90g Sw Build...eek!

I need to figure out where I'm gonna place it!! I'm thinking somewhere in the platy/zoa/goniopora corner (there's a little ledge in the rock and I'm banking on the frag being small lol). Feels like I am running out of space rather quickly!!

 

I wish my light were on so I could show you my little collection of corals from the family faviidae. The platy is another member of that huge family and you know how to place and care for it. I have 2 favias, 2 favites (including a war coral), and 2 platys. They are all very happy being low or near the corners. Running out of space? It's both exciting and kinda depressing, isn't it? lol

 

I wish my light were on so I could show you my little collection of corals from the family faviidae. The platy is another member of that huge family and you know how to place and care for it. I have 2 favias, 2 favites (including a war coral), and 2 platys. They are all very happy being low or near the corners. Running out of space? It's both exciting and kinda depressing, isn't it? lol

How concerned do I need to be about sweepers? I'm reading that they can be pretty long and saw a pretty startling photo on another forum while researching and I'd like to avoid wars

 

Pretty sure I've seen the same picture. Is it the one with a war looking sort of like a melting ball with spaghettI hanging out? lol

I almost avoided a war coral because of that pic but couldn't pass up on a sweet deal, so I placed mine far from everything. Of course, more frags were added and it's got closer neighbors now.

Sweepers on mine haven't gotten more than a quarter inch, so it may be dependant on colony size or something. It's more than quadrupled in size from the tiny frag I got but sweepers are still short. The longest sweepers I've got come from that radioactive platy I recently posted a pic of on this thread. Those get more than an inch long. One of my favias gets short sweepers... but the other doesn't.

Not much help huh? I guess it just depends and you'll have to see. I wouldn't worry about spaghettI from a small frag though.

 

Pretty sure I've seen the same picture. Is it the one with a war looking sort of like a melting ball with spaghettI hanging out? lol

I almost avoided a war coral because of that pic but couldn't pass up on a sweet deal, so I placed mine far from everything. Of course, more frags were added and it's got closer neighbors now.

Sweepers on mine haven't gotten more than a quarter inch, so it may be dependant on colony size or something. It's more than quadrupled in size from the tiny frag I got but sweepers are still short. The longest sweepers I've got come from that radioactive platy I recently posted a pic of on this thread. Those get more than an inch long. One of my favias gets short sweepers... but the other doesn't.

Not much help huh? I guess it just depends and you'll have to see. I wouldn't worry about spaghettI from a small frag though.

Lol yes that's the one!!
I will wait and see and decide from there lol.

I am seriously considering rescaping. My rocks aren't glued yet, the talbot is being a territorial a hole and I need more coral nooks and crannies lol!

 

Beautiful!

 

Beautiful!

Thank you!

 

I'm in a huff with the tank at the moment. The platy and acan have started bleaching and I don't know why. The acan spent some time buried thanks to the damsel fish who I am now actively trying to catch and remove, so that could account for that - but no idea why the platy is. The two goniopora have both gone in and are refusing to come out. A zoa fell through the hole it was wedged in and became stuck inside a rock, so had to get that out. Was literally about to smash the rock open when it came out. Rock back in, zoa back in, woops there's a peppermint shrimp flopping in the bucket. Shocked coral, shocked shrimp. Aaaargh

Done full set of tests, results:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
pH - 8.0
Ca - 480
Mag - 1400
Sg - 1.026

Don't have phosphate test kit but running a phos reactor plus have the fuge etc so I'm stumped. Hiring a PAR meter to test lighting butttt I have radions so I should be ok...right????

Oh and my favite frag never arrived on Friday!!!!!

 

Oh no! Parameters look fine and yeeaaahh.... those Radions.

So... are you sure nothing is touching the platy? Maybe something sending sweepers out at night? I swore I put my torch far enough from everything when I recently moved it, only to find weeks later that a war coral several inches away is receding and showing it's skeleton on the side nearest the torch. I've not actually seen them touch, but near enough that I knew what the problem was when the war started showing signs.

Dangit!!!!! Any word from the seller?

 

Oh no! Parameters look fine and yeeaaahh.... those Radions.

