brain coral not expanding

[elm66]

Hi There,

I purchased a week ago a green brain coral (most likely a trachyphyllia). When purchased, the coral was expanding beyond its skeleton. It has been in my aquarium for a week now and has not expanded back as if it was not acclimated yet.

Is that a normal behaviour? I have transfered the coral from its water by gradually adding some of my tank water and equalizing the temperature.

Note that all the water parameters except for the phosphate (that I have not checked yet) are normal. The salinity is 1.021.

I would appreciate any comment / recommendation.
Thank You

Eric

 

[bitis316]

I keep my tank at 24-25 salinity that is....Try using some manganese.....I paid $5 for this brain that was dying shriveled up, and after 7 days it looked like this.....

 

[elm66]

Thanks bitis316 for yoru quick answer.
In fact my reading of the salinity was wong. I just received a refractometer and read 1.026. Fortunately, I kept the old reading (with the very cheap balancer type tool) to 1.021. Now I checked again on the phosphate and foudn an unusually high level which I am currently correcting. I hope this will solve my problem. I will also work on the manganese side.

Thanks again,

Eric

PS: may post back later on, if the phosphate reduction and the manganese do not solve my problem.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

1.026 is not harmful to coral actually. so dont stress over that point too much. High phosphate levels can definitly indicate something is up with the tank and will cause a lot of corals to contract down. Water changes and a poly filter may help out.

 

[bitis316]

POLY ARE GOOD....I used them for two years....I just started using phosban with a reactor.....Nothing like it...A whole nother world of phosphate control...w

 

[Racing1]

How is your brain doing? Any pictures? They like very good water quality and keep it on the substrate. Also, Likes medium to high light and I feed mine every 3-4 days. Here's a pic of mine...

 

[Racing1]

How is your brain doing? Any pictures? They like very good water quality and keep it on the substrate. Also, Likes medium to high light and I feed mine every 3-4 days. Here's a pic of mine...

 

[TimTen]

what do you feed your brain, looks nice

 

[kcb1123]

Just throwing a heads up that I think they are sensitve to aptasia stings. My mothers wouldnt open forever and we couldnt figure it out but there was a tiny aptisia under it and since we moved it it is doing better