New Coral Problems - help please

[lauriemae]

Hi...3 tank family. I had a 12 gal nano...everything was wonderful, beautiful corals, no issues. My son has a 55 gallon, just starting out with corals..was to be just a fish tank. Now I've upgraded to a 30 gallon tank with metal halides.

Found an incredible source for coral polyps (zoos) with colors that are amazing! Brought them home after checking my water (in the 30 gallon) multiple times, everything is perfect alk/mag/nitrites/nitrates/amm/cal BUT the polyps won't open up and some of the corals that were moved from the 12 gallon tank like frogspawn and even the xenia look like they are shriveling.

The metal halide light on there is 14K. I have a 10K bulb but it won't be as blue I know.

Please tell me what we are doing wrong. I wonder if it is too much light for the zoos/frogspawn/etc.? I've only got one small brain and all the rest are soft corals/polyps/mushrooms/etc.

Advice welcome & wanted badly please!!!! Thanks everyone.

Laurie Mae

 

[David S]

I think you need to climatise your corals to the new light,maybe put some layers of glass on the tank and gradually remove them.

 

[melosu58]

Post your water parameters please. Also could be very much too much light all of a sudden. Most folks will take window screen material and use some layers and remove one at a time. How long ago did you add them?

 

[lauriemae]

thanks but...

what do you mean by that?

When we brought them home we just put them in (as the coral frag sellers instructed). We are getting different opinions on covering tank with glass or not. I had the top covered with glass but the water temp got too high so now it's off.

Is that ANYTHING to do with what you mean?

Thanks David

 

[lauriemae]

Matt, my son does the testing and also took it to two coral/fish stores who all said water was perfect.

salt 1.025
amm/nitrate/nitrite 0
calcium 420
mag 1200
pot I THINK 1400? (can't remember) but they said level was good.
Water temp is 78 degrees

Son's tank is now struggling as well and he didn't put anything new in.

My

 

[lauriemae]

Whoops...sorry. My water temp is 78 degrees

 

[cmor1701d]

You want to use screen material, not glass to light acclimate corals to more light than they are used to. Buy a roll of screening material at HomeDepot or Lowe's, etc. Cut about 5 sheets to cover your tank. Remove 1 sheet after a week and 1 every week thereafter till none are are left.

Mike also asked you post the actual numbers for your water parameters. Perfect turns out to be a very subjective statement. Also state which test kits you are using. Test strips are generally not very accurate.

 

[lauriemae]

answers...

Hi David/Matt/et al

Thank you for advice. I happen to have screen material so I will do that today for sure. The water parameters are posted below...best I can remember.

I will write down the numbers each time they/my son test. Not using strips, we have a real water testing kit.

Question - what temperature should ideally the tanks be at. My son's (55) tank, everything was thriving, but now his polyps have closed up tight. He has the ones that stand a few inches and ones that are flat. When I put all the new frags in my 30 gallon tank, (with metal halide) my xenia, frogspawn, tall polyps (button?) mushrooms, colt were all thriving beautifully. Now...not so much. Mushrooms are fine...nothing else is open or looking healthy at all.

We have had differing opinions on water temp. Had a glass top and was told to take it off. Water temp this morning was 72 degrees but at end of day is 78 degrees. I'm used to a no brainer nano so trying to do this with metal halides has a learning curve for sure. Son's (55) water temp is 76 degrees.

Call me confused and frustrated!

You want to use screen material, not glass to light acclimate corals to more light than they are used to. Buy a roll of screening material at HomeDepot or Lowe's, etc. Cut about 5 sheets to cover your tank. Remove 1 sheet after a week and 1 every week thereafter till none are are left.

Mike also asked you post the actual numbers for your water parameters. Perfect turns out to be a very subjective statement. Also state which test kits you are using. Test strips are generally not very accurate.

 

[melosu58]

You`ll need to get a heater as 72 degrees is too cool. 78 degrees is OK. Get a heater and set at 78 degrees.

 

[lauriemae]

Thanks.....I live in Florida. Last year my tank waters were too hot and I was thinking I would have to get a chiller! This winter we've had quite a bit of colder weather and now the tanks are up/down all over the place.

I appreciate all the help and advice. Thanks so very much!