So... are you sure nothing is touching the platy? Maybe something sending sweepers out at night? I swore I put my torch far enough from everything when I recently moved it, only to find weeks later that a war coral several inches away is receding and showing it's skeleton on the side nearest the torch. I've not actually seen them touch, but near enough that I knew what the problem was when the war started showing signs.

Dangit!!!!! Any word from the seller?

Pretty sure, there are only zoas below, goniopora about 3 inches off to the right (who's sulking) and a montipora behind it so should be all good. On the other side of the tank, I did see my torch and hammer having a little war - torch was literally stuck on the hammer with one little tentacle thingy - I've moved them a bit further apart nowead:

Seller said he was caught in traffic on way back from suppliers so missed the most - he's sending this week instead but I'm now anxious coz my corals are a bit iffy! That being said, PAR meter is being picked up today so hopefully that will point us in the right direction

 

That stuck torch tentacle... yeah, that's the torch stinging the hammer. I've seen my torch do the same to live rock.

It's super awesome that you're borrowing a PAR meter. Make sure you record results for many spots in your tank, and perhaps experiment with light settings and record results then too. I still just think it's unlikely that previously happy corals suddenly have a problem with lighting. You haven't made any changes to lighting I don't think, or you would know that this could be a reason.

The only thing I can think of is perhaps somehow a contaminant entered the tank. Any little ones around? Perhaps you used your favorite lotion or a new dish soap and some residue remained on your hands? This actually happened to Nart once. He couldn't imagine what suddenly made corals mad until he realized that he had used lotion on his dry hands and arms, and washed hands before tank work like always... but didn't wash his arms. A few extra water changes and some time had everything back to normal.

 

I have a 13 year old son but he spends no time at the Tank other than feeding time and he is watched like a hawk, although last weekend he did help (begrudgingly lol) with a water change haha! I wondered about contaminants too but literally can’t think of anything, I don’t use lotions or creams on hands or arms due to eczema and I more often that not wear latex gloves when I’m in the tank because of that.

I did wonder if maybe the lights were too low. They’ve been on acclimatisation mode almost constantly so only putting out limited light coz I’m awful and can’t stop buying corals lol. I guess the PAR meter will tell all (I hope, lol)

 

I know how you feel. It took me a good while to turn my light settings up too. Since then I'm just careful to put new corals at the bottom or on the far side of the frag rack. Neither area is particularly low light but it's not the highest light in my tank either.

If a coral just came from an LFS then I don't worry to much about light acclimation since they were so recently under good lighting. When corals are shipped and spend a day or so in a dark box then I take extra care with light acclimation. I haven't shocked anyone yet but have had a few get unhappy if left in lower lighting for too long.

 

That makes a lot of sense. I don’t want to whack lights up all of a sudden so will measure tonight and then see what results say and go from there!

 

So. measured with the PAR meter last night...the results made me cringe lol. Less than 100 PAR everywhere except at the water line. Acclimation mode has been switched OFF. Reading just over 100 without acclimation mode on, and will up gradually over the next week til we're at about 150/200ish. Would like to be closer to 200 but will see how things go, leery of suddenly whacking it up too much as don't want to shock them all even more. The platy had noticeably bleached further by the time I got home last night

On the plus side, the green goniopora was starting to come out as the lights came on today according to my dad so hopefully we are going to get some results one way or another. I made a feed guard for the acan with a 2 litre bottle so he got to have a nice 2 hour feed without anyone crawling on him, though the vultures did descend as soon as it came off hoping the pink goniopora follows in the green ones footsteps but it's not showing any signs of coming out of it's sulk and I know goni's sometimes do just keel over for not much reason so not sure how that one will go. Fingers crossed!

 

just my 2 cents and from BRStv as well.

Don't go too slow in acclimating corals to the lights. It can also have an adverse affect.
The thought process is, the corals you get from these aquaculture facilities already have them acclimated and thriving under LED lights under a certain PAR for years already. By boxing them and shipping them over night isn't going to cause them to get used to a low-light setting again. More often then not, they are craving the PAR and light they were under. So by under-PARing your corals will also slowly kill them by not providing enough light.

