How to add coral

[scubacraig]

When adding a coral what steps do you follow and over what time period? Is it the same as with fish?

After you place a coral in your tank how long do you wait for it to open up before moving it to a different location?

I added a frogspawn to my tank it opened about 20% and has not opened up any more. I placed it in the tank last night so in 12 hours it opened up no more than it did in the first 30 minutes. I was going to move it to an area of lower flow today if it does not open up more. Any advice would be appreciated.

Water parameters look good except Nitrate which is showing a reading the rest are zero or near ideal.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[SeaStar]

Craig, I think every coral and every situation is different. I'll give some examples:

Acclimating -
If the coral is from a source where it has lived for several months (fellow hobbyists tank or remained unsold at a LFS for long period of time) This tells me that the speciman has adapted to the conditions in that tank and would be best acclimated to your tank conditions over several hours (drip method or other).

If the coral is from the wild and just recently arrived at your LFS which means has been in no stable enviorment for quite some time or was ordered online then went to one aquarist tank only to be fragged a day later and put into yours. In these scenarios and others like it I do not acclimate at all. The speciman is in a state of shock and needs stable conditions asap.

Initial Placement: (two areas lighting and flow)

Lighting- Unless your tank is starved for light I almost always start specimans on the sandbed or near the bottom. I use prior light intensity exposed to and the husbandry requirements of the speciman to dictate the speed at which I move them up to final location in tank.

Flow- I try to match these requirements to the speciman from initial placement to final placement.

Final Placement-
Here the husbandry requirements of the animal dictate were I "assume" its final placement will be. However being that in this hobby and educated guess is probaly the best we will ever have as to the actual requirements of an individual speciman. Observation followed by trial and more trial are par for the course.


To answer your more direct question. I would not panic if a speciman is not responding 100% for at least a week or two. Some specimans only take an hour to fully open others make take months. Many times more harm is done with the constint moving of a speciman. Again use your judgement. Frogspawns like moderate flow at most, so if you see it getting bashed by current then definatly move it. If it still doesn't respond favorably let it be for a few weeks unless you see conditions worsen.

 

[scubacraig]

Just an update I moved the frogspawn to a more sheltered area and it opened up 80% or more. It is looking very happy.

Thanks for the input.

Craig