Cauliflower colt coral

[anolan2]

I just bought my first coral. It is a cauiflower colt coral. I placed in my tank after letting it float on the top for awhile and after about 8 hours it shriveled up. Is that common for this type coral when it is adapting to a new environment? or does that mean it is dying? I made sure to boost the calcium and PH before adding it to the tank. What should I do? I have it perched on a rock in the middle of the tank and it is secure but blowing around a bit from the powerheads. Any advice would help. Thanks!

 

[btldreef]

Leave it alone and let it acclimate. If it's getting blown around, it may stay shriveled. Try moderate flow, but it being shriveled at first is normal.

 

[anolan2]

OK thanks, I adjusted the powerheads so they are not blowing on the coral. How long do you think it will take until the coral start to open up again?

 

[btldreef]

Usually a day or two, give or take. As long as nothing messes with it, it should be fine. I've had them stay closed for a week because my clown kept rubbing against it.

 

[anolan2]

OK thanks again. One more question. To avoid having it blown around by the powerheads, I kinda wedged it between a few live rocks. Will that affect the coral? A small rock is kinda holding the coral in place but I dont want the rock to be detrimental.

 

[btldreef]

It really depends, hard to say without a picture. I'd let it be for at least 24 hours before I did anything with it.

 

[anolan2]

Ok, the coral now is really shrivelled up and looks pretty bad. In addition my ammonia has risen to 0.5 and nitrate to near 5.0. Ive heard that a decaying coral can cause the ammonia to rise, but Im not sure if thats the cause, or if the cause of the ammonia spike is not related to the coral. Second question, the advice from the LFS was to add calcium for 7 days straight; Is it possible that buffering with calcium and PH can actually killing the coral and causing a crash? I heard that too much calcium can lower alkalinity.

 

[meowzer]

why would you have to boost calcium and ph for 7 days?????? have you tested it? what does it test?
How old is this tank?

 

[anolan2]

tank is almost 2 months, dude at LFS store told me to supplement with calcium for about 7 days because it was needed to keep the coral healthy.

 

[meowzer]

Everything you need is in the salt....do you have test kits for calcium and ph???

 

[btldreef]

What "snake oil" supplement did he sell you to boost calcium?
Damn LFS's and their bad advice!:flame: it seems to be happening more frequently in the past 18 months or so...
Definitely do a water change if you have ammonia.
Can you post some pictures?

 

[anolan2]

I have been testing my PH which is at 8.2. I do not have a test kit for calcium. I will try to get a picture of my coral on here. I plan to do a 25% WC change tommorrow and im debating wether to takeout the coral.