I recently cycled a Reefer 350, added a few beauties to my tank and would love to add coral. I transferred a bit of green star polyp to my new tank, acclimated it as I always have with corals in my 15 gallon tank, but it has not opened. I also added a mushroom bought from my lfs but did not open either. I waited 4 days to see if they would open or look alive....nothing. When cycling my tank I knew the parameters I was aiming for to add fish, what do I need in order to add coral? Thank you!
Ready to add corals?
- Thread starter BeckyW
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KellyCorals
Active Member
What kind of lights are you running? Salt should be 1.024-.026 temp 79-80, ph 8.3 and sometimes on a newly cycled tank, the corals struggle. I’m dealing with that right now. My tank is cycled but not aged enough I think to support corals the best it could.
MaxxuM
Active Member
@KellyCorals is right that parameters are important. GSP aren't very fickle, but sometimes they take a while to open up. As long as your water is in OK shape they should eventually open. If your ammonia, phosphates and nitrates are not high and your lights are adequate I'd give them another 2-3 days to open before worrying. You can do a water change and replace your chemical filtration if you want to be pro active.
Dark_Knightt
Valuable Member
Tell us your params and then if theyre good I suggest adding a hardy fish like a clownfish pair of a damsel(s) to start to get the tank and the bacteria used to having livestock in there, then start adding corals.
So far the two I added (GSP and mushrooms) are not doing well. It just doesn’t make sense. I moved the mushrooms back to my 15 gallon and they look much better. Exact same parameters except my small tank has higher nitrates.
Tiki Reef Joshua
Well-Known Member
Drop in something cheap and leave it alone. Don’t even look at it for a week. It needs to adjust to flow, light, trace elements etc..... flow especially. If your tank is cycled you can add coral. Especially those hardier ones. It may take them longer to perk up but they will be fine. Just don’t mess with them.
Fishingandreefing
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Not going to jinx myself but I cycled my reefer 350 about two months ago then I added some corals in there and they were fine. All my parameters were good except nitrate was zero. Even at that my corals were fine but I went ahead and dose nitrate to about 2ppm.
I also dose amino maybe you can try that.
I also dose amino maybe you can try that.
MaxxuM
Active Member
Dosing nitrates in such a young tank may not work out well in the long term. Better to just feed more at this point.
Fishingandreefing
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It was dosed for about 2 weeks and of course, tested few times per week. I did try to feed the coral and ghost feed it since there was no fish.
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