Is this coral dying? pls help!

[roibenami]

Hey, i bought 3 frags from a fellow hobbyist yesterday, and one of them is not looking very good. (i added him about 12 hours ago...), here's a picture :

I kept a small piece of the frag plug and used super glue to glue it in place, when i first got it it was a lot more erect and now it looks like it's falling a bit, like giving in to gravity, looks like he's not doing very good....

Here are the measurements (basic ones, don't have the test kits yet...):
Temp: 25.7 C
PH: 8.0
Gravity: 1.022

Please help i really don't want this coral to die, it was really beautiful... Also if you think i should raise my salinity, should i do it gradually or all together? and what's the best method? also, can you identify this coral?

Thanks a lot!

 

[gashunk]

to me it looks like a white kenya tree which is a soft coral i could be wrong but if not itll be fine they are hardy just move it till its happy i usually keep mine low in the tank with low flow
and for your salinity it could be raised and if you do decide to raise it gradually so you dont shock everything in your system

 

[roibenami]

Th

to me it looks like a white kenya tree which is a soft coral i could be wrong but if not itll be fine they are hardy just move it till its happy i usually keep mine low in the tank with low flow
and for your salinity it could be raised and if you do decide to raise it gradually so you dont shock everything in your system

Thanks a lot, i do know its a soft coral... I want to wait and see how it reacts when the lights turns on in about an hour... If it's still unhappy by evening i'll move it... Please tell me if you think this is a smart move...

Also, so about the salinity, should i raise it to 1.023 and tonorrow 1.024 until i reach 1.025? Is that ok?

Thanks a lot!

 

[BoneXriffic]

Th


Thanks a lot, i do know its a soft coral... I want to wait and see how it reacts when the lights turns on in about an hour... If it's still unhappy by evening i'll move it... Please tell me if you think this is a smart move...

Also, so about the salinity, should i raise it to 1.023 and tonorrow 1.024 until i reach 1.025? Is that ok?

Thanks a lot!

Raise it slowly but i would shoot for 1.026 personally

Kenyan trees are tough little turds, what is your alk? Also what kind of lighting do you have?

 

[roibenami]

Raise it slowly but i would shoot for 1.026 personally

Kenyan trees are tough little turds, what is your alk? Also what kind of lighting do you have?

I still haven't tested the water, only for ammonia and nitrite which were 0 a week ago (wanted to see if my cycle is over)

I wanted to get the red sea reef testing kit but its a bit costly and i figured i could get in a week or two, but maybe i'm wrong...

My lighting is 2x 150w metal halide, my DT is 90 gallon, 30 gallon sump... All i'm running for filtration at the moment is some filter floss, activated carbon and a turf algae scrubber (tank is about 1 month old so very little algae on the scrubber at the moment)

My stock is 1 yellow tang, 3 hermits, 6 nassarius snails, 2 mushroom frags, 1 zoa frag, this yellow kenya tree, a purple kenya tree and a green staghorn frag

I'm currently not dosing anything but i think i'll start adding a little kalk in my ATO for the staghorn frag...

Any opinions and suggestions are welcome...

 

[BoneXriffic]

I still haven't tested the water, only for ammonia and nitrite which were 0 a week ago (wanted to see if my cycle is over)

I wanted to get the red sea reef testing kit but its a bit costly and i figured i could get in a week or two, but maybe i'm wrong...

My lighting is 2x 150w metal halide, my DT is 90 gallon, 30 gallon sump... All i'm running for filtration at the moment is some filter floss, activated carbon and a turf algae scrubber (tank is about 1 month old so very little algae on the scrubber at the moment)

My stock is 1 yellow tang, 3 hermits, 6 nassarius snails, 2 mushroom frags, 1 zoa frag, this yellow kenya tree, a purple kenya tree and a green staghorn frag

I'm currently not dosing anything but i think i'll start adding a little kalk in my ATO for the staghorn frag...

Any opinions and suggestions are welcome...

Not sure about the 150s, you might want supplements. I run 2 250w halides with vho supplements on my 90g. I would add a t5 retro imo...or up the halides to 250 but thats just me.

The tree you ha e may just need time to acclimate, it may be fine. But i think a good test kit would be a smart idea as soon as you can

 

[Tahoe61]

The piece is still acclimating and yea bringing up your SG should help. For a soft coral your lighting might be sufficient, on a 90 gallon though you should probably supplement the MH with some T5 for stony corals. How deep is the tank?

 

[BoneXriffic]

The piece is still acclimating and yea bringing up your SG should help. For a soft coral your lighting might be sufficient, on a 90 gallon though you should probably supplement the MH with some T5 for stony corals. How deep is the tank?

Id imagine 24" if its a standard 90.

