coral question..

mtkas29 · 10-16-2003, 04:18 PM

what is the safe number of corals(medium) that you can place in the display aquarium in one day?a week? a month?

125g reef tank

Casey · 10-16-2003, 04:19 PM

oh geesh I have no clue I have added 15 at a time before in one day.

Pirate · 10-16-2003, 08:13 PM

I try to add them no more than one or two at a time. I know folks that add more, and are sorry when they see the new piece fully extended in a day or so. Other factors could be current, lighting, aggressiveness of new and neighboring corals, and more than likely more, just my opinion, hope it helps.

Ray1214 · 10-17-2003, 08:30 AM

I had to post the rule,

"Thou Shalt add no livestock prior to 30 days hath passeth".

Basically I add once a month at best. Of course when I first started my tanks and got about 15 frags at one shot it is easy to say this now. But I feel that if I try to restrain myself, I don't have to suffer from wife'sfootupmybuttis diseases. And on an ecological note, we tend to suffer from less crashes or tank disasters if we keep the fish/coral additions after planning it a bit.

Ray

reiple · 10-17-2003, 09:01 AM

is that rule for a new tank or all tanks? i transferred tanks so all things equal the sand, rocks and filter bed (remote dsb + main tank dsb) are live (i guess). I did it slowly and it's now 21 days and I am aching to transfer the corals now.

mtkas29 · 10-17-2003, 01:56 PM

ray,
does this apply to snails and hermit crabs?

Mrs Smith · 10-17-2003, 05:35 PM

I like Ray's rule, although I've bent it myself on many occasions. (I'm talking like 2 big corals at once - or a bunch of little frags.) As the tank is more and more established, you can do a lot more. When we were first getting started, 1 coral per month was a good rate for us. (Not to mention was easier on the checkbook!)

I wouldn't apply it to tank upgrades, when you have to get the old tank torn down. Reiple, if the new tank is using old rock and a small amount of new, you could probably transfer the corals without problem.

Oh, and I consider "cleanup crews" one entity. Adding a dozen hermits or 3 dozen snails has never caused me problem. (I think Spanky adds hundreds at a time...

)

Danielle

MiddletonMark · 10-17-2003, 05:51 PM

IMO, depends on what you know of the coral, it's growth, it's needs.

I've added corals, then had to move them as there was something [light/flow] in it's original placement that it wasn't happy with.

Given that, adding too many corals at once can often make musical placement - thus stressing multiple corals as there's only x amount of spaces on a tank ... and if some corals have sweepers [or grow them] and others have different needs .... I like having only one, two max to have to situate. IMO in the end I get more in the tank, as I can factor expansion, needs, etc in and situate each more ideally and with more considered placement.

Just my opinion ....