Since you have your hands on a PAR meter, my recommendation is bump your lights to the PAR you want. Draw out your tank on a piece of paper, and write down the PAR reading. So for example: Bottom sandbed 50 PAR, 5" from the sand bed 75 PAR, middle of tank 150 PAR, middle upper tank 175 PAR, top part of the tank 200 PAR.

This way, when you get your corals, just place them roughly where they belong at. So like, most of the LPS corals I get like acans, frogspawns, blastos, I will put them middle to mid-low part of the tank. The slightly extra PAR isn't going to nuke them. What will nuke the LPS coral is if you tossed it in like an SPS dominate tank right on the top at 450 PAR. If you get SPS corals, you should know the species you are getting and if they require high to low light. so, also place them accordingly. As for softies like, mushrooms, rock flowers, I'll start them all on the sand bed. if I want any of them in the upper area, I'll slowly move up my mushrooms or zoas every week by 2-3".

Hope this helps.

 

I've been assuming the same as Nart has stated... Just a little nervous and extra careful, as always, and don't want to spread bad advice. You can't deny Nart's success, so I will now feel comfortable spreading the word.

 

stella1979 So my biggest concern and issue with any lighting is that one would have no idea what PAR their lights are outputting, so I completely understand being a bit more conservative.
My recommendation to remedy the PAR output concern, is either find a few sources online where someone has already mapped out their settings and PAR readings by distance away from the light. So you can closely mimic a PAR you to fit your needs, although this situation isn't ideal, it's a better option than blindly guessing. I have helped a few people before where they bumped their AI Prime HD lights or Radion lights to 100% on all channels and melted their corals, so obviously we want people to avoid starting out at 100% on name-brand LED lights.

If I remember correctly it goes something like this:

AI Prime HD lights, 8-9 hour schedule with 1hr ramp up and 1 hr ramp down:
UV, V, B, RB @ 60-70%
R, G @ 5%
W @ 30%
These settings will yield about 225 PAR towards the top of a 12" tank, 140-150 PAR mid tank, and like 45-60 PAR bottom of the tank. From having this starting point, it's a lot easier to recommend and help people with coral placement.

With Radion XR30W Pro G4 lights, 8-9 hour schedule with 1hr ramp up/down:
UV, V, RB, B @ 100%
R, G @ 20%
CW, WW @ 15%
With intensity set to 27-30%
These settings will yield about 250 PAR towards the top of a 24" tank, 175 PAR mid-top, 150 PAR mid tank, and 50-60 PAR bottom of the tank.

The best solution is to get a good full-spectrum PAR reader that can do readings under water.
Often times, local reef clubs will let you borrow for a small fee or even fish stores might lend you theirs while they have something of yours on collateral.

 

just my 2 cents and from BRStv as well.

Don't go too slow in acclimating corals to the lights. It can also have an adverse affect.
The thought process is, the corals you get from these aquaculture facilities already have them acclimated and thriving under LED lights under a certain PAR for years already. By boxing them and shipping them over night isn't going to cause them to get used to a low-light setting again. More often then not, they are craving the PAR and light they were under. So by under-PARing your corals will also slowly kill them by not providing enough light.

Since you have your hands on a PAR meter, my recommendation is bump your lights to the PAR you want. Draw out your tank on a piece of paper, and write down the PAR reading. So for example: Bottom sandbed 50 PAR, 5" from the sand bed 75 PAR, middle of tank 150 PAR, middle upper tank 175 PAR, top part of the tank 200 PAR.

This way, when you get your corals, just place them roughly where they belong at. So like, most of the LPS corals I get like acans, frogspawns, blastos, I will put them middle to mid-low part of the tank. The slightly extra PAR isn't going to nuke them. What will nuke the LPS coral is if you tossed it in like an SPS dominate tank right on the top at 450 PAR. If you get SPS corals, you should know the species you are getting and if they require high to low light. so, also place them accordingly. As for softies like, mushrooms, rock flowers, I'll start them all on the sand bed. if I want any of them in the upper area, I'll slowly move up my mushrooms or zoas every week by 2-3".

