145g Reef Tank - Other

A reef aquarium does not host only corals, invertebrates and fish. Some people actually derive more pleasure from viewing small living animals living in and around the live rock and substrate than the corals, fish and inverts themselves! There are many, many tiny creatures as well as larger organisms that live in our reef tanks. Here are some of mine:

	Name	Date Acquired	Notes
	Syllid Syllid epitoke		My tank was barely up and running when I discovered this small worm swimming around. Fortunately for it there was no livestock in the tank so it was safe. To provide an indication of size, the substrate you see is pieces of aragonite (about 2-3mm in length).
	Sipunculids Peanut worm		A peanut worm living in the live rock. They are highly beneficial scavengers and are usually only active at night. They cannot stand light.
	Cirripedia Barnacle		A barcnacle that came as hitchiker on ym sun coral. They are filter feeders and completely harmless.
	? Baby anemone?		This looked like a baby anemone but I could be mistaken.
	Spirorbid Spirorbid polychaete worm		Any reef tank will have thousands of these tiny serpulid worms. They have calcerous tubes and a little foot with "feathers" to feed on particulate matter. They proliferate on glass panes, equipment and basically everwhere where they can get a foothold. They are completely harmless.
	Copepoda Copepods		Copepods are usually a sign of a healthy aquarium. They usually increase in numbers when diatoms start growing, many times as part of the normal cycling of a marine aquarium. They are highly beneficial and the staple foor source for many animals, such as mandarins, pipefish, small wrasses etc.
	Copepoda Copepod		A copepod under the microscope. This copepod is 543μm long (1/2mm). A bunch of eggs can be seen close to the copepod's tail.
	Copepoda Baby Copepod		Baby copepods newly hatched from the eggs above. This one is 68μm long.
	Isopoda Isopod		Isopods sitting on the glass pane. Some people believe isopods are bad, but infact most species are just as beneficial as amphipods and copepods. Only a small fraction of them are predators and parasitic.
	Isopoda Isopod		Another isopod under the microscope.
	Mysidacea Mysid shrimp		At night you might see lots of tiny eyes reflecting in the torch's light, swimming in and out of small crevices int he live rock. These are not baby shrimp, but instead mysid shrimp. They are too highly beneficial and a good food source for a variety of fish.
	Acarus Marine mite		While looking at algae samples under the microscope, I discovered this weird little isopod scurrying between the algae strands.
	? Sponge?		These weird glass sponges reside at the base of my leather coral.
	Homotrema rubrum Tree foram		I have lots of these weird animals.
	? Unidentified		Another weird, unidentified creature.
	Pseudocorynactis Orange ball anemone		A small invert - hitchiker on the live rock.
	? Sponge		Another small sponge.
	? Sponge		In dark spots I have several of these sponges. They are filter feeders and harmless.
	Zoantharia Zoanthid Sweeper Tentacle		I was told by many prominent aquarists that Zoanthids do not posess sweeper tentacles. I have taken photos indicating mine does.
	Zoantharia Zoanthid Sweeper Tentacle		A closeup showing that the sweeper tentacles definitely originates from the zoanthid itself.
	Bacillariophyceae Diatoms		Diatoms are part of the natural cycling process of any new aquarium. Here an O₂ bubble is forming as a byproduct of the photosynthesis of the diatoms.
	Bacillariophyceae Diatoms		Diatoms on the substrate.
	Bacillariophyceae Diatoms		Microscopic view of diatoms.
	Chlorophyta Green algae		Green algae forming strands, as viewed under the microscope.
	? Unifdentified		Unidentified animal under the microscope.
	Sebdenia flabellata Red Seaweed		Red seaweed. The tangs eat these way too fast for it to sustain itself.
	Cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria		The dreaded cyanobacteria forming a thick mat, trapping air bubbles.
	Cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria		Cyanobacteria under the microscope. Note the similarity between these and the pink hair algae.
	Derbesia Green Hair Algae		Green hair algae growing on the live rock.
	Derbesia Green Hair Algae		Green hair algae under the microscope.
	Asparagopsis taxiformis Falkenbergia Stage / Sporophyte Stage		Falkenbergia Stage / Sporophyte Stage of Asparagopsis taxiformis. These were introduced with some algae I added to my sump. Once in my tank I could not kill it off. When I dosed Tropic Marine's BioMagnesium to raise my magnesium to 1600ppm it started to die off, turning a brown colour, but now it is growing back.
	Asparagopsis taxiformis Falkenbergia Stage / Sporophyte Stage		Closeup under the microscope.
	Bryopsis pennata Bryopsis		Bryopsis - the sum of all my fears. There are no natural predators I know of that will eat mine. It proliferates and is difficult to keep in check. It killed my sun coral and is about to smother some of my other coral.
	Bryopsis pennata Bryopsis		Bryopsis under the microscope.
	Chaetomorphae Chaetomorphae		A great macro algae for the sump - it does not go sexual and it is very easy to prune. Since this picture had been taken it grew so much that even after all the live rock and sand as seen here was removed, it completely fills this area in the sump. It is a great nutrient export mechanism and a benefit is that my tanks and Foxface also loves eating it.
	Chaetomorphae Chaetomorphae		Chaeto under the microscope.
	Caulerpa racemosa Grape Caulerpa		Grape caulerpa started growing in a small patch on my rock. It rapidly spread so much that I constantly had to prune it. The quickest solution was the removal of the rock and the addition of a foxface. He cleaned the rocks in two days.
	Caulerpa racemosa Grape Caulerpa		Grape caulerpa under the microscope.
	Topic Marine Immuvit		I was curious as to what exactly my various plankton additions were made up of. So I placed some Immuvit under the microscope and this is what I saw... Since I am not a biologist I do not recognise the various algaes, but it is clear there are several variants and that the particle sizes ranges from tiny to large.
	Two Little Fishies PhytoPlan		PhytoPlan looks quite similar to Immuvit.
	Cyclop-Eeze		Cyclop-Eeze is a great source of food for those filter feeders and fish that consumes particles the size of copepods. It is clear that cyclop-eeze does not only consist of whole copepods but also a huge amount of fragments.

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145g Reef Tank - Other