what can I do better with my reef tank

ARGYGANG

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what can I do to make my corals more happy? they were added three days ago, my Xenia hasn’t opened up fully yet. ammonia zero nitrate is a 10, mag is 1260, calcium is 400 and I picked up a bottle of microvert by coralife since a lot of these corals I have (if I wasn’t lied to about what they are) can filter feed since they are all soft corals. I’m ramping my lights up slowly and am on 20% with them right now using a nicrew 50 watt on a 10 gallon. my salinity is a 1.024 also. just wondering why a few of my corals are fully extended like my gsp but my Xenia is not open and pulsing like it should be. And if anyone could ID the coral in the first picture to the right the grey branch one that would be appreciated greatly, it just ended up in the bag with the corals I purchased and I called and was told to just keep it.
 
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ARGYGANG

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phosphate? salinity? temp? how old/new is the tank?
tank is 6 months old, not sure about phosphate, and tank is at 76 F. Salinity is at a 1.024. going to test phosphate right now and will get back to you in 5 minutes with that number also.
 

shakacuz

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tank is 6 months old, not sure about phosphate, and tank is at 76 F. Salinity is at a 1.024.
maybe raise the temp a degree or two higher. and bring up salinity to 1.025. slowly!

they might be closed due to being new in the tank. what’s your ALK?
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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the zoa's are reaching for light. Even the ricordia is curled, ricordia also likes higher light. Try increasing the PAR a little.

And of course, make sure there is enough flow everything should sway slightly, if nothing moves at all, there's not enough flow.
 
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ARGYGANG

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the zoa's are reaching for light. Even the ricordia is curled, ricordia also likes higher light. Try increasing the PAR a little.

And of course, make sure there is enough flow everything should sway slightly, if nothing moves at all, there's not enough flow.
okay so move all corals up more? Or should I increase the intensity of my light quicker, the store had really nice ones and I just have a nicrew 50 watt.
 
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ARGYGANG

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the zoa's are reaching for light. Even the ricordia is curled, ricordia also likes higher light. Try increasing the PAR a little.

And of course, make sure there is enough flow everything should sway slightly, if nothing moves at all, there's not enough flow.
I’m also running a 340 gph wave maker on my 10 gallon
 
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ARGYGANG

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maybe raise the temp a degree or two higher. and bring up salinity to 1.025. slowly!

they might be closed due to being new in the tank. what’s your ALK?
My alk is a 9 and my phosphates are super high, I believe 1ppm if I’m not mistaken, bought some phosphate absorber from seachem to get those down to .05
 

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Hold off on increasing light output, your corals are brand new in your tank and increasing light output (unless you have a par meter) can cause them to stay closed longer and possibly damage them, give them time to adjust and if you want to increase the strength of the lights do it slowly, most corals can survive in low light for a long time but can die in a few days from too strong light
 
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ARGYGANG

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Hold off on increasing light output, your corals are brand new in your tank and increasing light output (unless you have a par meter) can cause them to stay closed longer and possibly damage them, give them time to adjust and if you want to increase the strength of the lights do it slowly, most corals can survive in low light for a long time but can die in a few days from too strong light
My light goes 10%_20%_40%_80%_100%. How long would you take to go from 10-100? up a level every week or so?
 

anthonygf

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How bright were the lights at the LFS? If they had them at full brightness then when you get them home they will be okay with higher lighting in your tank. When I buy corals at the LFS I check to see what their light setting is and get close to it when I get them home, never have any problems with this, the corals are already used to bright light. Don't go over what they have their lighting set at, then increase your lighting.
 

kbnh

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My light goes 10%_20%_40%_80%_100%. How long would you take to go from 10-100? up a level every week or so?
Don’t look it at as how fast to get to 100%, my lights run with a ramp up at a max of 60% and my corals (mainly softies and Lps) are growing just fine. You can increase 10% every one to two weeks and you will be able to see how your corals respond, then you will find their preferred intensity.
 
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ARGYGANG

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Don’t look it at as how fast to get to 100%, my lights run with a ramp up at a max of 60% and my corals (mainly softies and Lps) are growing just fine. You can increase 10% every one to two weeks and you will be able to see how your corals respond, then you will find their preferred intensity.
okay so I called the fish store they said they run there lights at about 60% also. he said my zoas are reaching for light due to the cup shape and that I could leave them for another day or two and not move anything and let them adjust, since my light is on 40% I will just ramp it to 60% over two weeks. I just purchased the controller that lets me adjust how much white vs blue light is being output and how long they stay on etc. would you recommend 20% white 80% blue for softies and gsp? and for standard 8 hours? I got a good deal on these corals and I started with softies which I heard is a good place to learn and it’s all I plan on keeping.
 
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ARGYGANG

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Thanks for the advice man, I’ll run mine on 20% then and just let them adjust.
I have the Nicrew 100W. The Nicrew 50W will keep your coral alive at 20% blue 0% white, but you could increase the blue to 40%. I keep my white channel at 10% max.
 
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