Candy Cane Coral help

[PirateToast]

I picked up my first corals last week, a kenya tree, fire and ice polyps, a green mushroom, frog spawn, and a candy cane coral. All struggled mightily for the first few days until I GREATLY upgraded my lights. Now everything seems to be thriving except for the candy cane coral.

First of all, I'm not even 100% sure it is candy cane coral. It looks like these guys in the link below, but it has never glowed like that and I've never seen tentacles.

Could it just be dead and all that's left is the skeleton?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+454&pcatid=454

 

[Maaka]

Could you post a picture of it?

 

[chrisfont23]

I picked up my first corals last week, a kenya tree, fire and ice polyps, a green mushroom, frog spawn, and a candy cane coral. All struggled mightily for the first few days until I GREATLY upgraded my lights. Now everything seems to be thriving except for the candy cane coral.

First of all, I'm not even 100% sure it is candy cane coral. It looks like these guys in the link below, but it has never glowed like that and I've never seen tentacles.

Could it just be dead and all that's left is the skeleton?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+321+454&pcatid=454

That looks like a trumpet. As the other posted stated, a picture would help. Candy canes look like this:

 

[PirateToast]

Yeah, I'll get a picture up when I get home. It could be something else, it's the only coral I hadn't researched before buying and kind of bought on a whim because my girlfriend said she liked it... gah.

 

[PirateToast]

Here it is!

 

[mbingha]

How old is your tank? Water parameters (Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium, alk, mag)? What kind of lighting (LED, metal halide, T5) and how many watts/bulbs/leds ?

 

[PirateToast]

Young tank, dont scold me! 3 months. 0 ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. Calcium 540. 9-10 dkh.

4 bulb 48" t5 ho.

 

[PirateToast]

The lighting wasnt there the first few days, so its possible it died before that. Can you even confirm what that is and if its alive?

 

[mbingha]

Your tank is not too young for what you have. It's still alive and doesn't look too bad. It does appear to be a candy cane. Your calcium is a little on the high side. I would give it a few days and if you don't see improvement I would try moving it to areas with different flow or light. Good luck!

 

[mbingha]

By the way, with the new lighting, it may just be acclimating to the higher light levels. How many hours are you running your lights? It may help to cut your photo period to 6 hours for a week and add an hour every week till you get to your desired lighting schedule.

 

[Maaka]

I found this thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1671717

that had this care sheet in it. http://www.asira.org/caulastrea

 

[tattoooedlex]

had an issue with my candy canes, slow to plump up and never saw tenticles. I kept it low in the tank to adjust to led's took well over a week to plump up and extend tenticles at night. after some time slowly started moving it up halfway and it has looked great ever since

 

[PirateToast]

Update! Finally saw the tentacles for the first time over lunch today! No idea what happened... my guess is he just took awhile to get used to the new lighting.

http://imgur.com/ahWTV6G

 

[Maaka]

Glad to hear it. Soon you will have so many heads you won't know what to do with them all.

 

[living_waters]

Seems mine won't grow any heads I have 3, my parameters are up to par it started to bleach when I stopped feeding it cause I didn't see any sweepers any more I moved it down and it came back but still no whiskers.

 

[mbingha]

How long have you had it and what are your parameters? Up to par doesn't really tell us much.

 

[Guygettnby]

BTW... Candy cane and trumpet coral are the same thing. Just different kinds out there.

 

[living_waters]

Lol I really don't feel like testing right now but I know everything is where it should be with weekly water changes

 

[mbingha]

Lol I really don't feel like testing right now but I know everything is where it should be with weekly water changes

No offense... but do you? Without testing you really can't be sure. What salt are you using? Different salts have different alk, ca, and mg levels and without testing you can honestly have no idea if your levels are on par.