Placing Trachy, Scoly and Wilsoni

[DmitryB]

So I just got very nice ($$) frags of a Picasso Rainbow Trachy, Ultra Rainbow Wilsoni, and an Ultra Rainbow Warpaint Scoly. I'd like these to do very well! I'm looking for suggestions on placement of these guys and ladies. See pic below for PAR readings. Of course the question of flow is also a thing... There are a few spots UNDER overhangs, like in teh very center. There's a spot in the very back left corner - dark and low flow... Of course it won't be front row center, but it's front row if seen from the side (which is a full view.) Included photos of the corals from a POTO auction.

 

[zmanjr11]

Great question mate! Meat corals prefer lower par and low but not no flow because they have to have help keeping their tissue clean. Generally speaking, the front sand bed is a wonderful place that meets these requirements and typically where I keep my meat corals. In your tank specifically, which, thank you by the way for including and showing par ratings!, I would aim for one of the front right or left corners to start and go from there!

Keep us updated!
Cheers!

 

[DmitryB]

Thanks! My one concern with the front corners is the flow. There are Orcas in the back corners. Of course one good thing with the Orcas is you can limit flow in specific places. One bad thing about it is you can not limit flow in specific zones and have Random/Chaos flow at the same time. (Seems like it's a software limitation that can be fixed. @rvitko )

 

[Kasrift]

Does that scoly have some clove polyps on it's edge? I'd check that out as they can spread like the plague.

 

[zmanjr11]

Thanks! My one concern with the front corners is the flow. There are Orcas in the back corners. Of course one good thing with the Orcas is you can limit flow in specific places. One bad thing about it is you can not limit flow in specific zones and have Random/Chaos flow at the same time. (Seems like it's a software limitation that can be fixed. @rvitko )

Your concerns are valid and a great point. I can only speak for a couple of things that I have noticed over the years in my own tank:

1. I run 4 MP40s on my tank and discovered that my tank (200g display) loved it a lot more when I moved from 4 power heads on the sides, staggered in height- to 2 on the length side of the tank, 2 on the back wall, all 4 staggered in height. This allowed me to not only have less overall flow, but created more “chaos” (I run lagoon mode) in different areas but also helped me discover……
2. What my initial idea of “strong flow” was, was WAY too strong and what I thought of was “low flow” was actually legit strong flow lol. My max percentage now on any of my power heads is 13%.

I only bring these examples up as reference in my own tank to help you with an idea for the random flow problem and certainly not a “this is how you fix this…” response

Cheers!

 

[EnterName]

Does that scoly have some clove polyps on it's edge? I'd check that out as they can spread like the plague.

dang, very well spotted!

 

[DmitryB]

Does that scoly have some clove polyps on it's edge? I'd check that out as they can spread like the plague.

I'll check it tomorrow. If that's what that is, do I just pull them off?

 

[DmitryB]

Thanks! My one concern with the front corners is the flow. There are Orcas in the back corners. Of course one good thing with the Orcas is you can limit flow in specific places. One bad thing about it is you can not limit flow in specific zones and have Random/Chaos flow at the same time. (Seems like it's a software limitation that can be fixed. @rvitko )

Your concerns are valid and a great point. I can only speak for a couple of things that I have noticed over the years in my own tank:

1. I run 4 MP40s on my tank and discovered that my tank (200g display) loved it a lot more when I moved from 4 power heads on the sides, staggered in height- to 2 on the length side of the tank, 2 on the back wall, all 4 staggered in height. This allowed me to not only have less overall flow, but created more “chaos” (I run lagoon mode) in different areas but also helped me discover……
2. What my initial idea of “strong flow” was, was WAY too strong and what I thought of was “low flow” was actually legit strong flow lol. My max percentage now on any of my power heads is 13%.

I only bring these examples up as reference in my own tank to help you with an idea for the random flow problem and certainly not a “this is how you fix this…” response

Cheers!

It's hard to know what constitutes high flow! Maybe I should lower the two Orcas. I have them running close to 100%. Plus there's a ReefWave 45 moving the surface. But your suggestions might be good. I should try to lower the flow and see how things go!

 

[EnterName]

I'll check it tomorrow. If that's what that is, do I just pull them off?

