favia question

[tkdwoody]

I've had a favia in my tank for a few days
My tank is four months old and the LFS said it should do well.
How do i know if it is not doing well. I have had a bad track record w/ inverts. I can't keep snails alive to save my life. I don't want the favia to die.
Also when do the tentacles come out for it to feed?

 

[Justin74]

Snails can be sensitive to the alk and salinity swings of a new tank(among a plethera of other things). Depending on the snail your getting to could explain there poor survivability. Some come from more temperate waters and and get pushed on the unknowing tropical fish consumer. Try to stick with the hardier carribean Astraea snails, maybe that might help.

Good sign of health is no loss of color(and hopefully an increase!) no recession of tissue or being recessed into it's skeleton. Durring the night it may also display it's tenticles which also is a good sign of contentment. Can be spot fed, but with a new tank would only start once every couple weeks with just a few bits of mysid or something similar. Fish pellets are also an excellent choice. Just make sure that your system doesnt get overloaded initiallly, if nitrates become a problem slow it back a bit untill your systems natural filtration can catch up. Eventually it will and feedings can and should be increased, but this takes months. Always keep in the back of your head,,, Nothing good happens fast! And you should be ok, education is key there is a learning curve so just hang in there and enjoy the ride!!Good luck:thumbsup:

-Justin

 

[tkdwoody]

there is a spot on it, i cant remember if it's new or not, but all you see is the skeleton, does it recess back and forth? will it come out again, is this bad? how do i make sure it lives

 

[Justin74]

Well not knowing if it's old or new your guess is as good as mine

In the meantime just make sure you stay on top of your water quality and it should heal back over within a few weeks depending on the size of the spot. If algae is a problem which is to be expected right now just use a turkey baster or some other form of a syrenge to gently blow on the skeleton to make sure detritus doesnt settle and algae starts to grow on the skeleton. Basically keep it clean so it can heal over it.

-Justin

 

[Brickyardpub]

I'm still a relative new-b in the salt world and definitely no expert, but I myself picked up a Favia about 4 months ago. For starters, before i dove into corals I read a more than a few books on the subject ( see : Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman ) definitely read , read and read.

Mine seems to be doing well, here's a picture..

Judging by what most say about keeping corals healthy and growing :

1. make sure your water params are up to snuff.
- The obvious ... no ammonia, Nitrites
- Low or no Nitrates
- Low or no Phosphates
- Run High Quality act. Carbon ( see: Filter Guys sponsor link )
- Make sure lighting is sufficient
- Make sure you have proper flow ( position coral to flow, not flow to coral )
- Keep Calcium, ALK , Mag up to properly balanced reef levels
- USE RO/DI water only for your tank, if you don't have a unit... its worth it to invest in one, well worth the 150-200 bucks IMO
( see filter guys , great to work with )
- start low in tank to acclimate and move up from there
- watch crabs in your CUC, sometimes they crawl on them and can damage the soft flesh
- ummm... i think thats most of the basics ???
- watch for detritus, sand and fish poop collecting
- steady pH, Temp
- properly functioning skimmer w/ good maint sched

I have done all the above based on reading and asking questions on here over the last few months. FWIW here's my tank params and routine

Light : 6 x 54 watt T-5 ( 3 total hours Dusk/Dawn ; 12 hours Full lights )
Position : about 8 inches below surface as you see in pic
Current : Koralia, 1,2,3 in tank and Mag 700 as return ( about 600 gph after head loss )
Feeding : Coral Frenzy weekly, Hand feed small chunks of fresh shrimp, mussels twice a week, phyto once every 2 weeks, Zooplankton dosed once every week ) algae and film removed from glass twice weekly

AMM 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0 ( undetectable in water stream )
Calcium 420
ALK 2.5
Mag 1310

pH 8.2 steady w/ reverse light cycle on refugium ( cheato )
Temp 79 steady

well..... i think that sums up my setup and I've been going along pretty well. Every new coral I add seems to be pretty happy, fully open and no color loss.

It seems like a lot to keep an eye on, but i think once you get to know your tank ( year for me ) you can sort of spot what seems to be off and correct it. Just be and info sponge and learn whatever you can about the livestock you have and the equipment you run and what the equipment does in general. It's worked for me! Good luck.

 

[Justin74]

Good advice. In a mixed tank skimmer is always a safe tool to be using. However on one of my other tanks I had very excellent results using a refugium with chaetomorpha that just sucked up nutrients and in turn harbored and kicked out pods to feed the fish and coral. This system was skimmerless for 2+years. LPS really thrive with plenty of feedings and 15ppm Nitrates and below arent a bad thing.

Just another way to skin a cat..

Brickyardpub that is a awesome colony you have. I think you would be floored to see the difference if you kept it down low, even partially shaded in some areas. Alot of LPS when kept up high can get a lil washed out, goes back to alot of us just recently realizing how trully intense T5's can be. I moved my blue and pink favia up to the middle to see what would happen and within a week it was lightening up to a green color and the pink eyes became less intense. It's now back down on the sand and getting its blue back.

Just a thought, works out conveniently to as the tank gets stocked and realestate becomes more of a commodity

-Justin

 

[Justin74]

Here's a good example regarding that favia I was talking about, here it is when I first got it:

The metallic blue coloring is pretty hard not to notice.. But here it is after just leaving it in direct light even on the sandbed for a couple weeks:

So at that time I was thinking 'well maybe it just isnt getting enough..' so that's when I proceeded to move it mid tank in direct light. Then it really started to fade to a limey pale green. Which showed me they are not very light tolerant if attempting to maintain or increase coloring.

-Justin