new to coral can someone give me advice?

My tank is about 4 months old now, and I just started adding coral. I got some kind of mushroom and a gsp. The gsp is doing great and already getting bigger. I got both corals about a week ago. I dont think the mushroom is doing very well a piece of it fell off and is just sorta dangling on the rock. I just ordered a phosban/charcoal reactor but I think my water is fine. I dont have any test kits yet but I will when I get paid. My tank is 125 gallons and I have a 250 watt MH. Could someone recomend some corals I could get like zoos or something? Should I be adding calcium and mag or just do water changes, im new to the coral thing so any advice would be cool. Also if this helps, I noticed after adding the coral my skimmer is producing some nasty dark brown and black skimmate now. I attached a few pics of the coral.

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Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

 

My advice to you would be to get your test kits first before any reactors Ca Alk Mg Phos ph and NO4. Test your water for a couple of weeks to make sure your params are where they need to be for coral. Then decide what kind of tank you want Softie, LPS, SPS or mixed. Do your reading/ research and when your tank is stable find a local reefclub as I'm sure there probably are a few. Get together and get some free advice and cheap frags. Thats how I started 6 mos ago when I switched from fresh. To date I have been very lucky and my tank is healthy. Remember the 3reef motto "go slow and let it grow".

 

+1 you have some more research to do and test kits to add. Never ad anything to your tnak that you can not test for - never add anything to your tank without knowing your full parameter. Here are some links that will get you started:

Reef Tank Parameters:
Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Randy’s tank basics:
Part I: The
Part II: The
Part III: The
Part IV: The

 

good advice

yes deffinately listen to there advice. There is always something I find myself lacking knowledge of in this hobbie. I learn at least one great thing a week weather it be about running the system better or what chemicals to use and when etc.....this site is great also. I have never had an unanswered question here. with my corals I add calcium and alk. every few days and from my understanding magnesium helps the chemicals not get soaked up by algae and sand etc.... don't take my words in stone though I gathered this info from a "big name company" but even experts makes mistakes sometimes. I read a book called saltwater aquariums for dummies and it seem pretty helpful

 

Thanks for all the advice, im not getting anything else until I get some test kits. Half of my gsp died last night. Im really bummed..it was doing fine could my snails possibly have eaten it? looks like im not getting coral for awhile going to get test kits asap, fish are so much easier. Atleast I learned something from this mistake. Answered my own question just now, time to start from square one.

 

Your snails are not eating the coral... It is probably just due to the tank being new. You might have some ammonia, nitrites, or nitrate leftover still. Also flow will be a factor so make sure you have enough throughout there

 

GSP is not a corals that just dies off quickly IMO, if you are judging it's demise on the appearance of being closed for a prolonged period of time, it may in fact still be alive. Perhaps post an image of the gsp, to kill gsp overnight something would have to be very amiss.

 

I feel dumb...the moon lights are still on the gsp was just closed it opened back up an hour ago, my nitrates and ammonia should be fine my tank has finished cycling. I have had little algae and the diatoms went away as well, though im sure the calcium levels are low I havent started dosing yet, i've just been doing water changes atleast the gsp is ok for now anyway

 

Gsp doesn't really need calcium and carbonate to grow like sps. Softies growth is usually based on iodine I think. A waterchange every few weeks with quality salt should take care of that.

 

Thanks for the help dingo, much appreciated your alot of help