Successful reef tank! except for softies

[saltyrich]

I've had my reef tank for 9 months now. Everything is stable. I have a variety of corals that include: Fox, assorted mushrooms, Metallic green lobed brain, trumpet, various polyps, Galaxy, Hammer, Green Cup, and Frogspawn. Yes, I know some of them are aggressive!! I've recentlt tried adding some softies (califlower, colt, and umbrella mushroom). The colt and califlower perked up after putting them in the tank and looked as if they would thrive after they had been in the tank for a week or so. Then they began a slow decline and died after the end of the second week. The umbrella leather never recovered from his transition into my tank. I'm puzzled. My lps, polyps, and mushrooms are thriving. Water paramiters are excellent. I've placed lps corals in since the softy episode and they have done great. So, what's going on. I would like to add some softies to add another diminsion to my tank, so what gives?

 

[javajoe]

with your umbrella, place it in the tank somewhere shaded. I had the same problem- took forever to open, until i read that they are from about 60 ft below the surface. I placed tinfoil over a scetion of my lights to shade them, and they opened the next day. over a 2 week period, i removed foil a bit at a time, and it is fine now with 4 VHO uri bulbs.
good luck....
not sure with your colts-- i have not gotten colts to work real well in my tank either...

 

[herbbie]

Just a stupid question, because the answer is probably "yes", but are you adding calcium and trace elements? They may be used to some sort of supplement, if they were doing fine at first, but now are fading.

 

[iechy]

I agree with Joe. Try keeping some of the softies in a little bit less light and see if they do any better. In general, softies require less light than hard corals. I have almost all softies in my tank and have only about 4 watts per gallon and everything is happy and thriving. THis obviously is only one possible cause but worth consideration I guess.

 

[saltyrich]

So it is possible to completely burn softies? Remember, I've got 300 watts of VHO on a thirty gallon tall.

 

[db]

I think it is to an extent. I had a piece of tonga rock that came with a small mushroom on it. It was in a shaded area of my tank and was doing find for months. I moved some rock around and put this piece high up in my tank. It seemed to burn away after a few days. I only have 220wats pc on a 55.

 

[y2says]

Are your softies close to the hard corals? They could have been stung. In general, softies require less lights than hard like mentioned above, so try keeping them lower and shaded especially with the lights that you have.