Ugh Unprepared and Tank Problems

[lickyricky]

the test results earlier in the thread look ok.. but no mention of alk or calcium levels..

I would definately make sure your alk is the correct level.. my alk dropped.. im getting it back to normal now.. then getting more corals..

The OPs tank is by no means “ok”

 

[manilaboy1vic]

The OPs tank is by no means “ok”

heh, i mean its not filled with nitrates.. thats all we can really see..

 

[Rispa]

Why why why in the world do you KEEP adding livestock to your tank when you say in almost every post that “things are not doing well” or look like “******”. You have added more to this tank in a single day than I have over the course of a year.

Please stop adding new corals to your tank! These poor corals....they don’t look good and neither does your tank.

I am not trying to be rude but you really need to read up on the hobby before you waste any more money or life.

How could you forget a refractometer or a decent test kit?? These are basics and the reason why your tank is such a mess.

I had a test kit...it was just expired .the tank has had one fish and crustaceans for a couple of years, so I hadn't been testing. I misplaced the refractometer I used to have. I have since purchased a new one.

Have you ever gone shopping on black Friday when stressed and in need of sleep? That's why I bought all the corals. They are small and aren't adding much bio load and I've added additional activated carbon for anything they might be emitting, so I'm hoping I can get away with this.

Also the corals are doing better than they look in the pics. Since no one was responding I started using this thread more like a journal. I had literally just turned the lights on after they had been in the dark for a few hours when I took the last pics. This one for example fleshed out and was peaking over the edge with feeder tentacles out a few hours after lights were turned on.

In what way does my tank not look good? It has minimal Cyano, just hair algae which critters in the tank have been eating. I don't know what else you're seeing might indicted bad health.

the test results earlier in the thread look ok.. but no mention of alk or calcium levels..

I would definately make sure your alk is the correct level.. my alk dropped.. im getting it back to normal now.. then getting more corals..

You are very right. I forgot to get the test today, but can swing by tomorrow I think. I didn't get around to testing the water with the other kit either, so I need to.

 

[lickyricky]

I had a test kit...it was just expired .the tank has had one fish and crustaceans for a couple of years, so I hadn't been testing. I misplaced the refractometer I used to have. I have since purchased a new one.

Have you ever gone shopping on black Friday when stressed and in need of sleep? That's why I bought all the corals. They are small and aren't adding much bio load and I've added additional activated carbon for anything they might be emitting, so I'm hoping I can get away with this.

Also the corals are doing better than they look in the pics. Since no one was responding I started using this thread more like a journal. I had literally just turned the lights on after they had been in the dark for a few hours when I took the last pics. This one for example fleshed out and was peaking over the edge with feeder tentacles out a few hours after lights were turned on.

In what way does my tank not look good? It has minimal Cyano, just hair algae which critters in the tank have been eating. I don't know what else you're seeing might indicted bad health.


You are very right. I forgot to get the test today, but can swing by tomorrow I think. I didn't get around to testing the water with the other kit either, so I need to.

The picture of your tank shows no color that occurs as rock matures in a cycled tank. How long has this specific setup been running?

 

[manilaboy1vic]

i think she said it 10 years old and some guy put new rock in..

heh, the rock in my DT looks new because i kept it in the sump with out light for a long time, hehe.. my tank was looking worse than the OPs until i removed the sand and swapped out the rocks from my sump.. i was almost gonna throw in the towel.. glad i didnt..

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Did I read correctly that salinity was 1.035 when this load of coral went in?

With that amount of coral I too would be curious of cal and alk readings

 

[manilaboy1vic]

Did I read correctly that salinity was 1.035 when this load of coral went in?

With that amount of coral I too would be curious of cal and alk readings

yea, that invoice was not cheap.. def. want to make sure the alk and calcium are on point. IMO you should take that pic of the invoice down.. it shows your full address on it..

 

[Rispa]

The picture of your tank shows no color that occurs as rock matures in a cycled tank. How long has this specific setup been running?

10 years My mom hired a guy who took out all my original rock and replaced it. This rock has been in for a few months.

 

[Rispa]

Did I read correctly that salinity was 1.035 when this load of coral went in?

With that amount of coral I too would be curious of cal and alk readings

Something like that. The pet store's refractometer was off, so I thought it was low. The guy mg care of the tank was mixing up the water, so it was believable. I dropped it over several days instead of swinging it again. In the future if I have the same problem I'll be double checking and going slower with fixing it.

yea, that invoice was not cheap.. def. want to make sure the alk and calcium are on point. IMO you should take that pic of the invoice down.. it shows your full address on it..

Thanks... I didn't notice it showed the address. I reported it and will pm a mod. Thanks again for pointing it out.

 

[Rispa]

Calcium is 520+mg/L (probably 540 based on the chart intervals)

10dKH/179ppm KH

pH 8.2
Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite all 0. Ammonia turns a little green if I let it sit for a while and it's been sitting for 15 minutes in this pic. It looked closer to 0 during the first 5 minutes or so.

Not sure on the phosphate, I want to say 0.25ppm, but it didn't really fully match anything on the card to my eyes.

 

[Rispa]

I feed the corals today and they plumped up so nicely. I'm going to dump a bunch of pics here for safe keeping. First the feeding pics. There was a bit of trial and error and after giving them time to eat a blew water on them with a pipette, so the food wouldn't sit on them. Next time I'll be mixing about a third of the food to a thinner consistency. Also the elevate definitely has 2 mouths with a third developing. I wanted to try to save another elegance from the lfs, but by friend who works there wouldn't let me buy it. He said the owner would be probably ask $80 and I didn't need to waste my money. You know so many corals die in the lfs because they are unwilling to go the extra mile (like fed coral did instead of fish flakes) or medicate. It would be nice and probably help slow down wild collection if there was a limit the number of corals each store could get per quarter, so they would value what they have more.

 

[Rispa]

Pic dump 1
Nom nom

 

[Rispa]

Pic dump 2
More nomming
Also some after being blown off

 

[Rispa]

I figured out that if I turned the brightness down in my camera they looked more like how I see them

 

[Rispa]

Time for more general updates for the sake of keeping track. I think the acro died, probably from the rx coral dip. Everything else is still alive. Zoas are finally opening a little. Everything else is coloring up and maybe even growing.

 

[Rispa]

More pics