Aiptasia Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 Hi there. I've got a 20g. nano-reef that i've added a few corals to about three days ago. I've added two small mushroom leathers, a finger leather, a little rock with two ricordea, a small rock of silver xenia and a small colony of green star polyps to the tank. To help them acclimate, the corals have been placed low in the tank away from the lights but not shaded. My problem is, the corals really don't look happy at all. The mushroom leathers and the ricordea are fairing the best. If you're familiar with mushroom corals, they will contract or extend their tentacles, but sometimes when they extend their tentacles, they do not open the frilly tips up, which is what they are doing. They will extend their tentacles but the tips have not really opened up yet. The ricordea looks fine one minute, then retracts the next, then looks ok again depending on when you look in the tank. The finger leather appears to be flattened out against its base rock and has yet to extend its tentacles. It's sitting in the bottom and can't get any lower in the tank. It's turned dark purple with shades of translucent metallic green. The xenia, i've only seen about half extended and appears to be contracted most of the day. On the star polyps, sometimes they'll extend out a little but most of the time they're retracted. The lights on the tank are 2x65w. Coralife compact flourescents with two actinic 03 bulbs running in them. I have the option of swapping out one of the bulbs for a 10,000k. lamp but thought by swapping out the 10k for the other actinic bulb, i'd be stimulating the corals. The tank has two hagen 402 (290 gph rated) powerheads on a wavemaker, and the water flow isn't directly flowing over the corals. When the xenia and the mushroom leathers do extend their polyps a little, there is plenty of current to blow them around, so I don't think lack of a current is an issue. I've thought that I might be giving them too much light, especially for newly acclimated corals, but everything i've read about each of these corals says they demand strong light and strong water movement. I could cut back on the light to one 65w. tube on a 10/14 cycle or I could try to move the corals directly into the water stream. I'm just wondering if this sounds like an overabundance of light problem or a lack of water flow problem. Thanks for your help. Link to comment
LITTLEFISHEE Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 First of all, is it a 20g long or tall. Secondly, how many times a day do you put your hand in the tank to move something? A pic would be helpful too. Link to comment
Isaka Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 More more info... When was your tank started? assuming you have test kits.. what are your levels? Also did I read this right? you are running 2 actinic bulbs and no 10k type bulbs? Actinic is only to help suplement your daylight bulbs. Post some more info and we can help more. Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 7, 2004 Author Share Posted February 7, 2004 It's a 20 tall, 24"L x 12"w x 16" tall. The substrate has a plenum plate, screen, 1" of aragamax, screen, 2" of aragamax, 2" of GARF grunge. There's 12" of draft between the top of the substrate to the bottom of the C.F. bulbs. The lights sit right on top of the glass canopy. Since introducing the corals to the tank to place them, I have not physically put my hands into the tank. This tank has been going for two weeks with a mix of araga max bioactive media and a 2" layer of GARF grunge. Ammonia tests zero, nitrites zero, nitrates < 2 ppm (lowest on the test kit scale but scale has no absolute zero). pH is 8.2, water temp is 75 degrees, calcium is 430 ppm. There are janitors in the tank (10 crabs, 20 snails) which show no ill effects, and all are present and accounted for (no deaths). The water is made from RO water (no phosphates, silicates), novaqua+ with buffers and then instant ocean mix. Water changes are 10% (2 gallons) weekly and the S.G. is 1.023. Evap. water is pure RO with a little seachem reef builder suppliment. I'm using aragocrete rock, so there is no live rock curing process other than calcarious algaes from the GARF grunge starting to grow on the rock itself. This has prevented the usual die off/diatom algae bloom cycle/green algae cycle ususally associated with reef tanks. The corals are not sliming or showing signs of being stung. However they are not fully extending. I really think it's a lighting issue and I may cut off one of the lights, knocking the light to just 65 watts, to see if they start "Stretching" for light. The finger leather especially appears to be flattening itself out and