intro'd 2 corals(newbie) and it doesn't look good,please help

kegs7

kegs7

New Member
ok i have a 56gal column tank,dual filter,protein skimmer,small blower,plenty of live rock with crushed coral bottom. I started it as a fish only tank for 6 months. it contains 1 small clown,1 domino damsel,1 blue damsel,1 corral beauty. i then added 2 emerarld crabs (1 med i large) 1 arrowhead crab,4 scarlet hermits,2 turbo snails. last month i then added a pink tip hatian anemone. Yesterday i introduced a small cluster of zoos sea mat polyps(maybe 15 heads) and a leather stubby finger witha small cluster of xenia. I have both set up higer maybe 6-8 inches below water level. my lighting is a nova extreme 30" - T5 2x24.when i checked my selinity it was way hi(130) i did a water change and it is around 126 now. i feed flake or baby brine 2x's a day.
When i got up this morning and till now,none of the polyps have opened,and the leather has shrunk down from 5inches high to about 2 inches and all the xenia is gone !!!!!!!!! is this normal? or am i killing them? also would my crabs have eaten the xenia? will my anemone sting my corals?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Welcome to SWF....love the avatar..LOL
Can you post all you other water readings....ex (ammonia, nitites etc....)?
 
tekisui

tekisui

Member
Originally Posted by kegs7
http:///forum/post/3139922
When i got up this morning and till now,none of the polyps have opened,and the leather has shrunk down from 5inches high to about 2 inches and all the xenia is gone !!!!!!!!! is this normal? or am i killing them? also would my crabs have eaten the xenia? will my anemone sting my corals?

They take a while to wake up in the morning lights. Give them some time, they may open up in a little while.
 
kegs7

kegs7

New Member
the polyps haven't opened since i put them in the tank. and the only way i can test the stuff you asked about is those little dip strip testers.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Well you really need a good test kit...it's hard to say what could be going on w/o proper water parameters
also...is that a bubbler I see in that pic.....if so you need to take it out...bubblers are not for sw tanks
ANOTHER thing....give them time to acclimate to the tank...sometimes it takes a few days
AGAIN....w/o knowing your water results....well....IDK what else we can say
 
J

jetskiking

Guest
Originally Posted by kegs7
http:///forum/post/3139939
the polyps haven't opened since i put them in the tank. and the only way i can test the stuff you asked about is those little dip strip testers.
As stated above it can take a few days for corals to open after being intoduced into a new environment. With that being said you need to verify what your water perameters are. What concerns me is you said the xenia is gone. Xenia is somewhat of a hardy coral but it can also be one of the first indicators of a water quility issue. If you have a fish store near you I would take a water sample to them and get it tested. The strips might give you an idea but are not very accurate.
 
kegs7

kegs7

New Member
first off i would like to thank all those who answered and helped me out !

ok i found out alot of the things i was doing wrong. I took a sample of my water to reef creations and they did 2 tests and didn't need to go any further. first test was a dip test for nitrites and nitrates. nitrites were 0 but nitrates were 80! parts ! then came selinity test.....it was at .033!!!!! youzers! also when i did a water change i was mixing the salt to tap water(using start right to take out impurities) testing it and throwing it right in my tank(right away). So needless to say i immediatly bought 4 (6 gal buckets) and had them filled with RO water,brought them home and mixed my salt at .025 let them sit over night and then brought them up to 79 degrees and tested salt ratio again before doing the water change. i took out 24 gals of water,making sure i vaccumed the crushed coral bottom really good(never did that since i set up the tank) making sure to move all my rock around and vaccum uner there. i then replaced bad with the good water. brought in my water for another testyesterday and selidaty is .029-nitrates are down to 40 parts. So i bought more water to do anothher change tonight.
the polyps are starting to open a lil bit,but it looks like my leather is not going to make it
it seems to be molting and my corral beauty is picking off it. and to make matters worse....today i found my anemone stuck in the slots of my filter downtube. there was one part that would not fit through so i lopped it off with a clean razor and i hoped for the best. when i got home from work the remain piece seems to be making a recovery and my polyps are starting to open,i just hope the leather makes it through.
Well off to do another water change and fix my blunder. I will not be adding anymore corals till i get this water thing down pat !
 
A

abeandlulu

Guest
when i checked my selinity it was way hi(130) i did a water change and it is around 126 now
Your salinity might be a problem.
 
kegs7

kegs7

New Member
almost forgot to tell ya ......the xenia that disappeared? it was on the back of my decorater crab(which i forgot to mention i had) along with about 6 polyps and a small star fish! i got rid of the crab for he is not reef safe! even though he was really cool looking.
also incase you are wondering i did change my avatar....this is a picture of me and my wife on our recent honey moon scuba-ING at 60 ft in Jamaica -mon!
 
kegs7

kegs7

New Member
oops my bad my salinity was at 133 and it is now at 129 and hopefully after tonights water change i can get it to 125-126
 
A

abeandlulu

Guest
Originally Posted by kegs7
http:///forum/post/3141402
oops my bad my selidaty was at 133 and it is now at 129 and hopefully after tonights water change i can get it to 125-126
you need to bring the salinity down slowly or you could shock and possibly kill alot of things
 
E

eric b 125

Guest
welcome to the boards! as you can see, this is a great place to get help with any swf probs.
 
kegs7

kegs7

New Member
update day 3. well my salinity is at 125,nitrates at 20 parts,nitrates 0,amonia 0. i still need to get my nitrates to 0! i will be doing weekly water changes with RO water mixing the salt in properly and watching my water peramiters more closely from now on.
my polyps are doing well and abunch have opened up and more open by the hour! my leather is not so good ,it looks as if it is molting and has very long stringy things hanging from it. i don't think it's gonna make it. my anomone isn't gonna make it either after getting stuck in the vents of the downtube of my filter. all fish and crabs are doing fine. any more advice will be much appreciated. thanks to all those who helped me out.
 
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