tube coral problem

[tangafish]

i got part 1 of my tbs 5/31 which included a turkey mussel with some tube corals on it, it has been out fully and had full color until the last couple days, now all of the tubes are white with just barely the orange tips, my water levels are good, temp good, i have been feeding w/dt, even some, marine snow and the normal suplements. any ideas?

 

[scowiii]

Some of those pieces will just die. Dont worry about it. Second part of my package had more of them in and they are doing good.

 

[moseynme]

Hi there, tanga...I had the same thing happen with mine. I upped the calcium a bit and that seemed to help. They're not fully revived yet, but they seem to be coming out of it....

 

[tangafish]

i will try upping my calcium a bit, i have been adding it but since new tank probably needs a little extra boost. i have seen so many pics and their rocks had the tube corals all over them, mine doesnt and i hate to loose them. i'm sure will have alot more in part 2

 

[figuerres]

A while back someone posted about phospahtes causing problems with corals.

some recent things that have happend to my tank now have me thinking that this is a big part of the tube coral story.

I now think that some corals may be a *LOT* more sensitive to this than others.

I bet if we do more water chnages and run some phosphate removal -- like a phosban reactor etc... that we may see a lot more healty tube corals and some others....

right now I have ordered some two little fishes phos media and the reactor , I am 99.9999% sure that my tank has way to much due to my failure to change water and other bad habits.

I'll see what happens over the next few weeks and report the results here in the TBS area.

 

[voodude]

Hiya tangafish .. haven't heard any news as of late .. sorry to hear it is not the best. At about 3 months now and have lost only a couple of small tubes. Another started to bleach, but has come back over the last month or so. Just got Calc suppliment today and will try as the level is a little low ... also MAGN. I'll try slowly and let you know also. Sounds like Richard has good stuff for your part2 ... good luck ... don't forget to flush the new rock before putting it in the 135. (I used seltzer and it helped a lot to get unwanteds to the surface of the rock and picked them off with forceps).

 

[tangafish]

hey voodude, nice hearing from ya, i am going to flush a few of my rocks again there is still some gorilla crabs in there but the are still small, i have tried using the bottle trap and shrimp and they arent buying it..i used seltzer water before i put in there, do you think it would hurt the rock if i just did a full dip of the rock in the seltzer that because they apparantley are down in the cracks and crevices. i have also seen mention of doing a high salinity dip, i just dont want to damage any of the life on or secondly cause it to recycle. i am using phosphate control granules in my sump, i dont have reactor that, honestly that is beyond my experience so any info in this area is welcome.

 

[voodude]

I haven't checked phos, but am going to now ... when u do the seltzer thing .. I used a tupperware dishpan and a turkey baster to squirt it in the holes ... you should then see them pop in and out and you can grab them with forceps or tweezers or ur fingers if you're tough !!! hahahaha .. it didn't hurt the stuff on the rock at all ... started coming out 30 minutes after it was in the tank ... lots of growth.

 

[moseynme]

Hey tanga - I think figuerres is probably more right with the phosphates than I was with the calcium...

I had forgotten about the phosphates being out of wack in my tank at the same time. Did a water change and then I upped the calc... Maybe it was a combination ....water change + raising calcium??? Too newbie to know for sure

Nichele

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10245055#post10245055 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moseynme
Hey tanga - I think figuerres is probably more right with the phosphates than I was with the calcium...

I had forgotten about the phosphates being out of wack in my tank at the same time. Did a water change and then I upped the calc... Maybe it was a combination ....water change + raising calcium??? Too newbie to know for sure

Nichele

for example i have gorgonians, shrooms, brains and some other stuff that seems to just grow no mater what.

but I have seen the tubes and corline decline and recede.
also I recently got some other hard corals -- acropora and others
that were great at first and then did what I haveseen the tube corals do.

and suring this same time I have seen green alge start to come back.... and I havebeen bad about water chnages.... and feeding some greedy fish -- and that would be a source of the phos.

so it looks like if the tube coral is happy and good looking then many others will be also.

but they may act as our "ultimate phosphate test" that as soon as they look poorly we should check for phosphate at very low levels and start cleaning and water chnaging etc...

looking for my FexEx Saturday deliver with the phosphate reactor kit right now.

 

[tangafish]

well that phosphates seem to be the concensus, i dont have a test for that so guess i will have to find one, i added some phosban in my sump last week in hopes it would prevent this, i think i am going to break down and get the phosphate reactor and maybe a calcium reactor. i have never used either of them before but i have also never invested as much in a tank as i have this time so will be worth the extra expense i guess..i am pretty consistent with my water changes and supplements etc, my tanks are definitely my obsession so that isn't the problem, how much did your reactor cost i havent really priced them yet?

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10245987#post10245987 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tangafish
well that phosphates seem to be the concensus, i dont have a test for that so guess i will have to find one, i added some phosban in my sump last week in hopes it would prevent this, i think i am going to break down and get the phosphate reactor and maybe a calcium reactor. i have never used either of them before but i have also never invested as much in a tank as i have this time so will be worth the extra expense i guess..i am pretty consistent with my water changes and supplements etc, my tanks are definitely my obsession so that isn't the problem, how much did your reactor cost i havent really priced them yet?

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps/ps_Vi...0g_Phosban_Media_with_FREE_Fish_Collection_CD!!!_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Filters_Inline__Specialty_Phosphate_Reactors~vendor~.html

46.99 + a small pump and shipping.

no where near the cost of a calcium reactor.
really it's just a container that you can force water thru, you can use them with carbon or any other media.

I am not planning on getting this but reading about it was interesting:
Korallin BioDenitrator S-1502 w/ Eheim 1048 Pump
this is convertable to a Ca reactor by adding the CO2 parts later if one needed the denirtification for a while.


seems like a ca reactor is one of the really expensive things to add..... other than the lights, the chiller and the skimmer....
oh well, if I could hawk all that stuff at reatil I could buy a used car I guess

:eek2: