Coral only opening half.

[coralcoralcoral10]

Hello. I recently did a water change and I have a new tank and I accidentally flooded the system with fresh water so I had to counter it with salt water. I brought my salinity back at 33pm. Just checked paremeters. Ammonia is .05. Nitrates. .2. Nitrites. .2. Everything else fine. I also just transferred my 46 Gallon to a 144 gallon a little more than a week ago. Temp at 80. Is there something I can do to help my coral. Most only
Open half way. I hope I didn’t hurt them. Any tips would help. Today started dosing with AB+. Also past couple of days have been dosing with prime for nitrates. PH+ for ph which was at 7.8. And Ammo lock for amonia. I removed a dead starfish that didn’t make the transition 4 days ago.

 

[Timfish]

Only do what's needed to maintain alkalinity and salinity at this point and be patient. The microbiomes in your system will have been pretty badly disrupted and doing a lot of different things only makes it harder for them to stabalize.

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Ok thank you will do

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Any tips on how to raise alkilinty?

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

And I’m so new there is so much information. Is there anything you wish you would have known when you started?

 

[mdb_talon]

Countless things i wish i knew when I started could fill a book. However the main one i would point out that seems relevant to where you are now is dont stress too much on your parameters. Not saying they are not important, but dont go nuts on them.

For example i would advise against using PH+. Make sure you have adequate water circulation and the alk is in a reasonable range(it should be if salinity is right and using rodi as water source)and let the PH end up where it wants. PH boosters are just alkalinity and if not careful you can make your alk go dangerously high trying to hit a magic ideal PH.

Same with most other parameters. Odds are in a new tank with small frags you got no real growth going on. Let the tank stabilize. Do some periodic water changes. Alk/calc/mg/etc are all going to be just fine in my opinion.

Keep salinity and temp stable and just give the tank time to mature. In a few months(likely longer) you may need to start thinking about dosing. In the meantime keep an eye on nitrates to make sure they are not going crazy high(if so then water changes and consider feeding less or better nutrient export). Also keep active on the forums and you will learn a ton for when it does make sense to possibly start dosing(depending on your tank it may never be needed if you do water changes)

 

[MaxTremors]

My advice would be to stop dosing everything (the ab+ is okay, but use conservatively). Using prime and ammolock is just setting you back, as mentioned the PH buffer is a disaster waiting to happen. I would suggest you test your alkalinity every few days, and if it’s fairly stable then once a week. Even if you’re not to the point where you need to dose a 2 part or supplement your alkalinity and calcium, it’s good to get into the habit of testing these and knowing how much your tank is using (you won’t know when to start dosing or if your water changes are enough to maintain your Alk if you aren’t testing regularly). Otherwise, as mentioned keep an eye on your nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) and do water changes and/or start a refugium to keep them in check. I would stop testing for ammonia and nitrite, there’s really no reason to test for these in a cycled tank (even when something dies, unless it’s multiple animals and you just leave them in there, you’re not going to see an ammonia spike). My advice to you would be to keep reading and doing as much research as you can, observe your tank, don’t be reactionary/chase numbers, dose as little as possible (what I mean is, as few additives as possible), and to go slow and be patient.

 

[Timfish]

And I’m so new there is so much information. Is there anything you wish you would have known when you started?

Here's the rub, what I wish I had known 10, 20 or 30 years ago scinetists hadn't figured out yet. :/ My advice, you want stability and the corals are trying to maintain a stable microbiome in your system but static parameters and stable microbiomes are not the same thing. Doing a lot of stuff to your tank in an effort to keep certain parameters static invariably gets in the way of the corals efforts to maintain stable microbiomes. Be patient, monitor alkalinity, calcium and magnesium as mentioned above and keep in mind feeding your fish is usually the best way to feed your corals. Here's some stuff you might find informative:

Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock

Studying the effects of live rock in a newly established aquarium shows that high-quality live rock promotes the rapid establishment of an effective biological filter and a microbial community similar to those found in mature reef tanks.

www.reef2reef.com

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[coralcoralcoral10]

Thank you so much. So helpful!