carnation coral help

[shannonredburn]

I've looked around a bit and I have been trying to find info on a carnation coral. I am totally new to my salt tank and I know that I started doing everything before I should have (it's only a month and a half old ) but after weekly testings of my water at my lfs I decided to start buying what I liked. I asked alot of questions about how to keep them and only took what sounded like I could do. Everything is fine except for a carnation coral, it's shedding. I looked on line in many different places, and they all same this is an extremely difficult coral to keep. I've read that it needs a constant wash of phytos and in my little 12g this is just not possible as far as I know, with out really overdosing everything else. As the testing they do at the store is on a strip I could not tell you exactly what everything is, it's a color changing 5-in-1 thing, but all the colors were "good" they tell me. I would really prefer to try to keep it alive, it looks like it still might have a prayer and it still tries to feed, I think. Up at the top it has a hole with what looks like half of a 1/4" grasping feather duster thing come out that I assume is what it uses to catch food. It comes out every evening and has since I got it. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to keep my little guy alive, a product/food/feeding method to recommend, or should I just give up hope?

 

[Ziggy953]

First I would suggest getting a good test kit that has individual tests for Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte, PH ect. The carnation coral is a VERY difficult coral to keep and even in the right tank that is properly matured it is still a difficult coral to keep alive. Your LFS should never have sold you these corals with your tank being so young.

What else do you have in your tank? How much LR, Sand, what kind of filtration are you using? Skimmer?

 

[Marc118]

You need to feed it phyto every day, its cant survive on anything less. It is probably one of the most difficult corals I have kept, but rewarding. On the other hand I would not recommend it for you at all, you have too much to worry about besides feeding a coral. Your tank isnt yet stable and you will see fluctuations in water parameters that will stress that coral out. I would also invest in a liquid test kit.

How did you cycle your tank.

 

[shannonredburn]

No scimmer. I think I should have a test kit too and will go get one with my next pay check this fri. Hope the pic helps with some info about the tank cause I don't know what everything is called to tell you what it is.
In it I have a couple of soft corals, looking back I am doubtful as to whether or not the lfs guy even told me their names, one looks to match a pic of acropora, one is a pipe organ, 2 small flat tissued mushrooms, and a poofy, bumpy one (beautiful colors, alternating, turquoise and glowing lime green bumps on a lilac background, 2-3" spread depending on how extended it is. I found a couple of anenome hitchhikers that are breeding like crazy and I cant get rid of them either (I am considering throwing out the rock that they are on cause I just cant seem to kill them, and yes i have found out that if I scrape them off and don't filter out every bit that the bits breed) and a pretty purple stiped anenome hitchhiker, a coral banded shrimp, various hermits, various snails one of which I am told is a conch (that supposedly wont get huge) and 2 blue green cromis.
I started out letting everything sit for a week and then bought one or two things a week. I acclimated everything, by floating it for an hour then adding a quarter cup of my tank liquid to the bag every fifteen minutes for 2 hours except for the shrimp which just went straight in cause the transport bag looked way to small for him to be happy in.



I tried to add a couple of pics but my operating system and the picture progam I have on it will not allow me to make an image that the attachment program here is happy with, it is too big, sorry for the lack of info.

 

[Marc118]

Your cycle was just letting the tank sit for a week?

Sounds like aiptasia.

 

[shannonredburn]

also thought that I would answer the rest of the questions:

as far as cylcing goes I put the sand then rock in and started everything going salt at 1.022, and light on for about 12 hours day (yeah I found out that was too much and now keep it to 8 or 9 tops) and let everything run for a week. Tested it at the lfs. They said it would be okay to add something small every so often. So I bought 1 or 2 1" frags of the above stuff once week, all from the same guy Fish went in that first week with all of the inverts except the shrimp.

35 lbs live rock and about 3" live sand.

Having read up on it now that I have it I think it is doomed......but I did move it too the lowest lighted place i could find, about 4" below the water head, it just happens to also be the second best place for water movement. And I wouldn't recomend it for me either,

On the plus side there are about 10 baby brittle starfish that hitchhiked on it!


Not knowing if the phytos would be naturally occuring, would purchasing salt-plants/macroalgaes help at all?


Editing: The guy I bought it from said the lr was cured.

 

[Marc118]

No you need to purchase cultured phyto from your LFS ( not that I would give any money to them from the sound of things ), or grow your own ( better option ). Live phyto will make that carnation perk up in no time.

As for the cycle...was the rock you purchased cured?...if not your in the middle of your cycle.

 

[shannonredburn]

I checked out the sites on aiptasia first thing, and it sounds alot like it but I couldn't find a pic that matches. Mine are 1/8" to 1/2" at biggest (I'm assuming they will get bigger as my tank gets older), and the only way that I saw them at all is cause I spend hours just staring at my tank (I am so in love with it, I've been dreamming of having one for years). The things are invisible when open except for the palest pink tips, the tenticles are completely colorless. When closed the base is a pale pink on the smallest ones and a dull hot pink on the bigger ones.