The polyps are not the important part to get rid of. They sit on a "root-like tissue" called "stolon". This is the part you need to get fully rid of it. I would take the frag out and try to get rid of as much as possible with some tweezers first and then cover the whole area with kalkpaste or some aiptasia-eliminating product (e.g. Arka/MicrobeLift Aip-Away, TropicMarin Elimi-Aiptas, or RedSea Aiptasia-X). For extra safety you could also use some coral glue on top. After a good rinse so no loose tissue can float through your tank to grow somewhere else, the frag should be safe to be added back to the tank

If you don't have any of these products or kalkpaste available we will need to think of something else... Some acid (citric acid or acetic acid) could theoretically work but fumes and aerosols could harm the coral...
Sodium hydroxide as a strong base would be an alternative, maybe even sodium (bi)carbonate paste could be enough, but I haven't tested any of those solutions myself.

 

[DmitryB]

I'll check it tomorrow. If that's what that is, do I just pull them off?

The polyps are not the important part to get rid of. They sit on a "root-like tissue" called "stolon". This is the part you need to get fully rid of it. I would take the frag out and try to get rid of as much as possible with some tweezers first and then cover the whole area with kalkpaste or some aiptasia-eliminating product (e.g. Arka/MicrobeLift Aip-Away, TropicMarin Elimi-Aiptas, or RedSea Aiptasia-X). For extra safety you could also use some coral glue on top. After a good rinse so no loose tissue can float through your tank to grow somewhere else, the frag should be safe to be added back to the tank

If you don't have any of these products or kalkpaste available we will need to think of something else... Some acid (citric acid or acetic acid) could theoretically work but fumes and aerosols could harm the coral...
Sodium hydroxide as a strong base would be an alternative, maybe even sodium (bi)carbonate paste could be enough, but I haven't tested any of those solutions myself.

I don't have the things you mention. I do have Joe's Juice. I could try to get the coral off the plug, but could be risky. Don't want to damage the coral tissue.

 

[EnterName]

I don't have the things you mention. I do have Joe's Juice. I could try to get the coral off the plug, but could be risky. Don't want to damage the coral tissue.

Joe's Juice will do the trick. I would try to work "around" the coral instead of removing it. It will retract when you take it out, so I'm reasonably sure you have enough space to work with Joe's juice without hurting the actual coral. It won't harm the corals skeleton, just the tissue.

 

[zmanjr11]

It's hard to know what constitutes high flow! Maybe I should lower the two Orcas. I have them running close to 100%. Plus there's a ReefWave 45 moving the surface. But your suggestions might be good. I should try to lower the flow and see how things go!

I will tell you- I love and crave movement in my tank. Tangs and Torches are my thing. So my reef is LPS heavy with softies like weeping willows. The only true SPS's in my tank have been throw ins lol. Obviously it depends on what your tank requires, but for me, i've found that lower flow is so helpful! I guess

 

[DmitryB]

I don't have the things you mention. I do have Joe's Juice. I could try to get the coral off the plug, but could be risky. Don't want to damage the coral tissue.

Joe's Juice will do the trick. I would try to work "around" the coral instead of removing it. It will retract when you take it out, so I'm reasonably sure you have enough space to work with Joe's juice without hurting the actual coral. It won't harm the corals skeleton, just the tissue.

Alright, surgery tomorrow. Thanks!!

 

[DmitryB]

It's hard to know what constitutes high flow! Maybe I should lower the two Orcas. I have them running close to 100%. Plus there's a ReefWave 45 moving the surface. But your suggestions might be good. I should try to lower the flow and see how things go!

I will tell you- I love and crave movement in my tank. Tangs and Torches are my thing. So my reef is LPS heavy with softies like weeping willows. The only true SPS's in my tank have been throw ins lol. Obviously it depends on what your tank requires, but for me, i've found that lower flow is so helpful! I guess

My tank is very mixed. Lots of SPS frags in the upper half. I think 2 Orcas running at 100% and ReefWave 45 running at 90% may be too much. Though the fish don't mind it!

 

[DmitryB]

So it's been a few days and I don't think they're happy. I put them on the right front side, so it's not too much light. But they're not puffing up. I also have the Orca slow down the flow when it gets to that corner. So any ideas?

I'm including today's readings for reference.

 

[DmitryB]

So it's been a few days and I don't think they're happy. I put them on the right front side, so it's not too much light. But they're not puffing up. I also have the Orca slow down the flow when it gets to that corner. So any ideas?

I'm including today's readings for reference.

Anybody has ideas and advice on what may be wrong? They're not puffing up.

