Beginner Reef Help

[DavidGandolfo]

Thank you for whoever can help me with this to start....

anyway I've had a saltwater fishtank for about 3 years now. This summer I began to make it a very basic reef tank so I was not planning on having any serious hard to care for corals.

First I'll do the specs of the tank. The tank is 55 gallons. I have 2 canister filters with the outakes blowing outward in opposite directions from the middle of the tank. The hood I have only allowed for 2 bulbs so I have one actinic blue bulb. and a 10k daylight bulb. I've had hermits, snails, 2 ocellaris clownfish and a sailfin tang for about a year now. This winter I added a royal gramma. At the beginning of this summer I added some live rock and dry rock, a condy anemone, and a mandarin goby. I feel them arctipods, pellets, flakes, brine shrimp, algae, everything I am supposed to.

Now to the corals...

Pom Pom Xenia- I added a small piece of the xenia about 3 weeks ago. It opened and looked great until about this last week. It will not open and looks shriveled up almost. I've tried it in the sand, lower rocks, higher rocks and nothing helped it. It is now about 7 inches from the lamps and still will not open.

Flower Pot Coral- added the flower pot coral about 2 weeks ago. It is about 12 inches from the bulbs. It opens pretty inconsistently, sometimes all will open sometimes only one or two.

Button Polyp- added this about 4 days ago and I don't think it has opened yet because i'm yet to see the wavy tentacles that I saw in the store when I bought it. It is 10 inches from the bulbs.

These are all tiny pieces of coral, they have sufficient space in between them to grow. There aren't dead spots in the tank due to the filter outakes pushing the water in opposite directions. I add Kent Marine Coral-Vite and also some Kent liquid phytoplankton stuff. The anemone just died today, so I tested the water and the pH is 8.2, 0 for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and the temperature is usually 78.7-79.4.

My question is what is wrong with my corals and what can I do better as far as coral placement, etc.? The xenia looks unhealthy, the inconsistent opening of the flower pot (is this normal?), and the button is yet to open. Also have no idea what could have caused the death of the anemone its been looking great. Thank you for whoever takes the time to read this and helps!

 

[saltyphish]

Xenia I know likes dirty water so if your nitrates are 0 they may be starving. What are your water parameters? Mag, Alk, Cal? Nems like clean water and high light. Lighting may be the cause of it's demise. Need parameters to help more.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R.

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

 

[KJ]

Xenia I know likes dirty water so if your nitrates are 0 they may be starving. What are your water parameters? Mag, Alk, Cal? Nems like clean water and high light. Lighting may be the cause of it's demise. Need parameters to help more.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I apologize for being brutally honest, but I don't believe your nitrate number. Having canister filters, a dead anemone and a poop machine with the tang, I'd be totally shocked if it's zero. You need to have someone else test your water with a different kit.

The other consideration, are you using RO/DI water? Also how much and how frequently do you do water changes? Water quality could easily impact corals.

As far as your lighting, I'd prefer having four T5's over the tank. I think two bulbs isn't enough, even for softies.

I would also very highly recommend that you find another home for the sailfin tang. Your tank is way too small for that fish and it will be stressed.

 

[kevinsmixed90]

I would start with a 20 percent water change. salinity should be 1.026 if it is real low now bring it up slowly with smaller water changes more often. are you using RO water? the xenia can be placed lower in the tank for a while although you really are not using all that much light. do you have any pics we could look at? Did you by chance do a coral dip when you bought them? you may have hitchhikers that you will want to get rid of asap hope this helps!

 

[DavidGandolfo]

I would start with a 20 percent water change. salinity should be 1.026 if it is real low now bring it up slowly with smaller water changes more often. are you using RO water? the xenia can be placed lower in the tank for a while although you really are not using all that much light. do you have any pics we could look at? Did you by chance do a coral dip when you bought them? you may have hitchhikers that you will want to get rid of asap hope this helps!

Actually I just did a 25% change when the condy nem died. These are pics from last night. The flower pot has actually looked great since the nem died so maybe they were having problems. I had no idea about coral dipping but just researched it and ordered some coral Rx. thank you.

 

[kevinsmixed90]

flower pot does look better and nems are notorious for giving off toxins as they die. do you have good water flow for the xenia? needs good circulation

 

[glb]

Your Zoas look like they need more light. Flower pots are difficult corals to keep fwiw. How much live rock do you have in your tank? Do you have a skimmer? If not, I'd suggest replacing the canisters for one. Easy corals are Zoas, some mushrooms and some LPS corals like acans I do agree that light may be your problem. I'd stick to soft corals to save yourself frustration during the learning curve. Good luck!!!