Help with first coral :/

[PharmD]

Hello. I am new to this hobby. I have been running my 29 gallon biocube for about 5 months now. I added live sand and live rock about two months apart. I had lots of life from my live rock (feather dusters, lots of pods, three snails). I ran the tank for about 2 months after I got the live rock, tested for nitrates (at zero), phosphates, and salinity ... all within range. I decided to buy a kenya tree coral since I heard they were hardy and were good for first timers. I placed it in the tank after acclimating it to temperature for about an hour. It looked GREAT! It opened up beautifully in about an hour and was good for the next 2 days. Then on the third day, it never opened up after the lights came on. It just stayed shrunken up. I read they are very good about expressing water changes, so I checked the nitrates and the salinity. The nitrates were at zero, but the salinity was a little low. So I added reef salt until it came back into range. That didn't help either. Half of the arms of the coral are very shrunken compared to the other half and are turning a different color. Please check out the pictures. The first one is of the coral when I first got it, and the second one is how it looks today. Please help me out. Any advice? Anything I can do? Diagnosis?

[briankmarsh1980]

it could be lots of things, it's almost impossible to kill a kenya...

did you acclimate to the water? or just floated it for temp?
what is your salinity? and how would it have lowered?, you didnt add salt directly to the tank to raise it did you?

it looks like something touched it..... but it is most likely adjusting to the new tank/lights maybe. what kind of light do you have?

I wouldn't worry to much just keep an eye on it and if it gets worse give us another pic and a list of all perams with numbers

[chuckdallas]

What lighting is it under? You can help the doctors (experts) by listing the tank measurements, sump info, filter info and lighting info, etc in a Signature line. I know a 29 gallon biocube is a standadrd package, but my LFS has 3 different lighting setups for sale. Listing all params might help too...the alk, calc, phos, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, temp, salinity, pH. I know you mentioned some of the params as "within range" but if you list the actual numbers, the real experts can help better.

[PharmD]

I really have no idea how the salinity was lowered. I did add some water before the coral was added to make up for evaporation, but I took the salinity measurement after the water was added. I understand the fact that salt can't disappear from a tank and it should really only be necessary when doing water changes. My test kit checks calcium (440 mg/L), carbonate hardness (dKH 10), phosphate (0.25 mg/L), and nitrates (0). Salinity is currently 28.2 ppt with specific gravity at 1.021.

Lighting is as follows:
1-36 watt 10,000K Daylight Compact Fluorescent Lamp
1- 36 watt Actinic 03 Blue Compact Fluorescent Lamp
3-.75 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED Lamps

As for the acclimation, I only floated it for temperature because I was told they were really hardy and don't need acclimation for salinity.

[lacosta28]

I would say that your salinty is a bit too low for your coral. I know fish have no problem in 1.020 but I think corals really shouldn't be in water that is below 1.023.

[jerpa]

Is that your salinity now or before you raised it? It seems low for coral and if it was even lower before that may be a problem. You want to keep it around 1.026. My Kenya tree stayed closed for about a week after I switched tanks. Funny thing was it did the same as yours. The day after the switch it opened up then closed for a week, shed, and has been doing great since, even when my alk dropped from 9dKh to 5dKh in 3 days. On a side note if anyone wants one of my MANY MANY Kenya frags..... lol

[BigGimp77]

Welcome to Reef Central!


I would raise your salinity up to 1.025 (slowly). Reef tanks should be kept around 1.025-1.026. Fish only tanks can be fine from 1.021-1.026 though. FYI, never add salt directly into the tank!

As stated, it is really hard to kill a Kenya tree.

You should always acclimate anything you buy to the water parameters in the tank. Usually this is done by drip acclimation. The only thing in salt water that I know if that is just temp acclimated is snails.

The only thing I can suggest is to keep your parameters in check, raise the salt up slowy, and try moving the Kenya Tree around in the tank. It may not like the flow or lighting it is getting in its current spot.

I just recently moved some Xenia's in my tank 2 weeks ago. They looked like they were bout to die, but now in their new spot they are spreading like wildfire.

[briankmarsh1980]

Wow your salinity is way low.... Just do some small water changes every couple days with water that's 35ppt to get your salinity where it needs to be. And always acclimate every thing even snails.

[BigGimp77]

Originally Posted by briankmarsh1980

And always acclimate every thing even snails.

I acclimate snails, but some say its not neccasry. Even reefcleaners.org (popular CuC site) says only to temp acclimate them. Then again they ship theirs mostly dry, that could be why.

[disc1]

My tanks stay matched to my fish store well enough and it's close enough to my house that I just temp acclimate everything. A couple of cupfulls of water from my tank into the bag for fish, but nothing for corals or snails or anything else. If I was buying somewhere else it might be a different story, guess I'm lucky on this one.

Always always always always always check at least the salinity in the bag before you start acclimating. The water in the bag will tell you how fast or slow to go.

[Lynnmw1208]

just curious, what are you using to test salinity? a refractometer is much more accurate than a hydrometer. I agree though if that is your salinity it needs to be raised... also how fast did you raise it before? if you do it too fast, it can shock things in the tank.

[mwilliams62]

PharmD you did not list your PH level??? I keep my salinity around 1.023 - 1.024 and evey time my PH drops my corals will look a little limp instead of plump...