Free coral?

[Brian Therien]

So the piece of coral you see came on the live rock I purchased. There is another piece besides the one pictures but it is flat, roughly the same diameter, but not spherical as this one is. Is it a coral? Is it alive? Since my tank is early in the cycling process how should I go bout taking care of it? Keep in mind it is the end of the day, my day time running lights have been off for a good hour and a half so it seems to be closed up. Also the purple on right behind it, I noticed that is closed also. Is that a coral as well?

 

[ou12004]

Looks like a bleached Favia and maybe a mushroom. If you have a decent light both should be ok.

 

[Brian Therien]

Looks like a bleached Favia and maybe a mushroom. If you have a decent light both should be ok.

These are my lights. All stock from the new 14 gallon biocube. 2 incandescents one 10,000k white and one Actinic blue. 2 LED's, one cool white and one moon light. Should be upgrading to the 12" dual LED strip replacements to fit the 14 biocube. Should they be ok?

 

[Retro Reefer]

The stock Biocube lighting is fine to start with, it will grow most any coral you wish to keep however the negatives are.. Yearly bulb replacement cost, excessive heat, loud fans and IMO poor color rendition because the 10k PC's tend to wash out colors.. If you want to upgrade to LED lighting I would recommend spending some time researching all available LED upgrades for your BC14, IMO the strip lighting is not the best option I would look at the nanobox retro, Steves LED's or rapid LED's

 

[Brian Therien]

The stock Biocube lighting is fine to start with, it will grow most any coral you wish to keep however the negatives are.. Yearly bulb replacement cost, excessive heat, loud fans and IMO poor color rendition because the 10k PC's tend to wash out colors.. If you want to upgrade to LED lighting I would recommend spending some time researching all available LED upgrades for your BC14, IMO the strip lighting is not the best option I would look at the nanobox retro, Steves LED's or rapid LED's

Thankyou very much. I will certainly look into those lighting options

 

[Brian Therien]

Here are those same two corals opened up

 

[ou12004]

It is hard to tell on the small one but if it has feeder tentacles it is probably an LPS, looks kind of like a blasto or a really small plate coral. Hard to tell from the pic. I use acro power and reef roids, to feed and color mine up. That favia looks like it was stressed and needs to color up.

 

[Brian Therien]

It is hard to tell on the small one but if it has feeder tentacles it is probably an LPS, looks kind of like a blasto or a really small plate coral. Hard to tell from the pic. I use acro power and reef roids, to feed and color mine up. That favia looks like it was stressed and needs to color up.

Should I feed them during the cycling process? If so what should I feel them and how often. And I would doubt it's a plate coral, I would say it's too round. It might definitely be blasto, that looks the most similar.

 

[ou12004]

I don't think the acro power in a small amount would hurt but I would hold off on the roids. You can spot feed them some mysis or even pellets. You can feed then every few days.

 

[Brian Therien]

I don't think the acro power in a small amount would hurt but I would hold off on the roids. You can spot feed them some mysis or even pellets. You can feed then every few days.

Thankyou very much. When you say mysis, u mean frozen mysis, correct?

 

[ou12004]

Yea I put a small amount of Roids in the water and they all open up to eat, then I turn the pumps off and shake the frozen mysis shrimp onto the tentacles. You can do the same thing at night when they open up on there own.
I use a long aquarium tong to hold the cube and try to keep my hands out of the water. Some people use a turkey baster to squirt it onto the corals. Either way works

 

[Brian Therien]

Yea I put a small amount of Roids in the water and they all open up to eat, then I turn the pumps off and shake the frozen mysis shrimp onto the tentacles. You can do the same thing at night when they open up on there own.
I use a long aquarium tong to hold the cube and try to keep my hands out of the water. Some people use a turkey baster to squirt it onto the corals. Either way works

Awesome, ya I read to defrost a small section of the cube running in under tap water in a very small strainer and than add tank water to the defrosted shrimp and use the turkey baster to blast it directly on the coral so there's the least amount of food wasted as possible. I'm going to a reef store today after work. I've wrote down everything you've told me to get so I'll let you know how it goes and I'll post pics later tonight. Thanks again

 

[ou12004]

I don't defrost mine, I don't know what nutrients are washed away and I have plenty of filter feeders that take up any extra waste. Plus it seems like a uneeded step to remove nutrients then add them with coral food

 

[Brian Therien]

I don't defrost mine, I don't know what nutrients are washed away and I have plenty of filter feeders that take up any extra waste. Plus it seems like a uneeded step to remove nutrients then add them with coral food

I don't have any filter feeders in my tank yet because it's still cycling that's the thing. But ok I won't defrost it that makes sense. The reason I read that the person defrosted it under running water is because he doesn't know what things they put in with the mysis and he doesn't want them in his tank but both sides make sense. I'm going to the reef store soon. To sum it up I'm getting frozen mysis, a turkey baster, a small amount of acro power, and RO wafter (just because I need some). Does that sound good to you for me to start taking care of these corals? (Remember the tank is still early in the cycling period)

 

[Brian Therien]

I don't have any filter feeders in my tank yet because it's still cycling that's the thing. But ok I won't defrost it that makes sense. The reason I read that the person defrosted it under running water is because he doesn't know what things they put in with the mysis and he doesn't want them in his tank but both sides make sense. I'm going to the reef store soon. To sum it up I'm getting frozen mysis, a turkey baster, a small amount of acro power, and RO wafter (just because I need some). Does that sound good to you for me to start taking care of these corals? (Remember the tank is still early in the cycling period)

Aye so I just fed them. After the guy at the store told me both were dead (I told him I saw them opening and closing over the last few days) I bought the mysis anyways because I knew they weren't. Well they both ate. The first time I gave 1 to the small purple coral, it started closing on it, I went to the bathroom, came back and it was wide open again. So I gave it another mysis. It closed completely on that one and is still closed on it 5 minutes later so I think it is eating this one. The (what we think is a bleached favia) sucked a few in slowly. I'd call this definitely a success, thank you so much. With the few extra shrimp flying around, hopefully my brittle star and bristle worm that came on the live rock will take care of them over night.

 

[ou12004]

That's great, bringing a coral back from the dead is one of my favorite things in the hobby.

If you have a large amount of quality live rock you should not have much of a cycle and a little bit of uneaten food will help it along

 

[Brian Therien]

That's great, bringing a coral back from the dead is one of my favorite things in the hobby.

If you have a large amount of quality live rock you should not have much of a cycle and a little bit of uneaten food will help it along

Ya from what I have heard it's the best rock you can drive to buy in South florida, of course you can order rock online but...no lol. Hopefully they grow and live long term. I notice more color in the purple one, besides for purple, I see some red and white dots this morning. I'll post a pic after it open fully. Thanks again for everything

 

[Josh King]

I believe it's a golf ball coral on the left. I have some that came on my live rock and are doing well. Many other types have sprouted out too.

 

[Brian Therien]

I believe it's a golf ball coral on the left. I have some that came on my live rock and are doing well. Many other types have sprouted out too.

Oh wow it definitely does look like that, but it still looks bleached. Thankyou for your response

 

[Brian Therien]

I believe it's a golf ball coral on the left. I have some that came on my live rock and are doing well. Many other types have sprouted out too.

The man at the store agreed on golf ball coral and informed me to purchase the Kent product phytoplankton because golf balls are filter feeders. He said 2 cap gulls 3 times a week. Do you have any before and after pictures of your golf ball coral?