 

[melosu58]

The number one thing you have to worry about when it comes to temps is stability. Temps need to stay within a few degrees. I would still get a heater for the winter anyway and once it warms up you can cut it off. Good luck.

 

[mr_X]

what wattage is the metal halide over your tank? how low did you put the corals?

 

[lauriemae]

Heater in tank now - wattage of bulbs - brown bubbles

Hi Doug...Metal Halides are new for me. I have the kind that you clip/bolt onto the back of the tank. It came with two bulbs, a 14,000 and a 10,000. I HAD the 14,000 on it, but switched to the 10,000 one this morning to see if it made a difference.

Initially when my son put the corals in the tank he just placed them all over the rocks (which are built in a tall formation with many caves. This morning he moved most of them quite a bit lower than they had been when I got so many replies about the lighting.

Any thoughts?

Also, I have this brown bubble stuff (not like the green algae bubbles I've seen) and haven't a clue what it is, but it is attached to a back rock that came from my smaller tank and now it's on my frogspawn that had only one thriving branch and now it won't open either, ugh! That one singular coral lasted through two total nano crashes and now I have a better tank/lighting and this happened. Should I start another topic? I don't know how to post photos or I would. Thanks!!!!

HEATER IS INSTALLED and water is at 75 degrees and rising...

 

[mr_X]

hi lauriemae.
if the 14k was shocking them, the 10k will make it worse. check the wattage of the unit. it will say it on the bulb too. meanwhile, put the 14k back in. if it's too much for the tank, which i am not 100% convinced of yet, you can get a 20k bulb for it. that will be weaker and be a lot more blue.

take some pictures of the tank if you can. especially the brown stuff. i'm thinking possibly cyanobacteria. is it slimy and can you rub it off easily?

 

[lauriemae]

UHOH!

If a little bit of knowledge is dangerous, imagine THINKING you knew a ltitle only to find you know NOTHING! I will change out the 10,000 and put the 14,000 back in and shop for a 20,000.

It's weird...all my things did SO well in my nano...flourishing! AND...the first few days the xenia, frogspawn, mushrooms etc. were in the 30 gallon with MH, they did wonderful but yesterday after adding 7 small frags, everything started to decline. Now I will say this brown stuff was on a rock from the nano and now is growing in my 30 gallon. I will take some photos and figure out how to post them. They are different round shapes like the silver/aqua algae balls but that's about the extent of the comparison. One fell off a thermometer I pulled out of the tank and it doesn't feel too slimy, but feels like a balloon. I'm going to pop it after I show my son later tonight.

How do I post a picture? To me it looks like a bubble algae I saw on a website called Botryocladia skottsbergii - 'Red Valonia' but I am of course the one who knows nothing! It never killed anything in my nano....but it's doing weird stuff in my 30 g.

Tomorrow I will take and post some pictures. Thanks for the help. Looking forward to you all helping me figure it out!

LM

oh...and the little ball did NOT feel slimy.

 

[mr_X]

well, if it is just red bubble algae, i wouldn't worry too much about it.
for posting pictures i like to use an image hosting server, like photobucket or tinypic or something like that, then just paste the image location here.

i'm thinking your whole problem was just light shock.

i love the avatar by the way.

 

[lauriemae]

tomorrow

I will post some photos. I hope you're right that it is just light shock and really hope the coral will live through it.

Thanks for your help....check back in tomorrow.

LM

(thanks...avatar is just me!)

 

[cabezon]

Your 12 gallon probably had 2 18 watt PC bulbs, one white, one actinic. You jumped to 150 watts of pure coral feeding light. Yikes. It would be like one of those canadian tourists with the white legs, black socks and flip flops on the beach in july.

Corals adapt to low light by pufffing up larger. So they "look" like they are growing and all happy, when they are just bigger to maximize surface area. Them shrinking is a response to the huge light increase. I put all my new frags on the sand in my solana, then move them up in a few days. But these are th store bought ones

 

[cabezon]

And a heater for night time is a good idea. You keep your house AC chilled in the summer? Same thing. You will most likely need only a small one. I like 78

 

[lauriemae]

You made me laugh with your analogy! I needed that, thanks.

I posted photos, info on the reef corals sick thread. I appreciate your assistance!

LM