Corals Ideas

[black molly3]

i have a river reef interpet 50 and wanted some coral ideas. i know people have already gave me a list but i also ant info on the corals. would a candy cane coral be ok for me. my tank has been running for 3 weeks has a leather in it some xenia a colony of starburst polyps and a hammer coral also i performed my weekly water change today and my hammer doesnt seem too happy. his mouths are open. what does this mean. thanks

 

[TigerIssey]

According to your posts you set the tank up on 16th March which makes it 16 days. As you added the hammer at the weekend, it was only 1.5 half weeks after setting it up. This is probably why it is not happy, you were told not to add the hammer as it was too soon. See if your LFS will look after it for a few weeks for you else you may well lose it.

 

[black molly3]

its actually 18 days the tank has been set up for. i was told and read the hammer was an easy coral to maintain and is a perfect begginer coral. tomorrow is my first fish day if parameters are ok in 10 hours. the hammer is unhappy because i done the water change and i dont think all of the salt disolved in the water after leaving it half an hour and swirling it. how long should i leave it. if i go the clown route i have seen clowns with 3 stripes but the middle strip isnt compleate it just goes back on its self. what are these clowns called. any coral as i need to make my mind up soon as these will probably be the last corals for a few weeks. i willl probably get them next friday if i come up with any ideas.

 

[n3ont3tra]

the hammer is unhappy because i done the water change and i dont think all of the salt disolved in the water after leaving it half an hour and swirling it. how long should i leave it. if i go the clown route i have seen clowns with 3 stripes but the middle strip isnt compleate it just goes back on its self. what are these clowns called. any coral as i need to make my mind up soon as these will probably be the last corals for a few weeks. i willl probably get them next friday if i come up with any ideas.

A day. You should leave the salt in a bucket with a powerhead and a heater for a day. You should already know this!

 

[TigerIssey]

1st post dated 16th March- I* am just setting my tank up now

Softies will be fine. I would wait for the tank to be stocked before adding LPS, as they are a tad more demanding of water quality. You will also wnat to get an Magnesium, Alkalinity and Calsium test kit and associated suppliments before moving into hard corals

Rabbut told you to leave LPS for a bit.

QUOTE (black molly3 @ Mar 28 2009, 10:46 PM)
would you consider hammer corals to be hard. wouldnt leathers be a good idea then i have read that theyj are one of the hardiest

what rabbut means by hard coral is it has a skeleton etc there are 4 main types some say 5

softies, LPS (hammer corals are LPS i believe), SPS, hard corals and some say these have a category azooxanthellae

leathers would be a good idea but there is one species to avoid in a new tank. rabbut? which one is it as memory isnt serving me right now.

Truck told you hammers were LPS and agreed with Rabbut to leave them for a bit.

Then you ask about frogspawn

i would leave the frogspawn for a few months because its of the euphyllia family.it will kill neighbouring corals

Truck told you to leave that as it is the same family as hammers.

They should not have sold you the hammer yet, it's too early. Good luck with it, a new keeper with a new tank will need it, even though it's an easier Euphilia (spelling) species...

It will need to be placed high up the rock stack for enough light with enough flow to gently ripple it's polyps when exended, so not blasted or in a stagnent zone. You will need to get hold of test kits for and test twice a week for the moment; Magnesium, Alkalinity and Calsium, dosing each as required to maintain Mg between 1250ppm and 1350ppm, Alk between 7dKH and 12dKH and Calsium between 400ppm and 450ppm. Most salt mixes will be lacking in any of, or all three of those, and the suppliments + test kits will set you back about £60. You need these now for this species, so get them within the next few days, or take the coral back. If you don't have them and keep the coral, £35 worth of coral will likely start looking sorry for itself, and if the issue isn't rectifyed, it will die within a short-ish while Sorry if this seams blunt, but you need to know where you are The Hammer won't tollerate Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrate spikes, all of which are likely to occur after getting your first fish, so stand ready for some very sizeable waterchanges after adding your first fish if you choose to keep it.

Rabbut then warned you this would happen.

I really hope you are going to prove me wrong, but I think you have been to hastey putting the hammer in, your tank is not muture enough, its not happy thats why its not coming out, it might just need time to acclimatise to your tank, I hope so

PLEASE LISTEN to what you are being told, you where advised not to get the hammer but you still got it

Marine tanks need patience, if you see something you like, put a deposit on it, your LFS will keep it for you untill your tank is ready.

I don't mean to sound rude, but if you carry on like this, you will, most likely kill your corals and any fish you purchase before long. Its an expensive hobby, you don't want to spend your hard earned cash on things to watch them die, please slow down.

Have a look at this little bit of info. http/www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=...78&aid=2319
Have you tested your calcium and Carbonate Hardness/Alkalinity yet, if not I'd advise you to get these 2 kits asap.

fleabay has these 2 salifert kits at a good price

Trod then warned you it would happen.

16th March to 1st April = 16 full days 17 tommorrow.

PLEASE START TO LISTEN

 

[black molly3]

so trod warned me that a little bit of salt what was undissolved would land on my hammer because that is what has happened. people on this forum are so rude. and it takes ages for you to reply and when you do reply it doesnt answer my question people in other forums are much more politer. nothing is wrong with water parameters from yesterday and today i done a water change thats why he isnt opened up. he has also had a fall today so he is at the front now i have burried the branch in the substrate. should be ashamed of yourself victimising someone constantly. its like my first mistake. we learn from out mistakes. life goes on.

