I've had my tank up and running for about 4 years now, and I thought I was getting a pretty good handle on keeping saltwater fish and corals. I just bought, a couple weeks ago, a new protein skimmer (which is broken in by now), a new 2x96W PC fixture, to add to my 96w I already had, which puts me at more than 6WPG (46 gallon tank). I installed some power heads and ordered some corals from
www.liveaquaria.com. A couple of my items are on backorder but I did receive my Bulb Tip Anemone, Colt Coral, Pagoda Coral, and Toadstool Mushroom Leather, and my Blue Linka Star. I acclimated the star via the drip method, and everything else the normal way. Well the star is pretty much DEAD (its like splitting open and its blue and white now...not looking cute!). The pagoda barely comes out, the colt looks OK and the toadstool might as well forget it, it hasn't opened at all since I got it. But heres the kicker...the BTA is looking AWESOME (totally open, bulb tips, freaking huge!)! It found a spot its cozy in, I have fed it twice (I received all these guys on Friday 3/17). I'm especially worried because I tested my water and everything checks out OK except the nitrates are 10ppm. I'm going to do a water change now and hold off feeding these guys for a couple days, and get that star out, I'm sure his decay isn't helping. Any other thoughts? I know I read that after corals ship it might be awhile before they really come out but the toadstool especially had shown no signs of that.
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125 Gal Reef. Born March 2002
FISH: Ocellaris Clown, Yellow Tang, Fairy Wrasse, Sand Star, Hippo Tang
CORALS: Green Striped/Red/Purple Mushrooms, Green Star Polyps, Yellow Toadstool Leather, Bubble, Frogspawn, 2 Hammers, Yellow Polyps, Open Brain, Ridge Leather, Various Zoas, Button Polyps, Kenya Tree, Colt, Elephant Ear Mushroom, Clove Polyps, Torch, Purple Clam, Rose BTA