adding corals

[ZOOT098]

hello all

do you have to use the same discression when adding corals that you do when adding fish I.E. one at a time wait awhile add another

or can you add a few at a time

 

[RyanG]

Add them whenever the system has stabilized they dont affect your bioload

 

[ZOOT098]

ok so here is a question

i got this green star polyp in the tank yesterday, it was closed as expected all last night

this morning it was open about 50%

today after work it was closed again

how long until it opens up and looks happy????

 

[NewbReefer]

give it a few days and it'll open up.

 

[ZOOT098]

thanks newb, by the way we are having the same heat wave in central pa, i froze some 1 gallon zip lock bags and put them in my sump, worked very well.

 

[NewbReefer]

glad to hear it, tryin to keep a tank at the right temp in the summer can be such a pain. What temp did your tank get up to?

 

[ZOOT098]

it wasnt real high, like 84 so i nipped it before it got too bad
but freeze about 4 of them because 1 will melt in like 30 minutes
that way you can swap them out

 

[NewbReefer]

yeah 84 is high but isn't to bad. The average temps of reefs around the ocean is 81 degrees so i keep my tank at 81 during the day, at night it drops to about 79.

 

[ZOOT098]

the ice worked well
dropped the temp about 1 1/2 degress in an hour
with 1 1 gallon bag of ice
i like to keep the temp around 79 +/-

 

[Bifferwine]

You don't have to wait for corals like fish, but it's also not a good idea to add a bunch of corals at once because if something is wrong you'll lose a lot more than if you added slowly.

Give your new coral a few days to adjust. Remember, they'll close up at night anyways, so it's normal for them to be closed for a little while in the morning when you turn the lights on.

 

[Doc]

try to add similar corals, meaning sps / lps / softies as opposed to a combo of all of them. Each coral will shoot out chemical warfare to establish territory when first introduced. It is evidenced by film or strings coming out of the coral. I like to add a few LPS all at once to keep the fighting to a minimum. Often SPS and Softies will really go at each other if added close together

-Doc

 

[McCrary]

Most SPS are pretty nice to one another, they will grow into each other and one will grow over the other unless they are stopped. I have SPS that are about 1/4" away from another and they don't hurt each other, it seems to be damaging when they touch one another. LPS have tentacles that they send out to clear the way because they expand and contract, where other coral don't do that.