Why coral?

[Ralph Ritoch]

I'm a true newbie. Technically I'm on my second week off a saltwater tank. My first week I killed a bunch of shrimp thinking they lived in saltwater, now I have some clownfish and corals. I have to ask, what is the benefit of keeping coral in the tank? I'm spending FAR more effort to keep the coral alive than keeping the fish alive. One of the coral was given to me for free because it was dying so maybe that is part of my struggle but when I show off my tank no one has even notices the coral, which is taking up nearly 90% of my time. The dying coral is a torch colony. One of the trumpets was dying due to a screw somehow introduced at the fish store, it fell out while I was holding it upside down to shake out the sand caused by initially using a wavemaker that was way too powerful. Half of the remaining torches were being killed off by barnacles. Not knowing any better I thought they were part of the torch coral, possibly even a method of reproduction. After a lot of research I realized they were barnacles and removed them with needlenose pliers. Now I have 4 healthy torches, and about 6 struggling torches, most of which had barnacles, and 5 that seem to be completely dead/empty. Does keeping these corals provide any advantage to keeping the fish alive because no one seems to notice them, and they are taking up a lot of time and money.

 

[Hitman]

Welcome to R2R!
A two week old tank is not mature enough for corals. Your still going through the cycle stages so you possibly have ammonia which is due to the bacteria not taking hold yet.

 

[WV Reefer]

I'm a true newbie. Technically I'm on my second week off a saltwater tank. My first week I killed a bunch of shrimp thinking they lived in saltwater, now I have some clownfish and corals. I have to ask, what is the benefit of keeping coral in the tank? I'm spending FAR more effort to keep the coral alive than keeping the fish alive. One of the coral was given to me for free because it was dying so maybe that is part of my struggle but when I show off my tank no one has even notices the coral, which is taking up nearly 90% of my time. The dying coral is a torch colony. One of the trumpets was dying due to a screw somehow introduced at the fish store, it fell out while I was holding it upside down to shake out the sand caused by initially using a wavemaker that was way too powerful. Half of the remaining torches were being killed off by barnacles. Not knowing any better I thought they were part of the torch coral, possibly even a method of reproduction. After a lot of research I realized they were barnacles and removed them with needlenose pliers. Now I have 4 healthy torches, and about 6 struggling torches, most of which had barnacles, and 5 that seem to be completely dead/empty. Does keeping these corals provide any advantage to keeping the fish alive because no one seems to notice them, and they are taking up a lot of time and money.

That’s a lot of torches!

My corals take up no time up at all. I glue them down after I buy them and never touch them again unless they need moved. A lot of people that see the tank don’t really understand what a coral could/should look like......so they appreciate the tank but don’t really know what they are looking at.

Do you have a pic and can you give us your water parameters? What kind of equipment are you using?

 

[Jon Fishman]

How long ago exactly was the tank set up, how was it setup, where do you get your water, how did you cycle?


Those are the first questions. You may be fighting a losing battle with the corals, and perhaps that is why you find them difficult

 

[Adventures In Reefing]

Hi Ralph! Welcome to R2R! Once you have an established tank its actually harder to lose a lot of the corals than fish. Why do we keep corals? Because we have a symbiotic relationship with them. What I mean is they create beauty and for a lot of us relaxation while staring into the tank in some cases they create income. For me personally its my garden. The other side to that is we provide the care they require to survive. I always find it funny when some people say we shouldn't be taking from the ocean when in reality we are able to create a environment with perfect parameters and little to no competition for survival.The fact is in nature you will not see a lot of the morphs and diversity you can now find in the reef hobby. I strongly believe that it will be aquaculture and mariculture that eventually saves the worlds reefs. The question is do you like the animals you chose to put in your tank? Are you willing to give them what they need to survive? I have had to spend hours researching certain coral animals to ensure I could give them an environment where they could hopefully thrive. I think a Reef Tank properly set up with fish and coral is one of the most spectacular sights in the world. If you don't see corals in that way, than you should absolutely just do a fish only.Certain fish benefit from a reef environment because it provides food or safety, others could care less, its all about knowing what you are adding to your ecosystem. If you want to keep corals (and fish really) you need to properly cycle the tank, ensure you have the proper lighting and filtration and spend time on the animals husbandry. You came to the right place for information and to ask questions, the people on here are the cream of the crop when it comes to help and education. I wish you the best and hope you stick with it.

Garrick

 

[Auquanut]

^ +1 EXTREMELY well put!

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

How long ago exactly was the tank set up, how was it setup, where do you get your water, how did you cycle?


