Wallets empty, wife's angry, and I'm in over my head!

SoggyNW

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Edit: wallet is empty because I only had $100 on me. The bank account is fine. (Wife still doesn't understand why I spent money on a handful of twigs to stick in my tank)

I found a guy on Craig's list selling frags and arranged to stop by today to check out his tank and pick up some frags. He advertised LPS, SPS, and zoas. Turns out he had all those things but was mostly looking to trim back his SPS forest and had no where to put it.

Long story short. For $100 I walked out with a 30 head zoa colony, 3 huge pieces of chalace, and 20 SPS frags. I ran out of glue sticking them to pieces of rubble. My 40b is looking a little crowded.

I previously was only keeping zoas, clove polyps, a duncan, and a torch. Everyone has been pretty happy. I wasn't planning on any SPS in this tank for a while and really haven't done all my homework. Honestly I don't even know how to identify most of what I have.


Parameters

Salinity 1.025
Temp 78
All 9
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0

Light is a viper Spectra 300watt. I run it 12 hours at ( I'll check power setting tomorrow and edit)

I'm also running an over sized skimmer.

For someone who has stumbled into this as I have. What do I need to know and do right away to succeed with SPS.

And what should I do with the chalace? I tried to glue them to rocks but it wouldn't hold. I ran out of glue and had to just lay them in the sand till tomorrow.

Thanks everyone

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The Aquatic Arsenal

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Wow, you got quite a deal I would say. How long has your tank been setup? SPS typically requires a mature system that has pretty consistent parameters. SPS usually require higher light levels as well. I would probably place all the coral that you are not familiar with in the sand bed and give it a week and start adjusting their placement in your tank. What is your phosphate and nitrates like?
 

MERKEY

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Have you started testing calcium and magnesium?

The real key is stability of an established tank. You will need to test alk, cal, and mag a lot until you find out how much all the new coral is going to use. From there you need to dose what the tank needs.

Not everyone doses but you just added a lot of corals to a tank that doesnt look really old so you may need to supplement until it hits a solid spot.

If you test it and it's all solid for those 3 then you are good to keep rollin!

If one is out of whack then the 3 will start to fall apart and your corals will be mad.

I'm sure more knowledgeable will chim in :)
 

Jon Fishman

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I use the rock putty stuff to mold to the back of chalice, and put some superglue between the putty/coral and then stick the putty to a rock.

Just keep an eye on everything and move if it looks like it needs more or less light. That chalice should grow anywhere
 
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SoggyNW

SoggyNW

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Wow, you got quite a deal I would say. How long has your tank been setup? SPS typically requires a mature system that has pretty consistent parameters. SPS usually require higher light levels as well. I would probably place all the coral that you are not familiar with in the sand bed and give it a week and start adjusting their placement in your tank. What is your phosphate and nitrates like?

The tank is 6months old and has been mostly stable for several months now. What instability there is has been user error. Phosphates and nitrates read 0 on my salifert tests. My skimmer is on point and I do weekly 10% water changes.

I've got each one glued to its own piece of live rock rubble and sitting in the sand bed. When your moving them up how far and how long do you leave them in a new spot?
 

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Okay so from one black box owner to another dial the blues back to 50 percent and leave whites off for a week. Place the frags about 3/4 of the way up the rock. Make sure to check alk every 2 days you want that number to stay consistent. After a week of acclimating your frags to the light start bring up the blues little by little. Then turn the whites on the lowest setting for only 2 hours then a week later do 3 hours then 4 hours do not use more the 5 hours per day of whites blues should be on for 10-12 hours per day and white should be in the middle or that for only 5 hours.

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SeaDweller

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The tank is 6months old and has been mostly stable for several months now. What instability there is has been user error. Phosphates and nitrates read 0 on my salifert tests. My skimmer is on point and I do weekly 10% water changes.

