fluidimagery Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 2 Days ago I noticed that one of the bands (not sure what you call them) of my orange plate coral is now white. I'm curious of the cause. Parameters of the tank that I know: Temp: 77.5 Nitrates: 20ppm Alk: 8.4 dKH (unusually low... normally around 10) Phosphates: .1ppm Calcium: 410ppm Magnesium: 1110ppm (little low? I don't dose... first time testing) Light: 92watts of PC in 12dx Waterflow: Moderate Pictures below: The whole plate is a little whiter than it has been. It's been in the tank for about 3 months and the tank is roughly 4 months old. I only dose the tank with Alk and Calcium (2 part ESV buffer) and a product called Coral Vital (few drops after few days, LFS sold it to me) Thanks! Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 6, 2005 Author Share Posted July 6, 2005 I've never understood what I'm supposed to be feeding my corals. I have Cyclopeeze, and Frozen Brine that I feed the tank once a day for the fish. About once a week I'll try to target feed using a turkey baster and LFS made Phytoplankton. Can anyone tell me a method, or schedule that I should be feeding my tank? Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 6, 2005 Author Share Posted July 6, 2005 As far as I know I have all photosynthetic corals, maybe someone can correct me? 3 days ago before the plate went white: Link to comment
uscreef Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 I feed mine brine... some sort of meaty food should work. Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 6, 2005 Author Share Posted July 6, 2005 I tried feeding it eventhough it wasn't out looking. How often do you feed your corals? Link to comment
fishwife Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 Your plate should be putting out tentacles to feed. Mine did it at night, but sometimes during the day too. It ate like a pig, grew fast and was easy to feed. I just had to shoot mysis or a piece of krill in its direction, and one (or more) always stuck. It then passed the food from tentacle to tentacle to its mouth. I just took it back to the LFS because I wanted the sand space back (besides, I think it was trying to eat one of my cleaners). If your plate isn't extending, it may have problems. Have you tried a water change to get your nitrates down? Link to comment
kappa Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 Try moving it to a shady area. My plate coral did not do so well under Metal Halide after a month or two until I moved it to a shadier area. Try to move your plate to another location in the tank for a day or two, it may beef up, and then you can feed it. Also my neon plate coral did not like alot of flow. He is doing very well now sitting to one side of the tank in a shadier, and less flow area. When the tenticles come out, it makes feeding alot easier to feed, I drop very small piece of thawed out Formula One onto the plate coral when the tenticles are out. Also, I turn off the water pump for 30 minutes. Just makes sure you feed all your fishes, and inverts before you feed the plate so it does not get it's food stolen. Okay, I hope that helps. Link to comment
Incubus Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 It´s convienent to aclimate all new corals to your light system, you place them in a shadier zone, and slowly move them to the desired location. The photosithetic corals receive most of their food from the symbiotic algae they have, however they will be benefited from the food that the acuarist adds like meaty items or plankton. This helps corals by complementing their diets and helps them if there is a lack of any nutrient. Link to comment
sNEIRBO Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 My purple plate grabbed a bunch of Formula One I fed my Clowns last night. As soon as it smelled food in the water it's tenticles popped out. This morning it was ballooned up like a Cyanrina - looked like a fat old man sitting on the couch with his pants button undone! Here's what I do to feed my corals. I'm not saying it's right, just what I do. My Cyanrina, Bubble, Candy and Sun corals all grabbed some Formula 1 last night (they all prefer meaty stuff - Cyclopeeze, Brine, Krill - my Cyanrina has even been know to eat the pellets I feed the cleaners). Someone in a different post suggested taking the Sun out of the tank to feed it separately. I did that last night, and actually got to see it in "bloom" about 30 minutes after I put it back in the tank. My Fox, Torch, Hammer and Open Brain all prefer PhytoPlankton. Of course, the Cyanrina and Plate will eat Phyto too. All of the polyps (various Zoos, Diasies, Stars) and my Blue Stripe Shroom are on their own - I don't spot feed them, I'm just assuming they're getting what they need, because their all growing. I use an infant medicine syringe to feed - buy a new one from a drugstore! Don't risk pumping some old medicine residue into your tank. This requires getting my arm wet, but I can see / control how much I'm feeding each coral then. In general, I feed my Clowns some form of meaty food just about every night. When I do, I always shoot a little bit at each of the corals that like meat. So the meat eaters get fed late at night, under full lights - just about every day. Three times per week, I spot feed all the corals that like Phyto (even the Cyanrina and Plate). When I feed phyto, I only do it after lights out. I also dump the recommended dosage of "Reef Complete" additive into Chamber 3, two times per week. Link to comment
Web Guy Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 Has your plate every looked healthy and inflated? Mine looks like that daily and eats all of the time. He grabs Dried Seaweed during the day when feeding my tang and Mysis Shrimp and more when feeding other fish at night. I do local or spot feed every now and then as well. This is an older pic. He looks much more inflated during the day now. Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 7, 2005 Author Share Posted July 7, 2005 It's tenticles have never been out that far, but I have seen it bubble up and have tenticles. I'm starting to see them a bit more right now, so I might try feeding it again to see what happens. Thanks for the indepth post sNEIRBO, big help. Link to comment
Web Guy Posted July 7, 2005 Share Posted July 7, 2005 Then it has never been healthy. It should look like mine every day and then go down some at night. But even then never show skeleton. Did it look like that when you bought it? If it did never buy one again unless they look healthy. Makes or Breaks Plates!! Link to comment
kappa Posted July 8, 2005 Share Posted July 8, 2005 I like your green cloves. They are awesome! Good luck with your plate, please update us. Link to comment
Caesar777 Posted July 8, 2005 Share Posted July 8, 2005 Try feeding the plate. Frozen cyclopeeze or mysis are excellent--it's a meat-eater, so no phyto--but even fish flakes or pellets can work. Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 22, 2005 Author Share Posted July 22, 2005 I have a feeling the plate isn't healthy and I'm not skilled enough to nurse it back. I will sometimes see short tenticles come out but never a mouth, just sucked in the skeleton. I try to lay as much cyclopeeze, brine and mysis as I can using a turkey baster. Unfortunately my Peppermint, Cleaner and Clown use it as a Plate lol. They just jump all over it like a fat kid at the buffet table. So, I don't know what I'm going to do. I really love the plate corals, but even when I bought it, I didn't see it's tenticles out and it was $80 BOO. Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 22, 2005 Author Share Posted July 22, 2005 BTW, good eyes Kappa. I love the nimble and the green cloves. Any reason why some of the cloves are loosing the green in them? Link to comment
DamageInc Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 Definitely feed it 1-2x per week. I feed mine a piece of krill. Just place it above it's mouth. My plate gets so puffed up after it eats. That's how you know it's healthy. Nick Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted July 22, 2005 Author Share Posted July 22, 2005 I try feeding it everyday, still nothing. Is it a goner? Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.