Hope this helps.

Thank you, yes really helpful! It has certainly been enlightening using the PAR meter. I was so concerned about frying that I went totally the other way and am actually depriving them of what they need. So you don't think I need to worry too much about sticking straight up to what it should be? If not I will update tonight so everyone is getting what they need!

PS you guys are GREAT

 

As said... I'm always nervous and conservative. Perhaps turn it up by 33% every 7-10 days? You'd be at full spectrum within a month while still providing more of what they need.

 

Sprogladite
A few questions: did you take PAR readings of your old lights? so you can get a baseline of what PAR they were getting.
This way, you can write it down and slowly tune your new lights to around the same PAR.

But yes, to answer your question, I would tune your lights to match around your original light's PAR output. and place the corals at around the same PAR. If anything, and you're not 100% comfortable, say, you matche the new lights to around the same PAR as your old lights, just bump down your Radion's intensity level by 2% and you should be good to go. in the next few days, bump it up by 1% intensity and again by 1% intensity in the next few days, so it matches to what PAR you had before.
If you want to experiment how your corals likes/adapts/color changes to highlighting, you can bump it up each week or two by 1%. What I like to do is, frag up the colony into two. leave one at it's original spot and move the other frag like up higher. So for like my zoas that usually sit around 90 PAR, I moved the split colony up top to around 200 PAR just to experiment (I did not light acclimate up) I knew the zoas I had are pretty hardy and can adapt. These dull-orange bronze looking zoas quickly turned to blindingly bright red-orange zoas and held its color for months. The result? local reefers bought the bright red-zoas and didn't bat an eye at the dull-orange looking ones down in the bottom. I told them its the same colony, but they couldn't believe it. I just told them to keep it under high lighting so it keeps its colors.

 

So...did as Nart suggested and bumped lights up by 2% per day until I was getting readings of 300ish at very top of tank and 120 at the bottom.
Platygyra is almost completely bleached out now and pink goniopora is still not out.
Green goniopora has come back like a trooper and we got full polyp extension for the first time yesterday! Acan has lost a few polyps but remaining ones have bounced back very nicely indeed. Hammer, torch, frogspawn and bubble all super happy, moved the torch so it won't keep going for the hammer.
Seller of the favite didn't post the frag again and didn't even apologise so cancelled order and got a refund, ugh!
Think I will carry on with regular water changes and maintenance, won't add anything new until things have settled down and stayed settled for a few weeks.

 

So... how are things Sprogladite ? Are the platy and pink gonI hanging on?

 

So... how are things Sprogladite ? Are the platy and pink gonI hanging on?

Unfortunately the platy is totally bleached now which I am super bummed about. I've left the skeleton in as my conches are loving the algae growing on the skeleton and are almost always on it. The pink gonI is still pink but not out yet, despite me trying to tempt it with various types of coral food.
On the plus side, the acan that half bleached is coming back like a trooper, it's even started regrowing flesh where it had lost some on a couple of polyps.
Everything appears to be stable for now...long may that last. Still holding off buying anything new for a while but my dad is getting antsy now wanting to buy the female clownfish a mate. I literally started my rant with 'SO HELP ME GOD IF YOU BUY ANYTHING WITHOUT ME AGAIN....' hahaha

 

Ugh... I'm super bummed about that platy too. It's still strange to me how it suddenly started going downhill. I know that lighting was an issue, but still... it showed no sign, and then suddenly it did? Strange. Anyhow, platys, favias and favites don't always get the most love, but the family offers tons of color and is never the most expensive coral in the tank in my own experience, so I'm sure you'll have another awesome one someday. I love that you're leaving the skeleton in there for the snails. Dead coral is SOOOO important! Being originally from the Keys and still in South FL... well, an ancient dead reef is just below my feet, and we wouldn't be here without it. Seriously, I can't even dig a hole for a plant without a pick-ax!

So glad to hear that the acan is healing! They are hardy in my experience, and that's always nice when we're talking about corals.

YES! Looooong may stability last... and hide dad's keys!

