ReefDiver Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 I place an order with Drs Foster and Smith last week for some coral's. I ordered them on Wednesday and received them Thursday afternoon. I ordered Candy Cane coral, Red Sea Zenia and Red/Orange zoos. Everything is doing pretty good except the Candy Cane, it never opened up. I did my weekly water change on Wednesday and have checked water levels following the water change, Friday and this morning. Every thing looks good. SG 1.025 Ammonia-0, NO2-0, NO3-0 PH 8.2 Temp 79 The aquarium has been up almost 2 months, I use Oceanic Salt. I'm not sure about my Calcium and Alk levels. I ordered Salifert test kits last friday. Here's a pic of the candy cane this morning. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Al Link to comment
Tempest Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 That coral looks 3/4 dead to me. Not sure what to tell you. Hopefully, other can be more helpful. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 21, 2004 Author Share Posted June 21, 2004 Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm gonna give Liveaquaria.com a call and see what they can do for me. I followed their acclimation procedure to a T. The coral is in the same condition as when it arrived. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 21, 2004 Author Share Posted June 21, 2004 I called liveAquaria and the 10 day guarantee on the coral lasts until next Friday. So if their not looking better by Thursday I can call and we'll work on obtaining replacements. Their not dissolving or mushy, their just closed up tight, she thinks they may need some time for adjustment. We'll see, I moved them in a spot that doesn't receive much light maybe this will help. Does anyone have experience with candy cane coral's that were shipped? Is this normal? Thanks Link to comment
Tempest Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Calustrea doesn't really get mushy/disintegrates. The "flesh" just keeps receding until only the skeleton is left. Link to comment
Cellenzweig Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Yeah, I agree. And the skeletons are looking a little exposed already in that pic. Link to comment
reef hugger Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Yours is just really pissed off right now. The calustrea I received from garf took a few days to even start expanding. It will take alittle while for it to acclimate to your lighting too. The piece that you got will be very pretty when it opens up. It looks like the coral will have a reddish outside with white stripes and a green center. Link to comment
Tempest Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Huh? How could you possibly predict the color of that coral from that picture. I'd trade it in. It may recover, but why take the chance. Link to comment
jmt Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 I agree. That candy cane is on it's way out. Given the nature of LPS corals, when the skeleton starts showing, you can bet it's pretty much a goner. Sorry man. -Justin Link to comment
reef hugger Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 Give it until Thursday, then decide. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 25, 2004 Author Share Posted June 25, 2004 Well, I called LiveAquaria last night and told them that there was no improvement. They are going to credit the money back to my account. I thought I saw 1 or 2sweeper tentacles out this morning when I fed my corals some Phyto, so there might be some few polyps that survive. But its been a week and none of the polyps have opened so I'm kind of doubtful. I always liked the look of Candy Cane coral and I'm kind of disappointed. My water quality is great - temp 78-80, ph 8.2, SG 1.025 ammonia, N02, N03 all 0. All my other corals are fine and thriving. My calcium is around 500 with no supplementation and Alk is 7 dkh. I think my calcium is kind of high because I don't have any clams or hard coral's that are consuming it. I mix oceanic salt with RO and it circulates for a week, I perform a change of about 2-2.5 gallons weekly. Can anyone recommend any online vendors that you've purchased candy cane or blasto's from that have been successful? Thanks Link to comment
reef hugger Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 If it does survive and gets better, sweet! So you get to keep the candy cane and get your money back. I am curious how your calcium is at 500ppm and you only do WC with RO water. I use that salt too and when i have tested it was only like 450 if i was lucky, usaully it was lower. By not having clams and hard corals in your tank, that is not going to make the calcium go up. Unless you were dosing with a calcium suppliment. When you are doing a water change, you remove a portion of all of the elements in the tank, not just sodium. So when you do a WC with a salt mix that has a Ca of say 430 and the tank has a Ca of 430 then you are not changing the Ca concentration any. If the tank had a higher concentration of Ca than the salt mix then a WC would lower the Ca level of the tank. With a lower Ca level in the tank, then the salt mix would raise the Ca level up, but only to the concentration of the salt mix, (with enough WC of course). As for online vendors, I can't recommend any one because the only one one I have bought from was GARF, and I was alittle less than impressed with the coral selection that i got from them. The candy cane that i did get from them took awhile to start growing. Your best bet for candy canes would be your LFS if you have a decent one near you. As for blasto's I have gotten great deals at my LFS without having to spend over $100 or $200 dollars for the same coral online. I would have to say that logical reef would be my first choice if I had to order online. He has some decent looking corals, even though most of them are already sold when I have money to spend. Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 i use salifert test and my Ca readings were also off the chart for oceanic salt during my initial cycle. my alk was also high. gotta love that salt. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 Originally posted by joshnemily I am curious how your calcium is at 500ppm and you only do WC with RO water. I use that salt too and when i have tested it was only like 450 if i was lucky, usaully it was lower. I'm not sure if I've got the technique down for performing the test properly. So I'm not sure if my readings are accurrate, I'm going to take another shot at it and see what the results are. The candy cane looks like a goner, so the skeleton will become part of my aquascape. One of the LFS that I go to has some candy cane that looks healthy, but is not remarkably colored. They also have a beautiful green blastomussa in a display tank that they will sell me for $60.00. No shipping only a 10 minute drive home. From now on I'm going to get my LPS, clams, fish etc. locally. This was my first venture purchasing corals online, the zoos and red sea xenia that I purchased with the candy cane are doing great. RD Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 Originally posted by EtOH_is_good i use salifert test and my Ca readings were also off the chart for oceanic salt during my initial cycle. my alk was also high. gotta love that salt. My tank has been up over two months, I just got the salifert test and I've been using Oceanic salt since the beginning. I'm going to run the tests tonight or tomorrow and see what they show. I did my weekly water change on Saturday. How long has your tank been up and what are calc/alc readings now? RD Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 29, 2004 Author Share Posted June 29, 2004 Well I got it, the new Blasto...Yippeee!!!! Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted June 29, 2004 Share Posted June 29, 2004 have you seen the one over on zoosrus. mane has a super nice one. i need to find out what store he got that deal at. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted June 29, 2004 Author Share Posted June 29, 2004 EtOH - Yes, I saw that one at zoosrus.com, it's a sweet blasto. Jeff Sabin has set up a nice site, I wish my tank had been cycled when they did the thermos trade. My next aquisition is going to be some Red Yiuma Ricordia or blue shrooms. Link to comment
ReefDiver Posted July 2, 2004 Author Share Posted July 2, 2004 Originally posted by joshnemily I am curious how your calcium is at 500ppm and you only do WC with RO water. I use that salt too and when i have tested it was only like 450 if i was lucky, usaully it was lower. I just notice this thread at RC Central. There are two threads occuring at the Salifert vendor site about new Salifert CA test readings being high over 500. Over 100 points difference between old salifert CA tests and even Seachem CA test's. Interesting!!! http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=384749 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=394342 Link to comment
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