Unhappy coral?
- Thread starter cessnabird
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FWIW I started in small tanks and go the same kind if back and forth advice. The biggest annoyance t me was light was . High Med and Low. what the heck does that mean? now I use a Lux meter. It measures intensity. not par, and you dont need to know that with a great light but knowing the intensity will make you so happy. $15 on amazon.
The thing added on my wifes advice, bless her was a HOB refugium.
http://www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-O...F8&qid=1456066078&sr=1-1&keywords=hob+breeder
tiny led goosneck 32k led reading light. air pump.
I put some chato and live rock rubble in and there was a noticeable difference. And after years of having it and living with it you could tell it needed to be cleaned because the algae on the glass would start to grow.
My successful small tanks are and were a HOB aquaclear with carbon and an HOB fuge and ATO. I never ran GFO never had cyano to speak of, yea came and went but. Every time I added GFO the corals would pout. Ive had the same can for 5 years now too.
The next was sand. I was mostly advised to not clean the sand. UG. That ultimately led ME down the path of DSB. And now I advise if its a shallow bed clean it, or go DSB and get lots of sand worms.
But ultimately the failure if those tanks was under lighting. Po removal can be done with gfo etc etc or the addition of photosynthetic organisms.(R Farley) Giving them enough of what they need to do will draw the PO and exess nutrients right out of the system.(yes corals are a po removal method) But with the typical guess work of Um yea a 160? 2 t5"s? yea that should be enough..... it failed. Had ANYONE said yea you need a good spectrum with an intensity of 20 to 35000 lux or more . Id would have had less algae, a more stable system, and spent less money on corals that died.
For me the worst most beautiful irony is, I have had a meter to read lux for 20 years. And Lux can be converted to FootCandle mathematically, and I have 30 meters that will do that. But I was told it wasnt the right way to do it. so I didnt.
Your totally on the right track. the hardest thing sorting through the bull.
Reef on.
The thing added on my wifes advice, bless her was a HOB refugium.
http://www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-O...F8&qid=1456066078&sr=1-1&keywords=hob+breeder
tiny led goosneck 32k led reading light. air pump.
I put some chato and live rock rubble in and there was a noticeable difference. And after years of having it and living with it you could tell it needed to be cleaned because the algae on the glass would start to grow.
My successful small tanks are and were a HOB aquaclear with carbon and an HOB fuge and ATO. I never ran GFO never had cyano to speak of, yea came and went but. Every time I added GFO the corals would pout. Ive had the same can for 5 years now too.
The next was sand. I was mostly advised to not clean the sand. UG. That ultimately led ME down the path of DSB. And now I advise if its a shallow bed clean it, or go DSB and get lots of sand worms.
But ultimately the failure if those tanks was under lighting. Po removal can be done with gfo etc etc or the addition of photosynthetic organisms.(R Farley) Giving them enough of what they need to do will draw the PO and exess nutrients right out of the system.(yes corals are a po removal method) But with the typical guess work of Um yea a 160? 2 t5"s? yea that should be enough..... it failed. Had ANYONE said yea you need a good spectrum with an intensity of 20 to 35000 lux or more . Id would have had less algae, a more stable system, and spent less money on corals that died.
For me the worst most beautiful irony is, I have had a meter to read lux for 20 years. And Lux can be converted to FootCandle mathematically, and I have 30 meters that will do that. But I was told it wasnt the right way to do it. so I didnt.
Your totally on the right track. the hardest thing sorting through the bull.
Reef on.
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Retro Reefer
Slow and steady wins the race!
