll have to patch a pencil-sized hole in the wall. ;)

A local club member traded some zoanthids with me. I gave him these and he gave me these. I decided to dip them in a solution of Flatworm eXit just in case, since my tank seems to be flatworm free. The new zoas are pretty, but only a small portion of all the polyps look like that. I'm hoping the rest color up and expand to fill in the rest of that rock.

While visiting the LFS as it was Customer Appreciation Day, I got a few new critters. I needed a few more snails for the 29g, so I bought a new Mexican Red Footed Snail, a couple of Astrea snails (small pointed shell), an emerald crab and an Arrow Crab. I've had an Arrow Crab in the past, to help eat bristleworms, but my Coral Banded Shrimp killed him. Now that the CBS is no longer in the tank, I thought I'd get this interesting creature again.

I also picked up a sad little sun coral. That is a gorgeous coral that needs to be lovingly feed daily, and this one was a few days from death. It is a small skeleton with only 2 polyps left alive, which is like saying 3% of this coral is alive. The color of one is vivid, and I thought I'd try saving this one. I don't expect it to make a full recovery, but if it does regain some health and perhaps grow just a few new polyps, it will be an indicator that I'll be successful with a larger healthy colony. In other words, I'm going to practice with this guy, which cost me $2.

While tinkering with the tanks, I noticed my Candy Cane coral was feeding, all of its tentacles extended. That is a pretty shot, merely resized. And here is a side view of the 29g reef, and a section of the 55g reef today.

The anthias doesn't venture out hardly at all. :( I wish it would come out more, because it is a beauty. It still looks healthy, and does race around during the feeding period each evening. I'm guessing a bigger tank is the only way I'm going to enjoy Peaches again.