As some of you know, I have a 10G nano which I've added some corals to, 2-3 weeks ago.
I have 3.5WPG of CF lighting (2 white and 1 actinic in the middle), pH is (now) a stable 8.0/8.1 at night, temp has a swing of ±1°C and averages 25°C (77°F). SG is 1.024, and ammonia=0, nitrites=0, and nitrates=~3ppm. I need to get myself a calcium/alk test kit, but I replace 30% of the water every 2 weeks with good salt (Seachem).
I drip acclimated them all over 2 hours.
The corals I added were: small toadstool leather (towards the bottom of the tank but getting lots of light as it's directly under one of the whites), double toadstool leather (same position), pink short-tentacled plate coral, yellow polyps, and a green brain/maze coral.
The small single leather sometimes extends its polyps, and often not. It's very erratic, and looks pretty bad sometimes, others it looks a lot better. It's shed it's "skin" once so far - when I initially put it on, it looked awesome for 3 days, then started folding up/changing colour and refused to extend its polyps for days. Then, it finally shed, and started looking a bit better, and now doesn't look all that bad, but not exactly "thriving". Its polyps remain in a lot of the time.
The double leather sometimes looks great, and often looks awful - the left one shrinks right down practically daily and changes green (from yellow). This has also shed it's skin once (it looked terrible for a week before this, then MUCH better a day after it shed. Now, it's slipping back again).
The plate coral looks pretty good, although I think it's lost a bit of its pink colour since I got it (turning more brown/grey now), but it extends its tentacles fully dailly, and I've seen it inflate/move a few times, so it seems to be doing ok. This is of course on the bottom of the tank on the sand, so the overhang of the rocks blocks some light, but it does seem to be fairly happy with the tentacles/inflating. Often I see some stringy mucus/film or something stuck to it, that my powerhead finally works free. This is probably every 4/5 days. It also seems to like to perch one side on a little bit of rock (just above the sand), rather than being fully flat where I placed it. It's moved a couple of times, but seems to go back to this position.
A lot of the yellow polyps have died, some have really shrunk in size, others have strangely turned translucent, and others just don't have as much colour. I'd say that 80% of them have died or withered away They're close to the bottom of the tank, but again directly under one of the white lights. They don't get THAT much light, but I didn't think they needed it? Disappointed with these as I was expecting them to be easy to keep!
And, finally my brain coral is my favourite. It's placed the highest in the tank, directly under a white light, and fairly close to it. It's far enough away from the other corals so that its sweeper tentacles can't reach them, and it seems to be getting a lot of light. Its colour is still very bright green, which fluoresces under my actinic light. Its sweeper tentacles don't come out every day at night, and sometimes only a few are out - sometimes a couple of really long ones, some very short/bunched up ones that seem to be all messed together, and sometimes a good number of long ones. Some days they won't come out at all. The first 3/4 days, they were out every night, quite long, and thicker than they are now! Also more defined, as I said a lot of them seem very short and bunched up now. Does that make sense? Anyway, as its colour hasn't changed at all since I got it, I was wondering how I can tell how this coral is doing? What are the signs its not getting enough light etc.?
I also got a large red/brown feather duster, which has moved a bit since I got it, and firmly anchored itself in place. It stays open probably 75% of the time, and only stays in for a bit when it goes in.
As far as food goes, I always feed my fish at night, when the tentacles of most of the corals are extended, and put a bit more in (smaller particles) of frozen food so that some can hopefully make its way near the corals. I also feed a small amount of DT's Live Phytoplankton weekly, trying to aim it towards the corals (although my powerhead quickly pushes it all around the tank).
There are a few pics at:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidw49/sets/72157602267042537/
I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts, or advice?
Thanks.
I have 3.5WPG of CF lighting (2 white and 1 actinic in the middle), pH is (now) a stable 8.0/8.1 at night, temp has a swing of ±1°C and averages 25°C (77°F). SG is 1.024, and ammonia=0, nitrites=0, and nitrates=~3ppm. I need to get myself a calcium/alk test kit, but I replace 30% of the water every 2 weeks with good salt (Seachem).
I drip acclimated them all over 2 hours.
The corals I added were: small toadstool leather (towards the bottom of the tank but getting lots of light as it's directly under one of the whites), double toadstool leather (same position), pink short-tentacled plate coral, yellow polyps, and a green brain/maze coral.
The small single leather sometimes extends its polyps, and often not. It's very erratic, and looks pretty bad sometimes, others it looks a lot better. It's shed it's "skin" once so far - when I initially put it on, it looked awesome for 3 days, then started folding up/changing colour and refused to extend its polyps for days. Then, it finally shed, and started looking a bit better, and now doesn't look all that bad, but not exactly "thriving". Its polyps remain in a lot of the time.
The double leather sometimes looks great, and often looks awful - the left one shrinks right down practically daily and changes green (from yellow). This has also shed it's skin once (it looked terrible for a week before this, then MUCH better a day after it shed. Now, it's slipping back again).
The plate coral looks pretty good, although I think it's lost a bit of its pink colour since I got it (turning more brown/grey now), but it extends its tentacles fully dailly, and I've seen it inflate/move a few times, so it seems to be doing ok. This is of course on the bottom of the tank on the sand, so the overhang of the rocks blocks some light, but it does seem to be fairly happy with the tentacles/inflating. Often I see some stringy mucus/film or something stuck to it, that my powerhead finally works free. This is probably every 4/5 days. It also seems to like to perch one side on a little bit of rock (just above the sand), rather than being fully flat where I placed it. It's moved a couple of times, but seems to go back to this position.
A lot of the yellow polyps have died, some have really shrunk in size, others have strangely turned translucent, and others just don't have as much colour. I'd say that 80% of them have died or withered away They're close to the bottom of the tank, but again directly under one of the white lights. They don't get THAT much light, but I didn't think they needed it? Disappointed with these as I was expecting them to be easy to keep!
And, finally my brain coral is my favourite. It's placed the highest in the tank, directly under a white light, and fairly close to it. It's far enough away from the other corals so that its sweeper tentacles can't reach them, and it seems to be getting a lot of light. Its colour is still very bright green, which fluoresces under my actinic light. Its sweeper tentacles don't come out every day at night, and sometimes only a few are out - sometimes a couple of really long ones, some very short/bunched up ones that seem to be all messed together, and sometimes a good number of long ones. Some days they won't come out at all. The first 3/4 days, they were out every night, quite long, and thicker than they are now! Also more defined, as I said a lot of them seem very short and bunched up now. Does that make sense? Anyway, as its colour hasn't changed at all since I got it, I was wondering how I can tell how this coral is doing? What are the signs its not getting enough light etc.?
I also got a large red/brown feather duster, which has moved a bit since I got it, and firmly anchored itself in place. It stays open probably 75% of the time, and only stays in for a bit when it goes in.
As far as food goes, I always feed my fish at night, when the tentacles of most of the corals are extended, and put a bit more in (smaller particles) of frozen food so that some can hopefully make its way near the corals. I also feed a small amount of DT's Live Phytoplankton weekly, trying to aim it towards the corals (although my powerhead quickly pushes it all around the tank).
There are a few pics at:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidw49/sets/72157602267042537/
I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts, or advice?
Thanks.