Danroth
New Member
A real quick bit of history, here to give you idea of parameters, and changes.
I purchased the coral this past Tuesday; in order to accomodate it to my lighting scheme I turned my Radion's from 60% brightness to 40% to be 'on the safe side', then I put it in my tank and noticed in the first placement it was all scrunched up and it didn't look the same, and forgive me because I don't know the term for it, but the manner in which the polyps or skirt seems to 'fuse' or become one piece with the coral disc/mouth remained 'opened' in such a way that you couldn't see the polyps but you could see the spacing between that area. I determined it was in too high a flow area, moved it behind a rock.
It seemed much happier there, the 'skirt' or body went all the way down and it has always opened up for feeding every night, and it has always been or seemed very healthy the last few days. As I've a new tank, I continually check on it not only because I love my tank, but I don't want any mishaps.
Saturday I bought my first alkalinity kit, and first calcium kit, tested for both. My alk was low, at 5 dkh. I went to my LFS, got two part dosing, to correct this. Dosed with 1 oz of each for my 125 gallon which has roughly 100 gallons of water after working that out with my LFS. My calcium - I thought - was very low as well. Dosed for that.
Today, another few changes were made.
The first was, for the first time since I got him, I spot-fed the coral. I then did a water change, 2%/2 gallons. I dosed my 1 oz of alkalinity, and calcium. Saw that my alkalinity had gone up by .5 dkh again, which was good and expected after the prior day's testing. Read my calcium, and it LOOKED like my calcium was lower than yesterday. I did, then, what a lot of new and unexperienced reefers would do, I mildly panicked. I read the instructions on the ESV 2 part dosing and it stated that I may need to up the dosing if my system is consuming that amount - which I found hard to believe as I've only a couple pieces of coral there, now. I retested, and got the same results. So, I added another ounce of each alkalinity & calcium. I waited. Tested. And - again it seemed my calcium went DOWN. Until I re-read the instructions and found out I was using the wrong figure for figuring out my calcium reading.
Tonight, just awhile ago, I noticed that despite having looked as it has the past few days, it all of a sudden was completely bunched up for some undetermined reason. It expelled two thin, sewing-thread-thin pieces out of it's mouth probably about an inch long each while I was watching it. I presume this is the algae that gives the coral it's color. Now, shortly after expelling, it began to settle itself back down around it's skeleton and settle it's skirt back onto the sand so it wasn't all scrunched up.
Is it possible the coral was just stressed about the sudden (and stupid) increase in alkalinity, as this is the first time in several days I've seen it do this (and I look SEVERAL times a day at my tank), and there's been no sign of bleaching on him whatsoever? I don't want to move him again, and my options where I could move him for lower light are very limited - the one other spot I could put him with lower flow my tiger pistol might throw gravel on him.
My parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Alk: 6.0 dkh
Calcium: 440
pH: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
I don't have a Magnesium test kit yet, but I'll be getting one later this week, as well as some supplement in case I need that as well.
Any information here is appreciated. I absolutely love this animal, and I want it to be thriving and happy in my tank. He's gorgeous.
I purchased the coral this past Tuesday; in order to accomodate it to my lighting scheme I turned my Radion's from 60% brightness to 40% to be 'on the safe side', then I put it in my tank and noticed in the first placement it was all scrunched up and it didn't look the same, and forgive me because I don't know the term for it, but the manner in which the polyps or skirt seems to 'fuse' or become one piece with the coral disc/mouth remained 'opened' in such a way that you couldn't see the polyps but you could see the spacing between that area. I determined it was in too high a flow area, moved it behind a rock.
It seemed much happier there, the 'skirt' or body went all the way down and it has always opened up for feeding every night, and it has always been or seemed very healthy the last few days. As I've a new tank, I continually check on it not only because I love my tank, but I don't want any mishaps.
Saturday I bought my first alkalinity kit, and first calcium kit, tested for both. My alk was low, at 5 dkh. I went to my LFS, got two part dosing, to correct this. Dosed with 1 oz of each for my 125 gallon which has roughly 100 gallons of water after working that out with my LFS. My calcium - I thought - was very low as well. Dosed for that.
Today, another few changes were made.
The first was, for the first time since I got him, I spot-fed the coral. I then did a water change, 2%/2 gallons. I dosed my 1 oz of alkalinity, and calcium. Saw that my alkalinity had gone up by .5 dkh again, which was good and expected after the prior day's testing. Read my calcium, and it LOOKED like my calcium was lower than yesterday. I did, then, what a lot of new and unexperienced reefers would do, I mildly panicked. I read the instructions on the ESV 2 part dosing and it stated that I may need to up the dosing if my system is consuming that amount - which I found hard to believe as I've only a couple pieces of coral there, now. I retested, and got the same results. So, I added another ounce of each alkalinity & calcium. I waited. Tested. And - again it seemed my calcium went DOWN. Until I re-read the instructions and found out I was using the wrong figure for figuring out my calcium reading.
Tonight, just awhile ago, I noticed that despite having looked as it has the past few days, it all of a sudden was completely bunched up for some undetermined reason. It expelled two thin, sewing-thread-thin pieces out of it's mouth probably about an inch long each while I was watching it. I presume this is the algae that gives the coral it's color. Now, shortly after expelling, it began to settle itself back down around it's skeleton and settle it's skirt back onto the sand so it wasn't all scrunched up.
Is it possible the coral was just stressed about the sudden (and stupid) increase in alkalinity, as this is the first time in several days I've seen it do this (and I look SEVERAL times a day at my tank), and there's been no sign of bleaching on him whatsoever? I don't want to move him again, and my options where I could move him for lower light are very limited - the one other spot I could put him with lower flow my tiger pistol might throw gravel on him.
My parameters are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Alk: 6.0 dkh
Calcium: 440
pH: 8.2
Salinity: 1.025
I don't have a Magnesium test kit yet, but I'll be getting one later this week, as well as some supplement in case I need that as well.
Any information here is appreciated. I absolutely love this animal, and I want it to be thriving and happy in my tank. He's gorgeous.
But, that is a relief. I know nothing good happens in a reef quickly, and I'm certain I'll make more mistakes in the future, but this is clearly 'growing pains' for me, in regards to being all parent-y about my new tank & the awesome corals I'm putting in. I appreciate the information, and I won't get so worked up or worried next time it happens. Thanks for the quick replies, too. I can go to sleep easy, now.
