Help with Rainbow Pectinia

[roibenami]

Hey guys, so I was at the LFS yesterday and picked at new coral. I remember seeing it at the same LFS about 3 weeks ago. I didn't get it because i thought it might be too difficult, but seeing it again yesterday with some growth.... I figured i'd get it, it was one of the most beautiful corals i've seen. I paid $40 US for it.

After getting it in the tank I tried to identify the coral and found out that it is a rainbow pectinia coral. and that 1" frags of it are selling for a really pretty penny.

*the rock that it's on is about 5-6 inch across
*my LEDs are brutal with the camera so i took one with the lights and one with the lights off and room lights on (can't really see the color)
*It's purple with pink/orange spots around the mouths and a beautiful neon green stripe along the colony

Anyway, since i'm fairly new at this hobby (my tank is 3 months old and this is my first saltwater tank) I figured i'd ask for some advice. This is a really beautiful coral and i'd feel really bad losing it.

So here are my questions :

1. Any tips on position in the tank?
2. Should I feed it? I've noticed the tentacles come out at night (super cool)
3. Can I keep other coral next to it?
4. The rock it's attached to is huge and it has a really un-natural look... can i safely remove the coral from the rock to attach it to my rock scape ?

Here are some tank parameters :

PH 8.12
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos 0.04
Salinity - 1.024
Alk - 12.6
Calcium - 390
Magnesium - 1280

Tank Info :

90 gallon display with 25 gallon sump
Lighting: 2x 165w LEDs (Chinese with separate blue and white)
Filtration: Skimmer, Algae Turf Scrubber and 10 Liters of Siporax in my sump

Any advice would be highly appreciated! thanks!

 

[Diesel]

Great buy.

The Pectinas like to be low on the sand with medium to low flow.
Your ALK is WAY to high in combination with a undetectable No3.
You have to bring No3 up to at least 2ppm or higher up to 4ppm to be save.
Some ppl have it higher but they are experienced enough to deal with a high nutrients tank and keeping the algae under control.
Your tank is still a baby tank and Pectinas are sensitive corals if it comes down to the age of a tank.
Your ALK could be brought down to 9 if not 8.5 at least.

The high $$$$ Pectina you referring too is the Tyree Space Invader.
A colony that you have will cost you close to $500, one eye frags are running $100 to $150 for retail.

 

[roibenami]

Great buy.

The Pectinas like to be low on the sand with medium to low flow.
Your ALK is WAY to high in combination with a undetectable No3.
You have to bring No3 up to at least 2ppm or higher up to 4ppm to be save.
Some ppl have it higher but they are experienced enough to deal with a high nutrients tank and keeping the algae under control.
Your tank is still a baby tank and Pectinas are sensitive corals if it comes down to the age of a tank.
Your ALK could be brought down to 9 if not 8.5 at least.

The high $$$$ Pectina you referring too is the Tyree Space Invader.
A colony that you have will cost you close to $500, one eye frags are running $100 to $150 for retail.

First of all thanks a lot, according to you it was a very good buy. question is can i keep it....

I actually thought i should increase my calcium/magnesium to match the alk... not that i should drop the alk...

My algae scrubber is currently doing an amazing job, other then the low nutrients in the system, i also have absolutely no green algae in the tank, only brown. not even a hint. (full mat of green on the scrubber) so i believe that if i were to dose nitrate it would have to be daily because the algae scrubber would just eat it up...

And i'm not even sure i'd want accelerated growth right now.... any tips on lowering the alkalinity in my tank? I'm currently using red sea coral pro salt and i have an automatic water change running 1% (3600ml) daily water changes (divided 24 times a day).

I'm due for another salt bucket... should i switch to the regular red sea salt (without increased levels) ?

I currently have in my tank :

a couple of zoa colonies
a toadstool
a sinularia
a goniopora (misidentified it as a zoa at the store, noob mistake)
a yellow star polyp rock
a couple of wall octospawns (love them)
and the pectinia....
also 4 small chromis, a couple of cardinals and a bi-color blenny...

I'm feeding about half a cube of frozen daily (type of food varies)

I also have a pack of Red Sea Reef Energy A+B, which i believe has a high N value, which might help increase nitrates... I haven't started dosing yet because i haven't had a lot of coral in my tank... but now maybe i should?

