New to corals. Have many questions.

saullman

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2018
Messages
515
Reaction score
207
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I have 4 corals in my tank right now. One is on the rock work and the other 3 are sitting in a frag rack. The one that is on the rock work seems to be pretty happy and growing however the other 3 on the rack just seem to be surviving and not thriving. Please forgive me for all of the questions I have, but you might need to talk to me like you would a 5 year old because I literally know nothing about corals. I will also try including some pics as well so you can see what I am talking about. I will number the questions so that one person isn't stuck answering all of them. Everyone can take turns. So let me get started.

I bought a frag rack because I wasn't sure what else to do with the corals after I purchased them from my lfs but,

1- how long is too long for corals to be sitting on a frag rack?
2-What is the real purpose of a frag rack?
3- Should I be feeding my corals something? Or do they just get the nutrients from the water
4- what is the process of getting my corals from my rack onto my rock?
5- what is the best way to learn about coral placement, lighting, flow, etc.
37572bbee75b9eba306501c4d9c3dc23.jpg

81f60e270f37e79c0d02fb37cb4f54f6.jpg

e319c5ccb1c3661d7a82bc040bbcf001.jpg
 

mahindra.dev

Euphyllia Lover
View Badges
Joined
Jul 22, 2017
Messages
932
Reaction score
2,226
Location
HYDERABAD
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hello there.

May I ask a few questions too

A. How old is your tank
B. Parameters
C. When did you buy them
D. What lighting are you using!

These corals look like Zoas, mushrooms and other looks like Favia.
 

mahindra.dev

Euphyllia Lover
View Badges
Joined
Jul 22, 2017
Messages
932
Reaction score
2,226
Location
HYDERABAD
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
1- how long is too long for corals to be sitting on a frag rack?
As long as they don’t start encrusting the frag rack you are fine. Well I’ve seen a few systems that have corals starting to encrust the racks.

2-What is the real purpose of a frag rack?

Corals grow, we prune them as tiny frags and either share them or place them in a new tank. In the mean time frag rack is the best location so you are not permanently fixing the location.


3- Should I be feeding my corals something?
Or do they just get the nutrients from the water

Yes you can feed, but to the most part photosynthesis and nutrients in the water Column is their way of growing. I feed my corals 1-2 Times a week. You have to be mindful about the amount of feeding cos it can cause unwanted nutrient spike if not in check.

4- what is the process of getting my corals from my rack onto my rock?

Even before getting them into your tank, ALWAYS DIP CORALS. I use Coral Rx. Works great and gets rid of unwanted pests. Zoas are know to carry pests.

This is what I’ve done, I always Dip first and then transfer them to either the rock or rack. 90% onto rock. So in doing that, I take my shears and cut the bottom part of the plug and use glue to hold them in the desired location on the rock work. I hold for a min or two and they are set. If I can get the coral of the frag, even better. But it’s not feasible all the time. This is way too much info and there are videos about this. So that will help. Please be careful with ZOAS. Do not handle them with bare hands or without safety glasses. Research Palytoxins. So for those corals if you can carefully remove the bottom
Plug and glue them, that works. If not see if you can just jam the plug into your rock work.

5- what is the best way to learn about coral placement, lighting, flow, etc.

I can’t answer this in details and I’m
Not expert. It’s generally like this

Soft corals : Low Flow, <10times tank volume ,Low light (50par) and based on what you use for flow and light, typically bottom

LPS: medium flow(10-20times), low to medium light(upto 100PAR) and also bottom to half way up the rock works

SPS: high flow(25-50) high light (200-300)and typically on the top half.

But it’s basically coral species driven and what you are using as well.


Hope this helps. #reefsquad your thoughts!!
 
OP
OP
saullman

saullman

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2018
Messages
515
Reaction score
207
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hello there.

May I ask a few questions too

A. How old is your tank
B. Parameters
C. When did you buy them
D. What lighting are you using!

These corals look like Zoas, mushrooms and other looks like Favia.

A. My tank was setup around Sept 2017. It was a surprise from my wife.
B. I hate to answer a question with another question but what parameters are you looking for?
C. I purchased my corals roughly 2 months ago. I had a few more, but my Angel thought they were lunch.
D. Well I have a 45 gal JBJ rimless with an AI Prime HD for lighting and I just purchased an MP10 for flow.

Hope that helps. And thank you for your taking your time to answer me back. I am new to R2R.
 

mahindra.dev

Euphyllia Lover
View Badges
Joined
Jul 22, 2017
Messages
932
Reaction score
2,226
Location
HYDERABAD
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Got it so an older system. What I’m Looking for is general chemistry. Nitrates, phosphates, cal, mag and Sal.

I say turn your flow down. It looks like a lot of flow. You have sand being moved around, then move your corals to the bottom of the tank and closer to the left side towards MP10. They should respond to that.

Also your angle may not pick on zoas, but I haven’t kept any so I would not know..
 

chipmunkofdoom2

Always Making Something
View Badges
Joined
Jun 6, 2017
Messages
2,417
Reaction score
4,497
Location
Baltimore, MD
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Welcome to R2R :)

1. Corals can be kept in a frag rack indefinitely. As @mahindra.dev mentioned, you may run into trouble if they start encrusting or growing onto the frag rack. You may find yourself cutting apart the frag rack or destroying the coral to get them off. Other than that, as long as they have sufficient light and flow, there's no reason they have to be removed from the frag rack after a certain period.

2. Most of the time a frag rack is just a place to keep a frag until it's ready to sell. Coral farms, however, are usually nothing but frag racks. There's no reason a coral can't live there long term. A frag rack is really just a convenient place for a coral to grow.

3. No feeding required. Later on if you want to get them to grow better, you can consider feeding. But for now, they'll be fine with light and flow.

4. Really the only process is moving the corals to the rock when you're ready. You want to make sure they're acclimated to the light and flow in your tank, and you don't want to put them in a place where they'd be unhappy. If the spot on the rock has similar light and flow to that of the frag rack, you can move them whenever (provided they're happy on the frag rack).

5. There's no real answer here. Many corals can be happy in low or high light, so long as they're acclimated. I usually stick an established coral somewhere and watch how it behaves. If it shows signs of stress, I might move it. If not, I'll leave it alone.
 
OP
OP
saullman

saullman

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 9, 2018
Messages
515
Reaction score
207
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Got it so an older system. What I’m Looking for is general chemistry. Nitrates, phosphates, cal, mag and Sal.

I say turn your flow down. It looks like a lot of flow. You have sand being moved around, then move your corals to the bottom of the tank and closer to the left side towards MP10. They should respond to that.

Also your angle may not pick on zoas, but I haven’t kept any so I would not know..

I don't have a test kit that measures all of the parameters you are talking about like phosphates, cal, and mag. What is a good test kit that would measure all of the parameters you mentioned above?

As far as my flow, I don't believe I have too much flow currently. It's not the flow that is moving my sand around, it's my diamond goby. He is the reason that I'm afraid to put any corals on the sand bed. I'm afraid he would bury them.
e310429c98783991c7413b5d815e7cee.jpg
 

Daniel92481

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
1,605
Reaction score
5,760
Location
Houston, TX
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
As for test kits, you have many options here. I would say a good starting test kit would be API kits, since they cover a lot of tests in 1 or 2 kits. They have a saltwater kit and a reef master kit. I suggest getting both. If you are looking for more advanced, precise readings, Hanna checkers work great, as well as Red Sea kits. Also take a look at Salifert test kits. Welcome to R2R. You’ve come to the right place with your questions, lots of great info here.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 64 36.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.9%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top