I ordered some SPS corals that arrived today with a heat pack. Unfortunately, the heat pack became dislodged during shipping and was laying directly on the bags of corals. On arrival, the water temp was 83-84F, measured with an IR thermometer. I brought the temp back down slow during acclimation, then dipped in Revive for 5 mins. I contacted the vendor and they are being very helpful. The corals are still alive, but 2 of 4 are still showing minimal PE. At what point can I be sure that these frags are out of the woods?
How long for corals to bounce back after shipping issue?
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CoralNerd
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I had the same issue recently however this vendor actually placed the heat pack next to the sps, dummy. The coral took a couple weeks to recover and have good PE. I'm at the three month marker now and the polyps have ever so slightly started to color up but it still needs more time. About a week after getting it I had the vendor give me $50 off the price and the deal was if it died after the discount it was on me. I'm glad my gamble worked out lol.
Mikeltee
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Heres my story of 84 degrees... 4 years ago I took a 5 day vacation and set the AC from it's normal 69 to 75. When I got home my topoff was empty and the Apex was beeping. All seeming fine. It took a couple months, but sure enough, they started dying. HUGE LPS colonies. They continued to die for for about 18months until all that were left were shrooms and zoas. This was heartbreaking as I lost a good 7k worth of corals. It was enough to make me have no interest in looking at my tank for years, even though I had a guy maintaining it the whole time. I had the softies, a bicolor blenny, and a Tomini tang in there. Thank goodness they are still alive and doing awesome! A month ago, I got the itch back and I have been scratching it ever since!
In the future, don't dip corals that are stressed. The dip can do more damage than the heat. I know that this is not always possible since not everybody has a QT, but this is a good reason to get a QT. Also, Bayer is way less harsh than CoralRx/Revive and the like.
If they corals were super healthy from the shipper, then I have found that they do not usually miss a beat. In all honesty, nobody knows how stressed that they got - if they lost/lose their color, then it could be many months.
I would not consider a high-heat shipping event even remotely equivalent to a healthy, unstressed coral that got hot one day.
If they corals were super healthy from the shipper, then I have found that they do not usually miss a beat. In all honesty, nobody knows how stressed that they got - if they lost/lose their color, then it could be many months.
I would not consider a high-heat shipping event even remotely equivalent to a healthy, unstressed coral that got hot one day.
Thank you everyone for the advice. I used to have a coral QT, but it was difficult to maintain stable parameters for SPS in such a small system and I usually wound up doing more harm than good. Now my go-to is a meticulous inspection with 40x jewelers loupe, frag plug removal, dip, and second inspection. With these guys I had to improvise somewhat, so I only did a 5 min dip instead of my usual 10. I usually don't order corals online, but since I'm stuck at home like most everybody else, I couldn't resist.
They're still alive, but still no PE this morning. Fingers crossed.
They're still alive, but still no PE this morning. Fingers crossed.