I know i should open a build thread and get help there... but I have some serious problems posting stuff that arn't finished... I always tell my self there's one little thing i have to complete and then i'll post it...

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Diesel]

Looks like a great tank.
I would switch salts to a Tropic Marine or Aquaforest as these have more regular ALK levels close to 8.
It's a common thing that when ALK levels are high (in your case) and No3 are low you can ALK burn your corals.
The pectina is one of them as SPS, Chalice, monti's.
Softies not so much as these corals require not a whole lot of ALK any way and dosings aren't as much required for them.
The energy A+B isn't bad but dose moderate and watch your corals.
If No3 is reguired due to starving the corals you always can dose straight No3, @twilliard can help you with that.
Feeding more that a half cube is what I recommend as well.

 

[twilliard]

There are a few ways to raise the No3 without it going out of control. More fish might be considered to increase feeding. The frozen foods are great for keeping Po4 up.
You can increase No3 using potassium nitrate.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/

 

[roibenami]

Ok i'll start increasing my feedings and start dosing reef energy a+b (i'll start with the low "softy tank" dosage) and see if i can get a reading of some NO3.

do you think perhaps I should stop the auto water changes and only dose calcium until alkalinity and calcium are in a more appropriate level? and then start them again? I'm asking because i'm not sure my coral is taking up enough alk to lower it with the auto water changes at the moment... perhaps I am wrong but the alk has been high from the start.

Also perhaps that might explain the "bacterial bloom" i have in my tank.... my water is not crystal clear (you can only see it from the side view, but still not crystal clear). I've tried double dosage of carbon and even got a 36w UV and connected it for 3-4 days (it was a cheap ebay UV) and still did nothing to the clarity of the water... perhaps what i'm seeing is calcium carbonate crystals....

Another question that i have... you say to place the coral in the sand, but it is a very pretty coral and i would like to see it a bit higher in the composition of the tank. it's current location is 22 inches below the LED fixture (13" underwater, 12" above water line), and my LEDs are running blue at 70% and white at 30%. Can I maybe keep the coral at it's location or do I need to lower it further down? Tank does seem brightly lit at this time but it's just my eyes I don't have a PAR meter...

 

[twilliard]

Be careful with the A and B

 

[Scythanith]

Low to medium light. Moderate flow, nothing forcing the tissue to recede from the skeleton obviously. Feed it as often as you like, usually they are voracious eaters and put out long sweeper tentacle at night that will attack other corals in their path.

That Alk is way too high. Needs to be more around 8.0 like Diesel said. Have you ever tested the Alk on some fresh made Red Sea salt, prior to putting it in the tank? You want to bring that down, and keep Ca around 400-450 and Mg 1300-1400. Those numbers are just an approximation as everyone likes to run them differently. But no one runs alk at 12 dKh.

Good luck!

 

[roibenami]

Any suggestions on how to get the alk down? I went with coral pro because i thought it would be a sort of supplementing because of the high levels of elements in the salt... So i wouldn't have to dose as much 2-part... what's weird is that my calcium and magnesium is low... My plan is right now to get my salinity back to 1.025, check my levels again and start dosing calcium and magnesium to adjust to proper levels... also any tips on how to lower alkalinity would be great (other then get more sps).

Right now the pectinia looks really good, nice vibrant colors and at night it was fully open... but its only in my tank for about a day so its not a real test for anything... Can someone please comment on my current placement? As i've said the coral is 22" below the LED fixture (12" underwater, 10" above water) is that considered low/medium/high ?

Thanks!

 

[twilliard]

The Alkalinity will drop on its own. Just dose to your target calcium level. I use reef fusion as it has the magnesium included.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Not trying to bring up anything negative, but what's on the rocks? It's hard to tell from the pics, but are those flatworms?

 

[roibenami]

Not trying to bring up anything negative, but what's on the rocks? It's hard to tell from the pics, but are those flatworms?

Holy *** my heart just skipped a bit when I read that. Honestly I really don't know what they are and i always thought it's algae... However I don't think they are flatworms because i tried cleaning them with a toothbrush from the rocks a couple of times and it did nothing, the brown spots didn't move...

Here are a few more shots of my tank, if someone can tell me what they are I would be very grateful... (I had to turn off my blues to get good pictures, the full tank pic is with blue on though...) also if you could see the pectinia placement better now if it's ok or not...

