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Is it ok to add multiple coral at once?

post #1 of 22
8/6/10 at 6:07pm
Thread Starter 
I am going to buy my very first coral today! Excited! But I'm wondering if it is ok to add more than one coral at a time? I know with fish you shouldnt add more than 1 at a time because of the levels and stuff, but do coral work the same? I think i see people post all the time about all the new coral they get, but i just wanna be sure before I buy a few tonight!
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post #2 of 22
8/6/10 at 7:27pm
Originally Posted by hallzy View Post
I am going to buy my very first coral today! Excited! But I'm wondering if it is ok to add more than one coral at a time? I know with fish you shouldnt add more than 1 at a time because of the levels and stuff, but do coral work the same? I think i see people post all the time about all the new coral they get, but i just wanna be sure before I buy a few tonight!


Yes you can and congratulations! You can buy about three good sized coral to equal a fish and even more if you buy frags. Fish eat and poop more than a coral, most coral feeds from stuff in the water while a fish must be fed.

Do post some pictures
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post #3 of 22
8/6/10 at 11:00pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you! Well my LFS didn't have a saltwater person schedualed for tonight! What kind of fish store doesn't schedual someone that knows anything about saltwater! And since I'm new to coral, I had alot of questions about the things i liked, and they had NO ANSWERS! So I went with the one thing i did know about, and got two pretty good sized mushrooms! A red and a blue one! I will get some pics once they get settled in. And speaking of settling in, how do I get them to attach to a rock?! They just came as single shrooms. I've seen peoples posts about a peices of fishnet or something? How exactly does that work, and is there a way without using a net? The only kind of net I have is my actuall fish net, and I dont wanna cut it up! lol

And also how do I acclimate? That is one question I should have asked BEFORE i bought, but i didn't think about it until i got home and thought, what do i do now?! I've just got them floating right now.

On a side note, i got a MASSIVE neon blue legged hermit and a boxing/pom pom crab! He is so awesome! I have wanted one for sooo long! Pics will be up soon, may be a couple days.....
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post #4 of 22
8/6/10 at 11:14pm
some people just temperature acclimate corals......I float them for about 20 minutes....then open the bag...dump out 1/3 of the water, and add some tank water...leave it like that for 20 minutes...do this 1-2 more times.

as stated first though.....some people only temp acclimate
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post #5 of 22
8/6/10 at 11:52pm
Drip acclimating corals is really not necessary then?
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post #6 of 22
8/7/10 at 12:02am
drip acclimating corals is the best way to acclimate. It slowly changes the lfs water params closer to yours. takes more time but its worth it
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post #7 of 22
8/7/10 at 12:12am
Originally Posted by RickyH24 View Post
Drip acclimating corals is really not necessary then?
I bag acclimate everything.....I just know some people say coral only have to be temp acclimated....
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post #8 of 22
8/7/10 at 12:47am


I just logged on. What do you mean by massive blue leg hermit? I have heard nothing good about those really big hermit crabs..do a google search and see what you can find on them.

I always acclimate coral just like I do a fish. A sponge is just temp acclimated but I drip acclimate everything else. Everyone has their own way...some people dip corals, some even quarantine them. Some just temp acclimate but SWF does not recommend that.

Get yourself a good book. I am posting a copy of the one I use and a page so you can see the info. It even shows where to put it in the tank.

As to how to attach the mushrooms: Put them in a low flow area with rubble rock, they will attach. You can also use one of those baskets fruit comes in (with the holes) put the mushrooms and rock in a low flow area and invert the container over it. That way it won’t get lost in the tank.
LL
LL
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post #9 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:42am
They are corals, not fish. I get home and dump em in after about a 20 min float. As harsh as it sounds, this method has proven itself to me to be the best, get them out of that bag and into your tank as soon as you can.

That said, of the methods recomended, this was the best:
Originally Posted by meowzer View Post
some people just temperature acclimate corals......I float them for about 20 minutes....then open the bag...dump out 1/3 of the water, and add some tank water...leave it like that for 20 minutes...do this 1-2 more times.
as stated first though.....some people only temp acclimate
Shes putting in tank water with the corals as they temp adjust, letting them get used to the feel.
This isnt a foolish practice, its a good one.

Unless your heating your holding bucket or whatever, drip method isnt that good of an idea. The water temp falls as your dripping in. You do a 2-3 hour drip, you risk temps falling more and more. This backfires when you try to dump them into your tank after that. They get shocked into normal temps.
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post #10 of 22
8/7/10 at 10:14am
drip acclimating corals is a waste of time. I always float to temp acclimate then just add them, to the tank. no matter what it is. placement in regards to light/flow needs is more important. you can kill a coral faster by light shocking that you ever will by any form of acclimation.

as for adding multiple corals at once its generally not a problem as long as you dont suddenly start spot feeding or free/drip feeding a whole lot more, if you are adding corals that require spot feeding or planktonic food make sure you slowly build up to the amounts of feedings you want instead of just all out feeding.
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post #11 of 22
8/7/10 at 1:55pm
Originally Posted by reefkprZ View Post
... if you are adding corals that require spot feeding or planktonic food make sure you slowly build up to the amounts of feedings you want instead of just all out feeding.
Good one!
I forgot about that. I had a dendro that was amazing the first few days. But then regressed significantly. I was worried, then it turns out I was overfeeding him. Now I do 2x a week instead of 2x daily.
I was under the impression they would not eat if they were full. I was wrong, they will gorge themselves always. And food will then rot inside.

