Been Away A Few Days And.....coral Issues

[mutantbigman2000]

My partner has spent the past 3 1/2 days in hospital so i've only been at home early mornings and very late evenings.

My torch had developed brown jelly infection and was looking very manky indeed I moved it to the sandbed and left overnight. In the morning it looked worse and as i wasn't going to be around for another 14 hours i decided to remove it.

I know this may have been a bit drastic but a week earlier i had added a 2 headed hammer frag and a large frogspawn frag and didn't want these to get infected either.

I have 4 rocks which have different types of mushroom on and a few of these have moved from the rock they were on and are now residing in different areas of the tank. Is this normal? Main parameters are fine. Calcium and magnesium are a little low but i have started dosing both of these to bring them up again. All other corals are fine.

Is it me or have the first 8 months of my tank life been too easy? While i'm away even the mild mannered mushrooms decide to act like a damn fool

 

[bronzecat]

Hi

Cant help with the coral problem, but hope your partner ok

 

[Trod]

Having lost a torch coral to Brown jelly, I would say you have done the right thing in removing it

Think it's called Sods law, nothing goes wrong in tank while you sit and watch, as soon as you turn your back for 5 minutes BANG, bit like the toys in the toy box, if you get my drift

 

[mutantbigman2000]

My hammer and frogspawn both look great.

I only recently upgraded from a hydrometer to a refractometer.

I measured my lfs salted ro as 1.014!

No wonder my calcium and magnesium levels aren't being topped up as well as i expected.

Tomorrow i am off for a spare heater and i will go back to self mixing water.

Any tips on using milliput to attatch frags to rocks? I tried it one night before the baby arrived and after mixing i left it about an hour before attempting anything. My thoughts were to let it harden a bit and not cloud the water but by the time the hour had passed it wouldn't mould and fix into place. Should i use a freshly mixed blob instead? Need to get the hammer and frogspawn higher up and off the sand.

 

[seffieuk]

My hammer and frogspawn both look great.

I only recently upgraded from a hydrometer to a refractometer.

I measured my lfs salted ro as 1.014!

No wonder my calcium and magnesium levels aren't being topped up as well as i expected.

Tomorrow i am off for a spare heater and i will go back to self mixing water.

Any tips on using milliput to attatch frags to rocks? I tried it one night before the baby arrived and after mixing i left it about an hour before attempting anything. My thoughts were to let it harden a bit and not cloud the water but by the time the hour had passed it wouldn't mould and fix into place. Should i use a freshly mixed blob instead? Need to get the hammer and frogspawn higher up and off the sand.

I have never had much luck with the stuff - my corals usually fall off! try reef glue instead

Seffie x

 

[SkiFletch]

Your best bet is a combination of Milleput AND superglue gel

As to the brown jelly infection, you probably did right removing it. Technically it's not necessarily an infection, but an auto-immune inflamatory response of the coral to extreme stress. Brown jelly CAN be caused by infection, but it can also be the result of water quality stress, aggression by nearby corals, or predation by other tankmates.

And as for the mushrooms, yes this is normal. Members of the actinodiscus genus will spread out by dropping some babies underneath them, then detaching themselves from the rock, floating around the tank, and landing wherever they land to try and spread their population. It's one of the reasons I refuse to keep them any longer. Can't control the little punks

 

[mutantbigman2000]

i've just used some fresh milliput and loctite gel to attach my frogspawn high in my rocks

I know they dont need lots of light but i dont run halides and so they should be fine.

I tried to use just milliput for my hammer and half an hour later it was on the sand again.

Couple of hours later and the cloudiness from the milliput has gone too.