Addition to his question how high above the tank

 

[roibenami]

Well, things doesn't seem to be improving, it seems like this is only happening with the soft corals.

The original kenya tree is not looking like its going to make it, he's simply laying there in the sand... and i have since gotten 4 more frags (1x devil's hand, 1x zoa, 1x candy cane, 1x unidentified purple softy). it seems like the same is starting to happen with the devil's hand frag and the unidentified purple softy frag, here is how they looked yesterday when i first put them in the tank :

And here is how they look now (the next morning, lights are out:)

Seems like they have the same bending effect as the yellow kenya tree had, the thing is - i'm very afraid to just "let them be" because here's how the yellow kenya tree looks today :

It's like that for a few days now, doesn't look good at all.

Actually there's one softy that seems to be doing fine, it is showing signs of bending but seems to survive it alright, it was introduced to the tank with the yellow kenya tree (date of the original post). here's a picture of it today (taken from the side so you could see the bending, also without light, picture taken now)

To answer some of your previous questions : my tank is 65cm tall, my only flow is the sump return which is 4000 liter per hour and a circulation pump that is rated 2000 liter per hour....
As mentioned above my lighting is 2x 150W metal halide lamps, my display is 90G...

I would love to give you guys some water parameters but honestly i'm saving up for the red sea testing kit (the nitrate/phos kit and the reef kit with calc, alk, mag) and i still can't get it yet... probably next week...

Any help would be very appreciated, i'm done getting new corals until i figure out what's going on....

Btw, i have a green staghorn frag, a couple of zoa frags, a candy cane frag and a couple of mushroom frags that seems like they are doing quite alright, so just with the softies...

Thanks a lot!

 

[gashunk]

well are they in good flow areas? it could help it could be to much or to little lighting and the MH lamps could just be taking the time to acclimate what lights were they originally under if you know? i dont see your parameters being a issue cause these are "hardy" corals so killing them will take everything

 

[roibenami]

well are they in good flow areas? it could help it could be to much or to little lighting and the MH lamps could just be taking the time to acclimate what lights were they originally under if you know? i dont see your parameters being a issue cause these are "hardy" corals so killing them will take everything

Well i originally thought that it was caused by the lighting so i put them in shaded area, and they are at the bottom so i guess low flow... they were all under LED lighting at the LFS. do you suggest moving them to a higher flow/light area?

Also, do you think i should do the same with the white kenya tree? i'm not sure if it's a goner or if there's some chance... you can see in the picture its just laying there in the sand for a few days, got a brown patch on one of the polyp heads today...

 

[Ubans13]

Do you have any kind of wave maker or just the return pump? I know the leather coral i had would just slump when it didnt have much flow. I know you said you didnt have any test kits except for ammonia and nitrite. I would say you need your test kits def a calcium and alk. You can get just a simple API from amazon cheap. If you do not have a wave maker pump (power head in tank) I would def say to get one. This plays a big part in a reef tank movie waste to the over flow. Also this helps keep corals clean and support there growth. Corals require low flow or high flow. This is where you need to do a little more research. We all know the feeling of wanting to get corals in the tank but some times we just need to wait till we have everything required to test and provide the proper environment flow wise to support the needs of the coral. Once you have tested all water parameters and have gotten all equipment required you can then enjoy corals. This would my suggestion.

 

[roibenami]

Do you have any kind of wave maker or just the return pump? I know the leather coral i had would just slump when it didnt have much flow. I know you said you didnt have any test kits except for ammonia and nitrite. I would say you need your test kits def a calcium and alk. You can get just a simple API from amazon cheap. If you do not have a wave maker pump (power head in tank) I would def say to get one. This plays a big part in a reef tank movie waste to the over flow. Also this helps keep corals clean and support there growth. Corals require low flow or high flow. This is where you need to do a little more research. We all know the feeling of wanting to get corals in the tank but some times we just need to wait till we have everything required to test and provide the proper environment flow wise to support the needs of the coral. Once you have tested all water parameters and have gotten all equipment required you can then enjoy corals. This would my suggestion.

Thanks a lot, i definitely know i went over board and got the corals too soon, patience is not one of my virtues... i do have a circulation pump rated at 2000 liters per hour in the tank, if you think they need more flow maybe i should try placing them higher in the tank, the thing is i'm a bit worried about the lighting not being too strong, on the other hand, the only softy in my tank that is doing alright is placed relatively high with proper flow/light...

I'll try raising them to a better location before the lights turn on today (about 90 mins) and i'll keep you updated...

 

[Ubans13]

I have a 75 gallon with 2 circ pump rated at 4000 liters per hour and I myself dont think i have enough. I do have decent flow but believe i need more. So I believe if you have one circ pump at 2000 that this is not enough flow on a 90 gallon.