Looking for help

[bzahradnik]

I recently got into reefing I’m starting with a 40g breeder tank that’s been up for let’s say 3.5 weeks my friend that lives very far away from me has been helping me get everything I need to set this up first week I just let the filter run and added bacteria from Brightwell at the week one mark I added a clown fish and have been testing the water the next week I had 0 ammonia and decided to go and get another fish and a piece of coral I wanted to get a goby of some kind particularly a watchman petco at the time didn’t have any and the people there didn’t know much so I picked from what they had and that was an engineer goby I learned now that may have not been the best choice I also picked up two astrea snails and two blue leg hermits one had a bunch of algae and stuff on it’s shell my friend recommended me to get to add some bio diversity I also got a piece of coral that no one there knew what it was but it was cheap and it looked the most alive out of anything there after having that coral in for about a week I think it is a galaxea coral but still am uncertain and it was doing great so I went back and got two more pieces of coral since the first one was doing great I knew I wanted to get a zoa and that’s one of the ones I got which actually has two kinds of zoas on it but I only know one is a Gatorade zoa I’m unsure of the other I also got a leather my friend thinks it’s a devils hand/finger leather both these corals looked great in petcos tank so I thought they’d do alright I’ve had these two pieces for let’s say 4 days the zoa is doing great more and more color everyday the leather on the other hand this is day two of not seeing any polyps getting really worried about it and the the galaxea has one polyps that is shrinking and white any help or input is appreciated

 

[Rtaylor]

Leathers can take weeks to acclimate and start to look good. They do need moderate/high flow to help them shed and dead skin and prevent algae growth. The galaxea looks like it has virtually no flesh between the polyps? Is it just the picture or is that how it is? If so, that’s not a healthy condition. Your tank is very young for coral particularly if this is your first tank. Galaxea also need pretty high flow and need to be at least 12” from any other coral as they have extremely long sweeper tentacles that will kill other coral.

 

[bzahradnik]

Leathers can take weeks to acclimate and start to look good. They do need moderate/high flow to help them shed and dead skin and prevent algae growth. The galaxea looks like it has virtually no flesh between the polyps? Is it just the picture or is that how it is? If so, that’s not a healthy condition. Your tank is very young for coral particularly if this is your first tank. Galaxea also need pretty high flow and need to be at least 12” from any other coral as they have extremely long sweeper tentacles that will kill other coral.

That is exactly how it is none of it is connected it’s liker there’s a bunch of seperate corals I should probably move it because I would say it’s location is low to moderate flow

 

[Rtaylor]

That is exactly how it is none of it is connected it’s liker there’s a bunch of seperate corals I should probably move it because I would say it’s location is low to moderate flow

That doesn’t bode well for the galaxea, particularly in a new tank

 

[bzahradnik]

That doesn’t bode well for the galaxea, particularly in a new tank

That’s the exact way I got it from petco I had no idea what I was even getting because no one there knew anything

 

[Rtaylor]

That’s the exact way I got it from petco I had no idea what I was even getting because no one there knew anything

Ok, for future reference, healthy coral has flesh between the polyps

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

That’s the exact way I got it from petco I had no idea what I was even getting because no one there knew anything

Best to do your own research before buying anything for your tank. Don't count on the store workers (even at an LFS) to know about everything they sell.

(And please use punctuation!)