First corals ever !!!!

saltwaternewb · Apr 24, 2008

Big day for me. I just received my first two corals ever and they are temp acclimating as I type. I bought them from Mr. Corals (off ebay from rarecorals, but it is the same person) and they were packaged very well. I will get some pics as soon as I get them in the water.

Oh, I got a 5 polyp frag of Whamin' Watermelons and a frag of Australian Duncan.

hardcz · Apr 24, 2008

totally awesome and congrats, make sure to acclimate them to your lighting too by putting them lower in the tank and raising them up if you have higher lighting than who you bought it from.

saltwaternewb · Apr 24, 2008

Thanks for the tip. I think I will be ok though since they came from MH lighting and I have PC. I will start them low anyways just to be safe.

hardcz · Apr 24, 2008

Totally, I got an sps coral that was under MH, and I put it semi high in my tank, and it started bleaching.... so my t5's even though not over driven were putting out a lot more energy than the halide they were under originally...so thus I had to move it down. *shrug* each coral is different though, you probably won't have any issues. Also not sure if you are doing it or not, but you might want to consider dipping everything that goes into your tank. It would utterly suck to find that you have introduced evil flat worms, acropora eating flat worms, red bugs, or other nasties in your tank. There are various dips you can buy or make, red bugs die with interceptor, some flat worms die with iodine and flat worm treatments, apparently the acropora eating ones are nasties that can live through normal flat worm treatments so you need something specifically for those. Assuming you're having that variant of sps in your tank.

saltwaternewb · Apr 24, 2008

Yeah, I made the mistake of buying the corals before the treatments so I won't be able to dip these first two. I will just keep a close eye on them to make sure nothing is introduced and dip them later even though it might be too late then. I will surely make it practice with all future corals though.

hardcz · Apr 24, 2008

yea later on is pretty much too late as any parasite will already be in your tank.

saltwaternewb · Apr 24, 2008

Opened the shipping bags and the Duncan is already open but the zoas are not. Kinda crappy because the zoas were loose, not attached to anything which I did not expect however the Duncan is on a disc. I will have to get some super glue and glue the zoas to a small piece of rock later this evening. It is just laying on the bottom of the tank for now in a low flow area so it does get blown away. Here is a crappy shot of the Duncan.

hardcz · Apr 24, 2008

Hey Chad, I have a bunch of stuff I don't want anymore, if you want something "inexpensive" I can throw some small colonies and stuff together for you.

saltwaternewb · Apr 24, 2008

Yeah, let me know what you have and if you have some pics that would be great.

hardcz · Apr 24, 2008

will shoot ya a pm, I'll have to take pictures tonight.

Tinker · Apr 25, 2008

Hey Chad, Congratulations!! How exciting. I just started adding corals to my tank about 4 weeks ago and the first ones were from the same guy Mr Coral off ebay. He did a great job and has some really nice corals to choose from. I can't wait till I can order some more from him. Every things I got is growing and eating great! The Duncan I got from him already has a baby popping out and 4 more baby buds around the front of it. when I first got it, it didn't have anything at all. I was really surprised how quickly they multiply. I can't wait till her babies grow out, they look so amazing in clusters. Great coral choice IMO. What do you plan on feeding your Duncan? I feed mine frozen brine, mysis, clam bits and cyclop-eeze on top of the phyto and zoo plankton I add to the tank.

Be sure to post some zoa pix once they're open, would love to see them.

Best of luck to you,
Kimberly

saltwaternewb · Apr 25, 2008

I plan on feeding the same. I won't be able to get to the LFS until next week so I can't get any frozen food until then but I might try some raw shrimp that I have and see how that works. The only issue I had with my order is that I was expecting the zoas to come mounted which it was not. So now I have to buy some super glue in the morning and try to mount it myself to a piece of LR rubble. Anyone have any tips on this? The zoa was starting to open just before I left for work so at least I know it is not DOA. The duncan was open in the bag before I added it to the tank. I am thinking about going heavy on the duncans because it is so cool. I just wish there were more colorful ones available although the one I have is a really nice neon green in the center.

hardcz · Apr 25, 2008

if you're gonna glue the zoo's then you'll want to use as little super glue gel as possible...like with all mountings. If you can only glue part of the zoo, say the center, and leave the rest of the colony to touch the mount so they can attach within a week or so, then the glue makes no difference. it seems that softies don't like super glue too much when attaching to it.

Tinker · Apr 25, 2008

It should do just fine with raw shrimp, just chop it up in small pieces. I've seen Duncans in a few different colors. Do a google search in images. There's one called Pink Lemonade I'd love to have in my tank.

As far as the zoas not being attached to a rock, IMHO, I think it's safer for them to be free floating in the bag with out having a rock to squish them if they were to flip over in the bag. Shipping is stressful enough and with out a rock you have a much better chance of having them arrive safe and unharmed. Attaching them to a piece of rock is a sinch. Just use super glue gel (not the regular liquid type). dry the area on the rock you plan to glue the zoas to with a paper towel. doesn't have to be super dry just enough to get excess water off. take the frag and set the bottom on the paper towel to remove excess water as well. Put glue on the rock, you only need to use a tiny bit to hold them on to the rock. Then set the bottom of the zoas in to the glue on the rock and gently hold the frag in place while you put it back in the tank. I'm sure you've read this time and time again but, it's really great advice and should be listened to, make sure you always ware rubber gloves and eye protection when ever you handle zoas. They're very toxic and can even squirt their toxic fluid at you. Wouldn't want your experience with them to be a really bad one so, safety first.

Kimberly

hardcz · Apr 25, 2008

Hey some metal taste in your mouth might be fun...

I agree with free floating frags... I prefer them unmounted when I receive them unless I'm buying something that's fully encrusted... this way you have less chance of contracting something like flat worms.