Kinda funny but probably fatal - Coral

B

BigFishy

Reefing newb
I have a one month old salt water tank (soon to be a reef tank). It's had one algae boom and now it's under control. All I have in the tank is a peppermint shrimp and a baby maroon clown fish. It’s a 17 gallon tank with good lighting, 2 powerheads, 20 pounds of live rock and some live sand. I was taking my time and going threw the normal progressions. So, I’d say I was doing everything right until last night.

Since I’ve spent a lot of time researching and making sure I do everything just right made my very generous g/f think it'd be nice to get me a gift for the tank. So, she went out last night to the local fish store and got some coral. I'm totally okay with adding things to the tank, but once you get into this stuff there's a lot to check before you just add something. And I don't think it's time for coral. So last night as I walk into the house my g/f gets excited and shows me what she got. I won’t lie I was excited too, but I was also worried. Worried that these corals will not live and I’d kill our “love ferns.”

Anyways, she came home with three bags of corals. One, is a small green mushroom. Second, had Kenya Tree Coral written on the bag, but I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of leather finger coral. And the third bag contained a flower coral. My g/f told me that the fish store guy said “No acclimation time! Just stick them right in.” SOOOOOO I did.

This morning I went to the fish store and bought some coral food and supplements for the water. I added the food and supplements.

I’m curious, realistically will these coral live? Anything I can do to improve their chances?


Thanks!
 
Mushrooms and leathers are usually referred to as beginners corals. As long as you're keeping up on regular water changes and have some light over the tank I think they'll be fine. I dont neccesarily thing that mushrooms and leathers need to be fed any sort of supplement, as they are photosynthetic - but I'm just getting into corals myself so hopefully someone like Bifferwine will chime in
 
How many watts is your fixture? Like northstar said, shrooms and some leathers don't need much light to survive and grow. Also, what is this "flower" coral. If you post pics we can identify stuff for ya :) Be sure you actually need to be supplementing things in your tank, you could cause more harm than good by doing that.
 
I'll take pics of them tonight. As of now, I'm running my lights for 5 - 6 hrs a day. I have two 36 watt bulbs at 10,000ks. One white and one blue.

ALSO, I found something new in the tank this morning. It's a tiny spiny pink cucumber I believe. He stays in one place with his tentacles open trying to catch some food. Any one know if they are good for you tank?

I'll take photos of all the coral and the baby cucumber.
 
I am assuming your talking PC's or T5's. In either case its about 4 watts per gallon, I would think that is plenty of light for 'shrooms and leather corals
 
Was your tank finished cycling? If so then it's fine to start adding corals. Mushrooms, leathers, and Kenya tree are all very hardy corals. After time though the Kenya tree may start to overrun your tank, most people call them Kenya weeds because they grow so fast. I'm assuming the flower coral is actually a flowerpot coral? If so, they are very difficult corals to keep especially in new systems, also IMO you don't have strong enough lights for LPS corals. What kind of coral food and supplements did you buy? You should be very careful about adding supplements to your tank, over doing it or adding the wrong supplement is a quick way to crash your tank.
 
Yea, I'm pretty sure it's not a Kenya Tree. It's a leather finger coral as well as a "flowerpot" coral. I put the flowerpot pretty close to the top so it receives lots of light and waterflow.

As for supplements, I'm using Kent Marine Coral-Vite and the other is also a Kent Marine PhytoPlex Phytoplankton (this is off memory so i have to double check). Also, I use Oceanic Sea Salt Mix which contain high Calcium so I really have to check that my Ca levels don't go crazy. They were already high because I had nothing using the Ca from the salt mix, so now I do, but the Coral-Vite adds Ca. Hopefully not to much.
 
2 50/50 bulbs or 1 actinic - 1 10k, which would be PC and not T5 im guessing. May be alright with 4.2 wpg. Still you need to watch and monitor them like a hawk.

Also I enjoy the enthusiasm of your girlfriend, but you need to sit her down and have a serious talk about the reef aquarium and the harm that can happen when you rush in this hobby, otherwise you will wake up one morning with a bio melted tank.
 
The leather and mushrooms will be okay. The flowerpot coral, I hate to say it, probably won't. They are very difficult corals to keep, and are considered "expert only". They require heavy feedings, so in a small tank, you can pollute your water very quickly trying to keep them fed.

If you can, I'd advise to return the flower pot coral to the store. No knowledgeable store should have sold that coral to be put in a new tank or a small tank. The other corals should flourish in your tank, and don't need any additional supplements or food. They get everything they need from the light.
 
After two days, the mushroom and flowerpot coral seem to be doing fine. The leather coral doesn’t thought. He looks rather limp and a little bit of slime seems to come off of him. Is the leather coral dying?



I checked pH, Nitrite, ammonia, calcium, carbon hardness and salinity.

Everything is good. Ca is still a little high but that’s because of Oceanic Salt Mix.


Thoughts on other tests to diagnose the problem? Maybe I should just give it more time?
 
One lesson here (and one many of us have learned) is that fish stores, no matter how polite they are will BS you! They should never have sold you an advanced coral.
 
Make sure to always check water quality has to be within parameters, lighting make sure proper lighting and to replace bulb every 6 months, water flows, and add minerals & supplements.

If you have all variables in check your dwelling will be happy & thrive.
 

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