6 months later. Head #6 is just now sprouting!
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post #12 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:00pm
Originally Posted by King_Neptune View Post
Good one!
I forgot about that. I had a dendro that was amazing the first few days. But then regressed significantly. I was worried, then it turns out I was overfeeding him. Now I do 2x a week instead of 2x daily.
I was under the impression they would not eat if they were full. I was wrong, they will gorge themselves always. And food will then rot inside.

6 months later. Head #6 is just now sprouting!


WOW...I learn so much on this site...I didn't know this. Thanks for sharing.
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post #13 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:05pm
its fine to add multiple corals at once but if it were my first ones I'd probably buy one and make sure it does okay for a few days just so if something didn't go well you only wasted money on one coral. I give corals absolutely NO acclimation besides floating the bag for 5-10 minutes. In fact I float the bag, then dip them for iodine solution (which probably isn't in water the same temp as they were just floated in) and then dump them in the tank. 5yrs and have yet to lose a coral from lack of acclimation. they are simple life forms and dont have a bunch of sub systems to shock like fish. If specific gravity and temp are within reef range they arent going to die or do bad from acclimation shock.
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post #14 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:09pm
Originally Posted by Stanlalee View Post
its fine to add multiple corals at once but if it were my first ones I'd probably buy one and make sure it does okay for a few days just so if something didn't go well you only wasted money on one coral. I give corals absolutely NO acclimation besides floating the bag for 5-10 minutes. In fact I float the bag, then dip them for iodine solution (which probably isn't in water the same temp as they were just floated in) and then dump them in the tank. 5yrs and have yet to lose a coral from lack of acclimation. they are simple life forms and dont have a bunch of sub systems to shock like fish. If specific gravity and temp are within reef range they arent going to die or do bad from acclimation shock.


You don't dump the dip in there with the coral do you? I doubt you do, but someone may misunderstand...
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post #15 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:19pm
Originally Posted by Flower View Post


I just logged on. What do you mean by massive blue leg hermit? I have heard nothing good about those really big hermit crabs..do a google search and see what you can find on them.
I dont know about blue, But I did see a red legged one at the LFS sporting a baseball sized shell.
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post #16 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:26pm
Originally Posted by Flower View Post


You don't dump the dip in there with the coral do you? I doubt you do, but someone may misunderstand...
Usaully its a 5min bath in a medical solution with a gentle powerhead flow as part of the aclimation process.
No, you keep your dip solution seperate from the tank water. Never add it to the tank. Just a small bucket where the coral baths in it for a short while.
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post #17 of 22
8/7/10 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
Originally Posted by Flower View Post
What do you mean by massive blue leg hermit? I have heard nothing good about those really big hermit crabs..do a google search and see what you can find on them.
haha i should specify a little more i guess. When I said massive, i didn't mean "baseball" size or anything! lol Hes just a really good size for a hermit. And he's a neon blue sripe hermit. Or at least thats what they called him. When I googled it i found a picture. They are really cool! Its basically a halloween hermit, but with a really neat blue color instead of orange! Goggle it and check em out! Theyre really cool!
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post #18 of 22
8/7/10 at 3:11pm
Originally Posted by Flower View Post


You don't dump the dip in there with the coral do you? I doubt you do, but someone may misunderstand...
I use the bag water or tank water in a seperate container and add lugols per bottle recommendation for dipping (40 drops per gallon or in my case 10 drops per 1/4 gallon). then after 10-15 minutes of dipping I add the corals directly to the tank. I also only dip sps frags or coral not attached to extensive live rock (alot of desireable pods and critters come from coral attached live rock since it is transported/treated like the coral attached to it).
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post #19 of 22
8/7/10 at 3:15pm
Originally Posted by Stanlalee View Post
I use the bag water or tank water in a seperate container and add lugols per bottle recommendation for dipping (40 drops per gallon or in my case 10 drops per 1/4 gallon). then after 10-15 minutes of dipping I add the corals directly to the tank. I also only dip sps frags or coral not attached to extensive live rock (alot of desireable pods and critters come from coral attached live rock since it is transported/treated like the coral attached to it).
Don't you rinse the corals after you dip them???

I use 2 containers....one with the tank water with lugols added...dip coral in that

then I have a container with just tank water, and I rinse the corals in that before adding them to the tank....do you not think that is necessary??
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post #20 of 22
8/7/10 at 3:32pm
Originally Posted by meowzer View Post
Don't you rinse the corals after you dip them???

I use 2 containers....one with the tank water with lugols added...dip coral in that

then I have a container with just tank water, and I rinse the corals in that before adding them to the tank....do you not think that is necessary??
Nope. I swirl the coral around every few minutes and let whatever's going to fall off fall off in the bottom of the dip solution container. I'm not worried about the minute amount of lugols making it to the tank (I use to add two drop every week). the tank flow rinses off the coral better than I could in a seperate container and if whatever didn't fall off in the dip probably's not going to fall off in the rinse either.
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