Coral woes.. Help a newbie.. You once were one!

[carriej]

I also have the return. I was thinking of getting some smaller powerheads... But I don't know where to put them. Eventually I'd like to get power powerful powerheads that oscillate but... Budget only so much initially LOL.

Combination of live and dry rock, mostly dry however.

[Baldy]

acans - no experience

mushrooms - if you ffed them they might be ok. bleaching means they wont be able to feed themselves through photosynthesis, so if theyre fed they MIGHT make it through. ive got a zoa colony that bleached on me and is regaining its colors but its a slow process.

what is this - ive never seen a candy cane open like that. my blastos do sometimes but ive never seen a canycane like that. id look into blastos a bit more.

the creatures on your zoas are probably copepods but without a pic its hard to tell for sure.

Im just learning about torch coral as well atm. mine seemed to shrink a bit in high flow but thats just my experience.

[kien]

Originally Posted by carriej

Any advice would be appreciated.

To me your rocks look very white and clean with very little algae or coraline. Maybe there's more stuff growing elsewhere? How about throwing up a full tank shot? Anyway, this suggest to me that your tank is in fact still quite new (but we know that now based on your other post). Did you use all dead rock to start your tank? Your parameters are good and the tank is clearly cycled but as others have suggested, there is a period of "settling in" or "settling down" that the tank (sometimes) also needs to go through. A lot of people can get away with this period if they've done a tank transfer and are using live rock from a previous tank. If you are using all dead rock it can take longer. It's hard to tell how long it will take. It could be that your nutrient levels are way TOO low. Because the tank is so new you may not have enough nutrients for your LPS corals. They could be hungry.

I would also agree that flow could be improved. As Denny suggested, on a 6' tank two of those korellias will hardly make a dent.

The last pic does look like a candycane to me. There are LOTS of different types of candycane corals.

[carriej]

I have about 30lbs of "live" rock to 100lbs of dry rock, which was soaked and sorta kinda seeded.

When I put the live rock in... It was all really purple and it turned white in my tank. However it seems to be getting some of the purple back now. I don't know what caused this or it's if normal but it's almost as if I bleached the coraline, if that can happen.

Should I turn my skimmer off to improve nutrient levels?

Here is a full tank shot.. just dusk/dawn lights


Here is some nice algae.. lol..gross

[kien]

Well, it does look like you are getting some growth on your rocks :-). Although the majority of it still appears pristine. I don't think you necessarily need to take your skimmer off line. Since your nutrient levels are reading zero across the board you could look into feeding your tank more. A pair of clowns and a Chromis is a very very light bio load for a 125g tank. Is your skimmer even pulling anything out?? LOL. Maybe start adding more fish or feed your corals more through other methods.

[Mike-fish]

0 po4 in a few month old tank seems rather strange to me. what po4 test did you use? some are far from accurate at low range tests

[carriej]

I think it's salifert. All my tests are salifert or seachem. I'll have to check next time I go into the fish cave

When I first test the tank when it was initially set up I was getting some reading but now I am getting nothing...

And yes, my skimmer is hauling stuff out.. Not much though LOL