Our bubble coral

[MyLady]

I had a question regarding my bubble coral. I noticed yesterday that it just wasn't opening up like it normally does. The bubbles werent' as full. I made mention of it to hubby and told him to me the bubble looked cold. Last week while cleaning the glass he broke our thermometer so there wasn't a quick way to check the temp but he said there was no reason the water temp should be any different. Then last night he tells me he found the water was a couple degrees cooler than it should have been. While doing his tank maintenance he cleaned the heater and didn't realize he had turned the dial down a couple degrees. So now he's put the temp back up to where it was but here it is 16 hours later and the bubble still isn't looking as "full". It is better than yesterday though. I am wondering if the ambient temp of the house could have anything to do with it? Wouldn't the water have warmed back up the 2 degrees it had dropped by now? (it's a 56 gallon) This coral is the only one I picked out and of course, my favorite, and I want to make sure it's doing okay. It also likes to "eat" the red macro algea we have. Hubby has had to pull stalks of algea out of it's mouth quite a few times now. We feed it mysis shrimp periodically, well hubby does.
Here are some pics of the bubble before the temp got altered, as well as a cool pic I took under our new moonlights.

[skinz78]

I don't think the temp swing would have done much to it. Do you know what your Cal, Alk, and Mag are at?

[MyLady]

This is MyLady's hubby:

nope, we dont have the tests for that. Been debating on getting them but right now, all the corals are zoos, ricordea, xenia, and this bubble. We will be getting some duncans in soon so maybe I can convince my wife that we should get those tests. I have to justify the purchases with the tank to her as she keeps a close watch on the purse strings when it comes to the tank. If I had my way, we would be broke but have one amazing tank. LOL

Looking at the coral now, it appears to be back to normal and the temp in the tank is almost back to 79 F. I have a feeling it was the coldness that made it shrink up a little.

[Reef lvr]

You will have a nice dead tank quick without those three kit's for sure!! I did the same thing @ first, corals and more corals instead of the rite test's and equipment. Believe me you can justify getting test kit's, it would be a lot cheaper than waking up one morning with a ghostown in a tank!!

[skinz78]

A lot of the time when you have an issue such as this is usually is the Alk causing the coral to shrink up, certain corals can be used as a "canary coral". When the canary coral starts to look bad you can tell that something isn't quite right with the big 3 params.

[MyLady]

Well, as I said in my intro, this is really hubby's tank and I just enjoy looking at it. I do enjoy learning about the different critters but leave all the water testing and that kind of thing to him. I did not even know we didn't have those tests LOL. I had purchased him some big test kit awhile back only later to find out it wasn't as good as the one he already had. I thought since it was quite a bit more expensive it would be better, oh well. He never mentioned that there were additional test kits we would need for the corals, or if he did I forgot. We will have to get those I suppose. We will just have to put off getting more fish for another couple weeks. We just ordered more coral (duncans, zoas and ricordea) and the last thing I want is to spend all that money and accidentally kill everything off.

[MyLady]

Well, no one around here had a test kit for what we needed for the corals so the LFS ordered one for us and hubby got it yesterday. He tested the water and everything is looking good he said. The bubble coral looks happy again and we got our new order of coral we ordered online on Tuesday. Some Duncans, zoas, ricordea and they sent us a 4th bag of coral we didn't order that looks like some kind of xenia but we're not sure what it is. They are all doing well so far and we are no using phytoplankton to make sure the corals are getting the nutirtion they need.

[MyLady]

this was the test results back on the 20th.

80 degrees F
SG 1.026
pH 7.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Calcium 460
Carbonate Hardness 9 dKH
Phosphates .25

I know the phosphates were high. I was feeding flakes but have since stopped that. I now do mysis only. I havea feeling I will be snowed in for the next few days with the storm coming so I will restest again on thursday.

Question, I attempt to feed the bubble coral a piece of mysis every now and then. Our skunk shrimp was hungry and attempted to retrieve it from the bubble coral. He obviously didnt like what he was getting from the coral. If the shrimp was really stupid, could the coral actually eat it? How do you feed your bubbles so that nothing attempts to steal the meal?

[Reef lvr]

Try feeding an hour or so after the lights go off!!

[MyLady]

That was an excellent idea about the feedings. The shrimp still tried to get the mysis, but the stings kept it away. How about suggestions for feeding duncans? Gotta keep the shrimp from stealing their food too!

[Captain Nemo]

Try feeding the duncans with a turkey baster. Edge it right close to it and when it starts to close, squirt a little bit of mysis in and it should attach. Duncans dont need to be fed but every so often.

[Rayzback]

I feed the fish first just before lights out, making sure they are nice and full. After the lights go out, I turn off my pumps which seems to trigger my LPS to feed. In a few minutes their tentacles start coming out. I then lower a piece of shrimp on a clip down to the sand, which brings all the crab and shrimp off the rock for a feeding frenzy. I feed my LPS with a SeaSquirt (turkey baster) giving them plenty of time to eat without anything bothering them. I pull the shrimp on the bottom out once the LPS have eaten, usually pulling crabs who haven't finished eating off.

[MyLady]

I feed the fish first just before lights out, making sure they are nice and full. After the lights go out, I turn off my pumps which seems to trigger my LPS to feed. In a few minutes their tentacles start coming out. I then lower a piece of shrimp on a clip down to the sand, which brings all the crab and shrimp off the rock for a feeding frenzy. I feed my LPS with a SeaSquirt (turkey baster) giving them plenty of time to eat without anything bothering them. I pull the shrimp on the bottom out once the LPS have eaten, usually pulling crabs who haven't finished eating off.

Thats a good idea. I would imagine its basic shrimp cocktail shrimp and its thawed before entry to tank. I have something that is similar to a baster but its much smaller and when it squirts out, it does one mysis at a time. I will try the shrimp on the bottom thing once the snow goes away and I can make it to the store.

[Jpurpz831]

dont forget to buy the test kits alkalinity, mag,cal are really important i ustu have that problem with my bubble coral most likely it is one of those if one of those levels is off it does no good to help your other parameters do the job they all work with eachother i use the salifert test kits

[Troylee]

^^^^ agreed get them test kits or stay on top of water changes untill you get one.."still not a great idea but it helps" are you dosing anything an what are you using to check your salinity??? I had a problem like that one time and found out my refractometer was out
Of wack and my salinty was very low... 1.021 to be exact... I normally keep it at 1.026

[Rayzback]

Thats a good idea. I would imagine its basic shrimp cocktail shrimp and its thawed before entry to tank. I have something that is similar to a baster but its much smaller and when it squirts out, it does one mysis at a time. I will try the shrimp on the bottom thing once the snow goes away and I can make it to the store.

I like to use the raw-uncooked shrimp. My bubble coral actually loves the stuff, shell and all.

[Captain Nemo]

I have never fed a coral shrimp with the shell still on. Afraid it might mistake my peppermints or my skunks and eat them for a meal.

[MyLady]

you can tell the contest is in full swing. Hubby posted the calc and whatnot results like 3 posts up. Isnt all this crazy posting making everyone happy?

AFAIK hubby doesnt dose the tank with anything. He says he gets all he needs from doing the waterchanges.

[skinz78]

How is the coral doing now, LOL all these posts and nobody has asked so I figured I would

[MyLady]

Bubble is doing great. We actually saw it poop once and took a video of it. Have no idea why, but anyways. When the bubble deflates and we can see the skeleton, we can tell it has grown. When it inflates, it has gotten larger. Its still my favorite part of the tank.