New Coral Question

[ReefHog10]

Currently bought a few corals for an 8 gallon. Tank has been up and going for several months and had housed a few fish prior to moving them to bigger tank. Just went and bought a few corals yesterday - Duncan coral has opened straight up and looks like it did at the store, however the hammer coral hasn’t really don’t much since taking it out of the bag, acclimating and putting in the tank. Is this pretty normal? Pics attached of the tank and corals in their present state (just in sand bed for now). Thanks in advance!

 

[Dburr1014]

You have buried the hammer flesh in the sand. Get it out and glue it to the rock.
I would probably do that to the Duncan while you're in there...

 

[ReefHog10]

Thank you.. I had read to place them in sand bed before securing to make sure they liked their “spot” by didn’t realize they couldn’t be partially buried down.. hopefully this make them a little happier.

 

[ReefHog10]

Moved coral up out of sand bed yesterday but it continues to remain shrunken, center of skeletal structure becoming more exposed, and losing a few heads.. Decided to try and move up higher on rock as recommended so I took it out to cut off end of frag plug before gluing to rock. Went ahead and did a dip in Coral MD since I hadn't done that previously just to be safe, and once it hit the dip it immediately began expelling a ton of green stringy stuff from its center (zoxanthallae?). Is this coral a goner? (It looked great in the store and I'm just not sure what I've done at this point to cause it so much stress). The duncan coral continues to look fine and I've heard its a great indicator of water quality so that along with my normal numbers makes me think everything is fine there. Thanks again for everyones help.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Thank you.. I had read to place them in sand bed before securing to make sure they liked their “spot” by didn’t realize they couldn’t be partially buried down.. hopefully this make them a little happier.

placing them on the sand refers to placing them at sand level, basically for light acclimation. However a lot of corals dont like to be in the sand, or having sand on/in their polyps/mouths. I used to glue the frags onto rock rubble while they were on the sand, so they were raised off the sand, now I have a cheap frag rack from amazon that I place new frags on to acclimate.