 

[n3ont3tra]

so trod warned me that a little bit of salt what was undissolved would land on my hammer because that is what has happened. people on this forum are so rude. and it takes ages for you to reply and when you do reply it doesnt answer my question people in other forums are much more politer. nothing is wrong with water parameters from yesterday and today i done a water change thats why he isnt opened up. he has also had a fall today so he is at the front now i have burried the branch in the substrate. should be ashamed of yourself victimising someone constantly. its like my first mistake. we learn from out mistakes. life goes on.

Really? Try reef central. You'll get replies within minutes there. Maybe then you'll listen.

Seriously, now you're just making up excuses. We tell you likely reasons why your coral isn't opening, but you just come to your own conclusions anyway. We are trying to help you before you make the mistakes.

 

[black molly3]

Seriously, now you're just making up excuses. We tell you likely reasons why your coral isn't opening, but you just come to your own conclusions anyway. We are trying to help you before you make the mistakes.
[/quote]

i know thats why i am going on different forums because people are politer and dont go by rules like 1 tiny fish in a 50 liter tank. i make that mistake of my own by not disolving the salt properly. i have also been told on a different forum that it will probably be a salt burn and will be fine. i got lashed out at on here.

 

[TigerIssey]

so trod warned me that a little bit of salt what was undissolved would land on my hammer because that is what has happened. people on this forum are so rude. and it takes ages for you to reply and when you do reply it doesnt answer my question people in other forums are much more politer. nothing is wrong with water parameters from yesterday and today i done a water change thats why he isnt opened up. he has also had a fall today so he is at the front now i have burried the branch in the substrate. should be ashamed of yourself victimising someone constantly. its like my first mistake. we learn from out mistakes. life goes on.

Can you honestly say after everyone told you you would have problems, that it is the salt causing you problems.
If you really and truly do believe that, you really and truly should not be in this hobby.

I actually don't believe I have been rude to you at all, I have just been stateing the facts. You have ignored advice, you are now going to reap the harvest so to speak.

Did you get the test kits and calcium, magnesium and strontium supplements you will need to make the hammer happy. Have you tested the calcium, magnesium and alkalinity levels, because if you have not, you cannot honestly say that the salt is causing the problem.

LPS are more difficult than softies, you would have done better sticking with them.

To be honest, I don't actually know why any of us bother to answer your posts, we get ignored anyway.

 

[n3ont3tra]

i know thats why i am going on different forums because people are politer and dont go by rules like 1 tiny fish in a 50 liter tank. i make that mistake of my own by not disolving the salt properly. i have also been told on a different forum that it will probably be a salt burn and will be fine. i got lashed out at on here.

So they tell you what you want to hear? And because that's what you wanted, all other advice is automatically wrong.

Here's how I see it:
You are asking us for advice WITHOUT TELLING US ALL OF THE INFO (ex. you just said the hammer coral took a fall, but you only mentioned that after we said something you didn't like).
You go on other forums and ask for advice, and because they might give you something that you like better, you take it (ex. someon on this forum said it would be possible to keep two fish, and you immediately took that advice without considering other's that had already told you one fish would be better. )
When something doesnt work out, you ask for advice again. And the cycle repeats. We tell you what to do, you say we're wrong and don't do it. You keep getting mad at us for 'victimizing you' while also not listening to most of our advice.

Thats how it's coming across to me, okay?

 

[SkiFletch]

Some personal thoughts. First off, if you don't like the advice members are giving you here, I don't know what to tell you. While some has been blunt to say the least, members here are advising you caution which is NEVER the wrong advice in the marine world. Patience and caution are even more necessary when going to a reef world. In the reef world, beauty happens slowly but disaster happens quickly. This all means acting over a period of weeks and months for a new aquarist like yourself. Measuring your progress in days is a CLEAR indicator that you're going too fast.

These corals you're keeping live in an exceptionally stable environment in the wild and survive for centuries, and in some cases even millenia. Taking them and dumping them in a tiny, brand new 50 liter tank whose chemistry changes hourly is NOT a recipie for success. While a Hammer coral may be one of the most forgiving/hardy of the hard corals, it still requires good water chemistry, good flow, and good lighting.

So how is your chemistry? Do you even know what major parameters should be kept track of to maintain healthy hard corals? How about concepts such as equillibrium reactions, saturation, supersaturation, or precipitation, how well do you understand those? Heck let's go more basic, do you even know why you're doing waterchanges?

My personal advice is to learn the answers to those questions first. Start burying yourself in the writings of Dr Randy Holmes-Farley if you want to keep hard corals so that you can answer those questions. Then take a month off, understand the corals you have, appreciate the myriad of life already in the tank, and allow your tank to mature. Maybe after that month it'll be time to add more corals. Don't like the advice? Well, go where people tell you what you want to hear, but I for one will not advise you to move a mile a minute with the lives of all the organisms that are now in your care.

 

[TigerIssey]

Some personal thoughts. First off, if you don't like the advice members are giving you here, I don't know what to tell you. While some has been blunt to say the least, members here are advising you caution which is NEVER the wrong advice in the marine world

Ski I do apologise if I am one of the people referred to here.
I am however going to say that this is not the first or second or third topic that we have tried to help and get the op to slow down. It has been very frustrating for us, but we continued to try to help.

As I say, it has been very frustrating to say the least, all we wanted to do is help, but none of us have been listened to as it seems we are not giving the advice the op wants to hear.

Anyway, sorry if I am blunt, but you get to a point where you feel like your head is being banged against a brick wall.

 

[SkiFletch]

Fear not, there is a line between bluntness and hostility and IMO, nobody's crossed it yet. You'd know if you had

 

[n3ont3tra]

Fear not, there is a line between bluntness and hostility and IMO, nobody's crossed it yet. You'd know if you had

Phew.

 

[TigerIssey]

Thanks ski, that is reassurring.