Worried about new LPS corals...

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

I purchased a torch and frogspawn yesterday. My tank is a month old and had a very fast cycle. I added a clown about 3 weeks ago and a bicolor blenny a week ago, both of which are thriving. I also have a leather (which is angry -- I think he might be shedding), a neon toadstool (thriving) and a hammer (thriving).

I've been testing my water every day (I know it's excessive but I also know I'm moving perhaps a little fast so I want to keep my inhabitants safe) but I haven't seen fluctuations in anything. My parameters are, and have been (after the initial cycle):

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
Nitrate 2
Alk 8.5
Calcium 420
pH 8.3
Salinity 1.0255
Temp 80

I did pass a cyano stage and now have a manageable amount of brown algae (or dinoflagellates?) on my sand bed but again, sparse manageable amounts.

The corals were acclimated via float method and by adding / dumping water. I then placed them towards the bottom of the tank (although my tank is quite shallow, about 13" high).

I have 2 gen 1 AI Hydra 26's mounted 8.5" above the tank running:

White 34
DB 34
RB 34
Violet 30
UV 24
Green 10
Red 10

The frogspawn appears to be bloated? And the torch has one little path that appears to be bleaching. I did screw up and bump the torch on the sand bed lightly; I'm wondering if that's where it hit

DSC01017 by Andrew English, on Flickr

DSC01016 by Andrew English, on Flickr

These pics were taken right when the lights start to ramp up so the were just coming out. They're already extending more but the symptoms remain.

I'm thinking it's either too much light or too little? The shop I purchased from runs the same lights but I believe the torch may have been getting less light, so I purposefully placed him at the edge of the tank where the light falloff occurs. The frogspawn is probably getting a little less light than at the LFS.

 

[Dan_K1309]

I’m no expert ,but, did you dip your coral and check for critters? Sometimes doing another dip may help them recover. I had a similar problem and seemed to work. I have my MaxSpec RSX yellows on 65 and reds at 50,torch and acan seem to like it. Best of luck. Dan

 

[DMG Reef]

I would think it's your salinity. Some people keep fish only tanks at 1.021-1.023 but corals like 1.025-1.026. I would slowly raise the sailinity and see if they respond favorably.

 

[Huff747]

I not sure I would fret much yet. My frogspawn is bloated in the morning when the lights first come on and it's waking up. Seems to me to be part of it's daily routine, pulled in->bloated->fully extended and then goes back when the lights ramp down. Might just be taking them a bit to adjust to the different tanks.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

Oops, typo. Salinity is 1.0255 sorry about that.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

I'm mainly worried about the torch as he's showing bleaching symptoms, but I'm not really sure what I can do to help him. He's towards the bottom of the tank (as low as I can mount him) and out of the center of the LED's.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

LPS corals especially Euphyllia like the water to be a little on the dirty side. Try to bring the nitrates down a tad to .5-1.0 and bring the phosphates up just a tad to .25-.50. They also really thrive in lower flow areas with PAR levels around 80-120. Too much flow can and will stress them and they won't extend their polyp tentacles as much. And with the lights you have, the power settings dialed in and the depth they are at, you're likely hitting close to 200 PAR on them. If properly acclimated over a 2-3 week time period most can adapt to higher light intensity, but some LPS corals just won't adapt and will either bleach out to some degree or just not extend much.

Move them to the lowest part of the tank with lower flow, and slowly move them up to where you want them over the course of a couple weeks.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

What's weird is the hammer I have and the frogspawn are directly under one of the 26's at the same depth as the torch (who is off to the side of the lights) and they are fully extended and pretty happy looking now. But the torch is definitely showing some bleaching still.

Would backing off the light intensity harm any of my other corals? They're all pretty hardy: frogspawn, hammer, neon Sinularia, neon toadstool...

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Some varieties of torches can be more sensitive to changes in light intensity than others. My Indo tri-color gold torch is very sensitive to changes in light, where as my Aussies couldn't care less. When I moved to a larger tank and entirely different light the Indo started to bleach like yours. I moved it to a spot that only gets about 90 PAR compared to the Aussies that are getting 130+ and after a few weeks it colored back up and is doing really well now.

As for the torch that's bleaching a bit, it'd be better to move it lower in the tank and watch it closely for further signs of stress/bleaching than to lower the light output and potentially stress the rest of the corals.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

Where I have him now is as far away from the lights as I can get it (he has a long skeleton and I don't think my sand bed is deep enough to stick him there). If I wedge him between the rocks on the sand he will still be the same height but directly under the light unfortunately. So I slightly reduced the light intensity by about 8%. Other corals are still looking great so hopefully this gives the torch a chance to recover.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Sounds like a good plan. Lowering the light intensity like that would be similar to it being cloudy over the reef, and corals are able to adapt to this with no issues. You can also try target feeding the torch with something like Reef-Roids or Coral Frenzy. I regularly target feed my LPS corals including torches and frogs to keep them happy. The way I do it, I get a significant feeding response from all my corals except for the hammers. They just don't do anything when fed other than expelling a mucus coat all over the tank when the pumps kick back on. Also the fish tend to ignore the coral food unless it's free floating with some coral mucus, and even then most don't seem to care for it.

