I was just starting off with my first corals about a week ago. I had purchased a Frogspawn, Toadstool, and few mystery frags. Well, the toadstool opened for about 30 minutes and then it closed nothing else ever opened. The place that I got the corals at had no problems at all. I got them home and dripped for about 1 hour. My tank is a 6 month old 55 gallon with an eshopps psk 100 and no sump. I have 2 korallia 2s and plan on getting a vortech mp20. I also have a nova extreme t-5 light. I do make 10% water changes once a week with RO/DI water my water parameters are...

Salinity:1.025
Ammonia:0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
PH:8.2
Nitrate:2ppm
Calcium:380
KH:6.5
Temp:76

So if you have any ideas to help please let me know!! Thanks!!

Might want to turn the heat up a bit.

Well, your KH is low at 6.5. Thinking it should be in the 9-11 range.

Can't tell you for sure why it's low, but it's low.

I haven't dripped anything in years. Float to temp, then "in ya go there buddy" after a careful check for pests.

Here's a bump for perhaps a more helpful answer.

best-o-luck

Thanks, I will go raise the temp on the heater now to about 78. I will also try to get the KH up a little.

Frogspawn usually open right away, at least that what I experinced

Well, Mine did not...

It looked great in the tank I bought it from and retracted in the bag (as expected) but never opened back up.

Hmmmm Maybe something is stinging it, sweepers suck dude is it next to anything with sweepers?

No these were the ONLY corals in the tank. They were also about a foot apart.

hmmmm I dont know dude, maybe you acclimated it wrong apart from a few things it doesn't sound like your tank is in bad shape or anything....

The other thing that might be going on is that something is picking at it and it's staying sucked in as defense. What fish do you have in the tank? What about crabs/snails/urchins anything like that? I've noticed that people sometimes overlook this. It's what happened to me with my open brain a few weeks ago and I got rid of my coral beauty that was nipping at it. Just a thought if everything else seems in line. Only other thing without knowing much about the system would be the temp.

Just retested the water and got all the same except that I put the wrong number of drops in the KH test so that why I got 6.5, this time I got 9.5.

Fish:
2 false perc. clowns
4 Firefish
1 lawnmower blenny
2 Banggai cardinals
temporarily 1 sailfin tang (until he gets big enough to go with my porcupine puffer in my f.o.w.l.r.)

Invertebrates:
20 hermit crabs
15 astria snails
1 skunk cleaner shrimp

My experience I've had Skunk cleaner shrimp pick on newly introduced things corals included

I have never seen him pick on anything but I will keep an eye on him.

Did you also light acclimate them? Usually you keep the lights off for a few to several hours after you get them so they can get used to the water parameters first, then the light. Also where do you have them located in your tank? Can you take a pic of your tank so we can see where you've put everything? Maybe that will help. At the very least, someone might be able to identify some of your mystery frags for you.

I did reduce the photo period by about 2 hours and slowly raised it. As for the location they have already been turned into skimmate...

Well, the fish seem to be a lot more active with the temp up.
New Water test kit-

Salinity:1.025
Ammonia:0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
PH:8.2
Nitrate:1.5ppm
Calcium:390
KH:9.7
Temp:78.5

Are your other corals opening up (toadstool and ? frags)? I was thinking either lighting or possibly too much flow on the FS. Your params look fine, what kind of water are you using and do you see any other signs of stress in the tank (cyanobacteria mats, sickly fish)?

All of the corals are gone now and have been turned into skimmate.
There was no cyno and all other inverts and fish look fine. I do have a RO/DI filter. I currently have 2 korallia 2s and plan on getting a Vortech mp20 soon. Due to the fact that all of my corals died when I get more I do not want to mess up again and loose a lot of money.

That sucks, hope you didn't spend too much on them. Only think I can think of is chemical warfare, I've seen pictures of leathers and lps going at it but even that's a stretch since you seem to have more than enough circulation. Start with just one coral next time and see how that goes.

how long did the corals spend in transit? as far as light acclimation goes 2 hrs would only be to reduce stress. to completely acclimate something to higher light takes weeks. usually you start off with the corals lower in the tank and slowly raise them until they are at the height you want in your tank.

The corals were in trans. for about 20 min. They were in the bottom at the beginning.




So you think 2 korallia 2s is enough? Or should I get a Vortech?

I don't have a 55gal so I don't know if 2 K2's would be enough. Koralia flow doesn't travel very far so if that's all the circulation you have you may look into getting another pump that doesn't have dispersed flow. Of course if you have the money for a MP20 those are amazing pumps and would probably do you just fine.

Okay, thanks. I will most likely get a mp20 within the next month or 2.