New to reefing looking for help

[Aqua Man]

Welcome Coral Noob
Tank looks nice. Hermit probably just checking out the new addition.
How long the Zoa been in the tank? Sometimes it takes a couple days for them to re open after a tank transfer.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,

Im new to the reefing community and glad to be a part of an awesome hobby. I've got tons of questions. Right now my tank is still I the noob stage. I've only got two corals..a green star polyp and a zoanthid frag. Right now my issue is that the zoanthids are not opening at all. They are very tight (see image). I'm running a 20 gallon with two 240gph powerheads. I have a Fluval Nano Marine Sea light that im not sure is set right. Right now I've set it on 25% blue and 25% magenta. As far as I know my water parameters are good.

Any advice would be great. Im also looking to expand my coral base so I'm open to any suggestions as to what to add and where to get them. Im in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area.

Add some more white light intensity and flow towards, not at zoa. Also give it gentle blasts with a Turkey baster.If no change in 24 hrs, dip the frag in hydrogen peroxide for about 3-5 minutes. Rinse in RO water before returning it to the tank

 

[vetteguy53081]

Welcome to the R2R community !!!

 

[Reefnman2]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r!

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! Welcome to R2R !!!

 

[CoralNoobDude]

Welcome Coral Noob
Tank looks nice. Hermit probably just checking out the new addition.
How long the Zoa been in the tank? Sometimes it takes a couple days for them to re open after a tank transfer.

Actually I just added it to the tank Monday. I guess I was expecting it to react like my GSP. Added that and it opened right away. So it'll be closed for a few days?

 

[Fires Fish]

 

[W1ngz]

Actually I just added it to the tank Monday.

Oh man ok. While all of the advice above has been great as usual, I'm gonna call this whole thread a false alarm... lol

GSP is about the only coral that will open right away regardless of conditions. Some corals take a few days, others a few weeks to settle in. If or when you move on to acropora or other SPS you may be waiting for months for it to finally colour up and show any decent growth.

 

[Murica]

Welcome!!!

 

[BeejReef]

Welcome friend

 

[Bigbaby]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[Aqua Man]

As long as the hermits don’t bother the Zoa constantly, yes they should open in a day or 2. If not, let us know and we can help.

 

[CoralNoobDude]

Took some of my tank water to the LFS. Tank parameters as follows:

Alk: 9.2
pH: 8.1
Magnesium: 1000 ppm
Calc: 190 ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm

Also took some of the sand to the store and the lady there told me she thinks I have "dinofragle" something. Told me to keep the tank lights off for a few days and vacuum up the brown algea in the sand.

I was wondering what this stuff was and thought it wasn't an issue because it only seemed to appear during the day. Thought it was fish waste. Any tips on how to get rid of dinofragle?

 

[Rick Mathew]

Welcome to the R2R Family…Great to have you



…Explore…Learn…Share---Practice Patience

 

[W1ngz]

*dinoflagellates. Look around there's a new thread every other day on them.

I don't want to overstate things, but your calcium and magnesium are catastrophically low. Double check the salinity and device you are using. I can't understand how the store would simply give you numbers like that and not give you immediate instructions on verifying things and correcting them.

 

[CoralNoobDude]

*dinoflagellates. Look around there's a new thread every other day on them.

I don't want to overstate things, but your calcium and magnesium are catastrophically low. Double check the salinity and device you are using. I can't understand how the store would simply give you numbers like that and not give you immediate instructions on verifying things and correcting them.

Oh she did...I got some Magnesium and Calc dosing products. However she asked if I had any SPS or LPS and I dont. So she said the mag and calc levels being low for zoas is not a cause for them to be closed. She said it's more likely that they need a few more days. And just today I see them opening up slightly. So I guess patience is what I need .

The dinofragalette(?) sounds like a bigger problem though.

 

[W1ngz]

Follow the stores instructions if that's who you trust but this is what I see in those numbers:

The problem is how low they are. With a new tank and only a few soft corals and regular water changes, numbers like that should not be possible. The only way it could be is if the test was bad, the numbers were written down wrong or the salinity is incorrect when making water.

Something is wrong and it's not about buying more stuff at the store.

 

[Dragon174]

Welcome to R2R!

Yes there are a ton of threads on dino's. The first thing you need to do is cut the lights and get your nitrates up. They shouldn't be 0. This will help with the problem

 

[yan2pr]

Welcome to R2R!!