Hiya, I got this coral about 3 weeks ago, I'd been eyeing it for a bit, but wanted to wait until my tank paramiters were better. Well, it was doing great! I fed it some pieces of shrimp waffers, Aqavitro fuel and put it on the bottom of my tank on the sand bed. I've got 4 T-5's on a 46 gallon bowfront. Last time I got a good look at it it was completely expanded and looking VERY happy. THen I left for Cabot for a few days to help my mom pack, she sold her house. I missed my dosing on Wednesday do to being out of town. When I got home yesterday late that night, this same gorgious coral had shrunk down to the point where it's skeleton is showing. There is no tissue sloughing off and none is missing, it's just receeded. It took a piece of shrimp waffer so I know there's still life it in. It was late last night, so I didn't want to dose the tank before lights went out. Today, the coral looked the same. I moved it closer up about 4" from the top of the water to see if it was a lighting issue. No improvement. Ca was down to 340, so I did a triple dose of Aquavitro calcium. PH was a touch high, 8.6 so didn't dose that and Alk was about dead normal. I hate my kit and plan to replace it later. The only other coral that seems to be unhappy is my green agro frag from the frag swap, but it's been knocked around a bit. All my other corals are puffed up and happy. Even my Trumpet coral is completely expanded and it's tenticles are out. What do I need to do to help my brain get back to it's happy place? Kim
i dont think moving it up is the answer here. when i started i was moving my corals constantly and lost most of them to this by either bleaching them out or causing them to expell the algae. i would move it back down to the bottom and if nothing else shade it for a couple days so it can adjust to the lighting all over again. give it a week in a lower flow area and let it recover and then slowly move it to the area it needs to be. more then likely it was just not happy with the situaltion and you may have overreacted a bit. kinda like the mom who runs everytime the baby gets off balace a bit. the ph is the main thing i would be worrying about and if it were me i would start with a ater change to lower it.
First thing is lower it back down to the bottom, it should be fine. It could die up high. I would feed it pieces of raw uncooked shrimp. You can buy LA. fresh shrimp at Wholefoods on Rodney Parhgam rd., I wouldn't feed it wafers. For sure don't panic on the calc level. It has nothing to do with the flesh part of the coral, it has to be maintained to let it grow the skeleton. I am not familiar with your additive but you need to dose a 2 part for calc and alk and keep them at 400 to 440 calc and 7.7 to 9 on the alk. and don't jack either up overnight, especially the alk. Go slow. It well expand somedays and others it well contract. I would feed it raw natural foods and not prepared foods. 8.6 is getting to the high side but should be safe, just don't go higher.
Hiya, Gotcha...I'll move it back to the bottom of the tank and stop feeding it waffers. I've got some frozen mysin in the fridge, a little messy to feed it, but I'll give it a go. Thanks folks Kim
I feed my large wellso brain chopped up silversides and it seems to like them just fine. Fishermans right don't panic it will change its size from day to day. Always keep it on the sand thats where they are in the wild you could cause unnessary damage to the flesh on the bottom of the brain(been there done that). Good Luck
Silversides is excellent food and I find the best time to feed is after the lights are out and the fish have went beddybye. Half hour or so It well extend its tenacles and well gobble any food put in them and the dang fish won't be trying to rip it out [dang yellow tang].
Do you have any pygmy angels in your tank? Are there any other possible coral nibblers? I am with John alkalintiy and PH maybe the issue. PH seems kinda high. Usually the salt is buffered and should not really go above 8.4. Have you tried a water change (10%)? What are you dosing to make your PH go up? In my opinion you should never dose anything for PH, but just do regular water changes. I know Kalkwasser will raise PH, but only briefly and if added too fast.
Hiya, I've been so busy I haven't been able to do a water change, so I've been dosing with Seachem's PH buffer. Been about 30 days since a change if I remember correctly. I haven't checked it today, but the lights just came on and I know PH is lower in the mornings. The corals back on the sand in it's original place and the same condition. The only fish in the tank are a yellow corris wrasse, filiment flasher wrasse, bi-color gobie, and a purple firefish. Now, there might be a pair of barber gobies..haven't seen them in a week and haven't heard my pistol shrimp either. Thoiugh, I'm not concerned about them yet. I'm going to mix up that sample and nutro we got at reefest and start feeding that to the brain and see if that doesn't help. I got the shrimp so it should work. It's the only coral in the tank I feed, so I usually don't keep bigger food stuff in the house. How often should I feed my brain (coral that is) ::grin:: Kim
I would not add any more buffer. I am not even sure its meant to be added that way. I have only used it once like 7 years ago to adjust freshly mixed saltwater. Only because I had a bad test kit, and was new to the hobby. To me the buffers are pretty much useless. Just my opinion. I use no buffers currently and have not for probably 6 years. Tanks the size of yours need their water changes to keep things healthy. Dilution of waste is the solution. Take the time to do a water change with some water that has been mixed for at least 12 hours preferably 24 hours prior to the water change. What salt are you using? Like I stated earlier the salt mixes carry buffer in them. The buffer does not go away, but helps the aquarium maintain its PH, and with water changes makes it more stable. What about the tank temperature? Has it been stable or having large swings?
