How do I question on Corals...

neil

neil

Member
Hello Folks,
I originally setup my tank as a FOWLR because I don't have very much knowledge about the different corals. Is there a good book I could read on the subject? At this point, I'm a little intimidated to add any. I like the ricordias, polyps, anemones, and zoos, but I don't know how to take care of them. Where can I find out how?
Also, my nitrates for the most part are running around twenty with small bouts of hitting the 10's, is this low enough for corals, or do I need to have them hitting 0? I know, a newbie question. I'm planning on adding a 29 gal refugium, hoping to help with nitrate exportation. I'm in the planning phase now. I already have the equipment here at home.
While I am it, my tank seems pretty stable, after 4 months, I've never had any algae outbreaks, I even bought a live rock from the LFS that had algae on it, and it has stayed under control with my cleaning crew hanging out on it. The reason I purchased it, it was covered in very small mushrooms and featherdusters. The mushrooms, which are the size of a dime seem to be "splitting" or something, because everytime I take a close look I find another one. When I bought the rock, there were three, I've found at least 8 now.
Sorry for all of the questions, trying to learn.
Tank parameters:
90gal AGA
140lbs LR mix
temp: 80
Sg: 1.024
amm: 0
nitrites: 0
nitrates: 20
dKH: 9.6
Cal: 420
ph: 8.2
Thank you,
Neil
EDIT: Also, if you are answering and experienced in Corals, are there corals that are good for the beginner?
 
cindyski

cindyski

Active Member
what kind of lighting do you have? that might be a problem for you. pick up "the concencious marine aquariest" by fenner lots of good info in there, it is available here in the dry goods section along with several other good books.
i am pretty much a newbie myself @ 6 months into the hobby. what else to you have in your tank as far as substrate? when you say your rock is mixed, how much of it do you think is LR?
the corals you mentioned (ric's, polyps zoos) are good beginner corals, lots of people here stay away from anenomies. greeen star polys, xenia are good also and easy to take care of. these mentioned basically need no care, they feed off of the tank. some people add supplements to the tank and i am sure someone else will post another reply for you.
good luck, i hope i helped some!
 
neil

neil

Member
As far as live rock goes, it's all Live Rock. Mainly Tonga Branch, Kaelini, and Fiji. My substrate is live sand, CaribSea Aragonite, and Carib Sea Florida CC. I'd say all in all about 2" worth. My lighting is a 400w Metal Halide. The only filtration I'm using is the LR and a Euro Reef skimmer, I can't remember which size it is, but it was supposed to be good for up to 125gal. 2+, CS-6, or something like that, I'm going to have to find the paperwork on this thing. I never can remember. Oldstimers I guess.
I'll go ahead and get this book with my next order, I was really interested in getting a ricordia, these are beautiful. Didn't realize these corals live off your tank. Looks like I'm learning more and more everyday.
Neil
EDIT: just read my first post, an anemone is an invert, not a coral. I still like them though. After reading others posts on the subject, the tank probably needs a little more maturity?
 
sagxman

sagxman

Member
Sounds to me like you are on the right track. You already have coral in your tank. What do you think those mushrooms are? :) And the fact that they are spreading leads me to believe you have good water parameters. I'd say do a little research on compatibiltiy with fish you have and go ahead and add some ricordea, mushrooms, and zoos. You have good lighting for those so I don't think you'll have any problems.
 
neil

neil

Member
Think I'll add one of the Ric's on my next order, and read up on all of this stuff in the mean time. Been sitting here staring at my tank for the last hour. The coralline algae is really starting to explode throughout the tank. Everything looks so good, I'm hoping it stays this way. The only complaint I have is I have too many of these copepods, and hydroid jellies in the tank. Anyone know of anything that eats these jellies. They are literally all over the place. What upsets me is they like to rest on the front glass, I can hit them with the mag float to clean the front glass, and they're back in 15 minutes. I also read on the "Odd Critters" site they eat copepods, and i'm trying to get my pod population to go wild, so I can add a blenny or mandarin in a few months.
Best Regards,
Neil
 
nudibranch

nudibranch

Member
I would recommend the book Aquarium Corals (also avaliable a SWF.com) if your really interested in setting up a reef tank.
If you really want a full out reef tank I'd recommend adding a little more light. A 2X96W PC system should make the difference but if you have the room you might want to try a 4X96W PC system. At any rate 2 would be good for most corals. Depending on what type of MH bulb you have you could make both PCs actinic and really draw out the colors of your corals(IMO >10K). Otherwise you could do 50/50 bulbs. As you have it right now you could get away with most star/button polyps and mushrooms and quite possibly some pretty hardy soft corals.
Before doing this make sure any fish in your system are reef safe and wont harm the corals. Otherwise you wil be providing a very $$ snack.
 
neil

neil

Member
Can't add anymore lighting in my canopy for several reasons. The reflector for the halide is a spider type and goes all the way from front to back in the canopy. Not too mention, the lighting is as intense as I'm willing to stand, it's in my office. I can turn off all of the lights, and it's still daylight in here. :) . I'll check out that book too, but I'll have to keep corals that are in my lighting range, I guess. Boy I thought 400w was alot.
BTW, the bulb is 6500k
 
nudibranch

nudibranch

Member
Well 400W is a lot, but your stretching it over 90g. Still since it is MH lighting the intesity wil bevery good. I don't think you'll find yourself that limited. Honestly though, get that corals book if you want a really good info book on them. I also recommend Natual Reef Aquariums by J. H. Tullock, really good about reef systems, but the other one it better for species/genra info. All the Microcosm books are wonderful (all 3 recomended books are Microcosm books).
You might want to change the bulb to a 10K bulb or even as high as a 20K bulb depending on what your viewing preferences are. The higher in K you go the stronger the colors become. There are also some mid-range between the 10K and 20K. I would at least do a 10K bulb if it were my tank. Just and idea.
 
