Ricordea Failing

[bostonreefer]

I am having trouble with one of my corals that I hope you can help with. I have had it, a Ricordea, and two zoanthids for about two weeks. All three have been opening when the lights come on and closing up when it is dark; just what I expected. Last weekend I was doing a water change and notice that the Ricordea had come off its plug. I placed it on a nearby rock and it has looked great for the past week.

Here is a link to a picture of the coral from last Saturday...
http://db.tt/zt7U9oi ... and here is how it looks now...
http://db.tt/C0K6GrR .

The coral was closed up when I got home last night, and had been displaced on the rock. I decided to reattach it to the plug, using Two Little Fishies super glue. The latter picture was taken a few minutes ago: notice the brown stuff that looks like poop on the plug. The purple zoanthids are also exuding brown strings from their mouths, but otherwise look great. I have not fed any of them, and have been thinking about how to do that and keep the cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp away. Other occupants are a few hermit crabs and an assortment of snails.

Can you give me an idea of what is happening and what I can do? My levels are all perfect, nothing has changed in the tank in weeks. The tank has been up almost two months, has a metal halide light (it is a JBJ 28g Nanocube). My cheap hydrometer says 1.0235.

It is simply too much light? Not enough food? Parasites (though I see nothing)?

Thanks in advance for your help, Mike

[Original Fin]

Hi Mike,

Your salinity, if you can trust it from a hydrometer is a bit on the low side for a reef...1.025 would be better. I'd invest in a refractometer. That may or may not have anything to do withy your coral issues at the moment, but it's a starting point. I'd adjust up slowly. Everything should be done very slowly, especially in a small tank.

We'll need a little more info in order to help. Can you fill in the blanks a bit?

-What temp do you run at? Have you taken readings at night when it's coolest and at the end of day when your lights heat the tank to it's highest point?


-What are your specific measurements for: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and phosphates?

-What other livestock do you have in the tank?

-How long has this tank ben running?

-How often do you do water changes, and how much? Where do you get your water from? Is it tap, RO, RODI, distilled?

-Please describe your filtration. Live Rock/sand (how much?), skimmer?, Mechanical biofilters? Socks, carbon, denitrates, dephosphates, etc...

-What is your lighting schedule?


Generally speaking, when corals expell long dark strigy masses of zooxanthellae, it's not a good sign. You haven't by chance treated that tank with meds of any sort have you?

[bostonreefer]

My temp is between 78 at night and 80-81 during the day. Unmeasurable Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate. PH is between 8.0 and 8.5, alkalinity between 80 and 120 (sorry, that is as close as the test kits can give me), other values I have no way to measure.

Other occupants are two clowns, one pygmy hawkfish, a cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, assorted snails, a bunch of hermit crabs and two zoanthids. Everyone seems to leave the corals alone, except when I feed the tank and then the shrimp crawl all over everything and make the corals close briefly.

The tank has been up for two months now, is lit by HQI 9 hours a day, and is skimmed. 32 pounds of live rock (with corraline algae growning and spreading nicely) and 40 lbs of live sand. I have been changing 5 gallons every two weeks, using saltwater prepared at my LFS. I have added nothing else to the tank, neither supplements nor medications.

I added the corals like two weeks ago. The zoanthids look great, though they do regularly expel something from their mouths. Their color is better than ever, so I expect that it is waste they are ejecting (eject is the right word for the brown zoa, it literally shoots out little packages) and not zooxanthellae. The ricordea florida also looked great until two days ago, and then suddenly contracted and has stayed that way. In the light it was about two inches or so across and very textured, at night it would contract to a little under an inch and glow green in the blue moonlight leds. Now it is contracted down to barely half an inch all the time and folded over itself so hardly any of the green bumps show, which still glow in the "moonlight" but somewhat less so.

I have moved the ricordea to a somewhat shady spot, though that has had no visible effect as yet.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

Mike

[Original Fin]

One thing that jumps out is the swing in PH. What is the period of time between those high and low readings?

Also, the Alkalinity reading you provided is not in a unit of measure that I'm familiar with. Looking for a reading either in DKH, or Meq/l. Are you using a saltwater test kit for that?

Difficult to pinpoint without those other parameters. Cal, Alk and Mag are the three most important parameters to check and maintain for a reef IMO. All your other parameters could be perfect, but if these levels are too high, too low, and/or unbalanced with eachother, you might as well forget about inverts and corals. High phosphates will irritate and possibly kill some corals, so you should get yourself a Hanna Phosphate Checker, or some other kind of electronic photometer. The liquid hobby test kits aren't capable of providing the low level resolution needed.

The only other thing I can think of with the zoas expelling "stuff" is that they could possibly be spawning. That would be tiny little spheres though, and most likely only at night. That's generally considered a very good sign as far as water quality, lighting and everything else goes, but I kind of doubt that's what it is in such an immature system.

[Original Fin]

I'm a MA native BTW. Go Sox!

[chrisfont23]

The only other thing I can think of with the zoas expelling "stuff" is that they could possibly be spawning. That would be tiny little spheres though, and most likely only at night. That's generally considered a very good sign as far as water quality, lighting and everything else goes, but I kind of doubt that's what it is in such an immature system.

I had the same "issue" - I thought my zoas were dying and they actually reproduced. I would give it a few days and see how your riccordea looks after that.

[bostonreefer]

One thing that jumps out is the swing in PH. What is the period of time between those high and low readings?

Also, the Alkalinity reading you provided is not in a unit of measure that I'm familiar with. Looking for a reading either in DKH, or Meq/l. Are you using a saltwater test kit for that?

Sorry I was unclear... the daytime PH values is between 8.0 and 8.5, that is the resolution of the test kit (its a 5 in 1 test strip). I'm not at home now so I am not sure what the Alkalinity is read in. I will invest in better kits as the budget allows.

I will say that my LFS (Skipton's in Boston/Roxbury, since you are from MA) has been measuring my water quality with precision since I started the tank and though I don't have the measurements with me I am assured that Ca, Mg, and pH are all on the mark. The only water introduced to the tank is made at Skipton's from their RO system so I don't think phosphate is an issue.

I would love to think they were spawning (no way, my observations are during the day and it is definitely waste) or splitting but the ricordea just doesn't look that good.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[NoobSalt]

Hey, sorry to randomly jump on on this thread, but I live in Boston and I was wondering a couple questions. How much do you pay for the RO water at skiptons? I've been there once, got my BTA from them and thats it. I usually go to Tropical Isle in frammingham and ive had no issues with anything. If you check out Tropical Isle, I know they have the master api kits which are real good for like 35$.