Those are the first questions. You may be fighting a losing battle with the corals, and perhaps that is why you find them difficult

The tank and filter was previously a fresh water tank. The residents were given to my brother-in-law who has a 120 gallon tank. This tank is about 40 gallons, with fresh sea water and sand directly from under the ocean, here in the Philippines. I had to add some synthetic salt because the salinity was a bit low but for the most part it's ocean water.

 

[Reef and Dive]

How are you checking salinity? Most newcomer friends that can’t keep corals have problems with their salinity (not checking with a refractometer or anything better).
And the answer why corals? Simply because they are amazingly beautiful, and yes it’s usually harder to keep than most common fish, but quite possible... IHO it’s really worth the effort

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

That’s a lot of torches!

My corals take up no time up at all. I glue them down after I buy them and never touch them again unless they need moved. A lot of people that see the tank don’t really understand what a coral could/should look like......so they appreciate the tank but don’t really know what they are looking at.

Do you have a pic and can you give us your water parameters? What kind of equipment are you using?

Here is a pic but the tank is "sleeping" right now. The torches are on the right and near the center I have some green star coral. On the top left, barely visible, are 2 clownfish. The filter is a diy 3 gallon with various materials and a UV sterilizer.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

How are you checking salinity? Most newcomer friends that can’t keep corals have problems with their salinity (not checking with a refractometer or anything better).
And the answer why corals? Simply because they are amazingly beautiful, and yes it’s usually harder to keep than most common fish, but quite possible... IHO it’s really worth the effort

I use a float type hydrometer. It has a green stripe to indicate from 1.020 to 1.025 for "normal" salinity.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Hi Ralph! Welcome to R2R! Once you have an established tank its actually harder to lose a lot of the corals than fish. Why do we keep corals? Because we have a symbiotic relationship with them. What I mean is they create beauty and for a lot of us relaxation while staring into the tank in some cases they create income. For me personally its my garden. The other side to that is we provide the care they require to survive. I always find it funny when some people say we shouldn't be taking from the ocean when in reality we are able to create a environment with perfect parameters and little to no competition for survival.The fact is in nature you will not see a lot of the morphs and diversity you can now find in the reef hobby. I strongly believe that it will be aquaculture and mariculture that eventually saves the worlds reefs. The question is do you like the animals you chose to put in your tank? Are you willing to give them what they need to survive? I have had to spend hours researching certain coral animals to ensure I could give them an environment where they could hopefully thrive. I think a Reef Tank properly set up with fish and coral is one of the most spectacular sights in the world. If you don't see corals in that way, than you should absolutely just do a fish only.Certain fish benefit from a reef environment because it provides food or safety, others could care less, its all about knowing what you are adding to your ecosystem. If you want to keep corals (and fish really) you need to properly cycle the tank, ensure you have the proper lighting and filtration and spend time on the animals husbandry. You came to the right place for information and to ask questions, the people on here are the cream of the crop when it comes to help and education. I wish you the best and hope you stick with it.

Garrick

Thanks for the insight. I knew I needed the liverock so I just assumed the coral was needed to keep it living. Now that I already have the coral and have spent huge amounts of time researching how to care for them I plan on sticking with it. A fish-only tank would probably been far easier but working on the tank is a nice stress reliever, and with the coral there's a lot to do. I ordered a water testing kit to test for ammonia, NO2, NO3, PH so right now I'm running blind but the water is straight from the ocean so it shouldn't be so bad.

 

[jtl]

I started keeping saltwater tanks in 1985 and back then it was fish only and even live rock was not all that prevalent. I used a combination of under gravel filtration and bio balls with UV and it worked great. I had a 200 gallon tank that contained a mix of stunning fish (Lion fish, PBT, Clown Trigger, Puffers, to name a few and got far more compliments than I have ever received from a reef tank and it was a breeze to maintain. Fewer params to worry about and lighting was a none issue. I don't think most people realize that corals are live animals, I know I have had people come over and think they were fake. When I recently tore down my 100 gallon tank it had just reached a point where the corals where looking very nice after 2 years. Starting with frags takes a long to time to mature even though I had over a hundred coral frags at one time. I also made it more difficult by picking more difficult sps and lps and virtually no softies. I did find that Rock Flower Anemones were very easy and never lost a one. Anyway it was fun for a while.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Here is a picture of the Torch coral from a few days ago before I removed the Barnacles, added an additional light, and moved the Torch into the sand.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

With the water being straight out of the ocean your salinity should not be off. Now as evaporation starts your salinity will climb.

You need to look at getting a refractometer. It will give you a better reading than a swing arm and keep you more precise.

