Added my first coral

[elvictre]

I added my first coral to my tank a couple of days ago. i had fish in my tank for a couple of months now but when I saw this beautiful piece of coral at the LFS I had to have it. I think it is a Galaxea coral. Has a exosceleton and makes a sweeper type motion. Is this a hard coral to keep? It retracted on the LFS when he was bagging it for me, and opened up some at home but not as much as it was in the LFS. Also I just placed it on top of some live rock in my tank in a area with good waterflow, how would I know if this is a good spot?
Thanks
Vic

 

[fishfreek]

First off, what are your tank perameters and what kind of lighting do you have?
It is normal for the coral to remain closed and take a few days to adjust to the water and light conditions of your tank. I beleive this is a more difficult coral to take care of. I also beleive it requires a medium water flow. I have never kept this particular coral, but have done reserch on it. HTH

 

[elvictre]

I test my water regularly and my amonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph are very consistent and perfect as far as levels. I have 440 watts of VHO lighting. I did move him since this post and added a moon light.....he looks alot better, i guess the water flow is doing him better. Also if you know. Does this excoskeloton grow as he gets bigger or does he expand to a piece of live rock?
Thanks
Vic

 

[fishfreek]

What are your calcium and alk readings? Calcium should be in the 375ppm-450ppm range and alk should be 8-12 dkh. As far as the skeleton goes, as it uses calcium from the water column it should grow and expand some.