Coral woes.. Help a newbie.. You once were one!

[carriej]

Ok - admittedly I came into this relatively confident. I thought a lot of my freshwater high tech planted skills would cross over into the coral realm.

WOMP.

Not true.

The second I put corals in my tank I knew this was the case. I had a "Oh my god. What have I done" moment.

Ok... I have several issues.

Acans - what do they need. I killed the big one (cut it in half... on accident of course), but luckily there is a itty bitty baby beside it! I feel much better. I don't want to kill it. I'm not sure why it isn't happy, or what it's beef is. It's all flat and not puffed up like I see in pictures.

Pink hairy mushrooms -Are now white. Yep. Bleached. I had them in a shadowed area and they didn't seem to be expanding so I put them on the sand bed and now they are white. I fed them some bits of oyster today and they ate that. What should I do? I put them back in the shaded place.

WHAT IS THIS? People tell me candycane. But it does not look or eat like my green candycane unless this is normal. It eats like an open brain and the purple outside part comes all the way over. It's also got this weird lump in it's purple thing that looks like a bubble. Seems to come and go.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v709/zygirl22/coral.jpg

There are little sadistic creatures running amok on my zoas! I don't know what they are. Some type of pod. They have legs, antennae and are clearish like all the rest - I can't get a picture. I tried. They are longish and skinny. They aren't eating the zoas.. But irritating them enough that most stay only half open.

My torch coral doesn't seem to want to extend really at all. This is the most I can get it to extend. It gets all puffy sometimes too... Sometimes it randomly just shrinks right up to nothing. Then 30 minutes later it's not.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v709/zygirl22/DSC02604.jpg


Any advice would be appreciated.

[monkE]

im a total noob to reef too... but i think that listing your water parameters would help. How long has the tank been established?

[Baldy]

acans - no experience

mushrooms - if you ffed them they might be ok. bleaching means they wont be able to feed themselves through photosynthesis, so if theyre fed they MIGHT make it through. ive got a zoa colony that bleached on me and is regaining its colors but its a slow process.

what is this - ive never seen a candy cane open like that. my blastos do sometimes but ive never seen a canycane like that. id look into blastos a bit more.

the creatures on your zoas are probably copepods but without a pic its hard to tell for sure.

Im just learning about torch coral as well atm. mine seemed to shrink a bit in high flow but thats just my experience.

[ScubaSteve]

Yup, what they said. Give us a few more details and we'll happily help.

[kien]

Yes, tank parameters, set up, maintenance schedule, etc will help us help you :-)

[carriej]

WHOOPS. Knew I was forgetting something.

Tank is a 125 gal 6 foot with approx 30 gals in sump. Bubble magus skimmer, lighting is an ATI sunpower 6 bulb 60" t5ho.

I do about 15 gals water change weekly, livestock is a pair of clowns, and a chromis. Some snails and two hermits. A cleaner shrimp named Francois (lol).

Tank has been running since Oct. Just added corals not quite two weeks ago. Have a few other things that are doing well (frogspawn, Duncan, etc)

My levels are as follows:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Calc - 400
Alk - 8
Temp - 78
Ph - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025

I am using two 1400gph powerheads and a 900gph return pump.

Thanks in advance!

[jagermaier]

Your parameters are good, what kind of lighting are you using?

Also it looks like your candycane is about to split...so thats a good thing! :biggrin: Soon you will have many heads of them.

[The Grizz]

How old are your T5 bulbs & what is your light time cycle?

[gregzz4]

The crawly critters, if they're quick-ish, could be isopods
I had multiple hundreds, until I added my starry blenny and PJ cardinals
Now they've virtually been wiped out
Their numbers will change as your tank matures and your fish find them

Isopod

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/safe_isopod.jpg

[carriej]

Those look like the critters!

The bulbs are brand new 80 watt t5ho ATI bulbs. Well - brand new about a month or so ago. I have 3 blue plus, 1 purple plus and 2 coral plus (if that helps!)

I have my lights on timers. Right now I have dusk/dawn lights on from 11am-11pm. My full lights are in from 12pm-9pm.

[jagermaier]

I am thinking that your tank is still very young since it has only been 3 months since you started it. Many reefers wait until 9-12 months before adding coral. Even after your first cycle there may be mini cycles that occur that could affect sensitive corals. That might be why your hardier corals like frogspawn are doing fine.

[gregzz4]

Many reefers wait until 9-12 months before adding coral
Unfortunately, many of us don't :rolleyes: but can get away with it

I was originally planning on a long-term addition of coral to my new tank, but a couple locals got me started within the first month or so, and away I went

I haven't added anything sensitive yet such as 'nems, but I got away with lots of easy SPS and LPS right away

Lots of absorbing of knowledge goes a long way

Hope the rest of the members get you going in the right direction :smile:

[carriej]

Hopefully.. lol

I read lots.. But nothing really prepared me for what I was in for I guess!

