Star Polyps

[nikolai]

I recently got my first coral in my tank from my LFS for free! (It is a small rock that had 3-4 little Yellow Star Polyps on it at the LFS) Well, he took it out, bagged it, then I took it home, and put it in. Taking a coral out of the water to put it in a bag is ok right? (Probably around 5 seconds he had it out of the water). Anyway, there are these little purple tubes on the rock (corraline?) and I am not sure, but it is thiding in there? I got it on Saturday. My tank has a 220W actinic/PC system, and my Ammonia and Nitrites are at 0. My nitrates are changing, now around 80 (they were 40 two days ago and 160 four days ago....) Should I expect it to come out soon?

 

[stuckinfla]

Nitrates are a little high....they jumped 40ppt in two days?? Thats alot...is this a new setup? With the nitrates jumping around like that you should hold off on corals. Since you do have it, do some water changes with RO/DI to get that number down. The coral is fine out of water for a few minutes - even more. They are yellow polps, not star.

 

[nikolai]

Oops. Well, my tank has been up for about a month now. I have heard that mushrooms and polyps were ok..... Yea, my nitrates are jumping like crazy.

 

[stuckinfla]

With a tank that young and your numbers jumping around, you probably didnt finish your cycle, but close to the end. Just keep up with the water changes and wait for trates to go down before anymore additions-coral or fish.