 

So, after being horrendously well behaved I went out and got some fish! We bought the clownfish a friend, lawnmower blenny and another royal gramma who are now all in quarantine and doing very well. Corals have all been stable and doing well, chaeto seems to have stopped growing at the astonishing pace it was previously and algae in the display tank is finally dying down so hoping we are finished leaching phosphates from the marco rock.

Now very twitchy and needing a coral fix. I suspect a nice Favia is next on my list...

 

Bought another goniopora today. I nearly squealed when I saw it...it’s purple! You know how many times I’ve seen a purple goniopora? Never!! And to make it even better, it was only £20!! Bargain of the century pics to follow!

Ps also got another fan worm but unfortunately that’s just nowhere near as exciting as a PURPLE GONIOPORA

 

Awesome sauce!!! Can't wait!

 

Here’s my new star of the tank!

 

Such contrast is not always seen on gonis. It's very pretty and looks uber healthy. Win! Congrats!

Hoping you can share a whiter light pic soon.

 

It’s extended out more now it’s had a chance to settle in the guy in the store was like “hmm you know I’m not sure that’s a goniopora, let me check...”

And I’m over by the tank internally going “DUDE THIS IS A GONIOPORA ITS JUST COLOURED DIFFERENTLY!” waiting for him to check. Just as well he did though as the guy he checked with was the one who gave me the great price! Lol

 

Beautiful Goni.

 

Have had my eye on a couple of these since we started the tank. What do we think they are? Ball anemone? They’ve been growing slowly...they were tiny tiny when I first spotted them and are still smaller than a US cent coin is 6 months later. Thoughts?

 

Interesting... wish I could help. Does it have clear tentacles with little ball tips? Looks like it, but tough to tell. I've read a bit about ball anemones, in the pesty sense. It seems that it's a toss-up among other aquarists. Some say they aren't so invasive, so cool, another interesting critter to observe. Others go after them like they're aiptasia. Since you've reported slow growth, I think I'd be with the first group. They look pretty cool to me.

 

Yeah it does, the tips are a pinky lilac colour. I figure it’s too small to do too much damage so even if it’s a pest as long as it doesn’t spread everywhere I’m cool with it. They’re on a rock that only has some cats eye zoas wedged into a crevice so nothing too close to it I think it’s so interesting seeing the hitch hikers. I know people generally don’t like them but I find them fascinating!

 

Today was new coral day! Got a catalaphyllia, Seriatopora caliendrum, and a little green and purple acan frag. Will post pics once everything is settled in

I love new coral days ️

 

Here are a few snaps...need to find something better than my phone to take pics with as everything just comes out blue! Lol.

 

Your pics come out nice and clear though. Have you seen the orange filters that clip onto your phone? They do a nice job of filtering out the blue and letting the coral's colors shine.

Nice haul. Your new corals are beautiful! I've always loved elegance corals, but have always been scared. Hope your new one does well for you... and doesn't eat anyone.

 

hi! I know nothing about saltwater tanks, corals, or sw fish... but what I do know is that your tank is so pretty!!! just read your whole thread and now I want a sw tank) maybe I'll do a nano one day. love all the corals!! thanks for starting such a great thread!

 

Your pics come out nice and clear though. Have you seen the orange filters that clip onto your phone? They do a nice job of filtering out the blue and letting the coral's colors shine.

Nice haul. Your new corals are beautiful! I've always loved elegance corals, but have always been scared. Hope your new one does well for you... and doesn't eat anyone.

Haha yes I am a little bit worried that all my hermits are gonna disappear and that Toby the goby might get gobbled up because he keeps trying to hide behind it!! He is a silly fishy I guess time will tell, keep your fingers crossed for me will you! Haha

hi! I know nothing about saltwater tanks, corals, or sw fish... but what I do know is that your tank is so pretty!!! just read your whole thread and now I want a sw tank) maybe I'll do a nano one day. love all the corals!! thanks for starting such a great thread!

Aww thank you, that's so lovely to read! If you do ever start one up, I would really recommend doing a build thread - it's been great being able to look back on everything right from the start. I'm only 7 months in so I'm sure there will be a lot more to come on this thread