another thing to consider is that one of the fish may be dead and you may be experiancing an amonia spike. i would test for that or find the missing critters to make sure alls good.
I'm supposed to be off tomorrow, so I'll mix up another batch of reef crystal and do a water change. I'm trying to schedule a water change the first weekend of every month. Temp in the tank runs between 79.5-80.5. Checked the PH about an 1 1/2 after lights were on, still 8.6. Nothing else seems stressed except the zoo's and the brain. Hmmm. I might check my Ammonia. I haven't seen the barber shrimp in a week, nor have I heard it's pistol shrimp. He'd go off at least 2-3 times in a 24 hour period.
Are the Zoa's staying closed up for several days on end as well? How often do you top off for evaporation. The reason I ask, Zoa's don't do well with high salinity.
TEST FOR AMMON., it sounds very much like you have a problem and check the NITRITES. Man I don't mean to sound cranky here but you need to start taking the time to do things. First is water changes. Weekly water changes or semi on that small of a tank. 46 gal do a 3 gal. once a week, it takes a few minutes, siphon some water out and pump the other back in. Once a month on a 46 IS NOT often enough. With RC just put a power head in the bucket and let it circulate for an hr is plenty and then do the water change. Make sure you salinity is the same also as Blake suggest and in the proper range, say 1.023. Quit dosing PH buffer, it is NOT NEEDED. IF you dose calc and alk addatives the alk add. well keep you ph plenty high, and I doubt that you need it even if you wern't dosing alk. additive. You need to be dosing both of these for skeletal growth and that means getting test kits to keep it in check. Small daily doses is best and don't dose both at the same time as they are toxic together. Best one in the morning and one in the evening. It sounds to me that you should give up any corals that have a skeleton because of your time constraints, proper dosing and levels are critical to their skeletal health. I don't know what nutro is or your sample but don't feed the brain anything but natural food. Shrimp, silversides, krill, mysis, and if you feed it shrimp make sure it is UNCOOKED and not some of that frozen china crap from the grocery store. Wholefoods on Rodney Pagham and 430 or that natural food store on Cantrell a few blocks off 430 in that strip mall, it has to be uncooked and no additives, both them have Louisiana fresh shrimp. Some advise is start reading up on stuff before you buy it or ask here about it. Listen to the LFS people but ask here or read before taking the step, because alot of those LFS people are there to sell. I don't mean to sound harsh but unless you take the time to do things properly you well be heading for ALOT of frustration and dead animals. Ps read your thread on the top.
Hiya, Ok..I'm not new to salt, been in it for four years, but I know I don't know everything. I know just enough to get people started and keep them out of trouble when they come into the store. I work at Paradise Pets. Some of you know me since you buy up there from Kevin and I do hang out at Northside when I'm not there or selling real estate. As some of you know, Kevin doesn't carry a lot of hard corals, so I haven't gotten a good education on them. The first of the year I lost my lighting system and had to buy a new one, so I went with T5's because it was what I could afford. This prompted me to consider adding some hard corals to the tank. I've had a trumpet and frog spawn for years and they've grown several heads so I'm not knew to those types. Folks up at Northside know I've been having a hard time keeping my CA and Alk in line. I do test for these two twice a week as well as my PH since they're all linked. I can't seem to get my CA above 400 but at least my Alk isn't near the bottem anymore. The Nutru I was talking about was the Seachem sample of Nutridiet we got in our gift bags. It's supposed to be all natural. I got the shrimp and this is what I was going to feed the brain. THey also gave us some kind of nutriant booster in the bag which we were told would be good to mix with the nutridiet. I've got a batch of water mixed up, but won't be able to do a water change. Got my salinity to high and I need to borrow a bucket from Kevin as well as pick up more RO water tomorrow. I'll double check the ammonia and nitrates, since I haven't seen my barber shrimp. I have heard the pistol as of last night. So I know he's still around. He's got several tunnels in the back and I can't see them all. The Barber is probably back there hiding. Kim
