Cup Coral Issues

[mad921]

I picked up a yellow cup coral, Turbinaria frondens I believe, at the frag swap last weekend. It's been placed in my tank since Saturday evening (4 days ago), but I have yet to see any of the polyps open up or extend at all. I'm wondering if it's normal for these to act like this. I also have a Pagoda Cup, Turbinaria peltata, which has been the tank for a while and never encountered similar behavior (it was actually shipped to me via 2 day service and opened within hours of receiving it).

Perams:

24 gallon Nano Cube, 148 watts PC lighting (2x Actinic, 1X 10,000K, 1x 50/50)

Nitrates/Phosphates: 0-trace at most
Calcium: 440 PPM
PH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.025

Thanks!

 

[steve-s]

These types of corals can sometimes take their time to acclimate to a new tank. If it's the coral I think it is, you may never see the polyps. It is normally nocturnal feeder even in a captive system. They also grow very very slowly, measured yearly in fact.

How did you acclimate it?
Where did you position it in the display tank or QT?
What is the nearest coral to it if in the display?
What other corals are in the display?
What is the alkalinity?

I don't get the lighting configuration? 148/4= 37?

 

[mad921]

These types of corals can sometimes take their time to acclimate to a new tank. If it's the coral I think it is, you may never see the polyps. It is normally nocturnal feeder even in a captive system. They also grow very very slowly, measured yearly in fact.

Thank you so much for the response.

How did you acclimate it?

I floated for temp, then did a short measuring cup acclimation over about 20 minutes and a brief dip. By the time I got home the coral had been bagged for probably 7-8 hours so I decided against anything more lengthy.

Where did you position it in the display tank or QT?

Positioned diagonally on a rock about mid tank level.

What is the nearest coral to it if in the display?

A few mushrooms about 3 inches away.

What other corals are in the display?

Lots. It's a crowded setup. mushrooms, GSP, zoos, rics, xenia, anthelia, fungia, frogspawn, a few more...nothing positioned where it could sting the cup though.

What is the alkalinity?

9 dKH

I don't get the lighting configuration? 148/4= 37?

Typo on the lighting, it's 144 (4 x 36 watts).

 

[redrooster]

Any problems mixing LPS/SPS/softies together? I do the same and haven't had any problems. In fact I have been very busy lately getting rid of excess growth. Anthony is the expert and he is of the opinion that tank specializtion would lead to happy corals and more growth. My "coral garden" setup is growing very well, but I believe him that I could have better growth. I am more than willing to trade the extra growth rate for the better look though. Just wondering how it has worked out for you.

 

[mad921]

I really haven't had any problems with the mix. I'm getting good growth all around. I use carbon 24/7 which is changed weekly to pull out as much of the chemicals excreted the softies as I can and also run a skimmer 12 hours a day.

 

[steve-s]

The carbon will help with allelopathy to some degree as will skimming/water changes but when you take a wild coral and add it to a tank that it has no natural defense against this, it's a sink or swim situation if you get my meaning.

They may survive but they will never thrive. There is a very substantial difference between the two. In a heavily stocked soft coral tank, a stony coral stands very little chance of doing well. When adding more noxious scleractinians like Euphyllia, you may keep other corals at bay but you end up increasing the toxic soup so to speak. Corallimorphs & Pachyclavularia are among the worst offenders next to Sinularia.

mad921, acclimation can be a very important step in maintaining the health of new additions. Water chemistry changes often making or breaking that success. Salinity, pH and temp being your big three if you will. I understand why you did it but I seriously doubt 7-8 (or longer in fact) hrs would be all that much a concern. These corals do not exspell wastes or "respire" in the same manner as fish so waste levels/CO2 within the bag will not be a concern as quickly. Ammonia and pH should still be in pretty good shape as long as the corals was in good health when it was shipped. In future testing the shipping water would be a good practice along with a QT regime. There is a very real possibility of carrying in fish and coral parasites with any new addition.

 

[redrooster]

Steve- I am trying to use my new knowledge from this site to help weed out the worst elements of my coral garden. I have no GSP or nepthea. I am working on getting rid of my cabbage leather, but it grows as fast as I can get rid of it. I may have to bite the bullet and take what the LFS will give me for it in trade. If I list the species I have can you tell me which softies are most toxic and what hard corals are most susceptible to the best of your knowledge? Also are somes brains SPS and some LPS? For example what would a lobo brain be and what would a maze brain be considered? Anyways here is what I currently have in my 'posion soup'

Assorted colors of zoos
Assorted colors of mushrooms
8 different species of brains, sorry the lobos and maze are the only ones
I know even the common names for. Some of the others are
the 'meaty' brains
Orange tubestra
Plate Montipora
Neon green spaghetti leather
Fungia plate
Pavona
Yellow polyps
green birds nest

I was hoping to start getting some frogspawn and hammer and maybe even some acro or milli and figured since I need to make room to get it anyway I might as well remove the most toxic stuff, if I can figure out which it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[steve-s]

The mushroom, spaghetti leather and cabbage leather are right at the top of the list for noxious soft corals. Any species of Sinularia (flexibis/dura in this case) are very very common reasons for mixed reefs failing. Corallimorphs (rics/shroom ect) of any species are also quite noxious. They may look unassuming but they do a lot of damage interms of coral health, longevity and replication/reproduction. It's the unseen nematocysts, turpines and chemicals that can beleive it or not kill a coral clear across the tank in a closed system. Contrary to popular myth, corals do not need to touch to do battle.

 

[redrooster]

Thank you for the quick reply steve. I will keep this in mind in reformulating my tank. I am going to take the cabbage leather, and half of the mushrooms out and replace them with some LPS. If I can get a good trade I will jettison the spaghetti leather as well. Many mushrooms are on gravel or small easily tradable rocks, but a few patches are on big LR pieces which I dont want to start chiselling on so I guess those will get to stay put for now.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

And FWIW... Yellow Turbinaria species are nothing like T. peltata re: polyp functions. In the case of the latter, they feed organismally very heavy and frequently. As such they put their polyps out often and quickly.

The yellow Turbinaria species however are generally much more successfully autotrophic and require little to no organismal feeding (almost no prey capture). Its the reason why you see their polyps less and less consistently (no specific rhythym to their expression unlike zooplnkton feeders that extend heavily in the night and during fish feeding periods by day)