will my sps corals be ok without a skimmer for...

[jenreef]

i just got new sps corals yesterday. and today i found out that fed ex backed up the date that the skimmer was going to come. and now my skimmer is going to come on friday which that's in 3 days. will my sps do fine without a skimmer until then? right now they are brown due to me probably not having a skimmer and due to the fact i just got them yesterday so there colors are still not showing up. but they have good polyp extension. any advice will be greatly appreciated. by the way they are on the sand right now light acclimating

 

[sminker]

need more details.

coloration could be anything from lighting, Po3, Nitrates, Calcium/Alk out of whack, etc...

SPS are picky. You need good water conditions and high lighting for most of the species.

 

[jenreef]

i know my levels are not a problem because i have a green montipora and another sps coral and they are all doing perfect. been having them for a month now. i have a 6 bulb tek light fixture on a 55 gallon tank. so it's not my water quality or my lights

 

[Allmost]

you wrote "right now they are brown due to me probably not having a skimmer "

and yet on next post u say you have no water quality Issues ! hmmm

anyways, besides the corals being brown due to water quality (or maybe the fact that they are at the bottom !!!! you only have t5 lighting, t5s can not shock them lol, u do light accilimation if you have 400W MHs)
the only thing that u are missing while the skimmer is not there is the posibility of depletion of oxygen, I would put a air stone in the sump at least for now till u get ure skimmer .

PS. your other SPS are fine with no skimmer ? and ure only worried about the new ones ? some species could be harder to care for.

 

[sminker]

i know my levels are not a problem because i have a green montipora and another sps coral and they are all doing perfect. been having them for a month now. i have a 6 bulb tek light fixture on a 55 gallon tank. so it's not my water quality or my lights

What color and type of SPS is it? Did it have good coloration when you bought it?

Montiporas are easy. Acros and other types of SPS can be tricky.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

A skimmer only reduces the DOC's in a tank, it's not directly linked to SPS health in any way. I was talking on RC a few days ago with a guy that keeps SPS without a skimmer completely. So yeah, as long as you have flow and all that you're fine for 3 days without a skimmer. Good PE is a good sign too.

Color of the coral is another matter altogether and if they were just shipped to you it might be weeks before they color up.

 

[nvdiz]

your corals will survive w/o a skimmer for 3 days

 

[jenreef]

you wrote "right now they are brown due to me probably not having a skimmer "

and yet on next post u say you have no water quality Issues ! hmmm

anyways, besides the corals being brown due to water quality (or maybe the fact that they are at the bottom !!!! you only have t5 lighting, t5s can not shock them lol, u do light accilimation if you have 400W MHs)
the only thing that u are missing while the skimmer is not there is the posibility of depletion of oxygen, I would put a air stone in the sump at least for now till u get ure skimmer .

PS. your other SPS are fine with no skimmer ? and ure only worried about the new ones ? some species could be harder to care for.

i don't have a skimmer right now but i do a 6 gallon water change every week and i test my water every week and all my levels are perfect. probably my caulerpa and chaeto have something to do with my levels being good. i thought you were suppose to light acclimate all your corals? i'm confused even at the website (reefgeek) were i bought my lights it said becareful with sps corals to light acclimate them because they will bleach due to the very strong lighting. just becasue they are not medal halides don't mean they are not strong lighting. i do beleive obviously a 400w mhs will be stronger lighting. i know the person who had the corals had medal halides. but they were in the car for very long almost 2 hrs drive and he made a stop some were. so the colors were probably int he car close to 3 hrs. with no light. so i don't want to have the corals go from no lighting to being at the top of the rocks were the lighting is strong. do you think they can be stressed form the drive? do you suggest me putting them at the top? i just don't want to bleach them?

 

[jenreef]

A skimmer only reduces the DOC's in a tank, it's not directly linked to SPS health in any way. I was talking on RC a few days ago with a guy that keeps SPS without a skimmer completely. So yeah, as long as you have flow and all that you're fine for 3 days without a skimmer. Good PE is a good sign too.

