Need help with coral issues!

AndrewJansick · Jun 24, 2018

so I will provide what information I can about my water and tank.

Fluvea 5 gallon, ~6-7 lbs live rock, 11000k LED
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ph: around 8
Phosphates: o
Nitrates: 0
(Others unknown)
I have about six rhodactis mushrooms that are healthy and growing. I have 4 1-inch zoa colonies that are doing well (aside from two newly fragged ones) a few green button polyps that are healthy, a small skunk clown, two astrea snails and two small blue legged reef hermits.

What’s not doing well are my two pocillopora, one is about 1’’x1’’ and the other 2x2 inch, and a GSP that’s a few days old now in the tank.

The bigger pocillopora I’ve had for about two months- it retains a colorful pink skeleton but the polyps barely extend- very unlike how they were at the store and they’ve also lost the neon green tips and are orange now. The other one I have is newer, and it still has the green and extends a little further but definitely not 100% fuzzy like they were. There are no signs of disease or bleaching, they are left alone by other inhabitants and get good flow+light.

The GSP popped out a couple polyps (it’s about an inch long and wide) the first night but has since completely withdrawn. At the store it was fully extended.

I did some reading that the GSP may take time but perhaps I am missing something such as the right temperature- my tank is colder than the water from the fish store.

And I have no idea what to do about the pocillopora. I have asked the employees from where I purchased them and got nothing helpful, just “try moving it around it likes a lot of flow”.

I supplement the tank with reef fuel and calcium.

Everything else in the tank is happy but these corals. They aren’t dying, but they are also not thriving by any means.

P.S.

I am not sure what kind of gear I need for a tank as small as mine. I have the filtration system it came with as well as a marine land hang over one (the default one is very weak).

Do I need a heater or protein skimmer?

I don’t know why some corals are booming and others are so wimpy.

I understand I should have done all this research before purchasing the animals, however I was overly confident because of my success with other corals, and the quality of my water (for what they did test). I also do not have a steady income at all right now, but soon I plan to invest in whatever I need once I begin my new job.

Thanks for reading, sorry for rambling. I have pictures available.

Reeferdood · Jun 24, 2018

First of all,

So it seems you have very clean water since you have no nitrates or phosphate. How do you test your parameters?
IMHO you need a little dirtier water unless you are trying for a UNLS. If you are, do you dose aminos?
Reef Fuel, is this a carbon source? Do you supplement alkalinity with your calcium? Don't forget about magnesium, it is equally as important!
As far as needing a skimmer, it is not a mandatory item, water changes in your tank would suffice.
A heater is also not mandatory as long as your temp remains stable @78 +-a degree, stability is key to everything in this hobby.

PatW · Jun 24, 2018

I pretty much concur with reeferdood.

I have a large flourishing Pocillipora colony. My nitrates are between 1 and 3 ppm. My phosphates are between .o1 and .03 ppm. The coral needs some nutrients to grow or even exist. Pocillipora is an sps coral. These corals generally like strong to moderate flow and strong to moderate light.

I keep my nutrients pretty low. But if they get too low, coral growth will stop and lower yet and the corals did. Mine seem to do best when nutrient levels are relatively constant.

You do not give your Ca and ALK levels. As hard corals grow, they consume Ca and ALK in the seawater forming calcium carbonate. It is important to measure these parameters and dose them to keep their levels constant. It is especially important to keep ALK constant. Since your corals do not seem to be growing, these levels may be fine. But once they start growing, you will get problems unless you dose or do a fiendish level of water changes.