Kim The best 2 part is calc chloride and baking soda, you can buy the calc chloride at swimming pool supplies and of course the baking soda at rhe groc store. Now you should read the articles by Randy Holmes Farley in the chem section on reef central [archives] on how to prepare the baking soda by baking it in the oven, which changes it so it won't raise the PH so much as if it isn't baked. Orrr you can buy some reef builder by seachem and it well do the same thing. BUT for now you need to get your PH down so don't add anything for Alk or PH, because both well raise PH., one just more then the other. Don't add that nutriunt crap to your tank, all you well end up doing is polluting your tank and get algaes growing and crappy water. What do you mean by Alk off the bottom??? As long as your calc is around 400 and your alk is inline with it percentage wise, 7.6 or 7 your not to bad for a few LPS. Remember dosing for Alk well raise PH so watch it and make sure your using a Alk buffer and not a PH buffer. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php
Hiya, My alk's been 6-3, very low from what I understand. I've been able to get it up to 8-10 using Seachems reef bulider. I've ditched the Kent stuff and use Seachem and their new aquavitro line, which is supposed to be their high end line. It's easier for me to use stuff that has already been formulated for reef keeping instead of processing stuff to make it usuable. Plus, our oven is broke ::Grin:: As suspected, I do have some ammonia and nitrates in the tank. Which means I've lost another barber gobie. I'm beginning to wonder if my pistol shrimp isn't making a meal out of his partner Also, I should practice more what I preach to my customers instead of running off the fly. I'll be doing a good 15-20% water change tomorrow night, once I get the extra equipment and supplies from Kevin to do it. It's just kinda frustrating when everything else looks great! My mushrooms are full and extended, my christmas tree worms are out and their host coral is extended and healthy, even spreading! My trumpet coral is inflated, my snails are crawling around, and the fish are eating and picking on each other like they usually do. The only one's that seem to be unhappy are the brain, blue zoo's and the green agro. Anyhow, I do appreciate the help and advice. Kim
What is 6-3 mean, 6.3 dkh??? and 8-10, 8.0 to 10.0 dkh???? How old is the tank?? Must be fairly new to have a amon problem. Alot of corals won't tolerate it in small amounts, not to mention the fish. What is the level the kit is showing? Nitrates is different then nitrites, one is toxic and one is not. You need to be testing for nitrites. QUIT feeding the tank until you get ammon. under control and for heavensake don't add any nutri whatever stuff. You have to understand ammon well kill alot faster then lack of food well.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php lots of good tips & advise in this thread... The above link/article is a really good related article, if interested... Supplementing Calcium and Alkalinity: What Method? I have been having great success with 15% water changes (5 gals) weekly in my 34 gal tank (which I believe is a big big key for smaller tanks) & I only dose with a 2 part solution ESV Bionic I kind of adhere to the less is more theory... when it comes to dosing. The weekly water changes are the biggest key, imo and with a good reef salt should provide almost everything a reef tank needs, if the water changes occur frequently. Hope this helps - good luck & happy reefing !
That is good advice, the only thing I would add is to make sure the salt you are using has proper levels of calc and alk. You may need to bring one up to match the other. I think it was Oceanic that had super high alk a few yrs ago, so test a mixed bucket and make sure they are in line percentage wise with each other. They maybe a little higher then NSW but that is to make up for what is being used in the tank. Just make sure they are in proportion percentage wise to each other so if the alk is say 8.6 which is roughly 10% over 7.7dkh, try to make the calc the same say 440 to 460. This way when you are doing a large water change on a small nano, your parims well stay pretty steady. Some salts are alot better at being consistent and I would check each new batch from a new bucket. Some salts are not consistent in their levels, IO and RC come to mind, and people have been saying the same about Tropic Marin and Sea Chem lately, so just test each new bucket.
I was measuring my alk in dkh, sorry to not notate that. So, as you can see it was pretty low. I've done a 6 gallon water change, before I read these messages. Also did some messing around with my aquascaping. Not intentional, was trying to glue a coral down and messed up the rock. Sigh....kinda frustating. This tank has been up in it's current set up for 2 years now. I think the ammonia has come from a fish dying. I haven't seen my barber gobie in a while and I have a bad feeling my pistol shrimp is eating them for lunch. This is the third one I've lost. Grrrrrr. I've been using reef crystals for years now, but never thought to check my paramiters before using it. Heck...it's supposed to be correctly balanced when you buy it! Anyway, I'll be checking my tank tomorrow night when I get back from work to see where everything is. Most of everything looks just as good as it did before the water change. We'll see...I just hope the brain blows up some. Still kinda receeded. Kim
