Acropora and Pocillopora, biting off more than I can chew?

[KodiakBear]

I had some money in the bank, and the coral broker was having a really good special, thus my temptations were too great.

As impulsive as it may have been, I now have two new frags on their way to my tank. Both are due to arrive tomorrow afternoon. One is a purple pocillopora, and the other is a dastardly beautiful yellow/green with orange tips acropora. I seriously have no self-control in these matters.


How long should I have them in my QT before putting them in the DT? Do they have any special care such as feeding requirements? If I put them high enough in my tank, will PC's be enough? Or should I supplement my lighting for them?
Any advice will be much appreciated!

[aquaman3680]

I would not QT these corals. I have never QTed any corals, and i really think this is unnecessary. They certainly need to be under halides especially the acro. If you feed phytoplankton they will eat that!

Matt

[prow]

eee, PC's might not do with the acro. maybe the pocillo if placed high. for frags i would just do a dip and put in the tank.

[Frankie]

I have to agree that pc's are not going to cut it with either of those corals. Maybe you can back out of the order and get something else? If you need to let me know and i will take them off your hands in a trade.

[KodiakBear]

Looks like I did bite off more than I can chew right now. I guess it really is time to upgrade the lighting. I'd been wanting to try LED's anyhow. Thanks for the offer Frankie, but I'd rather do what I need to in order to keep these beauties.

[Kirblit]

Def. do at least a dip on the corals, but I would want to QT them. I don't want to contradict anyone about QT corals but I learned the hard way that they should be QT as well. I got red bugs from some acro, and I got ich from a coral as well. Even though I didn't add any water from the LFS to my tank the ich must have been on the rock because my fish were very healthy and I had had them all at least two months before I got a coral that I later found out was in a tank that had a Tang that was infected with ich . All of my fish are in hypo as we speak and it has been very time consuming keeping up with the WC in that tank to keep the water quality up. Just a word to the wise about not QT coral as well. I don't know what dip would be effective to kill ich on the coral, but you would want to do a 6 hour interceptor treatment on it for sure IMHO.
Just my experiences in the last two months coming out here but I wouldn't want to go through this again.

[Frankie]

Cool man. thats good that you are going to upgrade to better lighting. You won't be sorry when you have a crazy reef stuffed with sps!

[KodiakBear]

Originally Posted by Kirblit

I got red bugs from some acro, and I got ich from a coral as well. Even though I didn't add any water from the LFS to my tank the ich must have been on the rock

This was mostly my fear for wanting to QT them. I did hypo on my fish not too long ago. I wouldn't wish ich (or the work of hypo treatment) on anyone.

Originally Posted by Kirblit

I don't know what dip would be effective to kill ich on the coral, but you would want to do a 6 hour interceptor treatment on it for sure IMHO.

what's interceptor?

I always got really bad algae outbreaks when I dosed DT's phytoplankton. I switched over to feeding just cyclopeeze with some mush consisting of: oyster eggs, squid, and scallops. I also feed some pellet fish food for my yellow-tailed damsels. Should I go back to phytoplankton for these, or will cyclopeeze suffice? If I do need to do the phytoplankton, I think I'll end up growing my own. DT's went bad on me fast.

As for lighting, I've found a few options. Just wanted to get everyone's opinion on what would be best suited for these two newbies. Keep in mind I also have ricordia FL, a Hammer coral, and a pearl bubble in my tank.
The first option is just a standard metal halide (boring, but with a good reputation) ebay Is a 400W bulb too much for a 45 gal tank?
Second I found a DIY LED grow light that boasts all the right spectrums: home grown lights It's only 14 watts, but I could buy several kits since it's only 6 in X 4in assembled.
Third is the Aqua-Bar ABP-5 (one I've had my eye on for a while now) this one hails from LED grow masters


Any recommendations?

[cheeks69]

My recomendations would be 6-54w T5's.
The LED's that you linked I don't know if they would be intense enough to sustain SPS and the 400w MH would be overkill and would contribute considerably to the temp in the tank.

[Kirblit]

Interceptor is a dog heart worm med. that is used to kill the Redbugs (type of copepod that attack certain types of Acro. and other SPS corals) that are pretty common for anyone to get that keeps SPS. Here is some good reading material for you on the subject just so you know what it is.

Reefs.org Forums :: View topic - The "CURE" for Red Acro Bugs

Reefs.org Forums :: View topic - Red Acro "Bugs" -- Looking for volunteers



and here are some pictures of my coral that was infested with them, it did spread to others however with time.

[KodiakBear]

Thanks Kirblit. I had just found another thread that described the interceptor treatment. My wife works at a vet clinic, so I should be able to get ahold of that. Although the Vet might ask some questions since we use heartgaurd on all our animals.

Cheeks: would the T5's be better for this, or should I just downgrade the MH to 250W?

[Kirblit]

That does make it much more convenient, trying to explain why you are using it on a fish tanks is a little difficult, even when you have the research with you to back it up. Just make sure to do the whole 6 hour treatment as no dip strength has been proven to be effective that I have read, even at a 100x the regular dose.