neil

neil

Member
Nudi,
Appreciate the reply, I'm quite pleased with my 6500, but the friend that got me interested in this hobby has a 10k over his 75, that looks very white and nice. I'm pretty handy with wood, metal and electronics. After taking a good look at the canopy I built, I think I could put a two light strip across the front without major modification. If I went with a 10k bulb, and two 96 watt actinics, this might be good? Give me your thoughts on the matter please.
A side question if I may, I added a flame angel to my last order with SWF. I'm very pleased with the quality of the fish, absolutely beautiful and plump. Do these fish like Nori? He's barely eating, and I have about everything on the shelf/ or in the freezer that is on the market. If anyone has a suggestion. I've had him for a week today.
This site is great. Thanks everyone for replies,
Neil
 
nudibranch

nudibranch

Member
Take another look at that site. It will show you what the different K MHs look like w/ a VHO actinic. IMO the VHO actinics show a little stronger coloration than a PC actinic but it will give you a very close idea. Adding the 2X96W PCs to the tank would be awesome though. At that point I don't feel you would have any real limitations as long as water parameters are in the right zone.
Your feeding your angel Nori? You mean the dried algae stuff? If thats the case try giving it a little meat to chow down on too, they aren't strict vegetarians. If I'm wrong forget I mentioned it. I'm not very up-to-date w/ foods. HTH
 
neil

neil

Member
I didn't mean to say I was only feeding the flame nori...Actually, I'm trying to get him to eat. Left for dinner tonight, only to come back to have the seaweed flying all throughout the tank, he attacked the stuff, and it's too much to try to get out. the fish went crazy on the stuff...even my firefish are trying to pick up a little....I'll check out that site again, and see what you're talking about.
Neil
 
bsktmom

bsktmom

Member
Have you tried soaking the food in garlic. Sometimes that will get picky eaters to eat. Plus it's good for their immune system.
 
nudibranch

nudibranch

Member
Fish that like garlic....now that's my kind of fish. Seriously though, yeah I remember one of the guys at the Salt-Only LFS I worked at used to always at least one or two feeding a week w/ some garlic additive. I'm pretty sure it was some garlic supplement stuff, but yeah I've heard of people using the real stuff too. I had completely forgotten that.
 
neil

neil

Member
pretty funny, I actually take a (Kyolic)garlic supplement, I also have some chopped up garlic in a jar in the fridge, could I add just a little of this to the bowl I soak the frozen food in? Won't do it until i get some responses on this.
Also, woke up this morning to some rust colored stuff in my tank on the rocks and the sand. Is this some type of algae breakout starting? I haven' thad any algae up to this point. All I know is my mexican turbo snail has been hanging out in the areas of the rust colored stuff all day. Looking at it closely it looks like dark copper, or burgundy? and powdery. Anyone with ideas on this?
Best,
Neil
 
sagxman

sagxman

Member

Originally posted by Neil
Also, woke up this morning to some rust colored stuff in my tank on the rocks and the sand. Is this some type of algae breakout starting?
Sounds like cynobacteria to me. Try adjusting your powerheads or add a powerhead. Usually comes from dead areas of water circulation.
 
neil

neil

Member
After a little research, I think this is a Diatom bloom, it's not shiny or slimy looking. Just a lite covered rusty looking powder. I recently added my halide setup, the lfs took 2 and a half months to get it to me, long story. Before that I was using 130 watts from a vho setup I had to borrow. I think the light change is what is doing it. My fighting conch has removed himself from his burial spot in the substrate and is walking around. Haven't seen him since I bought him. So I'm hoping he's actually doing his job. I use RO/DI, don't try to overfeed, do bi-weekly water changes. Have a large skimmer, so I'm hoping the problem doesn't become a big one. Although, for the substrate I do use CaribSea Florida CC, and CaribSea Aragonite mix, basically half and half, I was wondering if this is why I have a hard time getting my nitrates below 20? I inquired about this to my LFS, he told me, Neil, all of my tanks are 0 nitrates, and I use the same stuff I recommended to you? Feel free to test them if you'd like. His tanks have been set up for 5 years, and look picturesque. He told me to be patient, and don't overfeed.
About the only thing I've noticed that I haven't done is there is quite a bit of detritus buildup in my sump on the bottom. Does this add to nitrates? Also, the sponge on my Euro, do I really need this on there? Seems like a nitrates trap? All of my parameters have always looked good...except the nitrates. Tested everything last night after the addition of the fish 9 days ago.
ph: 8.2
temp: 80
Sg: .025
amm: 0
nitrites: 0
nitrates: 20(up from 10, after last water change)
alk: 9.6
cal: 420
phos: 0
I use Salifert test kits, with Aquarium

[hr]
back-ups if I don't agree with something.
Neil
 
nudibranch

nudibranch

Member
get the detritus out of the sump and remove the sponge filter. Both of those are nitrate havens. Try removing that and then do a small H20 change ina couple days (say...10%) then try testing again. Just an idea. HTH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top