newbie

[mattyraz]

hi all ,
I am now 2 months in with my 1st tank..40g display + 20g sump ..just got past the new tank syndrome, and things are starting to mature.
after making big water changes over the past few weeks my levels have been stable for about a week ,0 ammonia 0 nitrite, just a tad of nitrate , ph 8.2 ,I have had 2 clowns in for about a month and are doing great..i added my first coral and it seems happy...is it normal to discharge what looks like brown string from the heads..it did this last night..closed up but then back to normal today coral is a green tortch coral ...any advice on easy colourful corals for a starter and fish.

thanks

 

[KaZeR.UK]

Zoas are easy, just watch for the toxins. Also the discharge from the torch could just be poo? Either that or the coral could be stressed due to lighting or if nitrate was too high but if you have everything set up right I would guess it's poo?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

What do you have for lights? What you see is the zooxanthellae. Zoo are a type of algae that lives in most corals it's actually a dinoflagellate. But this is the good kind and they're the reason corals photosynthesize and gives them and anemones their color and growth. There is a lot more to it than that but that's a quick run down.


Lights are very important and can be expensive. You might have a problem but it depends on what lights you're using and how high of settings do you have them at.

 

[gone fishin]

What you describe seeing on the torch I would suspect to be sweeper tentacles.

 

[heathlindner25]

You might have just witnessed your Coral pooping

 

[mattyraz]

thanks all for the info ,for my lighting I have the SANRISE led with sunrise/sunset..they come on at 10am blues/whites for an hour...then throughout the day turn daylight but not too bright..until it starts dimming around 6pm / sunset 7.30 ..lights out 9.00 .
as I am new to the hobby I suppose its trial and error + advice from fellow members

 

[gone fishin]

As far as the lighting goes, IMO a lot of it is trial and error.