Stupid Linckia......

[swimmatte]

So I bought a Linckia a couple weeks ago and it had been acting weird since I put it in my tank.  Unfortunately, I did not qt it.  He had barely moved since I added him, and had sort of wedged himself in between my custom rock that extends the height of my tank, and is cut at a 90 degree angle to fit perfectly in the corner of my tank.  I hadn't checked on him in a few days until this afternoon while acclimating a couple corals.  What I found was a decomposing star fish, separated into about 4 or 5 pieces.  I kind of freaked out as I had no idea how long it had been that way.  I tried to get out as much of him as possible but I'm pretty sure there are some small pieces that I was just unable to find.  After removing the remains I immediately did a 20% water change.  I then did an Ammonia and Nitrite test and showed a low level Ammonia reading but zero Nitrites (so far).  I added a double dose of "prime" and added an air stone in case there was some oxygen depletion.  Corals all look happy, as do my fish with the exception of my BW Occ clown who has had his mouth wide open now for a couple of hours.  I did throw a few pellets in to see how everyone's appetites were, especially the clown in question.  So far, the clown is still eating.  

 

I guess my question would be, is there anything else I should do right now?  I was planning on doing 20% wc's until my Ammonia goes away.  Sound like the right plan?  Should I dose "prime" daily as well?  

[sachabballi reef]

All I saw was "putting in new corals"...what cha get?

 

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[Coral Hind]

Prime needs to be re-dosed every day or two as it will lose the bond with ammonia and allow it to become toxic again. If low levels you can dose half. Even when bound up with Prime ammonia will still show on test kits. You should have a stable natural filter so it should handle the extra ammonia quickly. What reading were you getting?

[monkiboy]

i would think you'd be fine like coral hind said with removing the pieces and allowing your natural biological filtration to handle the rest even in that smaller size tank.

 

was it a blue linckia? in my experience, they have been very sensitive to change. it'd obviously be harder to keep in a smaller system where ph, temperature, etc can fluctuate much easier. don't stress. you might end up doing more harm (destabilizing params) than good by trying to "fix" something that doesn't need repair.

[swimmatte]

Prime needs to be re-dosed every day or two as it will lose the bond with ammonia and allow it to become toxic again. If low levels you can dose half. Even when bound up with Prime ammonia will still show on test kits. You should have a stable natural filter so it should handle the extra ammonia quickly. What reading were you getting?

 

.25 

 

i would think you'd be fine like coral hind said with removing the pieces and allowing your natural biological filtration to handle the rest even in that smaller size tank.

 

was it a blue linckia? in my experience, they have been very sensitive to change. it'd obviously be harder to keep in a smaller system where ph, temperature, etc can fluctuate much easier. don't stress. you might end up doing more harm (destabilizing params) than good by trying to "fix" something that doesn't need repair.

 

Yes, blue linckia.  And I did just go through some smaller temperature swings when I switched from the Kessils at 8" from the water surface to the d120's at 2-3" from the surface as it took me a while to adjust my heaters.

 

Now what if I didn't get 100% of it out?  I got as much as I could find but I don't feel as if what I pulled out was it's entire body.  

 

Also, I should keep the air stone in right?

[sachabballi reef]

Won't clean up crew take care of anything you missed?

 

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[swimmatte]

Won't clean up crew take care of anything you missed?

 

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That's my hope.  I had a firefish that I watched hop out of the tank a few months ago die a few days later (from the fall I guess) and my CUC was all over that thing.  So much that I had to fight them off myself to get the corpse out of the tank.  The weird thing in the instance is that the CUC has been nowhere near where I found the corpse.  I'll just keep an eye on things I guess.