Coral ID

[Adriifu]

Hello! Just got six free frags from my LFS yesterday. I’d like some help identifying them and would also like to know if there’s something specific I need to do to care for them. The current corals I have are a Kenya tree, orange leptastrea, bird’s nest, and two mushrooms, so I don’t need help
identifying those I know that I got a little mushroom colony and a Duncan. I have no idea what the rest are, although I think some might be favites?

 

[James M]

3rd is Duncan
4th and 5th are Favias
6th Ricordia mushroom

 

[reef lover]

1st looks like cup coral.

 

[Adriifu]

Thank you! Is the first one completely open? I added them yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. I do see little polyps, though. I’m not quite sure if cup coral normally looks like that.

Do I have to feed any of these? I’ve never fed any of my coral and I’m interested in starting. I’m pretty sure someone told me I’ve got to feed the Duncan every few days.

One more thing: do you guys think they look healthy? Thanks

 

[reef lover]

They all look good. i would only spot feed the duncan and favias when feeder tentacles are extended .

 

[Adriifu]

They all look good. i would only spot feed the duncan and favias when feeder tentacles are extended .

Thanks!

 

[reef lover]

Yw

 

[minus9]

Turbinaria
Discosoma
Duncan
Favia (both)
ricordea

 

[Adriifu]

Turbinaria
Discosoma
Duncan
Favia (both)
ricordea

Thank you! Do you think the placement for each coral is ideal? Most of the mushrooms in my tank start off big and then shrink, so
I’m worried about placement and lighting with these new guys.

 

[minus9]

They'll do well in low to medium light. The duncan can tolerate higher light, if slowly acclimated to it. What do you have for lighting? Also, tank parameters will help. Mushrooms shrink when they get too much flow or light. The favia's and turbinaria are medium light and medium flow. As mentioned above, placement of the favia's is critical, give them plenty of room, as their sweeper tentacles can be quite long. I have a favia and it's sweepers easily reach 6" to 8" and they are very potent.

 

[Adriifu]

They'll do well in low to medium light. The duncan can tolerate higher light, if slowly acclimated to it. What do you have for lighting? Also, tank parameters will help. Mushrooms shrink when they get too much flow or light. The favia's and turbinaria are medium light and medium flow. As mentioned above, placement of the favia's is critical, give them plenty of room, as their sweeper tentacles can be quite long. I have a favia and it's sweepers easily reach 6" to 8" and they are very potent.

I have a Current USA Orbit Marine LED. Nitrates are at 0-2 ppm and phosphates are around 0.03 ppm. The last time I checked, calcium was around 400 ppm. That’s all I’ve really checked as of yet. I’ve heard that magnesium, strontium, and iodine are necessary to check, which I can do the next time I go to my LFS. I don’t think water quality has been bothering the mushrooms, though, as my other soft corals have been doing wonderfully. Same goes for the hard corals. I would appreciate some more information on which water parameters are necessary to check and which aren’t. I’ll probably have to start dosing the tank with supplements at some point.
I moved the watermelon mushrooms and favias around. The first two pictures are of my older mushrooms. They’re very small compared to their original size. Third is of the new spot for my watermelon mushrooms. The rest of the pictures show the proximity between the favias and other corals. The Christmas-colored favias is around three inches away from a bird’s nest and four or five inches away from the cup coral and Kenya tree. The other favia is six inches above the Duncan and five inches below the watermelon mushrooms.

 

[minus9]

You're probably better off doing routine water changes, rather than dosing at this point. When water changes can't keep up with demand, then you can look at dosing. The key is to keep things stable, alk, Ca, temp, salinity, etc... Don't worry about strontium, iodine or whatever. You could get away with testing mag every couple weeks, unless you see a big drop, but I doubt that your low bio-load would consume that much mag that water changes alone can't keep up. Use a quality "pro reef" salt and the numbers should be there. Just take your time, observe and be patient and things will start to take off be you know it.
Enjoy and happy reefing! Happy New Year!

 

[Adriifu]

You're probably better off doing routine water changes, rather than dosing at this point. When water changes can't keep up with demand, then you can look at dosing. The key is to keep things stable, alk, Ca, temp, salinity, etc... Don't worry about strontium, iodine or whatever. You could get away with testing mag every couple weeks, unless you see a big drop, but I doubt that your low bio-load would consume that much mag that water changes alone can't keep up. Use a quality "pro reef" salt and the numbers should be there. Just take your time, observe and be patient and things will start to take off be you know it.
Enjoy and happy reefing! Happy New Year!

Thank you! I use Instant Ocean, but I’ve been thinking of switching to something specifically for reef tanks. Would that be necessary? Happy New Year to you, too. I do weekly water changes and they seem to replenish everything very nicely.

 

[minus9]

You're probably fine with IO now, but once you start adding more corals and they start to grow, a new salt may be needed? I like synthetic salts myself with the right numbers for a reef tank. Stay away from salts with elevated alk, as they can cause issues in smaller tanks. I really like tropic marin pro reef, it's not cheap, but mixes clean and you can use it the same day if necessary, but 24hrs is preferred. There are a million ways to keep things stable, you just have to find the method that works best for you.

 

[Adriifu]

You're probably fine with IO now, but once you start adding more corals and they start to grow, a new salt may be needed? I like synthetic salts myself with the right numbers for a reef tank. Stay away from salts with elevated alk, as they can cause issues in smaller tanks. I really like tropic marin pro reef, it's not cheap, but mixes clean and you can use it the same day if necessary, but 24hrs is preferred. There are a million ways to keep things stable, you just have to find the method that works best for you.

All right, thank you for all the help! Have a nice day

 

[James M]

You can keep a reef tank with IO salt. I personally do

 

[Adriifu]

You can keep a reef tank with IO salt. I personally do

All right I have one bag of salt left. It seems to be the cheapest salt I can find, so I’ll probably stick with it for now.