Finger Coral

[jeasko]

Have a fairly new aquarium which has been running about 10 weeks, before adding coral or livestock (2 x clown then 3 x coral and 2 x blood shrimps) i checked the water and all the tests were fine, I have added some green polyps (not sure if thats spelt right) which is doing fine, some pussey coral which is doing ok but the finger coral seems to be struggling where it used to stay out and be bright orange it now rarely comes out and looks slightly droopy, have tested the water (ph, alkaline, nitrate, nitrite, salinity) i have added a buffer and calcium, strontium and iodide as directed, all of which has led to the water quality being fine.

So does anyone have any other suggestions as to why the finger coral is not doing to well, the only other thing going on is a green type of algae on the floor, not sure if this is relevant but it was what made me think there might be something im over looking.

any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[jeasko]

Have a fairly new aquarium which has been running about 10 weeks, before adding coral or livestock (2 x clown then 3 x coral and 2 x blood shrimps) i checked the water and all the tests were fine, I have added some green polyps (not sure if thats spelt right) which is doing fine, some pussey coral which is doing ok but the finger coral seems to be struggling where it used to stay out and be bright orange it now rarely comes out and looks slightly droopy, have tested the water (ph, alkaline, nitrate, nitrite, salinity) i have added a buffer and calcium, strontium and iodide as directed, all of which has led to the water quality being fine.

So does anyone have any other suggestions as to why the finger coral is not doing to well, the only other thing going on is a green type of algae on the floor, not sure if this is relevant but it was what made me think there might be something im over looking.

any suggestions would be appreciated

Just checked my salinity again and it is slightly low (still within acceptable levels) but would this cause a problem? also if i want to up the salinity is it ok to add disolved salt/ro water solution or will this cause me more problems?

 

[AndyS]

You shouldnt be adding anything to the water that you are not testing for, are you testing for calcium, strontium and iodide?

 

[jeasko]

wasnt aware i should test for those as i assumed it was normal to add them at a set rate, so might have to test for them.

still not sure how to increase the salinity safely so anyone who could give me any info on that i would be graetful.

 

[AndyS]

On your next water change you should mix the salt to a level higher than of that in your tank: EG

Tank water SG = 1.023
Water added SG = 1.025

Overall SG = 1.024

Obviously the above figures are not correct but thats the way to safely raise your SG.

If you add trace elements and calcium without testing then there is a risk of overshooting, and this can harm a lot of corals and livestock, remember too much is just as bad as not enough. How do you know you dont already have enough in the water?

Most trace elements like Iodide are relaced by doing water changes so you should not need to dose. What are your tank readings? Salt/temp/nitrate/ammonia etc.

 

[SkiFletch]

Whats the flowrate like both in the tank and especially where the finger coral is?

 

[AndyS]

And while we are firing questions what lighting do you have?

 

[jeasko]

ok readings as follows

nitrate = slight trance (well below 10mg/l)
nitrite = no trace
ph = 8.4-8.6 (maybe a little hi)
alkaline = normal
SG = 1.021

finger coral slightly sheltered from flow so am asuming it would do better less sheltered? using a seio m1100 with 4300 lpm flow rate

tank holds 130 ltr and is 3ft3 x 18in x 18in

running 2 x arcadia t5 marine white and 2 x arcadia t8 blue blues come on at 11am and off at midnight, white comes on miday and off 23:00

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah they like some flow. Having them in a deadspot is pretty bad for them. At the same time you dont want to knock it over Other than that, your pH is really high, although that shouldn't be a problem for a softy.

 

[jeasko]

ski cheers for the info, turns out the reason the finger coral looked poor was because it was going to shed its skin (not sure wat technical term for it is), found out after talking to LFS that it could be doing this if not was advised to keep an eye on it and if it didnt get better in a few days to go back and take further action, on returning home and looking closer i could see the skin shedding, maybe it being slightly sheltered didnt help. seems to be looking better by the hour now.

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice. Leather corals can shed skin periodically. Usually it happens faster than you observed, but if it shed, thats pretty normal