Question about which corals can leave the water.

[Jacob Abshire]

I have some corals that are fairly close to the top of the tank. 2 species of muchroom and a large star poylop. When I do water changes all three are exposed to the air for about a minute. I do weekly water changes. I am going to be putting a small bunch of pulseing xenia in the tank and was going to put it in a spot of the tank that will be exposed during water changes. Will this hurt the xenia? Should I put it some where else?

Also, about 8 months ago I put two cleaner shrimp in my tank, in a month they were gone. I think that my brittle star (the one with spikes?) or my CBS ate them. Which do you think it was? I am going to take the most likly one out and get a few more.

My last question is:

Will snails, tangs, starfish, hermit crabs eat the sea weed sold for saltwater tanks? My tank is void of alga and I have one star fish and two turbo snails that eat alge. I want to get another small starfish and some hermit crabs. Will they live off the sea weed?

Thanks for answering my questions, Jacob.

[Boogiechillin]

1) The shrooms and polyps can handle momentary exposure to air. Xenia tends to dislike this more, so I would opt to place it elsewhere if you have the option to do so.
2) Either the brittle or the CBS could be the culprit. Green brittles are notoriously predatory if not kept well-fed. CBS shrimp are highly territorial and will kill other shrimp and other CBS of the same gender.
3) I assume that you're talking about macroalgaes (caulerpa, halimeda, etc etc) here. Tangs will gobble these up. Starfish really don't eat observable algaes - what kind of stars do you have?

[Jacob Abshire]

So you think that I should get rid of both the star and CBS before I get any cleaner shrimp?

Also, the alge I am talking about is sold dry in pacakages from pet stores.
They are really just ment for feeding fish, but I was wondering if the stars (I have an orange one and am getting a blue one, something like likita stars), the snails, and the hermits would eat this dry sea weed type food.

Thanks for your help, Jacob.

[Jacob Abshire]

Could I set up a 20 gal with no fish for my CBS and starfish?

I could put sand and rock for filtration and a power head for movement.

Would this set up need any other filter? What else could I keep in there? Jacob.