New corals! Help please!

[Matthew31]

When you bought your clowns did the lfs have the fish in copper? And did you dump the fish and water into your display?

I’d test the new water for copper, alk mag and calcium. I’d personally hold off on dosing. Your alk is already high and adding will just raise it. I dont see you have many stony corals so I think your tank could be managed with water changes.

When you start adding corals that uptake cal, alk and mag then I’d dose.

My tank is in a small area and I don’t have any window open so it’s always around 8. At night it’ll dip but it’s always pretty close to 8. I would stay FAR AWAY FROM ANY PH BUFFER! Or spending huge amounts of money on any co2 scrubbers. Open a window or run an airline from your skimmer to outside if you want to raise it lol.

I would follow the instructions on the bottle for the bacteria. I wouldn’t add any chemicals or anything to the tank.

The first thing I’d do is test my new water to see what you’re putting in the tank. If you have any carbon I’d add it to remove any metal or toxins that are in the tank.

I don’t have much experience keeping those type of coral but I think I read Zoa and paly can release some toxins in the water. Maybe your coral are just unhappy from that.

It’ll just be easier to systematically go through things 1 at a time and be able to eliminate potential causes!

I know it’s heartbreaking and stressful to watch but it’s important to not speed through fixing the tank or you’ll end up possibly making it worse

Just be patient and check things off. If your new water is good water changes should help you resolve most issues.

It is hard! With freshwater you can make it brand new in an afternoon but this is a challenge for sure!

I’ll test the water tomorrow before the change. I did add the water from the bag and they were from petco so maybe?

I do have a door and window few feet from the tank maybe I’ll just open them for a cross breeze a little bit a day

I adjusted the light to the Red Sea set programming with acclimation on maybe they need more light for strength

Should i get reef food? Like reef roids?

Haha right! This is a whole new beast. When you get the hang of it it’ll get less stressful.

I’m not sure if petco uses copper in their tanks honestly. For future reference, don’t add any water from anywhere in your tank :). You could call them and ask tho. They would beable to tell you maybe. Over here they don’t because they have “live rock” for sale. The rock would absorb it and then release I into someone’s tank.

I wouldn’t mess with anything yet. Too much light usually kills stuff. I’ve killed more stuff shocking them with too much light vs not enough light. You have lower light stuff from what I can see.

I wouldn’t add food either. Your nutrients are a little high. Adding anymore food without exporting them will cause other issues.

Get your nutrients in check before adding more food.

Try your best not to mess with 400 things at a time tho. It’s just easier and better when you check things off slowly. You’ll learn a lot of good things from going through stuff like this. You’ll gain confidence and knowledge figuring out what happened, how it happened and more importantly good ways to solve the problem.

 

[lubashmike]

have you ever changed your filters or resins on your RO/DI? Has it got a tds meter on it or have you checked the tds of the RO/DI output water? Slow down as other have said and dosing anything right now is only going to cause you issues. Stop dosing amino acids (or any coral food) as well until you truly understand what you are doing and how everything works, they can spike your nutrient levels in a hurry. Weekly 10-20% routine water changes will help guide you in keeping things stable. Patience and consistency are your friend

Trust me I’ve learned to slow down
Trying not to be stressed and over react in my current situation but moving forward yeah it’s a snails pace

 

[Marco_99]

It does not have a tds meter on it but tomorrow I’ll test it
So even with the corals looking so sad right now just water change, light, and flow for now?

Yes. Your little corals are consuming light, the nutrients from your fish food, fish waste, and nutrients in your salt mix. For right now they will be more than fine until you fully understand when, how, and what you are doing. Not only is your tank very unstable because it has not developed a strong bacterial foundation that takes lots of time, corals can be shocked or sad for days, weeks, or months when introduced into a different system. Your system is also not ideal for inverts at this moment unless you are going to supplemental feed them as there is nothing in your tank right now for them to graze on. Do lots of reading and studying as this forum is full of endless answers and experiences and learn not to be frustrated but more to understand the whys and hows. A marine tank takes a lot of time to develop and mature and there is nothing in a bottle or a store that can speed that process, it just takes time.

 

[Marine Betta]

have you ever changed your filters or resins on your RO/DI? Has it got a tds meter on it or have you checked the tds of the RO/DI output water? Slow down as other have said and dosing anything right now is only going to cause you issues. Stop dosing amino acids (or any coral food) as well until you truly understand what you are doing and how everything works, they can spike your nutrient levels in a hurry. Weekly 10-20% routine water changes will help guide you in keeping things stable. Patience and consistency are your friend

It does not have a tds meter on it but tomorrow I’ll test it
So even with the corals looking so sad right now just water change, light, and flow for now?

Do the water change first. Even with sub optimal light, your corals should still open. Most of your corals should be ok with the amount of flow they’re getting. The leathers and pocillopora might want more, and the trumpet may want less, but that’s just from me eyeballing their placement. Start balancing out the parameters before you worry about their placement and the lights. Opening your window would help with your pH, but just be careful of extreme weather temperatures. Last thing you need is a temperature swing.

As others have said, don’t feed your corals right now. They are not consuming the food. For future reference reef roids are great. Not all Petcos run copper, but some do. Each Petco is different, and it depends on who is in charge of taking care of the fish. If there were inverts in the same tanks as fish, I would hope that they did not have copper.

