Help!!!!!

[reeferdude]

AHHHHHHH, Help!!!! I went out and bought some Xenia, a shroom and some brain today around 3 in the afternoon. I acclimated them and just got back home to find my brain starting to bleach and my Xenia still shriveled up (it was shriveled when I got it home from the LFS.) Is this normal shipping stress or is there something up?

 

[stupid_naso]

water parameters? temp?

 

[overanalyzer]

Reeferdude - is this in your newly setup tank? How old is your tank?
If your tank is newly setup I'd see about taking the brain back
Also - how did you acclimate them??? slow drip method? Give some details on your steps. My xenia stayed shrivelled up for a day or so after I put it into the tank.
What is happening now??

 

[reeferdude]

Ok Xenia has perked back up and is doing well. I am a diver and have always been told that wherever you touch the coral it dies, if this is true then the guy at my lfs touched my brain exactly on the places where it is bleaching. The tank that this stuff is in is the first tank I ever set up (about a year old) but I only just now made it a reef. My mushroom is also starting to curl up, is this bad or just a thing they do during the night? Also is it ok to turn the light off at night right? In terms of acclamation, I floated the bags for about 20 min then opened them and added tank water and let um float for another 10 before adding. Is that the right way?

 

[reeferdude]

Ok just ran some tests and here is what I got.
Nitrates are less than 10ppm
Ammonia is at 0
Ph is 7.8
Nitrite is at 0.2ppm
Specific Gravity is a 1.028 (I think this is a little high, should I take out some of the water and add fresh to help this?)
Temp was at 80.1 F but I lowered the heater temp to 78 (I am used to keeping all of my tanks warm because it keeps the fish’s metabolism up which makes them more active)

 

[reeferdude]

The mushroom has also opened back up and the brain's bleaching has stopped progressing.

 

[zack schwartz]

The stament about the touching means it will die is wrong in my exp. I have never had a coral die where i touched it.

 

[newreefers]

the ph at 7.8 is a little low.. shoot for 8.3. also, any nitrites are bad, try a water change to get rid of the .2 you have.

 

[reeferdude]

ok, could that be the reason for the brain bleaching? Also is that specific gravity ok?

 

[overanalyzer]

Hey the SG is a little high but I've had mine fluctuate up into that range before - do a water change and mix the water so the SG of the water change water is a little lower - like .024 or .025 and slowly lower it that way. - also make sure it is only a small portion of waterthat you change with this lower sg- like 1 gallon out of ten. Also let some water evaporate and replace with plain RO water.
Not sure on your brain coral though. I'd wait and see what happens in the morning.
For futrue reference you should drip acclimate the corals - that decreases the shock - read the acclimation steps for this site - but I ;ike to acclimate corals over 2-4 hours - very slow drip!!!

 

[reeferdude]

Ya I checked it out and I am going to start doing that. The Xenia has been curling up for a few hours and then opening up then curling back up and so on all day now, is this bad?

 

[overanalyzer]

OK what are your paramaters now?? Also - did you do a water change (small) yet or not?? also - don't neglect some fresh water dripping for your top off...... just checking ot see hwat is happening

 

[reeferdude]

Just got off work and am having to deal with the girlfriend's impulsive buy of the day, a baby turtle from the lfs. She says it is for a friend's bday and she thought it would be ok in the bag till Wednesday.......women . I did a water change last night with ro mixed with a little lower sg and read the Xenia doesn’t like low Ph and will close up if the ph is below 8.0. I am going to take a shower and get a beer and then I will run another barrage of tests and post the results and maybe some pics.

 

[reeferdude]

Ok heres my results:
Ph 7.9
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Temp 79.9
SG 1.025

 

[overanalyzer]

you need to get that PH up ... never had my PH drop like that so I'd suggest doing a search or asking in the reef forum on how to get your PH in balance..... I know a lot of folk use PH buffer ... just not sure which one. I would look for a way to do it without chemicals if at all possible.
How's the brain doing?
How big a water change?

 

[fishtails]

If your PH is still low you can buy some marine buffer. It will raise your PH to 8.2-8.3.

 

[billdemart]

I have Kent Marine PH Buffer. The one with the Clown Trigger on the front. Works fine.

 

[reeferdude]

I just added some buffer to the tank but my only problem was that it said add 1 tspn per 60 gallons so I just sort of squirted a little bit in there. Right now my girlfriend is over here but when she leaves I will retest the Ph. I think that that is my only problem right now. The Xenia is still shrivled up and i think that it is dying The brain has quit bleaching but it still has the spots where it did bleach. The mushrooms are still looking great.

 

[overanalyzer]

OK first- in the future - do the math .... 1 tspn per 60 gallons would be something like this:
1:60::x:10(or whatever your gallons are) and you would see that you need 1/6 of a teaspoon. then you figure with LR nad LS you should figure about an 1/8th of a teaspon.
if you aren't sure - just post and ask... random dosing could do more harm than good ....
second - it is hard to kill captive raised xenia - it may look like hell for a week but or so but it should come around.....

 

[reeferdude]

I was just going to ask that, My Xenia does look pretty sad and I really hope it will turn around, I was also going to ask, if it does die what will it look like? I checked the PH and my test kit only has a place for 8.2 and 8.4 and the color was in between the two so i am going to say it was at 8.3. I am pretty sure that I wont see instant results with the Xenia but how long do you think it is going to take for it to perk back up or is that just gods will. Also if the brain has bleached in an area does that mean that that area will be white from now till forever or will it grow back? In terms of the calculation I did do it as far as 1/6 teaspoon but i dont have anything that will mesure out 1/6 of a teaspoon. Also what test kits do you guys use because I use FasTest but all I have is the basic tests (trates, trites, ammonia, PH and I bought the copper one.) I want to know because I need to know about calcium and all that other stuff.