i need sps help...

[nemofish2217]

i tried posting something like this over in the "reef discussion" forum, but did not get many hits...i was hoping to get better results here... so here is my story..

Tank is 25hx18dx25w, has been running for about 6 months or so. all other aspects can be seen below in "tank info." Well, this tank is going to be a sps and clam only tank. I recently bought some frags, and i thought they would be okay in my tank because i already had a couple... list:
Bali green slimer 6"
Unidentified acro frag 3"
Orange monti cap (size of quarter)
i also have an ultra blue crocea clam.
All three of these have been doing great for about 2 or 3 weeks. I got these frags in the mail:
tri color validia 2"
Pink Milli 3"
orange and green monti digitata 2" each
Tenuis 2"
Blue tipped salago 1"
yellow formosa 3"

Well, i acclimated them over a period of about 2 hours, and they all appeared to be fine. polyps started coming out within a few hours... this morning, before the lights came on, i was looking in my tank and saw that the pink Milli looked like it might be bleaching in the middle. well, when the lights came on, it looked more like the tissue was falling away from the skeleton (which i assumed to be rtn). I quickly fragged most of the frag, and so far the two little frags are okay...i think they will probably die also, but i had to try. Also, i noticed a small portion of the yellow formosa looked the same....but it was very small. So, i snapped off the small piece and put the frag in the shade under a rock.

My question is, what causes this? Is it because of the stress from shipping? I was thinking that it could have also been from putting the coral too close to the lights, but i really dont know. The other 5 frags look fine, polyps extension normal, and they are pretty close to the light as well. I just want to make sure that i am not doing anything wrong or if i could help them... I really just need some input and perhaps "peace of mind." I want to make sure i do things right...

Water Param:
Nitrates- 0
nitrites- 0
Ammonia- 0
p.h.- 8.2-8.3
Alk- 9.6 dkh
Calcium- 430 ppm
and my mg test kit is in the mail as well as my B-ionic 2 part. I have been using kent calcium and super buffer..... Thanks for any help

 

[Vampire2]

Did you use epoxy?

 

[Mchava]

it will actualy deppend on the frag and if the frag was from a wild colonie or an aqua culture(from a tank). I have found that wild frag piece dont do verry well when they are shipped and ended up rtning. Here is something i do when I first get frags home. I take the frag and glue it to a small piece of lr. I use rock-crazyglue gel-marine epoxy(green/white putty)-crazyglue gel-frag. Then I let the frag sit for about 1min out of water. The reason I do this is that I want the coral to put out a slime coat on it self. What I think this does is help the coral acclimate better to that tank since its natural deffens for them, also let the slime come off by it self. This has worked for my on all of my sps and I have not had any dies since I started doing this.

 

[drake66]

yea the slime trick is very good, i do it for like about a minute also. good call mario!

 

[nemofish2217]

Vampire2: No, i used super glue gel instead of epoxy

Mchava: they are aquacultured frags i believe... and I couln't do the frag-out-of-water trick, because the rock i was gluing onto was a large rock, that i was unable to ake out.

So, is stress the primary cause of rtn? How long until i know that i am "out of the woods" with these guys? Its morning, and i dont see any worse rtn on either of the pieces... how long should i leave the yellow formosa in the shade? thanks for any help...

 

[nemofish2217]

i still need help on this guys.... i have about 300 bucks so far invested in my sps...i would like not to lose them, so any input at all would be greatly appreciated....

 

[Mchava]

hey nemofish I would still use the smaller rock trick the reason I do that is just in case I have to move the corals to a new location some coral will love more flow or less flow this way you can move them around and you dont have to take the piece and break it from the main stem.

 

[nemofish2217]

okay....i will be sure to do this in the future...as for now, do i have to be concerned about more rtn? I am suddenly paranoid.... if i understand things correctly, it will take a few weeks for the corals to coral back up any way, correct? but Mchava, thanks for your reply...

i didn't know if this might have something to do with things.... my light, (corallife 150 watt 10 k DE HQI pendant) sits only about 5 1/2 to 6 inches over the tank.... i don't think this is too close, but im not sure. (closest coral is about 10 or 11 inches from light....)