Are you collecting your water from a area near a river/stream/tributary? or harbor/community beach? If so this can be introducing a number of things to the surrounding water throwing both salinity off and adding in agricultural/chemical runoff with pollutants.

It is best to try to fetch fresh seawater as far out as possible and as deep as possible to avoid pollutants.

Your filtration system may be a area of problems as well. It could be creating a nitrate farm. How much and what are you feeding the fish.

what type of lighting are you using?
what temp are you keeping the tank at?

have you read any of the other threads within this forum to help you understand fully how a saltwater system works or are you flying completely blind as to what you need to do vs what you think you should be doing?

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

With the water being straight out of the ocean your salinity should not be off. Now as evaporation starts your salinity will climb.

You need to look at getting a refractometer. It will give you a better reading than a swing arm and keep you more precise.

Are you collecting your water from a area near a river/stream/tributary? or harbor/community beach? If so this can be introducing a number of things to the surrounding water throwing both salinity off and adding in agricultural/chemical runoff with pollutants.

It is best to try to fetch fresh seawater as far out as possible and as deep as possible to avoid pollutants.

Your filtration system may be a area of problems as well. It could be creating a nitrate farm. How much and what are you feeding the fish.

what type of lighting are you using?
what temp are you keeping the tank at?

have you read any of the other threads within this forum to help you understand fully how a saltwater system works or are you flying completely blind as to what you need to do vs what you think you should be doing?

Hi. I'm using a float hydrometer with a built-in thermometer for the salinity testing. The water was taken from a beach/port where the fishermen unload their fish. It isn't directly at the outlet of a river, but it is within the mile of a river. As for fish food I'm using mf-g1 mostly, but I did use some sinking type pellets to feed the coral. For the lighting I'm using 2x tube fluorescent light 15w. I have ordered a testing kit that should be here in a week or two to test the Ammonia, NO2, NO3, and PH.

 

[Tamberav]

Corals are beautiful and it's like having an under water garden.

Beyond the beginner fish....fish can be A LOT more frustrating than corals. Fish can bring in so many diseases and some are actually very delicate and difficult to feed.

Just like a goldfish is a lot easier than a discus.

Luckily there are easy corals too so if you pick those you won't have to pour as much time or money into them.

You just need your basics...good lighting...flow and water quality.

 

[Adventures In Reefing]

Thanks for the insight. I knew I needed the liverock so I just assumed the coral was needed to keep it living. Now that I already have the coral and have spent huge amounts of time researching how to care for them I plan on sticking with it. A fish-only tank would probably been far easier but working on the tank is a nice stress reliever, and with the coral there's a lot to do. I ordered a water testing kit to test for ammonia, NO2, NO3, PH so right now I'm running blind but the water is straight from the ocean so it shouldn't be so bad.

You need to be careful with ocean water and only collect at high tide and as far out as you can. At low tide you are collecting a lot of run off and it can be gnarly.

 

[Fish_N_A_Box]

Hi. I'm using a float hydrometer with a built-in thermometer for the salinity testing. The water was taken from a beach/port where the fishermen unload their fish. It isn't directly at the outlet of a river, but it is within the mile of a river. As for fish food I'm using mf-g1 mostly, but I did use some sinking type pellets to feed the coral. For the lighting I'm using 2x tube fluorescent light 15w. I have ordered a testing kit that should be here in a week or two to test the Ammonia, NO2, NO3, and PH.

chances are the water is polluted with chemical/gas/oil since it is near a pier/boating area. The sand can also lock in pollutants.

If you have a friend that is a fisherman, see if they are willing to get you water from further out.

your lighting is also going to be a issue. You need more specific bulbs for corals to thrive under.

You may be over feeding your tank. leading to higher nitrates within the tank. Your corals will take a lot of nutrients from the water column itself.

the float hydrometer will get you into the "ballpark", but it won't give you very accurate readings as I noted you gave a reading of 1020 to 1025. You won't to keep the salinity steady as possible, not just within the "green".

With you being in the Philippines you are in a prime area to collect everything yourself or at a very cheap price since much of what we put in our tanks come from your direction.

You need to read up on the science behind the saltwater tanks (temps, salinity, how corals feed, lighting).

This is not a hobby to run blind into. Doing so can lead to a lot of heartache and lost money.

 

[Reef and Dive]

I use a float type hydrometer. It has a green stripe to indicate from 1.020 to 1.025 for "normal" salinity.

That’s not good. A friend was using it with 1.030 sg water thinking it was 1.024. If I were you I’d double check that salinity

 

[Jon Fishman]

That’s not good. A friend was using it with 1.030 sg water thinking it was 1.024. If I were you I’d double check that salinity

Yes. Plus 1.020-1.025 is low anyways