Got my first few corals.. few questions!

[scottayy]

It does look like a condy anemone, thank you! Reading up on it.. says it's not really reef compatible (inflicts sting, poison to other corals/anemones) and it's natural predator are the red legged crabs which i have six of.

Looks like I better take this one back.

 

[xxStLxx]

Any anemone will sting corals that it walks over or gets close too. Make sure if you are keeping the anemone in your tank to put foam filters around your powerhead intakes as they do like to wonder around your tank sometimes and have in the past crashed people's tanks (recently my buddies 100g sps tank) by walking into the intakes. Also try moving your GSP up in your tank. Mine loves medium to high light under my 70w halide and strong waterflow otherwise he won't open up at all

 

[ccCapt]

The 2nd pic appears to be anthellia. It's a very fast growing coral.

 

[scottayy]

Yeah, that is it exactly. I hope it does grow fast for now. I saw this huge bush of it at LFS and it looked awesome.

My anemone has buried its foot in a tight rock crevice. Looks like he's staying put. Haven't seen any crabs messing with it yet.

 

[scottayy]

Okay I fed the nem today. I minced about an 1/8th of a piece of formula one frozen food in a syringe and filled it without about 1/2 oz of tank water. Then I squirted it on the nem.

It was so cool to watch him go to work!

What about the anthelias and gsp? They are filter feeders. Are they getting all they need from the light/water or should I be feeding something?

 

[scottayy]

Oh, also water parameters
I assume these are good, but not 100% sure

The usual..
pH: 8.1
SG: 1.025
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2

calcium: 460
magnesium: 1490
phosphate: 0

And, I lost my darn dKH test kit because I wasn't testing it for so long. But it has a relationship with the pH, right? Whereas if my pH is 8.1 the dKH should be right around 10?

 

[xxStLxx]

Your calcium is a little high. 450 is about the max. And I'm not really sure about the relationship between pH and alk. Even though my pH is a constant 8.2 my alk fluctuates weekly between 8° and 9°.

If you really want to feed your filter feed corals I would recommend phyto feast by the reef nutrition company. My gsp loves it and you can see its mouths get huge very time I dose the water. Usually once a week on Wednesday's

 

[dragoneye]

here its a car sheet for you hope this helps it helped me alot when it came to corals.

https://sites.google.com/a/asira.org/www2/caresheets

 

[Jlsardina]

I was taught to always test both alk and ph. There is a slight relationship- but when both need adjustment it is important to dose for alk first.

 

[scottayy]

Thanks, that care sheet is a great guide!

I've moved the GSP up and into more flow. I'll grab a dkh testing kit tomorrow (or I may order a salifert one online, i'm sure my lfs doesn't carry them).

I don't know why my calcium would be too high. I don't dose as of yet. But I'm sure it'll get brought down! I plan on picking up some more friends this week

 

[Jlsardina]

Thanks, that care sheet is a great guide!

I've moved the GSP up and into more flow. I'll grab a dkh testing kit tomorrow (or I may order a salifert one online, i'm sure my lfs doesn't carry them).

I don't know why my calcium would be too high. I don't dose as of yet. But I'm sure it'll get brought down! I plan on picking up some more friends this week

Don't worry about the calcium. It's fine IMO. You won't have to dose calcium until you have more coral.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Calciums fine, you won't have to dose ever IMO. Keep up with your PWC's and your corals will have everything they need.

 

[xxStLxx]

A great test kit that is easier to use than the salifert test are the red sea test kits. I use them myself. The reef foundations kit has alk, calc, and magnesium. I use that one the algae control one (nitrate & phosphate) and the individual iodine test kit since I monitor and dose it for my various shrimp

 

[dragoneye]

hey just want to understand what the pwc and imo abbreviassions stand for thanks

 

[BallinCrew10]

PWC- partial water change
IMO- in my opinion

 

[dragoneye]

okay great thanks that makes sense now lol. I'm new to the forum and trying to figure out all the abbrevs

 

[BallinCrew10]

No prob. It took me a while to figure them out too lol. I believe there's a description of them on the website somewhere. Here's a few that might help you get by until you find it.

LR-live rock
LS-live sand
CUC-clean up crew
CC-crushed coral
BB-beneficial bacteria
JMO-just my opinion
DT-display tank
QT-quarentine tank
DSB-deep sand bed
SSB-shallow sand bed

That might actually be all of them lol

 

[dragoneye]

okay hate to hi Jack this thred but what are the two coral abbrevs are i see them everywhere but cant remember what they are our stand for hope you know what I'm talking about lol

 

[Leighton79]

LPS and SPS?

 

[dragoneye]

ya those are the one's lol what do they stand for.