Coral Help

[Sharkie]

Hey everyone!

I had yet another set of questions, My mom and I have slowly been adding some very basic corals into my tank (just button polyps for now, as well as one small frag of star polyps) and they've all been doing great until I added my newest set. Its a beautiful $100 rock filled with all different colors of polyps and some small bits of star polyps on it as well as feather dusters galore! It was doing great and then all of a sudden everything is closed, things are turning brown and there is algae EVERYWHERE in my tank! my snails are working on the glass and my good lil blenny has been keeping the sand nice and stirred but any idea what could've caused this? I thought maybe it was my tiger cowrie eating things but he's been moved since my blue daisies dissapeared (i caught him on the rocks 3 nights in a row!). The kid at the LFS said it was a possible phosphate problem and sold my mom all this stuff to take care of it. I'm not quite sure if thats the problem, all my other levels are okay and i didn't have a phosphate test kit until then and haven't yet used it... could this be the problem? I've tried moving them all around from the high points to low and diffrent current levels and only the yellow and polyps will open now...


Also, this kid is a HUGE BSer and I'm aware of that but he managed to sell my mom a 6 inch blenny... I'm not sure what kind he is but he is white with brownish stripes and his face and top dorsal fins have pink stripes with blue polkadots in them... he seems to be cleaning great but i'm worried he will go after my other little white blenny... he hasn't yet and the white blenny tends to follow the big one around but has lost his little cave because the big one has deemed it his now...
Does he pose a threat to the little blenny as if so what should i do? I'm not a fan of this LFS but mom went and got me some goodies from them and brought home another... I'm not sure what the going price range is for them but she paid $20 for it... i'll see if i can find some pics

 

[yote]

How did you acclimate the new corals?

 

[Sharkie]

we slow dripped them over 4 hrs to slowly get them used to my water and temp... they were doing fine until a couple of days ago

 

[JAG107]

It may be too soon for corals in your tank...
Hope things turn out ok, I do know that buying lots of algae control products are not always the best course of action. Try some 15% water changes every 5 or 6 days, only run the lights for 5 or 6 hours a day to start. Cut back on your feeding regimen also, those will all help IMO

 

[Smitty]

+1 Jag, your tank may not be ready for corals yet, 2 months isn't long enough, also, what type of lighting are you using, and do you use r/o water or sink water.

 

[Sharkie]

using R/O and i have my lighting setup to 5watts per gallon, strange, my small 10gallon tank has some polyps that are doing great, could it just be something wrong with my larger tank?

 

[JAG107]

Which lights specifically do you have? Power compacts, T5...?
Watts per gallon is, unfortunately, a practically useless method of setting up your lights. Tanks are of all shapes and sizes. The same fixture on a 20g long may not be enough for a 20g tall, for example.

 

[Bifferwine]

You know, algae outbreaks seem to come and go, sometimes with no obvious cause. It's the natural progression of a new tank. And your tank is considered new, at two months old. Increasing water changes should help, but also make sure that you have a good enough cleaner crew to take care of the extra algae. Get a Mexican turbo snail if you don't have one already.

The new rock of corals also could have come with a disease or parasite. It won't hurt to give it a dip in a coral dip you can buy at your LFS, or a freshwater dip (depending on what types of corals are on it).

 

[Sharkie]

yea i have 2 mexican turbos, a tiger cowrie, 2 pyramid snails, and tons of lil hermits running around... and a few cleaner shrimp.

I have the T5 and i have just a reg 20. not long or tall... i've heard that the watts per gallon rule isn't too trustworthy but i thought i'd be okay at 5 watts per with a t5?


I moved them down lower in my tank today and some of them have opened up... maybe i just had them too close to the light and in too much movement?

 

[JAG107]

so you probably have a 4 bulb 24 watt/bulb fixture? Thats fine for soft corals, so lighting probably isn't your issue. Biff's right, algae outbreaks come and go, especially in young systems. Just give it some time, things need to settle and your parameters will become more stable. Stability will help your corals immensely.

 

[Bifferwine]

Your lights are fine for those corals. It's not a lighting issue.

 

[Sharkie]

just ran my phosphate test... wayyyy to high, put in some remover pellets and the levels are slowly going down, the corals are starting to open again :)

 

[yote]

You may have found the problem:D