Coral dying? / What type of coral is this?

Parameters,

14 Gallon BioCube with Protein skimmer, Bio Balls, and sump filter.

Up and running with livestock for 1 week (new to the hobby)

14 Lb of Live rock

Salinity 1.023
PH 8.2
KH 5.5 (have been using a buffer to get this up)
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

I have been using a small amount of calcium supplement as well as a PH and KH Buffer.

Livestock

1 Fire Goby 1"
1 Ocellaris Clown 1"
1 Bangia Cardinal 1.5"
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Red Sea Star 3" diameter
Button polyps (3" x 5")
unidentified coral (mushroom??)

Everything appears very healthy except the mystery coral which lately has shrunk considerably and its polyps are retracted, and appears to be falling over... especially at night...

It was in full "bloom" for the first 5 days and looked very healthy, however now it is looking pretty sorry for itself.. Help!

The attached picture is from when it was healthy, I will post a recent (sick) photo in a few hours.

 

It may be a leather... sometimes when put into a new tank or a different type of light they will shed their top and then regrow another one. I dont know any more details though because I dont have one

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/ultimate-newbie-guide-86462.html

start there.

A one week old tank should have 0 livestock. You're still cycling.

Read up on the nitrogen cycle.

Also recommend you search 3reef for info on bio-balls. Lots of folks here don't like them and recommend against them. Might want to replace them with more live rock.

EDIT: oh yeah, i think that's a flower pot if I'm looking at the right thing.

 

I believe it's a toadstool leather. Has the tank been cycled then had livestock for one week? or did you set the tank up one week ago?

 

another couple pictures, one with polyps retracted 30 min after putting in to the tank (still healthy)

and one from a bottom view (still healthy)

 

I cycled the tank with live rock in it for over two weeks before I added the livestock..

Should I buy more test kits? i.e. calcium, copper est.

 

As long as you saw an ammonia/nitrIte spike then you should be okay. I would still let your tank sit for a little while before adding anything else.

You shouldn't need a copper test kit if it is a new tank. If you haven't added it then it's most likely not there. I would get a calcium test kit if you plan on getting hard corals. Get a nitrAte test too if you don't already have one.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the linkia starfish will probably not make it. They are finicky to begin with and only have something like a 2% success rate in new tanks. Also, they need tons of bacteria to live off of so I just dont think that small of a tank can support it. If you wanna save some money, see if your lfs can exchange it for something else

 

Yeah I didn't even notice that.. definitely take that back if you can.

 

Thanks for the pointers guys,

I only paid $20 for the star and it seems to be doing really well.. it is always on the move, and still has good colour and everything.

So is there anything I can do with the toadstool? or do I just wait it out to see if it gets better?

I don't think I will add anything else to the tank at this point as it seems to be pretty stocked up.

What signs would I see for the star no doing well?