The Devil Made Me Do It

It is so easy to get caught up filling up your reef aquarium. Little voices in your head start saying, "More Vince... more... one more piece."

This post is about the Temptations of Vince.

Was it the shrooms that made me pull the trigger? Was the devil's hand pushing me into the purchase? Well, both actually.

I wanted to add more beginner corals. So, I logged onto my favorite forum - www.aquariumadvice.com  (AA) - asked some questions, read some previous posts, and made a list of possibilities.

I wanted quality items delivered to my door (only because this was the fastest way to feed my craving). Based on my continuous research, for the past two months, the best rated site for this is LiveAquaria. So on Wednesday evening, I placed the an order for delivery on Friday, and less than 24 hours from packaging in California, they arrived at my door.

Broken Candy Cane Coral

One of the corals came completely broken. As soon as I saw it, I was completely heartbroken. I called up LiveAquaria, and told them what I received. With great customer service, and without any hassle, they refunded me half the cost immediately. As with any of their products they offer a "14-day Guarantee", and I was told that if at any point during that period if I was unhappy, they would refund the rest of the money.

Acclimation was immediately under way: first floating in their bags, then temperature-controlled drip acclimation to triple the volume of water in the shipment, and finally a coral dip to remove unwanted hitchhikers before placement into the display tank (DT). In order to keep corals, you must remember - the devil is in the details.

Taking a Dip - In Coral Rx - to Remove Pests

While this long process was occurring, I went online to figure out my options for the broken coral. I posted an image of the debris on AA, and members agreed that everything still looked "alive". My options were to leave the pieces separate around my DT or to epoxy them to a piece of live rock rubble. Thanks to my handy and creative girlfriend, we did both.

Here are the profiles of my new additions (I also got a new type of snail):

When First Added (No Lights)

Purple Cauliflower Colt Coral:

Klyxum sp.

Care level: Easy
Type: Soft

Lighting: Moderate to High
Waterflow: Medium to Strong

Origin: Indonesia 

Temperament: Semi-Aggressive

Notes: Most of this coral's nourishment come from the symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae dinoflagellates (a type of algae), which also give the coral its color. Diet can be supplemented with plankton. They will attack other corals within reach so care must be made to keep separate from other species.

The Next Morning

When First Added (No Lights)

Green Toadstool Mushroom Leather Coral:

Sarcophyton sp.

Care level: Easy
Type: Soft

Lighting: Moderate to High
Waterflow: Medium

Origin: Indonesia (Aqua Cultured/Maricultured)

Temperament: Peaceful

Notes: Most of this coral's nourishment come from the symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae dinoflagellates (a type of algae), which also give the coral its color. Diet can be supplemented with plankton.

The Next Morning

Limp and Lifeless When FIrst Arrived

Devil's Hand Leather Coral, Yellow:

Lobophytum sp.
Care level: Easy

Type: Soft

Lighting: Moderate to High
Waterflow: Medium to Strong

Origin: Indonesia (Aqua Cultured)

Temperament: Peaceful

Notes: Most of this coral's nourishment come from the symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae dinoflagellates (a type of algae), which also give the coral its color. Diet can be supplemented with plankton.

No Longer Flaccid the Next Morning 

When First Added (No Lights)

Candy Cane Coral:

Caulastrea furcata
Care level: Easy

Type: LPS

Lighting: Moderate
Waterflow: Medium

Origin: Fiji

Temperament: Peaceful

Notes: Has short sweeper tentacles that come out in the twilight. When these are extend the coral can grab supplemental feeding of brine shrimp or plankton.

Newly Structured on a Piece of LR (Thanks Tasha)

There are four major classifications of corals (arranged from easiest to most difficult to keep): Soft/Leather Corals, Large Polyp Stony (LPS), Short Polyp Stony (SPS), and Non-photosyntetic (NPS) Corals. The Softs, LPS, and SPS need increasingly stronger lights as you get into the more difficult species, as well as higher levels of calcium and magnesium. NPS require feeding rather than receiving  nutrients photosynthetically from the symbiotic zooxanthellae like other corals. 

Getting corals used to an aquarium is a slow process. When first added to the aquarium the lights should remain off while the corals acclimate to the water quality and flow. They also need time to gradually adjust to the light intensity. This can be accomplished by both dimming the lights and placing the coral on the sand bed, furthest from the light source. If the coral is going to be moved to a higher location in the tank, the process should be a slow increase in height until the coral reaches its final placement.

As more life gets added to the tank, it is important to keep adding to the CUC in order to keep both algae and waste at bay. Variety in a CUC is also important, so I decided to add another type of snail to the union. 

Nerite Snail (2):

Nerita sp.

Care level: Easy

Diet: Herbivore

Origin: Pacific

Temperament: Peaceful

Max Size: 1”

Notes: Remains small and rarely knocks over rocks or coral. Will feed off of the LR, but can also be seen eating film algae from the aquarium glass walls.

So the devil had his hand in this, but I think it was the right decision.

Next time we will discuss lighting!