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Good new, not flatworms! Just some type of algae starting to cover the new rockwork.

 

[Dave Cureton]

Placement is ok if you don't want to keep much else on that lower section of rock. Pectinia put out massive sweepers!

 

[Scythanith]

The only way to know how much light it's getting is with a PAR meter. Placement from LED lighting totally depends on the lights power settings. Get your Alk down by doing water changes with water that already has the right parameters. That's why I asked if you have tested a fresh mixed batch of the RS salt.

Looking at the pictures I can't imagine that would be too much light. I agree with Dave, it will sting anything on the rock it's on. And yes, you can break it off of the rock it came on. Just be aware of these two things. Pectina skeletons are fragile and like to crush, not snap. It can make a mess. If you use bone shears try to get a little of the rock it's attached to, not the coral itself. Second, they are ridiculously slimey. You may have a tough time gluing the coral down to new rock. I always make a sandwich of a dab of cyanoacrylate (CA) glue/2-part epoxy/CA glue. Seems to work well.

 

[roibenami]

Hey guys, so here's an update:

I've managed to get my foundation elements in check, nitrate is still at 0. I've increased feeding to 1 cube per day (mysis, enriched brine, red plankton...) + 4ml of reef energy a+b (each), which is the lowest "softy tank" dose...

My current parameters are :

PH: 8.15
Gravity: 1.025
Temp: 78-79 F
Alk: 9.2
Cal: 440
Mag: 1320
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0.08

So here's the thing... I have absolutely no idea if this coral is happy or not. It does open up at night, it seems like there has been significant growth in the past 7 days (since the last update) but I'm getting some white patches on the skin which really worries me.

In the past seven days i've lowered its position to the sand to be in partial shade, and i've fed it almost every day when it's open at night...

Here's a picture of the growth (is this normal growth rate for one week?)

*I turn off the blue completely to take pictures, with the blue on it gets impossible with the phone cam.

Here are a few pictures with/without the blue light... mainly close ups on the white spots and a wide picture to show its position in the tank.

There is a tube anemone next to the pectinia, but I watch it all the time and I've never seen them touch each other.

Anyway guys, any help would be really appreciated here. I know I'm probably taking this too seriously but the way i see it, if this thing dies i will probably never see another one in my life time. I can't just order coral online where i'm from so it's really only hoping something good shows up at the LFS on delivery day.

Thank you so much to everyone that helped me so far on this thread and I would really appreciate any advice on keeping this coral alive and growing...

 

[roibenami]

Anyone? tonight it hasn't open and it does look skinnier... those white patches really worry me.

 

[Scythanith]

I have definitely had those patches on my pectinas and in my experience they will just go away. Now it's a different story if the tissue is tight there and you see skeleton protrude from that spot. Then you have alk or flow issues IMO.

Mine doesn't necessarily open every night. Plus it will completely contract its tissue against its skeleton (looking skinny) right before it expels waste from the mouths. Plenty of LPS enjoy ~5ppm of NO3 in the water as well, helps them hold colour. Maybe the 3 point dKh swing in a week upset it a little.

Honestly, just keep your parameters stable now and feed it. It should be fine, especially if you're seeing that rate of growth.

Scott

 

[roibenami]

I have definitely had those patches on my pectinas and in my experience they will just go away. Now it's a different story if the tissue is tight there and you see skeleton protrude from that spot. Then you have alk or flow issues IMO.

Mine doesn't necessarily open every night. Plus it will completely contract its tissue against its skeleton (looking skinny) right before it expels waste from the mouths. Plenty of LPS enjoy ~5ppm of NO3 in the water as well, helps them hold colour. Maybe the 3 point dKh swing in a week upset it a little.

Honestly, just keep your parameters stable now and feed it. It should be fine, especially if you're seeing that rate of growth.

Scott

Thanks a lot!

It's really hard to tell if what i'm seeing is skeleton and not just white... but it does look kind of skinny... I'm really wondering about the position, do you think i should move it to a place with more light or less light? is it ok that it is half shaded? If you could take a look at the full tank shot and tell me what you think about the position or where you would put it... I would highly appreciate it.

Also about the NO3... my algae scrubber is currently running 18 hours a day, perhaps i should slowly set it back to 12 hour? just to try to get a nitrate reading... Thanks!