Toadstool questions

[moose11]

Hello everyone,

this is only my second attempt at adding a frag to my tank. I bought it 7 days ago today.

it opened up at first on day one, and then closed for four days. It opened again for a bit then has closed up again.

I’m looking to see if it looks healthy or if it seems problematic. I know absolutely nothing about corals and don’t know what to look for and google hasn’t been overly helpful. Thanks in advance!

salinity is 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate 0
Ca 440
Mg 1300

par at the height the coral sits is 120
Medium ish flow

lights are on 11 hours with a 1 hour ramp up and down

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Ime when I added my first coral same as you a leather, it would not open for a week or two, then every once in a while it would show it was alive still. Now it's fat and happy getting a little too big now.

 

[moose11]

Ime when I added my first coral same as you a leather, it would not open for a week or two, then every once in a while it would show it was alive still. Now it's fat and happy getting a little too big now.

That’s good to hear! I added a mushroom and it opened like immediately and is still doing really well and growing. When this one refused to open I got a little concerned, but I’m glad to hear that others had the same experience!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Toads do this sometimes. It will perk up eventually

 

[moose11]

Toads do this sometimes. It will perk up eventually

Awesome, thank you! As long as it looks healthy I’ll stop worrying and just let it do it’s thing!

 

[Zorya]

Generally, as long as it is not drooping over and holding its shape, it is still good. They shed once in a while, so I keep mine in enough flow to keep the top fresh. My blenny also puts sand on top of mine, so enough flow to get all of that off without the toadstool having to turn the top over to get sand off.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

it should be fine, it'll get shiny and fluff off skin and be nice and bright again

 

[i cant think]

Hello everyone,

this is only my second attempt at adding a frag to my tank. I bought it 7 days ago today.

it opened up at first on day one, and then closed for four days. It opened again for a bit then has closed up again.

I’m looking to see if it looks healthy or if it seems problematic. I know absolutely nothing about corals and don’t know what to look for and google hasn’t been overly helpful. Thanks in advance!

salinity is 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 ppm
Phosphate 0
Ca 440
Mg 1300

par at the height the coral sits is 120
Medium ish flow

lights are on 11 hours with a 1 hour ramp up and down

Sarcophyton Leathers are temperamental, leave it alone for a few weeks and it will settle into the tank on its own. I wouldn’t say it’s shedding yet (Generally they shed when settled into the tank) and considering you had it open up twice it doesn’t suggest to me it’s shedding.
The fact it has opened up twice is good, it shows you that it’s settling in nicely and just getting used to the tank. It’s when they’ve been closed for months on end you worry, I’ve got a Lobophytum that hasn’t opened in a few months now but it gets snacked on by other fish (whether that’s algae or just a sign they’re taking advantage of a dying coral I don’t know).

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Leather likes nutrients, your phosphate is 0 and nitrate is close to 0. You should try to increase these to avoid more serious problems. What test kits are you using to get these results?

The tank also looks brand new, not a dot of algae on the glass or silicone. How long is it running, any fish in the tank?

 

[Dbichler]

I have 3 different toadstools in my tank one grows fast open all the time one grows slow open half the time and another that is like yours being stubborn and has been in the tank two years very rarely open but still alive. Some corals are just different and don’t succeed in certain tanks. Generally toadstools are very hardy though so just be patient.

 

[moose11]

Leather likes nutrients, your phosphate is 0 and nitrate is close to 0. You should try to increase these to avoid more serious problems. What test kits are you using to get these results?

The tank also looks brand new, not a dot of algae on the glass or silicone. How long is it running, any fish in the tank?

I’ve had a hard time raising nutrients. Tank is 2.5 months, started with 1 pound per gallon live rock. I cleaned the glass well in that area to show better photos, but I’m also a meticulous cleaner with all my equipment and the glass, but there’s lots of growth. I’ll attach a photo of my paly/GHA garden. It is stocked with a small blue damsel a pair of clowns, lawnmower blenny and sailfin. I
feed heavy but the nutrients just won’t go up. Test kits are API.

that paly colony stated as like 6 stems as a hitchhiker on the live rock.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Looks very nice.
Maybe graduate up to a better test kit when you have a chance. The API test kit is not as super accurate enough for phosphate and nitrate as we need it to be

 

[moose11]

Looks very nice.
Maybe graduate up to a better test kit when you have a chance. The API test kit is not as super accurate enough for phosphate and nitrate as we need it to be

Thank you! That is my plan, I have several hannah checkers for now but to buy all of them at once is a huge expense. I forgot the phosphate is actually the fluval kit, but again not phenomenal. I started with hannah checkers for ph, alk, mg, and ca. next will be nitrates and phosphates.

 

[moose11]

Looks very nice.
Maybe graduate up to a better test kit when you have a chance. The API test kit is not as super accurate enough for phosphate and nitrate as we need it to be

As a side note, have you got any tips for raising nutrients slightly without over feeding too much and causing an ammonia spike? I feed with a fairly heavy hand and no matter what I do it won’t go up, but I fear putting waaay to much and causing other issues on top of what’s already going on. Would target feeding help? Can it even feed as is all closed up? I apologize for the questions but again I am just starting and google is proving to be less than fruitful in certain aspects.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

As a side note, have you got any tips for raising nutrients slightly without over feeding too much and causing an ammonia spike? I feed with a fairly heavy hand and no matter what I do it won’t go up, but I fear putting waaay to much and causing other issues on top of what’s already going on. Would target feeding help? Can it even feed as is all closed up? I apologize for the questions but again I am just starting and google is proving to be less than fruitful in certain aspects.

If you don't increase ammonia, you'll not increase nitrates... Your tank will be able to process the breakdown of extra food and it's the easiest way to raise nitrates IMO.

 

[moose11]

If you don't increase ammonia, you'll not increase nitrates... Your tank will be able to process the breakdown of extra food and it's the easiest way to raise nitrates IMO.

I guess my fear with ammonia is the harmful effect on the livestock. I’ve always been told that ammonia must always be 0 so I’ve always been very cautious with ammonia and feedings to ensure I don’t get spikes. By and large the reasoning is that I don’t want to hurt my fish, but I’ve also never had as much money wrapped up in livestock as I do currently in this tank lol so I’m even more cautious due to that

 

[SeaweedLife]

When I first started out with corals, someone told me to always wait 2 weeks after placement and see how they look. I’ve always stuck with this advice and it’s worked for me! Corals seem to be slow to adjust, the less they are handled at the beginning the better. Agree with the others, opening is good, just give it some time to hang out

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I guess my fear with ammonia is the harmful effect on the livestock. I’ve always been told that ammonia must always be 0 so I’ve always been very cautious with ammonia and feedings to ensure I don’t get spikes. By and large the reasoning is that I don’t want to hurt my fish, but I’ve also never had as much money wrapped up in livestock as I do currently in this tank lol so I’m even more cautious due to that

Ammonia is produced when food, fish poop, dead critters, etc decompose. You will ALWAYS have ammonia produced - that's nature - but having a cycled tank means that there is sufficient nitrifying bacteria (bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate) to handle the bioload of your tank. Once a tank is cycled, you're not going to get a true "ammonia spike" without drastically increasing the bioload (e.g. adding too many new fish at once, having something large die, etc).