cabbage leather and finger leather coral status/placement - help?

[champion6sigma]

Can someone please advise on what their opinion is on how these coral look presently? I've had these in my tank for 2 days now and they seem slightly different than when I bought them at fish store. The leather one, most notably, not being as erect as before.

Is brighter more direct lighting better for these two guys? What about flow? Recommended feeding food and frequency, quanitity?

LFS says they use reef roid supplement.

I only have phytoplex and chromaplex right now from kent marine.

Thank you for any tips and advice.

 

[champion6sigma]

I have moved them to a corner of the tank rear, lowered intensity of lights and changed to less white light for a more blue effect. I'm using the xr30w pro radeon. The pics were taken with a bad camera phone. Lighting does not look like pictured. Colors do not match picture either. Cabbage is intense neon green and the fingers are a creamy or off white.. Lighting was actually whitish in the pictures....but i've sinced changed radeon settings.

 

[champion6sigma]

Low light is best, right?

 

[Mrramsey]

If you just put them in leave them for a few days. Mine took about 2-3 days to open up. I have my Cabbage bottom middle of the tank and my fingers are higher. Medium lighting on my tank

 

[champion6sigma]

If you just put them in leave them for a few days. Mine took about 2-3 days to open up. I have my Cabbage bottom middle of the tank and my fingers are higher. Medium lighting on my tank

Thanks. I called the LFS back...they said it may be the transition of tanks, why they are slightly looking "off" and also to try the acclimation mode on my lighting until they get used to the lights. They weren't using the same lighting as me...they seem to leave their coral only tanks with a true blue hue rather than my dusk to dawn setup.

Can you give any additional advice on feeding/care?

thank you

 

[Mrramsey]

Here are mine...

Just light... no direct feeding requires. They will go through a shedding period occasionally where they will close up and get a glossy look. No worries though 3-4 days and you will see some skin sluffing off then they will open back up.

 

[cloak]

Low light is best, right?

No... What else does good with minimum lighting? (just thrives) Nothing that I'm aware of. (NPC aside) There are limits, but I sure as hell didn't buy a "low light" setup to begin with. Keeping it BRIGHT is key in this hobby. JMO, GL.

 

[champion6sigma]

I have a cube 50 gallon tank with the xr30w pro...its above the water maybe 10 or 12 inches. Maybe the LFS assumed I'm runnning the pro at high levels? Do most people go full blast....and thats good for the tank as a whole? LFS also showed me some coral that he called "bleached" supposedly from high light..I think he said. I'm still learning about the power of the xr30...what settings are good....maybe LFS just meant start low for acclimation and then work way up...I think I've read posts in past of people who switch to LED lighting...and had to start low for corals then work on up. A different LFS store recommends the photonbreeder or something lights they sell that you only need to run those at 30 or 40 percent....

What do you think cloak? Maybe its best to define what high light is? Is PAR what most people here use for reference? I can tell you this. I had an old red sea max cube and the junk lights in there were not bright. Filled tank well as in not many shadowy areas, but my xr30 pro can blind our old sea max like the sun compared to a candle.

Nice specimens Ramsey! Thanks for the pic. The finger leather of mine does have some glossy looking parts....maybe it will be doing some shedding soon like you mentioned.

 

[champion6sigma]

I guess I just need a lot of direction. Besides output power of my lighting, I also need LED color power settings help. How much white or blue, UV, etc...

I had no idea that they really don't need direct supplementation. I follow one guys thread who feeds his coral daily but he does have quite a collection. The LFS told me once a week of reef roids is plenty. A small bottle should last me many months.
Other than that, water changes which replenish nutrients is sufficient?

I guess I've looked at too many threads with people so worked up over dosing this and that...and I'm not sure why...seems like the LFS's don't dose anything except occassionally or weekly.

 

[champion6sigma]

Here are mine...

Just light... no direct feeding requires. They will go through a shedding period occasionally where they will close up and get a glossy look. No worries though 3-4 days and you will see some skin sluffing off then they will open back up.

Hey, just saw your "stats" thing Mike. You've got the photon light system. One of the lFS is my area recommended it. I ended up getting a full ecotech system with mp40's vectra, radion, reeflink etc.. but he didn't think full power is what you ever want on these high ouput LED's. What do you run yours at around?

thanks

 

[champion6sigma]

Here are mine...

Just light... no direct feeding requires. They will go through a shedding period occasionally where they will close up and get a glossy look. No worries though 3-4 days and you will see some skin sluffing off then they will open back up.

What is the green hair like coral in the middle part of picture?

 

[cloak]

"Full blast" sounds like LED's to me. I'm old school. NO, PC's, VHO's and MH. I'm not really sure if there's a book that can really define how things will work, grow, color up etc, but having a 250 watt MH bulb over my standard 20 gallon tank would be overkill IMO. My heart just knows... A 250 watt Radium bulb over a 40 breeder is in my dreams though.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/lighting.php

 

[champion6sigma]

"Full blast" sounds like LED's to me. I'm old school. NO, PC's, VHO's and MH. I'm not really sure if there's a book that can really define how things will work, grow, color up etc, but having a 250 watt MH bulb over my standard 20 gallon tank would be overkill IMO. My heart just knows... A 250 watt Radium bulb over a 40 breeder is in my dreams though.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/lighting.php

Shake and bake time.

Ya i'll have to review the link, but it looks like it doesn't mention LED's.

I've got a great book written by an expert but since it was updated 8 or 9 years ago...theres no real mention of LED because the tech is new. Major strides have been made in last 2/3 years.

That being said...a true experts advice on running these things ...I've yet to find. I don't think I've found another LED'r that runs anything at 100 percent...but I haven't asked too many people yet.

I only know one other person online with a pro...and he keeps his way above tank and does not run at its highest.

The only true fact that I know is that LED's will grow coral just fine. My pro can grow anything.

I don't know the settings or what power of "my pro" is best for my setup or livestock....I very well may need to run them brighter....

 

[Mrramsey]

What is the green hair like coral in the middle part of picture?

Green hairy mushrooms