Duncan coral help

[sewagner86]

Hello!

I have a duncan, a trumpet and a hammer coral. All are fragile. The duncan looked fantastic until I got the hammer. Now it's drawn in and not so flowy. I currently have them down on the sand bed to acclimate. There is plenty of space between all of them. Did I mess up? I also have 3 hermit crabs, a few snails, a yellow watchman goby and a clownfish. Its a 20 gallon AIO IM tank. I also am looking for advice or somewhere to direct me on dosing the tank Thanks!

 

[Kooma]

You could run some activated charcoal to try and suck up any chemical warfare happening. Water parameters?

 

[Liquid361]

How old is the tank?

 

[FUNGI]

Looks like new tank.....sands too clean....LOL.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What are your lights and flow?

 

[ptrusk]

More light more flow get them off the sand

 

[sewagner86]

Looks like new tank.....sands too clean....LOL.

The tank is about 2 months old at this point.

What are your lights and flow?

I have a nicrew light. The make is at 40% i am unsure of par level. The flow....its pretty high flow. I have a wave maker that runs at 10% and then have the pumps for the tank running.

 

[Northern Flicker]

The tank is about 2 months old at this point.

I have a nicrew light. The make is at 40% i am unsure of par level. The flow....its pretty high flow. I have a wave maker that runs at 10% and then have the pumps for the tank running.

I grow my Duncan’s at the same level as my SPS. They seem to love light and flow.

There is a possibility that your new hammer brought a bacterial infection known as Brown Jelly Disease. Keep and eye out for brown “goo”.

 

[sewagner86]

You could run some activated charcoal to try and suck up any chemical warfare happening. Water parameters?

I have some carbon in the reactor currently. Would that work?

Water parameters tonight per my salifert tests are
Salinity 1.024
pH 8.15-8.3
Alkalinity 10.2-10.5
Ammonia I believe it's 0, but could be <0.15
Nitrates 10
Magnesium 990-1020
Calcium 360
Phosphate 0.03

I know I need to increase the magnesium and calcium. Anything else?

 

[sewagner86]

I moved the corals around a little bit when I fed the fish. I moved the hammer away from the duncan and the duncan does seem happier at this point.

 

[Kooma]

Id start a decent sized water change, your alk is high and mag is rather low.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank is about 2 months old at this point.

I have a nicrew light. The make is at 40% i am unsure of par level. The flow....its pretty high flow. I have a wave maker that runs at 10% and then have the pumps for the tank running.

How many watts is the nicrew light?
Assuming it is the 50 watt light, the intensity should be closer to 80%-85% IMO

 

[sewagner86]

How many watts is the nicrew light?
Assuming it is the 50 watt light, the intensity should be closer to 80%-85% IMO

It's a 100 watt light set at 40% peak

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I have some carbon in the reactor currently. Would that work?

Water parameters tonight per my salifert tests are
Salinity 1.024
pH 8.15-8.3
Alkalinity 10.2-10.5
Ammonia I believe it's 0, but could be <0.15
Nitrates 10
Magnesium 990-1020
Calcium 360
Phosphate 0.03

I know I need to increase the magnesium and calcium. Anything else?

Your alk is super high, and your mag and ca are low. What salt mix are you using?

I moved the corals around a little bit when I fed the fish. I moved the hammer away from the duncan and the duncan does seem happier at this point.

Looks much better.

 

[AmateurAlchemist]

Duncans are peaceful IME, hammers generally aren't too bad but can go on the offensive if underfed. The candy cane also being in a bad way starts to suggest a tank-wide problem.

There's no need for carbon unless you have some softies I'm not seeing. Even then, the chemical they excrete inhibits LPS growth more than anything. I've run LPS only tanks with no carbon for years.

Alk is high but fine IMO, I've run at 11 for years. Mg and Ca are low though. I keep Mg up at 1350-1400 and Ca at 400-450. Everything declined crazy quick when my Mg dropped to ~1100 once. I'd address those (slowly) and take it from there.

 

[sewagner86]

Your alk is super high, and your mag and ca are low. What salt mix are you using?

Looks much better.

I am using Fritz pro RPM salt. I had been using instant ocean when I first sat up the tank. I usually do a 2 gallon water change per week.

 

[sewagner86]

Duncans are peaceful IME, hammers generally aren't too bad but can go on the offensive if underfed. The candy cane also being in a bad way starts to suggest a tank-wide problem.

There's no need for carbon unless you have some softies I'm not seeing. Even then, the chemical they excrete inhibits LPS growth more than anything. I've run LPS only tanks with no carbon for years.

Alk is high but fine IMO, I've run at 11 for years. Mg and Ca are low though. I keep Mg up at 1350-1400 and Ca at 400-450. Everything declined crazy quick when my Mg dropped to ~1100 once. I'd address those (slowly) and take it from there.

I just got both the candy cane and the hammer corals this past weekend. One on Saturday and the other on Sunday. The duncan i have had for 2 weeks. I do try to feed the corals with some coral frenzy every other day so I don't forget. I also dose the tank with phytoplankton. Those are the only 3 corals I have in the tank

I can pull the carbon out of the reactor. Anything I might be able to run in there to help lower the Alkalinity? Any specific brand of magnesium and calcium that would work well? From my understanding, you want to adjust both slowly, correct?

 

[akmorphs]

I moved the corals around a little bit when I fed the fish. I moved the hammer away from the duncan and the duncan does seem happier at this point.

He looks a lot happier

 

[baitrunner]

I am using Fritz pro RPM salt. I had been using instant ocean when I first sat up the tank. I usually do a 2 gallon water change per week.

I was using RPM (blue bucket) and yes, it's always low in magnesium and alkalinity so I was dosing it up manually. I switched to the RPM reef pro (Red Bucket) and no longer have to dose.

 

[AmateurAlchemist]

I just got both the candy cane and the hammer corals this past weekend. One on Saturday and the other on Sunday. The duncan i have had for 2 weeks. I do try to feed the corals with some coral frenzy every other day so I don't forget. I also dose the tank with phytoplankton. Those are the only 3 corals I have in the tank

I can pull the carbon out of the reactor. Anything I might be able to run in there to help lower the Alkalinity? Any specific brand of magnesium and calcium that would work well? From my understanding, you want to adjust both slowly, correct?

Feeding 2-3 times per week is plenty. I'm feeding Reef Roids once at the start of the week and AB+ 3-4 days later atm and everything is thriving. Don't target feed if they're closed up- they're won't take anything in. Definitely don't overload them as small frags.

A low dose of carbon is fine from everything you've said, by all means leave it in but it shouldn't be affecting the corals either way.

I'd recommend using a salt that hits your target values then dose with whatever is readily available. If you use a salt that's way off base then dose to compensate, you risk unnecessary swings. Stability is the name of the game.

I use Red Sea Coral Pro then dose Red Sea ABC, NoPox and trace; partially because it works and partially because I have easy access to 4 Red Sea dealers, so availability is never an issue. Magnesium is magnesium