Coral hitched a ride on a snail

This is my first post and first saltwater tank.It's a 110 tall with a 20 gal refuge.I have both MH and actinics on a less intense schedule to help control algae.It's definitely still cycling.Used to hate the cycling process,but patience kicked in and now i love it.Its pretty cool watching all of the different algae blooms and new little critters come and go.Anyways, I bought a couple handfuls of hermit crabs and snails from my LFS and it turned out that one of the snails had some coral on its shell.Crabs ate the snail and i stuck the shell on my rock directly under the MH.Question...Can someone please id this for me so that I can look up how to properly take care of it.Its pretty cool looking and the colors seem to be coming more vibrant now that it's stationary(looks better under the actinics)I've been adding ESV Bionic Calcium Buffer.Water chemistry is good.I would just like to now what it is so it can receive proper care.




Here's a pic of my tank.





Getting ready, if the tank is ready to add some livestock.Any Help or suggestions on what to fill my tank up or what not to put in it would be sweet.Thanks to all who have a look.

 

Welcome to 3reef! I don't know what it is but it's pretty cool looking! others will be along shortly to answer your questions

 

welcome to 3reef!! your snail shell might be covered in porites, it is an sps that loves metal halides but that is just a guess.

 

Thanks.Had a quick google session it does resemble other porite coral.In fact it looks dead to some of the other photos i cam across.Thanks for the id.


T.lites

 

there mini star polyps and very much alive, the specific name im unsure of, will do some looking around for ya.

 

This reminds me of a hermit crab that had an anemone attached to its shell.. we saw this at petco one time.. It was funny... Welcome to 3 reef!!!!!

 

Kinda look like really small star polyps of some sort.

Welcome to 3reef and nice tank! Look forward to hearing about all the updates to come!

When did you first get the tank up and running?

 

Thanks for everything everyone.This is my first tank and I really love it and want it to be really Bada$$.The tank has been up and running for 4 1/2 months.however I cycled the rock in a completely separate tank for 1 month before setting up my main tank.Plan on adding some more branch rock(I'm talking tree branches) to cover the over flow a bit more.Also heard of people putting certain types coral on the back glass of the tank and overflow.If this is true,I am most definitely making a purchase.I don't know though because so far the tank has made all of the decisions.

 

What are your parameters??? Green Star Polyps can grow up the back and on the overflows, very quickly too.

Gin

 

HUH???????

im really sorry guys, i have nothing but respect for the both of you, but there is no way in heck those are star polyps, heres what google had

mini star polyps


Porites