Color of the coral is another matter altogether and if they were just shipped to you it might be weeks before they color up.

i do have high flow in my tank. thank you so much for answering my question. i had a feeling it will take weeks to color up. to bad because i am dying to know how these corals are going to look under my tank lighting

 

[jenreef]

your corals will survive w/o a skimmer for 3 days

thank you so much. it's a relief hearing that

 

[Allmost]

none of my SPS get like that in a car ride, maybe it was hot though

I'm sorry cause I thought when u got it and put them in your tank they went brown. if they went brown before hand, ure doing it correctly

it will take a couple weeks for them to come back though.

skimmer as others said has no effect on SPS, (besides nutrition control over time) bnesides the added oxygen, but if ure fow is fine, u shold be fine

absolutely nothing to worry about.

 

[jenreef]

so now my question is should i put the corals at the top or leave them on the sand. they came from a medal halide tank and i have t5's (6 bulb tek fixture under a 55 gallon tank)

 

[jenreef]

none of my SPS get like that in a car ride, maybe it was hot though

I'm sorry cause I thought when u got it and put them in your tank they went brown. if they went brown before hand, ure doing it correctly

it will take a couple weeks for them to come back though.

skimmer as others said has no effect on SPS, (besides nutrition control over time) bnesides the added oxygen, but if ure fow is fine, u shold be fine

absolutely nothing to worry about.

it was very hot outside almost 90 degress. when i seen the corals in the bag they were already brown. sorry for the mix up i should have explained better. i have very good flow in my tank 2 hydor koralia evolution 1400 each. my question now is should i put the corals at the top or leave them on the sand?

 

[nvdiz]

no matter where they're from, its best to leave them on the sand and slowly bring them up. IMO

 

[GhostCon1]

I have sps dominant in my tank with no skimmer, some of my corals are browning out but the tank doesn't have RO/DI water yet, I need to do a WC.

Haven't run a skimmer in over a month. Nice polyp extension on almost all of my corals.

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

You're welcome for the answer! Glad we can help out.

no matter where they're from, its best to leave them on the sand and slowly bring them up. IMO

+1 on this-- always light acclimate your coral no matter what, no matter what the tank lighting was, no matter what the coral light req's are-- they're stressed from movement and giving them a little shade gives them time to recover and adjust to your tank's parameters.

I've placed corals I just got immediately high in my tank, thinking that they would need the light more than acclimation-- I was wrong and it only cost me time over the long run, I had to move them down then back again.

With SPS the key is slow and steady, you aren't going to get brilliant colors overnight or anything, it'll take weeks of consistent and patient work. But the payoff is worth it! :thumbsup:

 

[ChicagoReefOne]

my question now is should i put the corals at the top or leave them on the sand?

Oh I nearly forgot, I don't quite know what you have in mind with "on the sand" but don't let sand get on the coral, those two just don't mix. If sand is being blown on the coral find somewhere that the coral is out of the sand's path.

 

[RRaider]

you wrote "right now they are brown due to me probably not having a skimmer "

and yet on next post u say you have no water quality Issues ! hmmm

anyways, besides the corals being brown due to water quality (or maybe the fact that they are at the bottom !!!! you only have t5 lighting, t5s can not shock them lol, u do light accilimation if you have 400W MHs)
the only thing that u are missing while the skimmer is not there is the posibility of depletion of oxygen, I would put a air stone in the sump at least for now till u get ure skimmer .

PS. your other SPS are fine with no skimmer ? and ure only worried about the new ones ? some species could be harder to care for.

Where do some of you come up with this information? You absolutely can shock coral with t5's.

lots of people run tanks with no skimmers, as long as he has good water movement across the surface his oxygen levels will be fine. If he has any macro algae that will help as well.

finally, if he just got these corals yesterday then they are most likely brown because of the shipping/stress. It takes more than one day for them to recover/color back up from that.

 

[RRaider]

ok, I'm mentally handicapped. Didn't even notice the date on this thread, then the site was too slow and I couldn't get back to it in time to delete or edit it.