Green tree coral help

[dedfish]

Hello folks,

A few weeks ago I picked up a green tree coral from Greg, the brighter green type. I acclimated the coral to my lights by slowly moving it up higher in the tank over a few days period and made sure it was in a fairly high flow area. The coral looked great for a few weeks and you could see the polyps extending out nicely. This weekend I added in a goby/shrimp pair. When I came into work on Monday the tank water was a little cloudy from the shrimp digging about. I noticed the tree coral looked a bit shruken and the polyps were not extending for the most part, very few were visible. Today it looks a little bit worse and I am starting to get a bit worried. My water test show the following:

SG: 1.026
PH: 8.1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Calcium: 600ppm
Alk: 3 meq/L
Temp: 79 degrees

Can anyone offer advice on what may be going on? Should I be worried? Would the slight cloudiness to the water cause this?

Also, I am real new at keeping corals (can you tell ), so any general info on caring for this coral is appreciated. I've been googling but I would appreciate experiences from other people.

Thanks!
-------------------
20L with 9 gal refuge. Mag7 running closed loop with SCWD. 30 lbs live rock.

 

[Richard]

Your Cal is on the high side.Are you sure is at 600ppm? You should bring it down to 400mark.

Alk shoud be around 8-10 dkh not sure meg/l to dkh conversion.

What else do you have in the tank and what lighting are you running?

Can the shirmp dig enough to cloud the water?

sorry can't be more helpful.

 

[wrassefan]

What kind of lights is it under?? Mine has always done well with med flow and low/med lighting. Could it just be that the goby is annoying it enough that it is closed alot? My foxface use to sit in mine at night....right on top of it. It would close up.

 

[dedfish]

According to Dr. Randy Holmes on RC my calcium is good and the alk is a little on the low side, but nothing to worry about. I am dosing his 2 part solution, but he advised to dose just the alk for a bit.

Only other things in the tank are inverts and a 2 small zoa colonies.

The lighting is 160 watt PC.

The goby hasn't been anywhere near the coral...he is real skidish and hangs out close to his shrimp hole in the back bottom of the tank. Heck, he is so skidish I'm a little worried he won't eat. Runs and hides everytime I try and feed him.

 

[wrassefan]

I have to agree with Richard that Calcium is high. Alk is okay in my opinion...could be abit higher but... I would check with Greg to see what his specs are in comparison. Could it be that the last time you dosed, it might have hit the coral directly in flow with either part?? I would still lower the flow if it is in high flow area. Good luck.

 

[dedfish]

Good news...the coral seems to be doing a bit better today. It doesn't seem to be as shrunken (is that a word ) and the polyps seem to be comming out more.

 

[PenMan]

Our green tree looks sick for week everytime that bump it. It looks dead for about two weeks after being fragged. I am suprised that it bounced right back after being moved. Ours came from Inland Reef two years ago and is problem a Greg frag also.

 

[nickoz]

Mine does that from time to time, it shrinks, all polyps are not visible, it sheds some of its outer "skin" and then opens back up and it is usually alittle bigger then before it closed.

-nick

 

[dedfish]

nickoz: I read about this, but mine definetly did not shed. I'm not so worried now that it's looking better. Maybe it was just the cloudiness of the water.

 

[dedfish]

Here is a pic of it I took moments ago:

 

[Greg Hiller]

Looks good to me. High calcium (IMO) is not a big deal except that you might end up having a precipitation event if your pH gets a bit too high, etc.

 

[ScottM]

what are you using for a nitrate test kit?
how old is the tank?

 

[dedfish]

Scott: I am using the Red Sea kit and the tank is now about 4 months old. Thoughts?

 

[ScottM]

my first thought was a pistol shimp can make short work of your sand bed if he digs deep enough. if it was an old system i would have expected to see some nitrates with all that digging.
might be your test kits. Red sea kits seem to be useful to some people but i have alway hated the low med high reading on the comparison strips.
might be useful to go get some new kits. try salifert or seachem.
numeric indicators are ALWAYS better.
chances are something fluctuated.
be it temp, or something else.
i have both of gregs green tree corals and they are the first to react to change.
bottom line.
give it a few days, maybe a week depening on your water chemistry. if everything is in order it should be just fine.
your CA is high but i am willing to bet its your kit. ideal is somewhere between 380 and 450.
if you don't add any more CA supplement it will work itself down.
your ALK seems low but that shouldn't be a huge issue for a softie.
i run mine high ~6meq/l or 12DKH. common range is 4-6 meq/l.

FWIW i have kept this coral under 160w and it did fine.
some frags have hardly grown in a few of my older tanks and some grew like it was xenia.

good luck

 

[dedfish]

Thanks Scott. I know the test kit I have is not all that great. I'll be investing in some better kits in the future.

The shrimp I added is quite small...maybe a 1/2". It's commonly called a candy cane shrimp. To tell you the truth I am not even sure if he is still alive and I am starting to get a little concerned he may have been squished by a shifting rock. I introduced the pair last Saturday and on monday I could definetely tell he had been digging a fair amount. Now it's Weds and when I came in this morning the goby was by himself in the corner and no new signs of digging. Now the goby just hides all day in the rock and rarely shows his face, the little bugger better eat soon!

I have stopped adding the calcium, but I still add the alk...at least until the CA drops a bit.

When you kept this coral under 160w did you have it high or low in the tank? or did it matter?

Thanks for your insight!

 

[Ray]

Mine does that everyday, at least 1 time a day. I never have worried about it
Also you dont have a big need for calcium in the tank yet, how often are you dosing?

 

[dedfish]

Ray: Not dosing calcium for right now, not until it drops. I dose about 10 mL of alk every other day.

On a side note...My shrimp LIVES!! I was on the phone talking to a friend explaining the shrimp/goby relationship. Just as I was telling her I was concened the shrimp was MIA the little sucker comes crawling out of a hole for a brief second and then darted back in. I'm pretty stoked he's still kickin! Know if only the goby would find his little buddy all would be well.

 

[ScottM]

where are you located? you should be able to drop your water off at a LFS and see what they have for kits.

as for seeing your shrimp...... not likely. only when it eats

if your tank is anywhere near where you sleep you might see it again when the clicking noise drives you crazy and your taking it out of the tank..

 

[dedfish]

The tank is located at my office in Cambridge, so no worries about this little guy waking me up. I saw him a few times today which was pretty cool. Now if I could only convince the goby to explore a little bit they might actually find each other. I'm sure it will happen sooner or later, but the goby looks so sad hanging out on a rock in the back of the tank all by himself.

 

[dedfish]

Just an update...the green tree is doing great!

While my goby still remains the wimp that he is.