Mint pavona coral

[ThisCityIsDead]

Hey guys, I'm on my way to a fish store that carries amazing coral. It is about 2.5hrs away, how well will the corals do on the ride home? The coral won't be in the actual tank for about 3 hrs:\

I also plan on purchasing a fire shrimp (now that the sallyfoot is out of my tank and into the sump) and possibly a green toadstool.

Good idea or bad?

My parameters:

Nitrates: 0, nitrites:0, ammonia: 0, Ph: 8, salinity 1.024, Calcium: 500, phosphate: .25 kh: 214.8

[jayball]

it would be a good idea to get an insulated box or bag and ask them to include a little extra water but people ship overnight and sometimes longer, often without issues.

[ThisCityIsDead]

I think they just put their livestock in regular plastic bags with a lot of water. I'm just worried about the coral and shrimp getting stressed because of lighting or temperature. :|. Is that even possible. Lol

[triggreef]

That's why a Styrofoam box or lunch bag or something insulated was suggested. I bring a Styrofoam box every time I buy something for my tank. Also, keeping it dark helps reduce stress.

[DDon]

You shouldn't have any problems. As was mentioned by jayball, just put the bags in a cooler to keep temp change to a minimum. I had the mint pavona shipped overnight to me from divers den and it shipped well. Most corals I buy from local stores are in bags for 2-3 hours and very rarely are there any problems

[gbru316]

To aid in keeping temp inside the cooler stable, see if they'll give you a few bags of water from their system. But otherwise, 3 hours is fine. Corals are routinely 2nd/3rd day air shipped and recover nicely.

[ThisCityIsDead]

I was trying to do research on the mint pavona. There isn't much info out there. Other than being related to the cactus. Anyhow, I called the fish store and they said it was an LPS coral and easy to care for.

True?

[DDon]

I believe it is classified as sps. Seems to be pretty hardy compared to most sps. Moderate light and flow.

[ThisCityIsDead]

My tank's water isn't the cleanest, so I'm iffy about adding it in now:/. I did install a uv purifier, but I do not know when I'll start to notice results.

In the mean time, any recommendations on LPS corals?

[xnetgeek]

no picture of the mint pavona? I'm curious what it looks like.

[ThisCityIsDead]

Not until a bit later:/. I haven't arrived yet. 😔

[DDon]

Originally Posted by xnetgeek

no picture of the mint pavona? I'm curious what it looks like.

If you google "ORA mint pavona", you should be able to find a good pic of it. I can snap a pic when I get home but mine is still just a frag

[ThisCityIsDead]

T this is it. I ended up going with a hammer and a green learher toadstool. Another option was green leather polyp. Are those good?



This frag was only 4.99! :OImageUploadedByTapatalk1413934925.174989.jpg

[DDon]

Originally Posted by ThisCityIsDead

My tank's water isn't the cleanest, so I'm iffy about adding it in now:/. I did install a uv purifier, but I do not know when I'll start to notice results.

In the mean time, any recommendations on LPS corals?

What are your parameters and what are you hoping to accomplish with the UV?

There are lots of very nice LPS, any particular shales and colors you are looking for?

[ap123]

IME, pavona is quite hardy. There was a sliver (I don't even think I could call it a frag) that came on the live rock I cycled my first tank with. It survived the cycle and grew into a nice little colony.

[ThisCityIsDead]

I want a variety of colors. Pinks, purples, blues, neons.

I think I want to switch my 10k lights to ATI lights (blues and purples) can I do that? Just because the 10k white lights make the corals' colors fade away to bland brownish colors.

I also really like the tentacles and birds nest corals. They look amazing with the flow.

I have a bit of green algae and cloudiness in my tank. The LFS said the uv could help.

The mint that I saw was cool looking. It looked purple, but had a rainbow shine just like oil does when its been spilt on the road and water gets on it.

[gbru316]

I'm not sure that the color temp is causing your colors to turn brown. More likely, it's the 0.25 ppm of phosphate. New lights won't solve this.

[DDon]

You can swap out your bulbs. What light do you have and how may tubes?

As far as the algae goes that would be due to higher nutrients. The UV won't help reduce nutrients but can help with killing free floating algae and algae spores. It may help with that cloudiness if caused by a bacterial bloom. Is your algae on the rocks?
If you can find the root cause of why you are having these issues then it will make it easier to eliminate and prevent from happening in the future.
Do you have any test kits? For algae issues you will want to know what your nitrate and phosphate levels are.

