Corals dying

[reef]

I just purchased some corals and few died within hours of placing in my newly setup tank after couple of weeks of curing the tank. Any reason why??

Need advice from the experts. Please help.

[TTBoy]

Have u test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels?

[wolfie]

guess not a very gd time 2 post... all bros go party on Sat nite... haiz...

[jinners]

how are ur water parameters?

what coral was it?

[BarraCudaTM]

I dont think the corals will die within hrs unless yr water is very toxic

[newdamsel]

I guess for fast die off, it will be a great difference in salinity.... did you acclimitize your corals b4 you put it in your tank? What's your salinity? pH could also be the reason....

[reef]

My pH is around 8 and salinity is 1.027

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate reading are very good with the former 2 nil.

my corals include elephant ear, bubbles, anemones. the polyps on the liverocks are also not opening up.

i don't think that my water is toxic. any clue??.

and I didn't acclimitize my corals before putting into my tank, could that be the reason? but i thought corals are quite hardy?

[TTBoy]

Hmmm...i think your salinity is a bit high. I dont know if thats the reason. When was the last time u top up ur water?

[TanGo]

Water Temperature leh?

[reef]

water temperature at 25 degrees.

[newdamsel]

I think the culprit is acclimitization.. usu lfs has low salinity levels ~1.021 so if yours is 1.027 which is rather high even for normal tank, i guess thats what killed your corals.... next time acclimitize your lifestock b4 introduction... 2 cts

[Reefgang]

Hi Newdamsel

Can u elaborate how u wld acclimatize corals. What I do is put the bag of coral in the main tank for a while b4 picking a spot to anchor it.

Have been adding corals over 2 years and I must say most survive with relative ease except perhaps a certain type of xenia - don't know the correct name - which died within 24hrs. But then again it could be a one off incident as I didn't experiment with the same type of coral again. Have ing said that, an assortment of corals dying at one go... i think that's serious.

Bad luck for the buyer as well as the corals.

Reefgang

[reef]

I think some of the corals are recovering.

Do you guys add any addictives to the water or add calcium? Any brand to recommend?

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Reef!

I seriously doubt ya corals r dead?

Juz that they are not fully opened...rite? is this ya first time keeping corals?

All corals need some time to fully display their 'stuff' E.g. Upon first introducng an octopus coral...its tentacles r usually retracted and depending on its tank water parameters/ placement....they may take a few hours or up to a couple of days before u see its tentacles in full bloom.

I hardly acclimatize my corals either and ave not seen much prob!

I am quite sure ya corals r not dead...

And yes...u need to add calcium for its growth along more wif others. I am using seachem which I have no complains about.

Hope this helps.

[hongqixian]

My pH is around 8 and salinity is 1.027

ammonia, nitrite and nitrate reading are very good with the former 2 nil.

my corals include elephant ear, bubbles, anemones. the polyps on the liverocks are also not opening up.

i don't think that my water is toxic. any clue??.

and I didn't acclimitize my corals before putting into my tank, could that be the reason? but i thought corals are quite hardy?

Why did you put anemones in a newly cured tank? How big is the tank? and you put the corals all at once?

[reef]

Yes I added all the corals at once. anything wrong with that? sori, really newbie here. thks in advance for all valuable advice from you experts.

My anemones are truly gone bye bye and the rest are not opening up very well after few weeks.

Is the Sechem calcium in powder form and how do I mix...?

[newdamsel]

Hi Newdamsel

Can u elaborate how u wld acclimatize corals. What I do is put the bag of coral in the main tank for a while b4 picking a spot to anchor it.

Have been adding corals over 2 years and I must say most survive with relative ease except perhaps a certain type of xenia - don't know the correct name - which died within 24hrs. But then again it could be a one off incident as I didn't experiment with the same type of coral again. Have ing said that, an assortment of corals dying at one go... i think that's serious.

Bad luck for the buyer as well as the corals.

Reefgang

Actually, i treat all livestock no matter coral or fish the same.. that is pour half the water in the bag away, clip it in the main tank and add small portions of tank water every ten min over about an hour. I switch off all lights during the whole procedure.... after that get the livestock into the tank and i on only the actinic.. only until the next day do i on all lights...

[hongqixian]

Reef, the calcium supplements and other supplements are not needed at this point of time. They will not save your corals. But they are needed in growth in the long term and that is not the problem you have.

Did you measure the ammonia and nitrate levels during the time after corals died or before? Ammonia and nitrate will not show up in a new, empty tank. Even cycled, the bioload you added might have been too big for you existing bacteria to cope.

A reason they died might be because you added too many corals at a time and tried to fill up the tank to make it look like a reef straight away right? You would have an ammonia spike which anemones are very sensitive too, and so are corals. My corals will look stunted and unhealthy when the nitrate is excessively high and Ithat might be the case also if they are recovering from a spike.

The reason I asked the size of ur tank was that this wouldn't have much of an ammonia spike in in let's say, Sentosa's walkthru tank but it would in a small tank.

If you did measure ammo/nitrite after some animals died then it might be because the anemones died for some less important reason such as being damaged in transit or by a pump intake or some thing and the ammonia produced from that affected the other corals.

Anemones are very sensitive and you should not even attempt to keep them till your reef and corals are able to thrive for about half a year or so. And I don't mean die then buy new corals! Just joking.

I think before you do anything, make sure that you have the proper lighting, water conditions and what else before adding any more live stock. If you are careful, your corals may just pull through.

Just a word of advice, you judge your tank by the animals' conditions. Not a test kit reading.

[reef]

Thanks for the advice. But my readings of ammonia, nitrite are giving good readings and i don't think there's spikes.

I will continue to monitor my corals though.

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Hi Reef...

Mean while...maybe stop buying new stuff...til everything is a-okie

tks

[reef]

hI GUYS

Thanks for the advice given so far. The corals are living now and I have another problem, algae starts to grow first. What can I do to slow down their growth?

I have also reduced the lighting hours to 6 per day.

[TTBoy]

check your phosphate levels.

[hongqixian]

You could try macroalgae to use up the nuisance algae's nutrients.

[anakjoh]

What is macroalgae?

I have problem with brown algae. Is it because I use MH in 90 lt tank? Plan to use silicate remover - any opinions?

[newdamsel]

Is there a silicate remover??? I'm interested if there is... I'm using phosguard at the moment.. but its expensive....