 

[Fish Styx]

Is there a way to remove metals? Like Seachem prime?

Cuprisorb works well for this. You can stick a bag of it in a high flow area.

Here's an informational video from BRS on it:

 

[lubashmike]

Yes. Your little corals are consuming light, the nutrients from your fish food, fish waste, and nutrients in your salt mix. For right now they will be more than fine until you fully understand when, how, and what you are doing. Not only is your tank very unstable because it has not developed a strong bacterial foundation that takes lots of time, corals can be shocked or sad for days, weeks, or months when introduced into a different system. Your system is also not ideal for inverts at this moment unless you are going to supplemental feed them as there is nothing in your tank right now for them to graze on. Do lots of reading and studying as this forum is full of endless answers and experiences and learn not to be frustrated but more to understand the whys and hows. A marine tank takes a lot of time to develop and mature and there is nothing in a bottle or a store that can speed that process, it just takes time.

I try to do reading online but can’t tell if someone is trying to sell something ie bacteria in a bottle to speed things up or not

So with the corals looking like they are melting and not opening up just keep doing water changes and checking parameters and do nothing but feed the fish and keep everything stable? Eventually they will perk back up?

 

[lubashmike]

Cuprisorb works well for this. You can stick a bag of it in a high flow area.

Here's an informational video from BRS on it:

How much copper is too much? .01 ppm?

 

[lubashmike]

Do the water change first. Even with sub optimal light, your corals should still open. Most of your corals should be ok with the amount of flow they’re getting. The leathers and pocillopora might want more, and the trumpet may want less, but that’s just from me eyeballing their placement. Start balancing out the parameters before you worry about their placement and the lights. Opening your window would help with your pH, but just be careful of extreme weather temperatures. Last thing you need is a temperature swing.

As others have said, don’t feed your corals right now. They are not consuming the food. For future reference reef roids are great. Not all Petcos run copper, but some do. Each Petco is different, and it depends on who is in charge of taking care of the fish. If there were inverts in the same tanks as fish, I would hope that they did not have copper.

What about the white slime growth on them? Is that okay/normal?

 

[lubashmike]

Cuprisorb works well for this. You can stick a bag of it in a high flow area.

Here's an informational video from BRS on it:

.01 ppm in my fresh salt mix so either front my rodi system or from the salt

 

[Fish Styx]

.01 ppm in my fresh salt mix so either front my rodi system or from the salt

Are you using any brass fittings on the system anywhere?

 

[Fish Styx]

How much copper is too much? .01 ppm?

Any detectable is too much, IMO.

 

[Double monti 61]

I think that you have not let the system mature enough be patient.

 

[lubashmike]

Are you using any brass fittings on the system anywhere?

No it’s just a factory Red Sea max system with a Fluval heater

 

[Fish Styx]

No it’s just a factory Red Sea max system with a Fluval heater

Have you examined the heater? Try making a batch without it in and retest.

 

[dwest]

I might have missed this but how was copper measured?

 

[lubashmike]

I might have missed this but how was copper measured?

Hanna checker

 

[lubashmike]

Have you examined the heater? Try making a batch without it in and retest.

That’s a good point! I’ll test a cup straight from the rodi and rule out that

 

[Dom]

Hello everyone from Denver!
New to salt water and i am about to give up.
Tank is 4 weeks old, was cycling good for few weeks then added 2 clowns. Week later, i went to the expo in Denver found a few cool corals and some free snails. Turns out some of the snails were dead so created an ammonia spike and I’ve been chasing my tail for a week and all the corals i got at the expo seem to be shriveling up

I have my light at 20% for 6 hours a day to help them acclimate.

Any advise on how to save the corals??
What parameters do i need to check?
I do check ammonia/ph/nitrates/alk

This hobby isn't easy and the learning curve is greater than 4 weeks.

I don't think it likely that a few snails are responsible for the ammonia spike, unless your tank is a 1 gallon Pico.

Its more likely that the tank didn't cycle and that ammonia was still present.

Where corals are concerned, I would focus on Alk and Calcium, along with salinity and flow.

Can you provide a full tank photo? A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Fish Fan]

Hanna checker

Per @Randy Holmes-Farley the Hanna Copper Checker is not accurate at low ranges. It's accurate around the 2.25 ppm therapeutic dose of copper needed to kill Ich, for example, but the Checker shouldn't be trusted at very low levels.

Here's just one thread where RHF mentioned this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hanna-high-range-copper-checker-questions.738393/post-7700820

 

[lubashmike]

Have you examined the heater? Try making a batch without it in and retest.

That’s a good point! I’ll test a cup straight from the rodi and rule out the

This hobby isn't easy and the learning curve is greater than 4 weeks.

I don't think it likely that a few snails are responsible for the ammonia spike, unless your tank is a 1 gallon Pico.

Its more likely that the tank didn't cycle and that ammonia was still present.

Where corals are concerned, I would focus on Alk and Calcium, along with salinity and flow.

Can you provide a full tank photo? A picture is worth a thousand words.

ive learned that it’s not just “watching salinity vs a fresh water” I’m mature enough to know i messed up now i just don’t know what hill to tackle first to get out of the mess as i learn more. The good news is i am learning by fire drill