First Corals+ Angry coral ( Zola’s not opening)

[Guest]

Hello again! 
So yesterday I went out and picked up my first corals, a Xenia ( not pulsing) and some zoas, I was told the Xenia was gonipora ( oh god ) but turns out after counting the tentacles it was an Xenia, so yes again another fail form that stupid fish store 😞

 

but anyway, got back home, drip acclimated them for 30 mins, floated them for temp for 10 mins and put em in, 

 

within the first five minutes the zoas were already opening up, with no sign of life from the Xenia, it 30 minutes later the zoas had completely closed again, and the Xenia was opening up,

 

today the Xenia is 3/4 of the way open ( stalks aren’t quite fully extended ) and looking healthy but still nothing from the zoas, I moved them to the floor in lower flow to see if that would help

 

they haven’t melted yet but I’m still soooo scared for them!

[Tired]

Interesting that they opened, then changed their minds. What are your parameters? Exact, not just "good". 

 

I'd turkey baste that sand off their plug, they may not enjoy that too much. 

 

Take a close look at the plug, without taking it out of the water. See if you can spot an aiptasia, a vermatid snail, or anything like that, something that might be annoying them closed.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Tired said:

Interesting that they opened, then changed their minds. What are your parameters? Exact, not just "good". 

 

I'd turkey baste that sand off their plug, they may not enjoy that too much. 

 

Take a close look at the plug, without taking it out of the water. See if you can spot an aiptasia, a vermatid snail, or anything like that, something that might be annoying them closed.

parameters:

 

ammonia: beetween 0.25 and 0.5 ( probably around 0.3 ) I know they are way to high, my new salt got way delayed and isnt coming till tommorw, when it come I will be doing a 50% water change though

 

Nitrites: undetecable

 

Nitrates: around 5 or so

 

PH: 8.2

 

and that is all I test for

 

 

I will blow the sand off the plug 🙂

 

and the only thing on the plug is a little tiny worm like thing that dosent even seem to be alive

[Tired]

Your problem is the ammonia. You shouldn't be expecting to see open corals with ammonia present. Should hopefully be survivable, but you should be figuring out WHY you have ammonia. Is your tank not properly cycled? 

 

For future reference, temp floating comes before drip acclimation, or can be skipped in favor of just dripping. Drip acclimation will make the bag come up to tank temp anyway.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Tired said:

Your problem is the ammonia. You shouldn't be expecting to see open corals with ammonia present. Should hopefully be survivable, but you should be figuring out WHY you have ammonia. Is your tank not properly cycled? 

 

For future reference, temp floating comes before drip acclimation, or can be skipped in favor of just dripping. Drip acclimation will make the bag come up to tank temp anyway.

okay, thanks for the info about drip acclimation, 

 

the ammonia is mostly because the tank wasnt quite finished cycling last week when I ran out of salt, for for the few days after that ammonia was still coming off of decaying matter on the dry rock, but the ammonia has stayed the same since then, would it help to move the coral ( either just the zoas or both ) to a small tank that has new water?

[Mwil79]

That is definitely not Xenia or at least to my knowledge. Xenia is a soft coral and what you have looks to be an LPS of some form. Xenia will have a stalk with branches coming from it like a tree. I'm not exactly sure what that is as I'm in no way an expert but it does not look like the Xenia I have, granted mine is pulsing but I am willing to put money on it that is an LPS of some form.

[MarieH]

I think the coral may be a pipe organ or polyp. Similar care to Xenia.  You could get an ammonia reducer pad in the meantime from an LFS. You don't need to water change during the cycle.  Just  leave the tank empty a month and should be good to go.  Since you are already started I suggest the ammonia pad in the filter may help.  Good luck.

[Tired]

You shouldn't have put corals in an un-cycled tank. Are you able to return them? A fully cycled tank should use up ammonia, not have it stay the same. 

Putting them in a bucket with new water might be a decent idea, as long as it has a heater and pump. Don't feed them while they're in it. 

 

As to the unknown coral, pipe organ looks about right. Read up on what they like, they're not too fussy but they have a couple of particulars. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mwil79 said:

That is definitely not Xenia or at least to my knowledge. Xenia is a soft coral and what you have looks to be an LPS of some form. Xenia will have a stalk with branches coming from it like a tree. I'm not exactly sure what that is as I'm in no way an expert but it does not look like the Xenia I have, granted mine is pulsing but I am willing to put money on it that is an LPS of some form.

after looking at some pics of pipe organs, that sounds like what it might be.

57 minutes ago, MarieH said:

I think the coral may be a pipe organ or polyp. Similar care to Xenia.  You could get an ammonia reducer pad in the meantime from an LFS. You don't need to water change during the cycle.  Just  leave the tank empty a month and should be good to go.  Since you are already started I suggest the ammonia pad in the filter may help.  Good luck.

okay! thanks, 

 

pipe organ seems correct to me.........

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Tired said:

You shouldn't have put corals in an un-cycled tank. Are you able to return them? A fully cycled tank should use up ammonia, not have it stay the same. 