Editing: ????how would I grow my own phytos, I have no idea? I can not afford a refugum but I can pick up a cheap 1g from walmart the lighting would suck but I can sit it fairly close to a window for natural light if that would help. And I would have no idea how to connect the two tanks, My salt tank is a 12 gal "Cube Master" and the only hole is a small one in the back above the foam section of the filter about 1/4", the size of an air tube.
?????

 

[Ziggy953]

That does sound like aiptasia. What kind of water changes are you doing on this tank? You really need a skimmer of some kind especially with the delicate corals you have in your tank. Marc is right you will need phyto for the carnation, I don't give it very good odds on survival though. A tank that is only a month old doesn't have things balanced enough to support very much. I would not add anything else to the tank! You really need to keep up with your PWCs over the next few months. Make sure to do them at the very least every other week. Once a week would be much better. Starting with a tank this small is very tough but it can be done. You have to pay close attention to your water parameters, so test kits are a MUST!!! Make sure that when you mix your new SW to allow it to mix for at least 24 hours. I would do a lot of research over the next few days to get up to speed on the animals you have and how to care for them.

As for the pics...go to imageshack or photobucket.com they will host your images for free and you can post links here...Pics will help us to identify your critters and then help you to care for them.

 

[shannonredburn]

-thanks for the thought with the pics, I've got a linux system and am having to figuare out everything from scratch, checking that out will be a tommarrow thing though.

PWC 1/4 tank = 2.5 gal every sunday. The lfs guy said 1/3 every 10 days but I do 1/4 on my fresh tank every sunday too and it is easier for me to remeber to do them if they are on the same schedule. The guy at the lfs said the salt would mix readily enough if I poured the salt in the back where the water pump is and let the pump distribute it evenly. After the reading up that I've been doing for my poor carnation I could kill the lfs guy and I skipped last nights water change so I could mix it in a bucket and let it sit for the rec. 24. (Having the salinity bounce as I add the tap water then the salt was killing everything else too!) I've had it for a week, put it in last Monday, salt was at 1.022 and still is.
And I really hope that I can get it to it's "happy place", but I am really doubting my chances with it at this point. I think if I gave it away at this point the shock would kill it, so if it is gonna live, then I've gotta do something better for it!

 

[Marc118]

I would probably not go to that LFS anymore.

Here is how to grow phyto

http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html

You could try this

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=DT1137

or

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=KM3575

But I had the best luck with live.

 

[melosu58]

I had a carnation coral for a while and it was the hardest. I finally sold it back to the LFS because I did not want to foul up my tank with the amount of phyto that I was going to have to use. I talked to a guy that had good success with his but he would take his out of the tank every other day and place it in a bowl of tank water and heavy phyto. He would then put it back in the main till next time. A little too much action for my schedule.

 

[shannonredburn]

I am going to attempt a product like marine snow, I think (could be wrong) that every coral and invert I have will benefit from this mix, and see if it will live. I think it might be possible to water it down a bit with my own tank water in an eyedropper and direct feed it a drop at a time for a few minutes in the morning and at night.

My tank is way to small to make growing my own worth it, I'd end up haveing way more then I could ever use and I honestly just have no space for all of th equiptment.

If I tried to take the carnation out every day, I would kill the baby brittle stars that are on it.

I also figuared out how to get pics that are small enough for aAs forum to accept, my camera was taking too high of a quality pics, designed for making large prints. Lowering the quality, will make smaller pics that I can post. Now my only problem is the batteries died and I'm out of more...lol...the irony of it!

 

[Marc118]

I dont want to be the bearer of bad news...but that carnation isnt going to make it without daily target feedings.

 

[shannonredburn]

that's what i meant, i think. If i could figuare out a schedule of when it feeds, I could release a drop of the marine snow stuff directly in front of it a couple of times a minute, or however quickly it needs me too. I could spend 5-10 minutes doing this once or twice a day, I don't know if this will be enough, though. If it just isn't gonna make it I would atleast like to get it healthy enough to transport it to a (new) lfs that can give me better advice about how to take care of what I get.

I really hate just just throw it away, just because I got bad advice doesn't mean that I can't give it my best effort!

 

[Hara]

This might be helpful, the coral gets more of the phyto with less going into the tank..
http://www.fantasyreef.com/showthread.php?t=10

 

[shannonredburn]

GREAT IDEA!!!

 

[melosu58]

I really hate just just throw it away, just because I got bad advice doesn't mean that I can't give it my best effort!

No dont throw it away. By all means do the best job you can do. I just think folks are telling you that it`s going to be a chore. It`s good that they are telling you so you can be prepared. Good Luck

 

[shannonredburn]

lol... chores are my life, I run a daycare!