Recognize these corals? I think they are common

[Katrina Moore]

Hi everyone! First post, wooo! Apologies for the noob questions.

I just picked up a three-year established aquarium from a friend who couldn't take care of it and am wondering about possible IDs on a couple corals, possibly in poor health? Not such an emergency but I do want to know if these are dead or dying (clownfish and damsel in with these in a 14 gallon) so I can take them out before they affect water quality.

Could these be leather corals with the protective covering? Each about the size of a blueberry.


On these ones the "fingers" at the ends of the stalks move freely but the stalks themselves seem stiff... there are also a lot of dead white ones around, even in the filter :/


And these look a bit like the first ones but with a stalk. toadstool mushroom leather maybe?


Thanks for any help

 

[Flippers4pups]

Welcome to reef2reef!


Top picture is unknown to me, though your rocks look to be covered in bacteria or dinoflagellates.

The "sticks" look to be feather worms. Harmless.

Bottom is toadstool leathers.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Top picture is possibly a sponge of some type
Middle picture are Hydroids
and the last picture are toadstool corals, low light and low flow

 

[Flippers4pups]

Top picture is possibly a sponge of some type
Middle picture are Hydroids
and the last picture are toadstool corals, low light and low flow

Crabs, middle picture is stiff stalks. Hydroids have stiff stalks?

 

[Hemmdog]

Welcome to reef2reef!
Bottom is a tyree Indo toadstool. Middle is some sort of worm, feather most likely. Top looks like some kind of nps filter feeder type deal, but it’s hard to tell, looks like the tank needs a little TLC , we can help with that if you need any tips!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Crabs, middle picture is stiff stalks. Hydroids have stiff stalks?

Colonial Hydroids, yes

 

[Katrina Moore]

Lol! I would looooove that!

I just got it yesterday and am excited to start on the TLC I'm going to pick up some macro algae this evening and hope that that can take up some of the stuff that may be causing the many problems. In the meantime, there is red slime, some bristleworms all under an inch, and a lot of hard dead feather worms everywhere. And yes, rocks are covered with something chunky and tan (yum)

This is my first salt tank and my main concerns are nitrate and phosphate... am I safe to try and gently scrub the bacteria off in salt water? Can I scrub all the rocks at once or should I take it slow? Should the red slime be the priority or the gross rocks?

 

[homer1475]

Is there any livestock in the tank?

 

[Tamberav]

2nd is colonial hydroids...I had them. Annoying things...I smothered them with superglue.

 

[Katrina Moore]

Yes, there is a clownfish and a blue damsel, both look like they are juveniles at maybe 2 inches each. I reorganized the rocks in the tank in an effort to reduce aggression--more, smaller caves rather than one big one. They weren't being overly aggressive, just a little feisty.

Also, the lights in this tank are all broken and the previous owner was using the moon light only for who knows how long. I stuck another light in there that I had (actinic 5050) The rocks with the corals used to be high in the water column and I put them low to get accustomed to the more intense light. Will this be effective?

 

[Katrina Moore]

Yes, colonial hydroids. They are everywhere.

Could these be their skeletons, or are these something else?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Yes, colonial hydroids. They are everywhere.

Could these be their skeletons, or are these something else?

Those are tube worm tubes those are harmless

 

[Katrina Moore]

Those are tube worm tubes those are harmless

Ah, ok They are pretty cool. Would these be found in a healthy aquarium? By healthy I mean ideal for my fish and leathers

 

[Crabs McJones]

Ah, ok They are pretty cool. Would these be found in a healthy aquarium? By healthy I mean ideal for my fish and leathers

Yes

 

[Katrina Moore]

Anyone know what this is? It's about the width of a pencil or a little smaller, and maybe 5 inches long, forked in a couple places. Here is one end of it:

 

[Rybren]

Sponge. Beneficial filter feeder.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Welcome, and congratulations. Nice looking set up. Do you have an ro/di? And a refractometer? This is always good when starting out.

 

[Matt Carden]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Katrina Moore]

Thank you both! I love the setup. I usually like to put things together myself but I got it as-is and the former owner has style B)

I don't have an RO/DI. I'm looking for a used one and may get one soon. I did get a salinity tester and have been checking up on it when I've added water. The guy I got it from kept it at his office and used only RO water from his water cooler. He just topped off, didn't mix in salt very often. But salinity was a bit low, 1.020 so I bumped it to 1.021 on day 1 and now 1.022. I did have to throw out about a third of the water when I transported it (I only had so many buckets) and once home added back in a solution I mixed of my tap water, the salt, and dechlor. I could probably smuggle out some water cooler water from my work while I look for a unit...

I've heard that having very low levels of phosphates can encourage the growth of dinoflagellates, which are everywhere in this tank. I was thinking maybe the bit of phosphate my tap water wouldn't be so bad, but this morning the leather corals "fingers" were totally sucked back into themselves. I have some test kits coming in the mail and I added a bunch of chaeto macro algae to help in the meantime.

Any advice welcome!