Can my hard corals be saved?

Thanks guys. In regards to feeding. I've only dosed the tank w/ phyoplankton once. My tank is only 3 weeks old since transporting it from another owner. They've had it for about 2-3 years. I was looking to get a refractometer from ebay. Any advice on that in terms of which ones to stay away from?

 

Any cheap refractometer will work fine. Plate and tounge corals have to be on sand and they do not eat phytoplankton. Brine, Mysis you need to feed them once a week. If the plate is looking white it is probably dying if not already dead. I have a orange once that is dying now I think from lack of feeding and algae is growing on it. Your nitrates will lower in time it takes about a year. Your tank is new. What filtration are you using?

 

By moving the tank it is most likely going to need to cycle again. Our tank was up for several years when we moved ours and it went through one just due to everything getting stirred up.

 

you will need to calibrate your refractometer. you can get calibration fluid from local clubs, lfs or online.
your coral is likely not going to survive, when you get into LPS/SPS (corals in general) you need stable water parameters.
for instance i believe you mentioned you dose calcium, but no mention alk. ca and alk need to be in balance, dramatic changes in things like alk can affect (even ultimately kill) hard corals.
you nitrates are quite, and as mention salinity low, you'll want to bring all these things need to brought into proper parameters before adding more coral. when have you last done a water change and what type/brand of salt do you use?

 

Why not just use distilled water ? Its all I have ever found to be necessary for the sole purpose of calibrating a refractometer .

 

you can use distilled water, long as its truly distilled. there are a couple places out near me (water stores) where their methods are leaving a little to be desired. one wouldn't think it would be that hard to properly distill the water.
calibration fluid is also cheap, and local clubs tend to pass it around -- so that would also be free.

 

I did a 30% water change 1 1/2 week ago. Thinking about doing another 15-20% tmr. I was using instant ocean but am switching over to coralife to see if there is any difference. Do you guys think I can set up a small quarantine tank with rocks only and not sand and using a rena canister filter to salvage what is left of some of the hard corals? I have a med to large christmas favia that I see is losing color and really don't want that one to die. Or would it be better to see if a fellow hobbyist in my area would be willing to house sit them for a while? In regards to lighting, I metal halides: one 150 watt 10K and one 150watt 14k. I have a spare 150watt 20K if that is better for hard corals. I also heard that crushed coral is not good for your reef tank so I'm thinking about scooping out(very carefully) 15-20lbs of it from the area of most concentration and introducing about 60lbs of live sand to the area and surrounding sand bed. Is that a bad idea right now or should I just do it since my tank is still new and better now than later. If I do it, I get more live rocks and shift the arrangement around as well. Tell me to stop if you think any of this is a bad idea.

 

1- While there is nothing wrong with IO, you might want to look at something like Reef Crystals, its from the same company but designed for reef aquariums. with IO, you need to typically need to supplement it more with CA, ALK, Mag. (not that you don't have to supplement other salts, but normally to a lesser degree)
2- you can go the quarantine route, but if you have buddy with an already established tank, that would probably be a better short-term solution
3- for the lighting, 10K is really good for growing, and 20K is normally better for coloration, 14K's fall right in between (of course it also depends on the mfg as well). what are the dimensions of your tank?
4- crushed coral (cc) is not the best substrate for a reef tank, sand is much better for both and biological filtration perspective as well as there are many animals coral included who much prefer sand (or only normally live in sandy bottoms).
you can use the method you mentioned to remove the cc, i would do it in sections/quadrant over a few weeks, one section at a time. fyi: if you leave an cc in and put sand on top, the cc will eventually work its way back to the top.
5- what kind of flow (water movement) do you have in your tank?

 

My tank is 48x18x24. Typical dimensions of a 90. Got two koralia 4 fans and the return pump is roughly 100gph(not positive as I can't see the label on it). Does a 2-2 1/2 inch sand bottom sounds adequate for a reef tank?

 

Just found a very nice fellow hobbyist in the area that will house all my corals until it get it stable. i think i will take this opportunity to get all the rocks and sand I need and just redo the live rock landscape and replace some of the crushed corals with more sand. I'm planning on keeping the fish and inverts in the tank still. Can they tolerate the transition more than the corals can?