Can I revive my dead coral?

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

Sorry, if this the wrong forum to post. I'm a beginner in Saltwater and I got my 1st coral. I think my coral is a Galaxea Frag and it dead on me or all the tentacles feel off.

All my parameters are in range, but salinity was super high (1.036) because I was using a defective refractormeter. Didn't know until I got my water tested at the LFS.

Is there anyway to bring it back to life? Been about a week. I have all the parameters correct now.

wesman42 · Oct 24, 2018

nthanhalan said:
Sorry, if this the wrong forum to post. I'm a beginner in Saltwater and I got my 1st coral. I think my coral is a Galaxea Frag and it dead on me or all the tentacles feel off.

All my parameters are in range, but salinity was super high (1.036) because I was using a defective refractormeter. Didn't know until I got my water tested at the LFS.

Is there anyway to bring it back to life? Been about a week. I have all the parameters correct now.

Unfortunately it's a goner :(. What I recommend doing about the refractometer is buying some calibration solution (like $10 or so). It will allow you to continually make sure that it's calibrated with the screw on the top.

When I first started out I killed one similar because I wasn't paying enough attention to salinity increase from evaporation. Ever since that one mistake, I've tested the tank at least once every 3 days or so with a calibrated refractometer. I calibrated mine using the solution twice a month.

ourcoralreef · Oct 24, 2018

Where are you located if you are in the ny area ill give you a small frag of galaxea

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

wesman42 said:
Unfortunately it's a goner :(. What I recommend doing about the refractometer is buying some calibration solution (like $10 or so). It will allow you to continually make sure that it's calibrated with the screw on the top.

When I first started out I killed one similar because I wasn't paying enough attention to salinity increase from evaporation. Ever since that one mistake, I've tested the tank at least once every 3 days or so with a calibrated refractometer. I calibrated mine using the solution twice a month.

I bought the $20 refractormeter on Amazon. At the LFS,I tested a few refractormeter out, and if course all of them are the same Chinese made. I noticed that if the salinity scale are on the fight side in the viewing window, then they are way off. Just bought another one and also thinking about getting the digital one to just encase.

The defective one is like 0.010 off

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

ourcoralreef said:
Where are you located if you are in the ny area ill give you a small frag of galaxea

Hey, I'm in the DFW area. Are you?

Thank you in advance... Haha

jdpeters · Oct 24, 2018

I don't think that's a galaxy coral you have there. Looks to be a candy cane am I wrong?

wesman42 · Oct 24, 2018

nthanhalan said:
I bought the $20 refractormeter on Amazon. At the LFS,I tested a few refractormeter out, and if course all of them are the same Chinese made. I noticed that if the salinity scale are on the fight side in the viewing window, then they are way off. Just bought another one and also thinking about getting the digital one to just encase.

The defective one is like 0.010 off

Well I wouldn't call a refractometer defective just because the calibration is off....that's why you can calibrate them with solution. If they are off, there's a screw located on the top that you can use to adjust to proper levels.

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

wesman42 said:
Well I wouldn't call a refractometer defective just because the calibration is off....that's why you can calibrate them with solution. If they are off, there's a screw located on the top that you can use to adjust to proper levels.

After I got the new refractormeter, out of frustration, i threw it away... Haha

I'll follow your advice and buy the e calibration liquid for the future.

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

jdpeters said:
I don't think that's a galaxy coral you have there. Looks to be a candy cane am I wrong?

I didn't take a picture when I got the coral, so tried to find the best name that match my coral.

My coral have tentacles when it blossom with yellow and orange tips. I'm colorblind, I might be wrong.. Haha not mushrooms like looking

Captain Quint · Oct 24, 2018

nthanhalan said:
I bought the $20 refractormeter on Amazon. At the LFS,I tested a few refractormeter out, and if course all of them are the same Chinese made. I noticed that if the salinity scale are on the fight side in the viewing window, then they are way off. Just bought another one and also thinking about getting the digital one to just encase.

The defective one is like 0.010 off

Sorry, this happened. I'm glad you found the problem and can easily correct it before more loss.

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

Captain Quint said:
Sorry, this happened. I'm glad you found the problem and can easily correct it before more loss.

I was so surprised that none of the fish die, but all my peppermint shrimps did. I thought it was my acclimation process when adding the shrimps.

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

How much live stocks does usually someone new to the hobby lose before getting it right?

Texas Reefer · Oct 24, 2018

nthanhalan said:
How much live stocks does usually someone new to the hobby lose before getting it right?

It happens. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from your mistakes. It's a learning process. If it wasn't challenging we probably wouldn't do it.

nthanhalan · Oct 24, 2018

Texas Reefer said:
It happens. Don't beat yourself up. Learn from your mistakes. It's a learning process. If it wasn't challenging we probably wouldn't do it.

Sometime I feel like just buying an established tank from someone else just to make it easier. But then I like the process of accumulating everything one by one.