spreading its fingers in a horizontal, rather than vertical, position. The mushroom leathers do extend their polyps, but the tips have yet to open up, and the xenia does inflate 1/2 to 2/3 full, but does stay a lot more contracted than in the store display tank. The green star mat extends its polyps individually, briefly you'll see some extended and others retracted, then sometimes all retracted. The powerheads are rated at 290 GPH, which is a little more than 10 tank volumes per hour, but since they are on a wavemaster, only one kicks on in a 30 second interval, so the water current shouldn't be super strong. None of the corals is directly in the path of the jet of water, but when polyps are extended, you can see the "breeze" as it were. I'm betting ten to one it's a light issue, but I thought i'd get some other opinions on it. I have the option of putting the 10k bulb back into the housing, and each 65w. bulb has a separate timer switch, so I can turn off one bulb or the other depending. The dark purpling of the finger leather and the subsequent translucent greening of it's skin is another hint that it's probably getting too much light. I can put the 10k bulb back in and try them on that on a 10/14 light schedule. I can also move the corals around so they get more of a direct blast from the water stream, although I don't think the water is the issue. All opinions solicited! Tell me if you think i'm right on or way off, please! Link to comment
Isaka Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I will only comment about the lighting, make sure you have 1 10k and 1 actinic instead of 2 actinic only to provide a better spectrum. The fact that you are not using any LR and have 6 corals and a clean up crew after 2 weeks can be tackled by someone else ..... Link to comment
MrKrispy Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 put the rics/shrooms on the gravel for a week, see if they look better. It won't happen overnight, so have patience. Link to comment
bgoode Posted February 7, 2004 Share Posted February 7, 2004 I would also raise the temp and SG a bit. I like to keep my temp closer to 80 and SG at about 1.025 Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 7, 2004 Author Share Posted February 7, 2004 Actually, the ric looks great today and the mushroom leathers look ok, although not frilly at the tips likey they should be. It's the finger leather, xenia and star polyps that look like they're having problems. I'm willing to bet it's an adjustment/light problem, probably too much intensity for them. I'm going to take Isaka's advice and just use the 10k bulb, and i'm going to leave them under 65w. of light to see how they fare. Isaka, it's not that I have no LR, it's that i'm growing my own LR. The GARF grunge is essentially a mix of live sand and live rock rubble from an established tank, and there's a 2" layer of it as the top substrate. The Araga-max is also infused with all of the nitrosomonas and nitrobactir bacteria, so there is no cycling concerned especially using a combo of the two. That way I don't have to worry about raiding a wild reef for LR. I also have greater control over the cycling of the tank because there is virtually no die off (no curing) with this type of setup. I have had absolutely no ammonia spikes which I attribute to the GARF/substrate. I have had no diatom bloom and no green algae bloom. Believe me, I had a 55g. reef about a decade ago with Florida LR and went through the usual six week cycle of the whole tank fouling from die off (no matter how "cured" or well it's shipped, there's always die off), turning completely brown from diatoms and super green from microalgae. By making my own LR and using the GARF grunge, the little pieces of LR rubble seed the aragocrete with corraline algaes. The Grunge also carries with it worms, shrimps, and other inverts found in a healthy live sand reef tank. On my 55g. tank, I had a running battle with big nasty fireworms, and didn't eliminate them all until I had completely broken down the reef tank. I had one that was 8 inches long eventually crawl out of that LR to die. With this approach, I can avoid introducing adult pests like this and limit my worm population to spaghetti worms, tube worms, and small nematodes. FYI, check out www.garf.org to see some of what i'm talking about. I agree, it's a completely different way of doing things than what you're probably used to, but it's worth a look. Link to comment
Aiptasia Posted February 7, 2004 Author Share Posted February 7, 2004 Hmm, I could try raising the temp. a little bit. I'll see about adjusting it to 78 or so. 80 is a little warm for my comfort. Link to comment
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