To the OP.. Whenever I'm trying to find information on a given topic I will do all the research I can, take everybody's opinion and make my own decisions.. So here is my advice to even further confuse you
Zoa's can just do that for no apparent reason at all, I have 23 different varieties of them in my tank and on any given day some may not open fully or look a bit "off" while everyone else is happy however I see a couple things in your pick that may be causing some of the problem, It looks like bubble algae on that plug which can aggravate corals and is that a tube worm I see on the right hand side of the bottom picture in your first post? If so get rid of it and any others you see.. My advice would be manually cleaning the plug with a small brush and dipping it in a 50/50 mixture of tank water and 3% hydrogen peroxide, I just use a small Dixie cup for this and in your case since your zoa is already stressed I would just dip the plug for a minute or so holding upright with Zoa's out of water and then drop the whole thing in the cup for just a few seconds for a total rinse with hydro/water (be sure to wear gloves and eye protection when handling Zoa's)
Knowing all your parameters is always a good thing but I would say advanced testing is not necessary at this point in your tank and the information you provided is sufficient, Zoa's do seem to like a little bit of nitrates so "0" is not necessarily a good thing for them..
As far as flow mine seem tolerate a wide range short of being blasted with a powerhead but for the most part they seem happiest with medium flow, ones I have had problems with I will move to a higher flow area in my tank.. Moving them to low flow never seems to help.
Lighting requirements seem to mimic flow, they will tolerate a wide range but most seem to like medium lighting.. My method for placement is those who open first in the morning and are doing the most stretching get moved up closer to the light those who look "off" at midday under full lighting get moved down.. I have had luck moving stressed Zoa's higher in tank for more lighting but not lower..
Good luck!
Zoa's can just do that for no apparent reason at all, I have 23 different varieties of them in my tank and on any given day some may not open fully or look a bit "off" while everyone else is happy however I see a couple things in your pick that may be causing some of the problem, It looks like bubble algae on that plug which can aggravate corals and is that a tube worm I see on the right hand side of the bottom picture in your first post? If so get rid of it and any others you see.. My advice would be manually cleaning the plug with a small brush and dipping it in a 50/50 mixture of tank water and 3% hydrogen peroxide, I just use a small Dixie cup for this and in your case since your zoa is already stressed I would just dip the plug for a minute or so holding upright with Zoa's out of water and then drop the whole thing in the cup for just a few seconds for a total rinse with hydro/water (be sure to wear gloves and eye protection when handling Zoa's)
Knowing all your parameters is always a good thing but I would say advanced testing is not necessary at this point in your tank and the information you provided is sufficient, Zoa's do seem to like a little bit of nitrates so "0" is not necessarily a good thing for them..
As far as flow mine seem tolerate a wide range short of being blasted with a powerhead but for the most part they seem happiest with medium flow, ones I have had problems with I will move to a higher flow area in my tank.. Moving them to low flow never seems to help.
Lighting requirements seem to mimic flow, they will tolerate a wide range but most seem to like medium lighting.. My method for placement is those who open first in the morning and are doing the most stretching get moved up closer to the light those who look "off" at midday under full lighting get moved down.. I have had luck moving stressed Zoa's higher in tank for more lighting but not lower..
Good luck!
Salt Creep
Active Member
Has nobody said just leave it alone? Sometimes (most times if other similar coral are doing fine) it is just the coral adjusting to the new environment. I would leave it in one place for at least a week and see how it goes. It very likely just isn't used to the flow your tank is putting on it and readjusting it's structure to anchor it down sufficiently enough to open its polyps without them folding over on themselves. I would have to agree that you don't NEED the alk/ca/mag kit as long as other coral are doing fine... Probably not the issue here, but you should get one eventually just in case all your coral start showing distress.
An update on the little Zoa frag:
After moving it to the top of the tank, and tuning the Kessil up a pinch in intensity, the Zoa has begun to open up and rise from the plug more now. It does not look 100%, but it seems a heck of a lot happier now. I also tossed a bag a Phosgard in the filter as well to help with the brown algae. Thanks again for assistance guys.
After moving it to the top of the tank, and tuning the Kessil up a pinch in intensity, the Zoa has begun to open up and rise from the plug more now. It does not look 100%, but it seems a heck of a lot happier now. I also tossed a bag a Phosgard in the filter as well to help with the brown algae. Thanks again for assistance guys.