I've got each one glued to its own piece of live rock rubble and sitting in the sand bed. When your moving them up how far and how long do you leave them in a new spot?
If you truly have zero nutrients in your water, be prepared to feed your tank more or dose NO3 and PO4. Having zero nutrients is NOT good or ideal. Your corals will suffer. You need to have detectable levels of NO3 and PO4 for your stock to thrive.
 
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SoggyNW

SoggyNW

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I use the rock putty stuff to mold to the back of chalice, and put some superglue between the putty/coral and then stick the putty to a rock.

Just keep an eye on everything and move if it looks like it needs more or less light. That chalice should grow anywhere

Cool I had sent thought to glue one adhesive to another. I'll have to order the putty online, will the chalace be good in the sand for a few days?

Awesome deal. I'ld put all on sandbed and watch for a couple of weeks. Keep your current params stable and if anything up your flow and up lighting.

Will do, thankfully I bought over sized power heads so it's no big deal to turn them up.

If you truly have zero nutrients in your water, be prepared to feed your tank more or dose NO3 and PO4. Having zero nutrients is NOT good or ideal. Your corals will suffer. You need to have detectable levels of NO3 and PO4 for your stock to thrive.

Turns out my NO3 is expired so I've got a new salifert kit in the mail. I'm going to do a few extra water changes this week, run some carbon and we'll see how we're doing when the new test comes in.

Also ordered a Hana checker to make the all test easier and a few wifi outlets to control the skimmer and sump light.

Did a little identification work last night and it looks like the frags are mostly montipora digitata, and various acros. The monties are open and happy looking. What time frame do across usually take to open up if happy?
 

tnw50cal

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If you truly have zero nutrients in your water, be prepared to feed your tank more or dose NO3 and PO4. Having zero nutrients is NOT good or ideal. Your corals will suffer. You need to have detectable levels of NO3 and PO4 for your stock to thrive.
Don't do a few extra water changes this week, there is such a thing as to much.
 

hyprc

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Don't do a few extra water changes this week, there is such a thing as to much.
This. If all else is stable and inline, you'll just be stripping more nutrients from the water, starving your corals. Worst case, you even encourage a new dino issue... also, might wanna start testing Mag (alk/cal go wonky and unpredictable when mag is too low)

You've got a heck of a supplier near you, that deal is INSANE (even for cheapish frags)
 

revhtree

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Nice haul!
 
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SoggyNW

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Don't do a few extra water changes this week, there is such a thing as to much.
This. If all else is stable and inline, you'll just be stripping more nutrients from the water, starving your corals. Worst case, you even encourage a new dino issue... also, might wanna start testing Mag (alk/cal go wonky and unpredictable when mag is too low)

You've got a heck of a supplier near you, that deal is INSANE (even for cheapish frags)

Roger, no extra water changes.
 
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SoggyNW

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K so when I got home tonight I pulled out all the test kits and got a full set of fresh numbers.

Calcium 420
Magnesium 1240
Alkalinity 8.4
Po4 0-0.03 (salifert test is hard to read)
No3 0 (test kit is expired, new one on the way)
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.2

On a less scientific note. All of the montipora are open and appear very happy. Some of the acropora are open or partially open. I tried to get some photos but my camera is getting garbage with the blues on.

My skimmer is oversized and runs 24/7. Should I dial it back an see if I can get a reading on the No3 and Po4 or just leave it be.
 

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K so when I got home tonight I pulled out all the test kits and got a full set of fresh numbers.

Calcium 420
Magnesium 1240
Alkalinity 8.4
Po4 0-0.03 (salifert test is hard to read)
No3 0 (test kit is expired, new one on the way)
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.2

On a less scientific note. All of the montipora are open and appear very happy. Some of the acropora are open or partially open. I tried to get some photos but my camera is getting garbage with the blues on.

My skimmer is oversized and runs 24/7. Should I dial it back an see if I can get a reading on the No3 and Po4 or just leave it be.
Run your skimmer dry. At least I would (and do)
 
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