 

[EnterName]

So it's been a few days and I don't think they're happy. I put them on the right front side, so it's not too much light. But they're not puffing up. I also have the Orca slow down the flow when it gets to that corner. So any ideas?

I'm including today's readings for reference.

Anybody has ideas and advice on what may be wrong? They're not puffing up.

The corals haven't been in your tank for very long so you might see their response to the suddenly different water parameters. The response is sometimes a bit delayed in my experience. I would bring phosphate down very slowly with GFO and maybe make sure alkalinity isn't increasing further. Nothing looks like an obvious reason for the corals to be unhappy besides your tank simply being young which impacts the present microbiology. Either way, those corals might need time to adjust.

I would check on them after the lights are out. At least the "Scolys" (I think those were actually reclassified as Homophyllia cf. australis) should open up and try to catch food at night. That's when you can judge if flow is actually an issue. You can feed them a tiny bit as well if they open up.

Regarding light intensity you will need to simply trust their adaptability and your judgement, or get something to measure PAR to get a rough approximation.

 

[DmitryB]

So it's been a few days and I don't think they're happy. I put them on the right front side, so it's not too much light. But they're not puffing up. I also have the Orca slow down the flow when it gets to that corner. So any ideas?

I'm including today's readings for reference.

Anybody has ideas and advice on what may be wrong? They're not puffing up.

The corals haven't been in your tank for very long so you might see their response to the suddenly different water parameters which sometimes is a bit delayed. I would bring phosphate down very slowly with GFO and maybe make sure alkalinity isn't increasing further. Nothing looks like an obvious reason for the corals to be unhappy besides your tank simply being young which impacts the present microbiology. Either way, those corals might need time to adjust.

I would check on them after the lights are out. At least the "Scolys" (I think those were actually reclassified as Homophyllia cf. australis) should open up and try to catch food at night. That's when you can judge if flow is actually an issue. You can feed them a tiny bit as well if they open up.

Regarding light intensity you will need to simply trust their adaptability and your judgement, or get something to measure PAR to get a rough approximation.

Thanks! That corner PAR is 140-160. I do hope they're just adjusting. They're beautiful pieces.

With Phosphates - I started using Tropic Marin ElimiPhos slowly (less than recommended dose just to do it very slowly), but it seems with Tangs you're not allowed to use that stuff. Is GFO safe for Tangs? I can't use Carbon with Tangs either. I put in a media reactor which now just sits there. lol.

 

[EnterName]

So it's been a few days and I don't think they're happy. I put them on the right front side, so it's not too much light. But they're not puffing up. I also have the Orca slow down the flow when it gets to that corner. So any ideas?

I'm including today's readings for reference.

Anybody has ideas and advice on what may be wrong? They're not puffing up.

The corals haven't been in your tank for very long so you might see their response to the suddenly different water parameters which sometimes is a bit delayed. I would bring phosphate down very slowly with GFO and maybe make sure alkalinity isn't increasing further. Nothing looks like an obvious reason for the corals to be unhappy besides your tank simply being young which impacts the present microbiology. Either way, those corals might need time to adjust.

I would check on them after the lights are out. At least the "Scolys" (I think those were actually reclassified as Homophyllia cf. australis) should open up and try to catch food at night. That's when you can judge if flow is actually an issue. You can feed them a tiny bit as well if they open up.

Regarding light intensity you will need to simply trust their adaptability and your judgement, or get something to measure PAR to get a rough approximation.

Thanks! That corner PAR is 140-160. I do hope they're just adjusting. They're beautiful pieces.

With Phosphates - I started using Tropic Marin ElimiPhos slowly (less than recommended dose just to do it very slowly), but it seems with Tangs you're not allowed to use that stuff. Is GFO safe for Tangs? I can't use Carbon with Tangs either. I put in a media reactor which now just sits there. lol.

GFO is safe for all tank members including Tangs. It's just iron so if something dissolves it will be taken up very rapidly. Lanthanum is a different story. It's not really something our tank inhabitants are used to at higher levels and Tangs appear to be very sensitive to it.

Why wouldn't you be able to use carbon with Tangs in your tank? Carbon dosing is perfectly safe for all tank members and activated charcoal is as well (depending on what kind of carbon you were referring to).

 

[DmitryB]

With activated carbon, I was told it can be a contributing factor in Tang head-hole disease thingy. So I shut off my carbon!