Coral care advice

[kouma]

Dear fellow coral keepers
I am getting into corals again and need some advice because you cannot trust anything these local fish stores say.
I am thinking of adding soft type of corals like polps, mushrooms, brains, xenia, etc. nothing advanced. My program will consist of target feeding each coral using a syringe and thawed frozen plankton, and adding iodine every other day. I have a 10K 150w MH as lighting that will run 5 hours every day.
Please advise me on what else I should add to this program keeping in mind I do not want to go head over heals with purchasing.
Thanks!

 

[guitarplr85]

um I use Kent marines Coral accel(is a hard and soft coral growth stimulator that provides complex proteins and amino acids necessary to spur coral tissue growth) i use this once or twice a weel along with DT's Live Marine Phytoplankton Premium Reef Blend www.dtplankton.com every other day. I also use Kent marine Iodine, but not to much because I have inverts and if you put to much iodine then you can cause them to shed more then they need to or when there not ready, so if you have some inverts that shed kind of watch adding to much of it. Also Kent marine Liquid calcium, Tech M Magnesium, and Strontium & molybdenum. And no I dont add this stiff everyday. The Tech M Magnesium one week then the other I will add the strontium & molybdenum because it has a bit of magnesium in it. Liquid Calcium twice a week. And just keep good water quality and you should be fine. Hope this helps

 

[maryg]

Most softies do not require target feeding. They just pick up whatever is in the water column. They do require certain trace elements and maybe some phyto. Placement, current, and lighting is most important per the requirements of each particular coral.

 

[guitarplr85]

Oh and Im sorry i didnt see the head over heals thing you dont have to buy all this stuff the liquid calcium the iodine and probably the Strontium & Molybdenum, because it has a bit of magnesium I would say get that stuff atleast. Sorry

 

[nycbob]

the corals u mentioned dont need feeding except the brain. feeding too much can compromised ur water quality. just regular weekly water change is enough. the dosing i am not a fan of when it comes to softies.

 

[natclanwy]

I agree I would not spot feed any of the softies they will pick up most of what they need from your lighting, plus the spot feeding each individual coral can cause a nutrient spike (ie algae bloom).
Also its not good plan to add minerals without testing for them (ie Iodine, Magnesium, Calcium). Adding too much can kill your invertabrates or at least make them very unhealthy, and my guess is you have already had a failure at keeping coral since you mentioned you are getting back into keeping coral. Make sure you have test kit for Calcium and Alkilinity, those two tests will tell you if you need to add any calcium or buffer. Since you are keeping mainly softies you should be able to maintain all of your minerals through water changes alone as long as you are using a good quality salt.
Do you have any other lighting besides the MH, 5hrs might be a little short if you don't have any other lighting.

 

[guitarplr85]

from my experience calcium, the corals use a lot of it. Well all depending how many you have and the size of the tank I guess but evertime I test I usally have to add some. And Iodine your wright there to because I was told it can cause the inverts to shed when there not supposed to or ready and thats not good for them. I totaly forgot to mention about the test kit. natclanwy hit the nail on the head. All those Kents though I dont all use every week either. I have a callender set up on how I do it on the course of the mounth, and my corals and inverst are looking beautiful.

 

[rbrockm1]

i do 10% water changes weekly and my corals have taken off. i don't feed or anything. lights and proper water with softies and you will be completely fine.

 

[jackri]

You don't need to add calcium if you only keep softies... calcium is more of a stoney coral/clam supplement to make the hard skeleton or shell. Go easy on iodine.. don't dose more than recommended on directions and there is no need to target feed especially that often. You'll find your mushrooms and xenia espcially will just go wild on there own once they are settled in. I personally would also run the lights longer -- more on the 8-10 hours a day. Scraping the glass in your tank adds enough nutrients for softies... but a dose of phyto a week wouldn't hurt.. just not needed and can provoke an algae bloom.

 

[kouma]

wow..great advice everyone, I didn't think softies were that easy to take care of. Definitely not going to listen to that LFS who wanted me to buy every product on the shelve.
I will extend the lighting period for 8 hours and make water changes a weekly routine. Btw, I use Instant Ocean and Sera salt. Oh yea, I will lower my iodine dosage because I have a few blood shrimps.

 

[nwdyr]

I have mostly softies and all I do is reg. water changes and never dose anything

they all do very well , also depending on the size of your tank the MH might be too much for them. I replaced my MH with VHO T5's and my coral's responded allot better under the T5's then they did under MH'S JMO. Good luck and make sure you post pic's