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LakeCityReefs 
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 Topic: Finicky Corals
Posted: May 16 2016 at 9:50pm |
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I seem to have some really finicky Corals. Duncan stays mostly retracted for a week while SPS has great polyp extension.
Then Duncan fully opens while Zoas close up and some SPS retract polyps.
I can't figure it out so I added a half dose of carbon thinking it may pull something funny out of the water. I've set my AI prime LED to a 20% reduction that will acclimate back to its normal setting in 10 days (don't want to bleach SPS if the water gets too clear and increases light intensity).
Besides running some carbon to clean up any possible contamination do any of you have other ideas I might try?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 16 2016 at 10:12pm |
Not all coral want ultra clean water. Look it up. You will discover that Duncans, like many other LPS do not necessarily like the same water conditions as SPS. The tank is still new. - Give it more time(be patient), - add some colonies of different sponge on LR rubble from established aquariums, - turn off the skimmer once in a while, - overfeed the fish one day a week and make them fast one day a week. - feed micron size food to the animals that coral like to eat, - feed single celled algae to all the rest, - add some LR rubble with Macroalgae from an established aquarium, - add a few cups of LS from an established aquarium
All these things will speed up the maturation of your tank so that coral can do well.
Aloha, Mark  |
Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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LakeCityReefs
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Posted: May 16 2016 at 10:56pm |
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Thanks for the response Mark. I'm following pretty much what you have suggested already. Just can't seem to find a balance that will make all of the corals happy. Maybe I'll need to get rid of some and focus on others.
To add to the trials I'm going through I took my phosguard reactor offline for one day this past weekend and I woke up to a little cyano on the sand and in the sump. FYI I'm feeding 1 cube of mysis twice a day and only 1 small feeding of pellets on Sunday.
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reefer86
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Posted: May 16 2016 at 11:09pm |
My duncan colony has retracted twice for extended periods of time in the past. It is back to normal and is growing fast. I think that your duncan will bounce back too. Duncans benefit from direct feeding. I think that a lack of feeding may have caused my colony to become retracted. I now feed my duncans about once a week. I use a pipet to give them frozen food. I'd suggest feeding them some mysis the next time that you notice your duncans open up.
I agree with Mark about feeding the tank micro sized food and single celled algae. I've had success with doing this in my tank. I feed these items at night once the lights have gone out. I use phyto-feast from Reef Nutrition and Bene Reef from Benepets. These feed the corals and other organisms in the tank like copepods, amphipods, and worms. Just don't over do it, a little goes a long way with these feeds.
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LakeCityReefs
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Posted: May 16 2016 at 11:18pm |
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Thanks Reefer. I used to feed the Benepets food on my last reef tank. I'll need to stop in and grab some along with a few more snails this week.
Do you direct feed the Benereef too or just broadcast feed it to your tank?
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bstuver
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Posted: May 16 2016 at 11:38pm |
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I have two different colonies of duncans in two different spots in my tank they are my number one LPS that likes to retract for no reason several times and then be back out and happy.
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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reefer86
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Posted: May 17 2016 at 11:22am |
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I do both actually. Sometimes I direct feed my sps with BeneReef while I keep the pumps and powerhead off. Other times I broadcast feed benereef or put a small amount mixed in with frozen food with the pumps/powerhead on to let it distribute all over the tank.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 17 2016 at 3:15pm |
Just to illustrate the differences between tanks, I had a bunch of Duncan colonies for sale in my coral farm that stayed hydrated. I don't remember them ever closing up for long periods, especially not for more than a day. And what's more, I never, ever, target fed them. I never target feed anything. I just don't have the necessity. I believe there are good, better and best ways to grow coral.
Aloha, Mark |
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LakeCityReefs
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Posted: May 18 2016 at 2:44pm |
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Mark what exactly makes corals "hydrate" besides being submerged in saltwater?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 18 2016 at 5:20pm |
To me, hydration means that the coral is puffed up with water. Full hydration indicates a healthy, happy coral. When I started my first marine aquarium I got a Haitian Condylactis anemone, the only anemones available at the time. Keeping a living coral was still pretty much unheard of. The Condylactis would contract/dehydrate into a little ball. Usually it did this every 24 hours, especially at night. Sometimes it would stay contracted for several days at a time. In speaking with the LFS and hobbyists I met there, I was told that this was normal. This tank had an undergravel filter with powerheads on top of the standpipes. Aquascaping was Lace Rock.
About a year later we founded the WMAS with the idea that together we could help each other do a better reef aquarium. At meetings we started discussing these issues that just didn't seem right, like my anemone. We started learning about things like Natural Nitrate Reduction (NNR), the Jaubert Plenum System, and much later, Alk and Ca supplementation, just to name a few. Our tanks began to do better and better. The meeting where LeRoy Headlee ( www.garf.org ) taught us how to propagate our first coral, Sarcophyton, was a big one for many of us.
The next big history making meeting I remember we had a guest named John Walch. He had built the first Marine Ornamental Fish Hatchery in the world, C-Quest, on the island of Puerto Rico. My story about improving coral hydration continues in an article here, titled RDP Filtration My story of the hydrating Condylactis continues. It's kind of funny, but after all this, all the benefit derived from an RDP Refugium on top of all the advances we had made in keeping a better reef aquarium, years ago I backtracked to create a tank without a Refugium. Improvements in feeding, lighting, water circulation, macroalgae, water chemistry, and the things mentioned in my first post above, allowed my Condylactis shown in the pics below, not only to stay hydrated pretty much 24/7 but also to grow very large.
Aloha, Mark 
Edited by Mark Peterson - May 19 2016 at 9:37am
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