frag help please (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

ok heres the deal:

I have obtained a few frags from some very nice people on the boards however none of them are even opening or acting in the least beat normal more as if there falling over and croaking. I have checked all my water and everything is doing fine the ph is on point the nitrates are good and I have 3 coral life bulbs 1 blue spectrum and the rest whites. The previous owner had soft corals int his tank doing perfectly fine with the exact same lighting . So whats my problem? How should i go about trating these corals and how do i know if there dead or if they just need some time they are green star polyps and some xenia which as far as I know will emerge under bad conditions anyways"could be wrong" I know I dont have enough lighting however im in the process of upgrading to a vho set up just waiting ont he ballest how can I keep these guys alive untill I get my new set up?

 

[AggieBrandon]

did you use ro/di water when you set up this tank or what? When did you set it up? What is your salinity at and what are your nitrate,nitrite, and ammonia levels at? Also what temp is the tank at for the majority of the day?

Brandon

 

[ShaneV]

How dId you acclimate the corals? How long have they been in the tank?

 

[Guest]

xenia is a crap shoot, grows for some people, dies for others, I'd say give the GSP some time (that is if your water parameters are correct) cuz I've never heard of anyone having GSP's die.

 

[Guest]

im not sure if there dead there just limp. I used tap water that I decholrinated and conditioned which was pre mixed and I just did a water change this after noon whihc was the first water change for this tank my ph is about 8.2 the nitrates Im not exactly sure what it should be at as my manual to my testing doesnt go into details so maybe somone can help me out looks to be inbetween 0.6-0.8 im using the aquarium systems master kit and im not sure why it gives me 2 nitrate scales?

 

[Guest]

nitrte is 0.8 nitrate is under 10

 

[Guest]

oh last but not least I did not acclimate them at all prob a bad move

 

[AggieBrandon]

start using ro/di or distilled water in your tank...the impurities in the tap water are crazy high.

Brandon

 

[Guest]

I will thanks brandon ill start that on my next water change

 

[pernelf]

By not acclimating the corals you have probably shocked them, they may pull through but you nevre know.

 

[Guest]

do my water reading look ok? they seem ok as far as my manual goes but I want to know by people who are seeing results

 

[Guest]

Ill have more GSP for you if that bit croaks.. which like they said.. is highly doubted.

If you can afford a good RO DI unit in your house / apartment, get it.. well worth the investment as it lasts forever..
I can tell you when its time to change my cartridges just by looking at my tank (even though i do keep a tds meter handy

 

[Guest]

and another add.. and not to poke, but we need to figure out whats up with your tank..

When i fragged that GSP for you, i took a litttttle chunk of it and tossed in a different tank in my office... and this tank has been severaly neglected.. and I mean bad.. Nothing living in it though and this itty bitty chunk of 4 polyps actually extended during the next day.

Keep em close to you light and in decent water flow.. dont blast em, but keep water moving around them..

Also, what kind of lights do you have? no, pc's?
and how old are the bulbs.. ?
these things love light..

 

[Cakepro]

I would have to say no, your water readings do not look good for a tank with corals. You should have zero nitrite and zero nitrate and sorry to be repetitive, but never use tap water in this hobby.

 

[Guest]

the nitrates are barely even readable on the scale in fact there realy not. The reason I stated that was because that was the lowest the scale has I just realized somthing though. I just looked in the box of extra stuff the guy gave me and I notice there is some medication in there for the tank .............copper treatment.....Ive heard this can create a problem with corals could this be my source of the problem? Thanks to everyone for the great help I was told by somone that the tap water would be fine if I conditioned it and dechlorinated it which I pressume was not a good idea if I start normal water changes every month the tank should be all distilled soon

 

[Guest]

how can I bring the nitrite down?Ive had frags in my other tank before and ive never had a problem like this I see a few that have some green coming out a small bit but I dont think they will take off im just all around stumped

 

[imsuperjp]

Do water changes with newly mixed salt water using RO water.

 

[Cakepro]

If there is copper in your tank, this is definitely a problem...and a fatal one for your corals and inverts at that. Do you have any invertebrates like shrimp or snails in your tank, and are they doing fine?

Whoever told you that about tapwater should be called out. That's retarded. Maybe in some municipalities, tap or well water is fine but not around here! If you start water changes now, like 20% a week, your water will eventually be free of tap water and all of its impurities but that process isn't distillation. Nitrites and nitrates and phosphates will also be diluted with frequent water changes.

 

[Guest]

thanks alot cakepro I can actualy obtain some very very good water filters for work the ones that are used on all large ice machines etc.. used at texas a&m so im going to hook one of these up tomorow and they are not on the board or I would call them out haha it must be the copper that is doing this ill start water changes 20% a week but im going to run out of salt and funds after buying the fitlers but someway it will come together thanks to you guys once again for all your help the rock must have been treated with copper prior to me setting this up Im just glad I have a reason for this happening now it was driving me nuts....also I do not have any shrip or snails etc... because I have a snowflake down there and they would end up just like the corals if I had them

 

[Cakepro]

Well, you never know...it might not be copper at all. The best way to test is to go buy a copper test kit, or call a couple of our sponsor stores and see if they test water for copper for free (most test pH, nitrites, nitrates, etc for free), which will save you the cost of the test kit.

Also, in the meantime I recommend you call around and purchase a 4" x 8" section of a product called BioMarine Poly-Filter -- ask for it by name. It will filter out many impurities from your water, including dissolved organics and copper. Also, make sure the filters you buy are a 1 micron sediment filter, a carbon block filter, and then the RO membrane. Ideally, you should get a DI-resin filled filter too. You may want to search for a post by tcarlson in which he tells about an RO unit he bought for like $80 delivered...a very nice 6-filter system. It's an excellent deal and ready to plug n play. We also have a sponsor, BuckeyeFieldSupply, who sells RO and RO/DI units and can hook you up too.