I use a one of those curved tip dental syringes, and snip off about a 1/4- 1/3 of the end of the tip of it. To feed the corals first feed your fish and wait about 30 min. Make a semi-thick slurry with about 1/4-1/2 tsp of Reef-Roids and tank water. Then fill the syringe and shut the pumps off and wait for about 5-10 min. Now gently reach in with the syringe and dispense a little of the slurry directly over the coral's mouth. It takes a few tries to get the food/water mix right so it will flow out of the syringe well. You want it to come out where it stays together and will look similar to school glue in consistency, so very gentle pressure on the plunger is all you need. Start with a small dose of food for each coral. You may not see much of a feeding response at first, but if you feed them a couple times a week in this manner, you will see them start to give an immediate feeding response and will open up and draw in the food. For large colonies such as Zoas a hard press on the plunger will disperse the food in a broadcast method and they may eat it, they may not. Once you find the corals that actively eat, only feed them. The rest will be OK. Give the corals about 20-30 min to finish eating before turning the pumps back on. Don't be surprised if the tank looks like a complete mess for about an hour after, but it will clear up fairly quickly.

You should notice after a couple weeks of regular feedings that your coral's color starts to intensify, and those that regularly send out sweepers like bubbles, and galaxeas will all but stop doing this as they are being kept happy with the feedings. You will also see some corals shrivel up expel a dark brown stringy strands (poop) this is normal when supplemental feedings are done. I use a long turkey baster and suck these up before they release into the water column.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

Great advice, thank you!

 

[BigJim]

LPS corals especially Euphyllia like the water to be a little on the dirty side. Try to bring the nitrates down a tad to .5-1.0 and bring the phosphates up just a tad to .25-.50. They also really thrive in lower flow areas with PAR levels around 80-120. Too much flow can and will stress them and they won't extend their polyp tentacles as much. And with the lights you have, the power settings dialed in and the depth they are at, you're likely hitting close to 200 PAR on them. If properly acclimated over a 2-3 week time period most can adapt to higher light intensity, but some LPS corals just won't adapt and will either bleach out to some degree or just not extend much.

Move them to the lowest part of the tank with lower flow, and slowly move them up to where you want them over the course of a couple weeks.

Did you mean to say bring the phosphate up to .025 - .05? I think .25 - .50 may cause a big algae bloom in a new tank.

 

[i_declare_bankruptcy]

How do you bring up phosphates? And should I really do that with a new tank?

 

[BigJim]

How do you bring up phosphates? And should I really do that with a new tank?

If you feed the corals as mentioned by Poepoise Hork once or twice a week, they might come up naturally. I would not do anything special to try to raise them.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Did you mean to say bring the phosphate up to .025 - .05? I think .25 - .50 may cause a big algae bloom in a new tank.

There is the potential for an algae bloom, but it can be managed if you have a good mix of livestock that combats the various nuisance algaes, as well as eliminating it in QT before the new corals go into the display tank. For example have critters in the coal QT that will strip the new frag plugs clean of any algae, or if possible move the frags to a new clean plug and discard the old one.

The worst algae bloom I saw in my 40 in the 2 years I had it running was a few patches of GHA and film algae on the glass. The GHA was knocked out with a sailfin and fluconazole treatment, and the film algae I would just clean the glass every couple of days. Keep in mind this was on a sumpless tank so my only nutrient export method was water changes.

How do you bring up phosphates? And should I really do that with a new tank?

Go a little heavy on feeding and/or start tossing in a pinch of pellet food (if you feed primarily frozen). As the uneaten food breaks down it will slowly bring up the nutrient levels. You can also skip a couple weeks on water changes, but monitor the levels and be ready to do a big water change if necessary. If you're keeping macro-algae in your sump, pull out a large portion of it while feeding heavy. The combination of these will allow the nutrient levels to start creeping up a little.

 

[MnFish1]

If you look at the BRS videos on PAR levels you’ll see that the PAR can be higher near the sides of the tank than directly under the lights due to the fact that light is reflected off the glass

 

[OriginalUserName]

Pics don't look all that bad. If you want to shade the torch a little place a layer or two so that it is shaded. That keeps the rest of the critters from being messed with.

 

[beardown]

When I get a new Euph, I keep it at the tank's bottom for at least 3 weeks. I've had some really picky hammers/frogspawn that only opened completely w/ a certain flow.