Corals are dying

11-16-2003, 08:20 AM

I have a 120 gallon tank with 2 175w 6500k metal halides and 2 actinics, trickle filter, protein skimmer, 1200 gph pump, 150 lbs of live rock, 4 fish, 5 corals. It has been set up for a month and has been running extremely well.

My readings are;

ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
PH 8.4
Calcium 440
Iodine 0.03
temp 79
salinity 1.021

I regularily dose with stronium and magnesium.

I purchased a sun coral and finger coral last week from Big Als aquarium, The finger coral had been in the store for some time. The sun coral had arrived the day before. Now after a week, these 2 corals are dying.... Any ideas of suggestions I can try to keep these alive?

Matt Rogers · 11-16-2003, 08:50 AM

I had a sun coral in my 30.

They are very difficult to keep.
They require close to daily target feeding it seems and they don't like to be in direct light. They prefer shade.

Where is the finger coral in the tank?
That is not a lot of light for a tank that big.

inwall75 · 11-16-2003, 09:05 AM

Yeah, they are a lot of work. I know someone who has about 10 of them and a black tubastrea too.

Here's some info
http://www.aquarium.net/0797/0797_3.shtml

Some people have had success with feeding caps. You cut the top 1/3 of a 2 liter bottle over the coral after lights out and then squirt a whole bunch of food in. That way the fish can't steal the food and it increases contact time for the polyps to eat.

Others simply put the tubastra in a separate container with tank water, feed it, and then put it back in the tank.

Jason McKenzie · 11-16-2003, 09:21 AM

What leads you to believe they are dying?
How where they acclimated?
I have a Sun coral that took about a week and a 1/2 to really start to open up when I was feeding. I agree with all above. Target feeding is a must, but I have found mine is able to grab food if I just use a turkey baster with bring and Cyclop-eeze. Then twice a week I hand feed each polyp with shrimp.
As for the finger leather they are slow to acclimate to a new tank. PH differences between Big Al's and your tank may have been quite big. It the leather all shriveled up and grey in colour? Is it sliming a lot?
I would try to reduce the flow around it and make sure it isn't being attacked by anything?

Pics of both would be very helpful

J

11-16-2003, 09:45 AM

Thanks for the feedback. I have not been feeding my sun coral directly. In fact I haven't been feeding it at all other than the food that is put in the tank for the fish. I have to start feeding the sun coral directly with frozen brine shimp. The finger coral is grey in color and has shrunk up with black ends on a couple of the fingers. The finger coral is in a slow current area of the tank and I believe it is not being attacked by anything else in the tank.

Jason McKenzie · 11-16-2003, 10:05 AM

Are the polyps of the Sun Coral coming out?
If not the first thing you need to do is get them to open up for feeding. The easiest way to do this is to just gently spray the coral with brine shrimp every day at about the same time lets say 8:00pm. After a couple of days you will see it will open to get the food that is coming at 8:00pm. Soon after that you may find the polyps come out during regular fish feeding time and stay open until morning. Odds are this coral was never fed during it's long trip to Big Al's and likely was never fed at Big Al's. So it needs to be retrained for a feeding time.

The Finger doesn't sound good. I've never seem black tips on any leather. I would have to say this isn't a good thing. I would recommend you start running carbon in a filter, just in case the leather starts to slime up the place. and I would watch it for a couple more days. Others may dosage or have better suggestions as I have not seen black tips on a leather before. I'll grab a book and see if I can offer anything else.

Hey Jim By the way Welcome to 3Reef. I hope you can join and become a full time participant, I would love to see your reef evolve. So Big Al's their Canadian, were abouts are you from?

Jason

Jim_Barry · 11-16-2003, 10:59 AM

Thanks Jason,

I registered about a month ago..... just didn't log in today. I live in Calgary.

Thanks for the info..... I will try the feeding times as you suggested. I took the sun coral out and put in another container with tank water and tried to feed it brine shrimp. The polyps wouldn't open for me. I think it might be dead. I still has color however. Any other comments or suggestions are appreciated. If you find any info on the black tips on my finger coral, please let me know.

Thx,

Jim

Jason McKenzie · 11-16-2003, 02:24 PM

Hey Jim, It's always nice to see another Canuck around. I really don;t think it's dead. It just needs to learn when to open for food. keep up the brine trick and it will start to open.

Not to flog another web site but, there are a lot of Calgarians on www.canreef.com. that you may get Frags or tips on local store from. It seems like a tight group and very friendly (like most from Calgary)

Let us know how everything is going

J

inwall75 · 11-16-2003, 03:01 PM

Jim,

I wish I would have gotten mine to eat in a week and a half. It took me several weeks. If you see color, then it is still alive. I agree 100% with Jackets. You're going to have to train it. After a while, it will stay in it's pretty "night-time" open mode all day long.

Jim_Barry · 11-16-2003, 05:29 PM

Thanks Jaket and Inwall75.

I fed my sun coral tonight with an eye dropper of brine shrimp on each polyp. It was amazing how it opened for food. I am thrilled with the results..... I thought it was dying (or dead)

. I will feed it directly a couple of times a day for a while and will post a pic when it is full and healthy.

Thanks again,

Jim