I find it hard to know what it needs by looking at it... I am used to keeping freshwater plants. I know what they need by looking at them.

I feel a bit helpless. I can see that they are "not happy" but I keep my levels in check, keep up with waterchanges and try to put them in the right flow areas. What gives.. lol

[reefwars]

WHOOPS. Knew I was forgetting something.

Tank is a 125 gal 6 foot with approx 30 gals in sump. Bubble magus skimmer, lighting is an ATI sunpower 6 bulb 60" t5ho.

I do about 15 gals water change weekly, livestock is a pair of clowns, and a chromis. Some snails and two hermits. A cleaner shrimp named Francois (lol).

Tank has been running since Oct. Just added corals not quite two weeks ago. Have a few other things that are doing well (frogspawn, Duncan, etc)

My levels are as follows:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Calc - 400
Alk - 8
Temp - 78
Ph - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025

I am using two 1400gph powerheads and a 900gph return pump.

Thanks in advance!



not saying this is your issue but a bit of extra flow couldnt hurt in a six ft tank , two koralias 1400's arent all that much.

live rock or dry rock?

[carriej]

I also have the return. I was thinking of getting some smaller powerheads... But I don't know where to put them. Eventually I'd like to get power powerful powerheads that oscillate but... Budget only so much initially LOL.

Combination of live and dry rock, mostly dry however.

[Spyd]

I would tone down your lighting period. The Dawn / Dusk for 12 hrs is fine and dandy. Your full power lights though are too much. 9 hrs is a LONG time. I have a SPS tank and I only run my full lights for 5 hrs.

For softies and LPS, you really don't need to run any longer than 4 hrs. Those ATI fixtures pump out some serious par levels.

[Proteus]

Unfortunately, many of us don't :rolleyes: but can get away with it

I was originally planning on a long-term addition of coral to my new tank, but a couple locals got me started within the first month or so, and away I went

My tank was stocked with sps within the first week. Although water and rock came from my other tank. I had color but little growth for a couple months. My little tank is 10 months old now and has great growth and color. I think it took 6-8 months to mature enough for the coral to be truly happy
My purple poison shortcake took 4 months before it stared growing but know I can count new coralites every couple days

[kien]

Any advice would be appreciated.

To me your rocks look very white and clean with very little algae or coraline. Maybe there's more stuff growing elsewhere? How about throwing up a full tank shot? Anyway, this suggest to me that your tank is in fact still quite new (but we know that now based on your other post). Did you use all dead rock to start your tank? Your parameters are good and the tank is clearly cycled but as others have suggested, there is a period of "settling in" or "settling down" that the tank (sometimes) also needs to go through. A lot of people can get away with this period if they've done a tank transfer and are using live rock from a previous tank. If you are using all dead rock it can take longer. It's hard to tell how long it will take. It could be that your nutrient levels are way TOO low. Because the tank is so new you may not have enough nutrients for your LPS corals. They could be hungry.

I would also agree that flow could be improved. As Denny suggested, on a 6' tank two of those korellias will hardly make a dent.

The last pic does look like a candycane to me. There are LOTS of different types of candycane corals.

[carriej]

I have about 30lbs of "live" rock to 100lbs of dry rock, which was soaked and sorta kinda seeded.

When I put the live rock in... It was all really purple and it turned white in my tank. However it seems to be getting some of the purple back now. I don't know what caused this or it's if normal but it's almost as if I bleached the coraline, if that can happen.

Should I turn my skimmer off to improve nutrient levels?

Here is a full tank shot.. just dusk/dawn lights
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v709/zygirl22/photo48.jpg

Here is some nice algae.. lol..gross
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v709/zygirl22/photo44.jpg

[kien]

Well, it does look like you are getting some growth on your rocks :-). Although the majority of it still appears pristine. I don't think you necessarily need to take your skimmer off line. Since your nutrient levels are reading zero across the board you could look into feeding your tank more. A pair of clowns and a Chromis is a very very light bio load for a 125g tank. Is your skimmer even pulling anything out?? LOL. Maybe start adding more fish or feed your corals more through other methods.

[Mike-fish]

0 po4 in a few month old tank seems rather strange to me. what po4 test did you use? some are far from accurate at low range tests

[carriej]

I think it's salifert. All my tests are salifert or seachem. I'll have to check next time I go into the fish cave

When I first test the tank when it was initially set up I was getting some reading but now I am getting nothing...

And yes, my skimmer is hauling stuff out.. Not much though LOL