Putting them in a bucket with new water might be a decent idea, as long as it has a heater and pump. Don't feed them while they're in it. 

 

As to the unknown coral, pipe organ looks about right. Read up on what they like, they're not too fussy but they have a couple of particulars. 

the lfs has a 12 hour return rule on coral, so notta on that,

 

the tank is using a bit of ammonia, but not very much, so it seems to be only partilly cycled

 

pipe organs do seem about right....

[Tired]

Any tank that's not completely cycled is an un-cycled tank, and not ready for livestock, least of all coral. You're going to want to look up fish-in cycling and apply the same ideas here, to keep the corals alive and finish your cycle. 

[Guest]

I ended up putting them in a small tank until I can get more salt, no ammonia, and they are now both fully closed, I will assume it is because that tank only has white leds, will only white less kill the coral? The tank has a mini heater and a 80 fog pump set at just less than half

[Tired]

Absolutely no light for a little while wouldn't kill them, so no, white LEDs only won't do any harm as long as it's brief. I'm not sure how well it would work long-term. Be sure to test that tank frequently to make sure there's no ammonia in it. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Absolutely no light for a little while wouldn't kill them, so no, white LEDs only won't do any harm as long as it's brief. I'm not sure how well it would work long-term. Be sure to test that tank frequently to make sure there's no ammonia in it. 

Okay, will do another test Tommorow for ammonia

[Guest]

yesterday I called the fish store because the pipe organ wasnt happy at all ( starting to melt it looked like ) and because they had given me the wrong identity they accually took it back for store credit, and also I got the salt, so I did a water change, the ammonia is now at 0.1 so pretty okay ish, and nitrites and nitrates are down too. have seen a little opening from the zoas but not tooo much, they are back into the main tank now.

[Murphs_Reef]

Think you should wait till there is zero ammonia before adding the zoas. You are at risk of losing them .. keep em out in your little tank for now if you can and give he main tank a few more days to finish up 👍🏼

[Tired]

0.1 ammonia isn't okay. Nitrites aren't okay, either, though less bad than ammonia. Both of those should be 0, as they're toxic. Why not put the zoas back in their own thing, which I assume has 0 of anything toxic, and wait a bit more? A few days of inadequate lighting won't hurt them.

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Grimes said:

Think you should wait till there is zero ammonia before adding the zoas. You are at risk of losing them .. keep em out in your little tank for now if you can and give he main tank a few more days to finish up 👍🏼

I just sawthem starting to melt a little in the little tank, but everything was zero so I wasnt sure

 

17 hours ago, Tired said:

0.1 ammonia isn't okay. Nitrites aren't okay, either, though less bad than ammonia. Both of those should be 0, as they're toxic. Why not put the zoas back in their own thing, which I assume has 0 of anything toxic, and wait a bit more? A few days of inadequate lighting won't hurt them.

 

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Tired said:

0.1 ammonia isn't okay. Nitrites aren't okay, either, though less bad than ammonia. Both of those should be 0, as they're toxic. Why not put the zoas back in their own thing, which I assume has 0 of anything toxic, and wait a bit more? A few days of inadequate lighting won't hurt them.

thank you for all your information, but in the end I feel like this forum has generally been very rude about small things that people are trying to fix, so I have decided that mabye just going abaout the hobby myself would be good, bye!

[Murphs_Reef]

30 minutes ago, Inactive Account said:

thank you for all your information, but in the end I feel like this forum has generally been very rude about small things that people are trying to fix, so I have decided that mabye just going abaout the hobby myself would be good, bye!

Love you bye 

[debbeach13]

Wondering if the little tank was cycling also?

[banasophia]

bummer

 

OP if you’re still reading this add a bottle of BioSpira to your tank, Petco often carries it

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Wondering if the little tank was cycling also?

possibly, I didnt add live rock so there was nothing to get rid of any nutrients. just you know, wish the hobby could be a bit more simple. But I guess thats how it is.

18 minutes ago, banasophia said:

bummer

 

OP if you’re still reading this add a bottle of BioSpira to your tank, Petco often carries it

I am indeed still reading this, just tryna figure out how to delete my account, 

 

I will go over and check petco, cause I have ehard that some of those products do work.

[banasophia]

5 minutes ago, Inactive Account said:

possibly, I didnt add live rock so there was nothing to get rid of any nutrients. just you know, wish the hobby could be a bit more simple. But I guess thats how it is.

I am indeed still reading this, just tryna figure out how to delete my account, 

 

I will go over and check petco, cause I have ehard that some of those products do work.

I’m also on Facebook and Instagram under the same name if you want to pm me... I know it can be super frustrating when starting out because everyone gives such varying advice, it’s hard to know which things are really right vs wrong as opposed to just different but good methods... 

 

 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I’m also on Facebook and Instagram under the same name if you want to pm me... I know it can be super frustrating when starting out because everyone gives such varying advice, it’s hard to know which things are really right vs wrong as opposed to just different but good methods... 

 

 

yup, it is pretty frustrating, esspecially with all the different advice, thanks! will go follow you on insta, so I can remember 🙂