New Corals retracted, Normal?

[dulcisveteranus]

So I bought new corals yesterday: Xenia with neon centers, two toadstool leathers. I acclimated them for 30 min from low salinity. 1.017 to 1.021. Their polyps were fully extended from the tank I bought them from and they looked happy. They were under LED lighting and I have t5s. Right now I'm acclimating them to my t5s. I have only 2 out of 4 bulbs on. When I put them in the tank they were fully retracted both the xenia and the leathers. A couple hours later the xenia's polyps extended a bit but not too much. A day after that the xenia's polyps are somewhat extended but they are not pulsing. Right now I have them under low flow around 260 gph in my 25 gallon. Is this the safe way to do it? I turned off my other powerhead so it wouldn't stress them out. Right now my leathers are retracted and shedding. But I don't think my xenia isn't even a xenia at all. The guy I bought them from said it was a Xenia but I think they look more like some sort of clove coral. Anyway my parameters are:
dkH - 10
pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
Calcium - 450 - 480
Magnesium - 1600

Current inhabitants-
Banggai Cardinal
Ocellaris Clownfish
No cleanup crew yet (no crabs or snails)

Images - http://postimg.org/gallery/mgzsp0si/


So is this expected of new corals to be retracted?
Btw the leathers dont look the way they do in the pictures they look more pink.

 

[54seaweed]

your nitrates are on the high side this could be a good factor why your corals aren't looking good .

1.021 is a little low for a reef I keep mine at 1.025 . going from a brighter led lighting back to a t-5 florescent can also affect coral , give them time to get used to the weaker lighting .

leather corals are easy to keep and they will show if they are not happy ,

a picture of your other coral in question can help us ID it , never mind found it .
yes it does look like some sort of cover coral.

High nitrates lead to phosphates something to look into could be from something as simple as over feeding , I keep a schedule of every other day for feeding.

how often do you do water changes ?

to drop nitrates and phosphates a 50% water change will drop your nitrates/phosphates by 1/2 20ppm to 10ppm , this would also be a good time to slowly raise your salinity

 

[dulcisveteranus]

But how come others say 20 ppm nitrates are good for corals that do well in high nutrient systems?

 

[Sniperhank]

Right now it sounds like they are adjusting to the tank. If they weren't acclimated it can take longer for them to open up.
If they came under leds then you should be able to have all of your t5ho bulbs on without issue. Leds are much stronger than bulked units as they penetrate water much easier.
As for the Xenia, it doesn't have to pulse. The pulsing action is a bit of a mystery, but it is believed that it does this to bring more oxygen around the polyps. If things are deemed as fine, it might not pulse. I've seen a pulsing colony moved into a different tank and the pulsing action stop and not return until it was returned to the original tank.


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[melosu58]

Any time you add new corals it will take days for them to adjust. Give it a few and see how they look then.

 

[Mr tap water]

Hi there
It's quite possible they are just adjusting to the change over of lighting, that said that particular type of corals I found don't mind dirty water so The level of No3 you have at the moment should be ok but a couple of other things that do stand out is your SG if you're keeping corals you need to be keeping Around 1.024-1.026 Mark and you're mag looks very high to and should be aiming around the 1350 Mark.


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[dulcisveteranus]

Well the Palm tree polyps are looking great now. They look fully extended but unfortunately don't pulse. I really hope they pulse in this tank. The toadstools are still shedding so I hope they extend soon.

http://postimg.org/gallery/3ajdmu0ua/

 

[dulcisveteranus]

Oh and also I know that everyone says the ideal SG levels of reefs are 1.023-1.027 but how come the tanks that I bought the corals from come from water that has as low as 1.015 SG! And the corals look happy, or is this temporary to control disease or something. 1.015 was from a frag tank I bought the leathers from. But the Palm tree polyps came from a 900 gallon reef tank with 1.018 SG. Can someone explain if there is any reason these guys keep it at these levels?

 

[Mr tap water]

Hi there
From what I gather the reason is some shops run at low levels is for a number of reasons For fish only are meant to be more comfortable in the lower levels and also helps keep parasites at bye and also could be saving them money at the same Time, and you need to take into account The fish are only in their tanks and limited time,

As for corals over the years experience reefers and experts alike have found coral to do much better at the higher level or somewhere in between the natural coral reefs and Which helps corals grow at natural right.

At the end of the day the choice is yours[emoji846]



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[Marty.h]

As said above you ideally want and SG of 1.026 soft corals will be happy with nitrates at 20ppm and in my opinion will not cause them an issue.

Toad stools can be very moody when moved and can take a while to adjust. Pulse coral will either live or die in a system it's one of them funny corals some systems can keep them others can't.

I've never known anyone keep corals in 1.017 that's very low for corals.

Give them time they will come round