need help in a hurry please!

nickyblase

nickyblase

Member
Hi all -
Need some quick help. I am a newbie, and have found an auction on a "popular auction site" for a bunch of corals. The auction ends in a day and a half, and I have 2 big questions - will adding ten corals at once throw my bioload/water quality upside down? (all I have in there now is the clean up crew), and will probably be adding one fish at the end of next week. Want to make sure I don't go to the trouble of outbidding someone for them to all die.
Second question - below is a list of the corals and approx. sizes. What could I expect to pay for this? Since I'm new, (and on a budget), I want to make sure I'm not getting ripped off. PLEASE HELP - if this is a good deal, and you think it's safe to add them all at once, I don't want to miss out.
Thanks everyone!
10 polyps of neon barbie pink zoanthids,
10 polyps of red/blue zoanthids,
10 polyps of blue zoanthids.
Colt coral 6",
Kenya Tree 6",
Green Sinularia 4",
Mushroom rock 6+shrooms,
Waving Anthelia,
2 types gsp (green star polyp).
P.S. It's a 20 gallon with 30 lbs each of LS and LR
 
jobob

jobob

Member
i would think it would be ok. just dont add anything else for a couple days. i would say u got about $250 worth of corals, probly more..
 
ctgretzky9

ctgretzky9

Member
how old is the tank? Is it cycled? you have just a cleanup crew, is it because the tank is just completed being cycled?
Do yourself a favor and learn from my mistake....make sure you understand completely the chemistry of the water...how alkalinity, ph and calcium all play a role, and what is needed to keep parameters stable. If your tank is less than 3 months old, i would say save your money for now.
This was my mistake, and if you look, i have a post about "calcium low, alk off the charts" or something just a couple posts down from this.
Luckily, i never made a huge investment yet in corals other than some polyps and zoos, and only 1 of each as of now.
 
jobob

jobob

Member
what type of lighting do u have? yea know that i think about it, i lost a couple corals in the begining. i wold get one or two first to see if ur tank is ready. unless ur tank is old. or if its a really good price.
 
nickyblase

nickyblase

Member
it's a new tank, just barely cycled, and the current price for all those corals is 160ish plus 65 to ship. i have 110 watt power compacts dual actinic and 10,000K. don't want them to die because i added them too soon, but also want to get a good price. your thoughts?
 
jobob

jobob

Member
thats a good price, but i think i would wait till its atleast a month or two old. thats alot of money to waste if they die. let it go their will be other good deals on auctions. go to lfs and get one coral. i know the feeling, empty tank, wanna get some corals to look at. take it slow, save the money.
 
X

xnikki118x

Guest
I second what jobob said. You will most likely just waste your money and kill some perfectly good livestock.
BUT, do you have a trusted friend who can take them until your tank is ready? Even an LFS you're tight with and would take care of them for you for a short time. Also, maybe there's someone on this board in your area who would be willing to coral-sit for you? It's risky of course, but that IS a fantastic price to pass up....
What exactly do you mean by "just barely cycled"? If your nitrates haven't hit zero yet but are like 20 or less, and your nitrites and ammonia are zero, your pH, alk, SG and calcium are stable and within the correct parameters, I might actually go for it anyway. I don't know anything about a green sinularia or waving anthelia, and I don't know much about colt corals, but the rest are nearly impossible to kill. Being that these are all being auctioned off by the same person, I would stretch to imagine that they're not that different in their needs. It's much more likely for people to keep and auction corals together that have similar needs than to have a package of shrooms, zoos, and short-tentacled pagoda cups and acroporas.
If I were you I really think I'd try at the bidding. Corals don't just die overnight (unless they boil or something, you know lol) so if you see them begin to lose their health, just have other arrangements made for their care. Just don't wait too long--I had a green mandarin end up looking like a stick with a head on it before I called jobob and asked him to take care of the fish for me. He didn't make it.

Sorry about the book I wrote for you lol. But there's no such thing as too much information [when it comes to this hobby], right?
 
jobob

jobob

Member
hey nikki bill got 2 sea horses today. i got one for my sea horse tank. he's amazing. i only got one cause i just wanna see how hes doin first. the sh tank isnt ready so i put him in the big tank. hes doin great hes eating frozen brine shrimp. he should go in the little tank in a couple days, i just wanna make sure that everything is ok before i put a $40 sea horse in there.
 
nickyblase

nickyblase

Member
thanks everyone.
Here are my readings (from the Mardel 5 in 1 test kit)
ammonia & nitrite: 0
nitrate: 20 (am going to do a water change today)
hardness: 250 (should I do something about this? Starting with the water change today, I am going to use distilled water)
alk: 300+ I think (the test strip's highest number is 300 ppm, and the color range goes from yellow on the low end to dark green on the high end. Mine is coming in blue???)
pH: 8.4
sal: 1.023
temp: 80
The person selling the pack of corals (who is also a member of this site) said he would be willing to hold the corals for me for a couple weeks before shipping. With this in mind, should I bid, or still hold off??
 
nickyblase

nickyblase

Member
I did end up winning the auction. I only had like 20 minutes left before the auction closed when I wrote the last post, so I assumed I wouldn't get a reply in time, and since he was willing to keep them in his tank for me, I figuredI might as well go for it. Who knows when I would get a deal like that again. Frag swaps don't exactly occur in Maine.
He also aquacultured them himself, is a member of these boards (which doesn't guarantee anything, but means that he's probably more into the hobby than any old joe selling corals on the auction block). Another good thing is that he said he would not only include instructions with the package, but would also give me his number for ongoing "tech support." The more I think about it, the more I think I'm comfortable with the decision. Thanks for your input.
One thing though - what are your thoughts about my test numbers? I'm hoping the hardness will go down with repeated water changes (I was initially using tap water, and starting today will be using distilled).
Also, what about the alkalinity?? Is a reading that high going to be lethal? Should I get some sort of chemical additive for that?
 
jobob

jobob

Member
i think with a water change the alk will go down. u want it about 300, but the hardness u shouldnt test for. it doesnt apply to saltwater.??? i guess it was on the strip? so do a water change wait till tonite and test again. everything should be fine.
 
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