I have been using Cyclop-Eeze for several years now and I can say that it is a pretty good fish food to supplement your saltwater fish’s diet. Cyclop-Eeze is made from tiny crustaceans that are high in antioxidants and highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA’s).
Cyclop-Eeze comes freeze dried in a can (like a powder) a freeze dried wafer, a frozen block and a freezer bar. I have been using the freeze dried product mixed in with mysis shrimp and some other fish foods to give my saltwater fish a nice variety. My clownfish and goby absolutely go nuts over these tiny crustaceons and the price is right for the amount you get. I have even noticed some of my soft corals and LPS feeding on Cyclop-Eeze as well. When using the freeze dried product make sure you soak it in a little tank water or selcon before feeding it to your tanks inhabitants, this will prevent the freeze dried Cyclop-eeze from getting sucked down into your sump or filtration systems. I beleive my next time around with this product I will try the freezer bar as it seems to be a little more practical.
You can read more about this product’s history and nutrition at the companies webpage Here.
When receiving corals online or through a reputable dealer or from a fellow reefkeeper, It is important to obtain the healthiest specimens. There are many reasons for picking healthy specimens but one extremely important reason is that you don’t want to expose your saltwater reef aquarium to unwanted parasites or disease.
One way of making sure you are not bringing unwanted parasites into your reef tank is using a coral dip. A coral dip is simple to use and every one has a different set of directions that are easy to follow. Mainly you will add a little coral dip (or Lugol’s solution, iodine solution) to some tank water and soak your new coral for a period of time. The soak time is dependent on the solution you are using, the MediCoral Coral Dip – 60 mL – 2 oz. as shown above has a soak time of 8-11 minutes for soft corals and 7-10 minutes for sps corals.
The Medicoral Dip comes in two size bottles a 2oz and a 1oz bottle. You may be thinking that it may not be worth to spend the $10-$20 bucks on a bottle but keep in mind that only 20 drops of this solution is combined with one gallon of saltwater (you can use fresh made saltwater). Also that dipping your corals will prevent coral eating organisms from destroying your whole tank, this hobby is expensive and a little preventive care goes a long way.
I chose Medicoral dip for dipping my corals because it has a good name among reefers on the online forums. When I started out on this hobby I had pyramid snails, sundail snails, zoanthid spiders and flatworms that all caused big tank problems. I wouldn’t even think about adding another piece of coral without dipping it first.
Pictured above is a green Sinularia coral, one of nine colonies my main tank has. These corals are a very hardy soft coral that is similar in shape to colt (Cladiella) and tree (Nepthea) corals. Many beginner reefers often mistake the three, however you can tell the difference by looking at the stalk. The Sinularia coral has a very thick stalk where as tree corals do not. Colt corals are very feathery while Sinularia corals are not as feathery.
The Sinularia coral does best under intense lighting but I have kept these corals and propagated them under 130watts of pc lighting. So it does tolerate a wide range of lighting. They prefer a good amount of water movement but not direct laminar flow.
Sinularia are photosynthetic so you do not have to target feed them. They also seem to thrive in water rich in phosphates and nitrates (but so does hair algae).
I currently propagate my nine Sinularia colonies and sell them to a local fish store for store credit. They are extremely easy to propagate once they get a foot hold in your tank. My method is with a sharp pair of scissors or a razor blade and I either rubberband them to live rock or place the new frag into live rock rubble. When using the rubberband method take care not to wrap the rubberband to tightly around the coral.