Forgive me if you already know all this but figured it wouldn't hurt to mention since we are talking about water quality:
Since you are getting into stony corals, LPS in this case, you should also be monitoring your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels.
Can you share more info about your setup? From your profile I'm assuming it is fairly new.

[ThisCityIsDead]

Hmm, I don't think it is the phosphate causing the corals to look that way because when I first purchased the GSP, it only happens with this coral, it was green under blue lighting, but when it was removed from the tank to place in the bag it was purple and the tentacles were purple/brownish.

I have a coralife 5t HO 2 10k tubes and 2 actinics. The standard bulbs that came with the fixture. I planned on getting ATI bulbs. These are the ones I planned on getting:
2 blue plus
1 kz fiji purple
1 ge 6500k

Would that be okay?

I watched and read reviews on the UV sterilizer by coralife and apparently people had great results. People had their green algea problem removed and the cloudiness was gone. My algea problem started when I had the lights go on for 8-10hrs a day. So, when I purchased my first corals. I only have corals and inverts (shrimp) so I didn't really turned the lights on in the past.

There is green algea on the rocks, but there's more on the glass. Especially on the back of the tank.

I have 2 master test kits. One is a generic test kit and the other for reef.

My reef test kit tests for:
Calcium: 520
Nitrites: 0
Phosphates: .25
KH: 170

The other master test kit tests for:
Nitrites:0
Nitrates:0
ph:8
Ammonia:0

[DDon]

I don't have a lot of experience with different t5 bulb combos. I run 2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Purple Plus and 1 ATI Coral Plus as supplements to my LEDs. If I run the T5 alone the color isn't bad. With the GE 6500K you may end up pretty white. All depends on what you like but definitely an improvement over what you have as far as PAR.

I have no personal experience with running UV sterilizers on a tank so can't really provide any more insight.

As far as algae growth, nutrients are the biggest issue, it needs food to grow. Your phosphate levels are high which is the most likely cause.

Your other numbers look good though ca is a little higher than most run but not out of line. Alkalinity I assume is in ppm which is about 9.5 in dkh which is good. Keep monitoring. As you add stony corals and as your coraline algae grows your demand will increase.

For water clarity, activated carbon will help a lot.

As far as LPS recommendations, there are so many nice ones out there. Take a look at the LPS section on Liveaquaria to get some ideas and search around the web to see what appeals to you. Make sure you research care requirements before you buy.
Some of what I have in my tank, to give you some ideas, are frogspawn, blastomussa, lobophilia, war corals, favia, leptoseris, acans, plate coral, pectinia, branching hammer, candy cane/trumpet coral, chalice and torch (excuse some of the spellings). A lot of zoas are also very colorful.

[ThisCityIsDead]

So, that lighting you have, the 4 that you mentioned, is the only light source you have for your tank, or do you have another fixture. I honesty would like more of a blue light that will provide the light nutrients the coral/anems/living organisms need. I'm not a fan of the bright white light. Like I said, it literally strips the animals colors.:/

[DDon]

I also have LEDs (4 kessil a360s and a DIY fixture) I use the t5 as supplements. I turned just the t5 on to see how it looked though.
You may want to try 2 blue pus and 2 coral plus or 2 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 1 purple plus/kz fiji purple. Take a look at the T5 Q&A thread in the lighting and equipment forum, maybe post a question there as there are some with a lot of t5 knowledge.

[gbru316]

Originally Posted by ThisCityIsDead

I said, it literally strips the animals colors.:/

No, it doesn't. It changes the way we perceive them. The colors don't actually change in the short term. Some things sold as GSP are tan with a purple mat.

Actual coloration is a complex subject. In the aquarium, we can control 4 things related to color: Water movement, diet (or lack thereof), chemistry and light.

When a coral actually starts turning brown, it's because there is a buildup of zooxenthellae in response to one of these parameters. Most often, it's dirty water or not enough light.

This dirty water can be local (caused by not enough flow to export waste) or systemic (as in, a PO4 measurement of 0.25 ppm).

You might not think it's an issue, but 0.25 ppm of PO4 is.

For example, one research group found that long-term enrichment of phosphate (0.19 ppm; maintained for three hours per day) on a natural patch reef on the Great Barrier Reef inhibited overall coral calcification by 43%.6

What does this mean? It means that the presence of PO4 reduces the corals ability to grow and thrive. In addition, it'll also cause more zooxenthellae to grow in the coral's tissue which will actually turn it brown. It's also fueling green algae growth in the tank.

See this article for more information on PO4 in the reef tank.

[Spaws]

wow interesting post, I'd like to know how my inhabitants would grow if i had some of the knowledge some of you guys seem to have.