Coral not opening..

[plunderisley]

I had this elegance? coral for a month now and it was doing fine till about a week ago. Since then it has never fully opened up. It does close and night and open during the day. Under LED lights with some 200-225 par at full strength some 5 hrs (then 3 hrs before and after at lower par to simulate sunrise/sunset). Current is a low to moderate. Nothing strong that it will cause folding, but enough to cause movement in the tentacles. There is a torch coral nearby, but I don't think it is attacking it. Water parameters are all fine (1.025 sg, 80F, 0 NO3, 8.2 pH, 420 Ca, 0 PO4)
What about food? I feed the corals green plankton, red plankton and Brachionus plicatilis (rotifer)

Any thoughts?

 

[dstrickland]

I have mine on the sand and it opens good

 

[toontjuh]

i purchased an elegance coral last week but it was immediately apparent it didn't like high lighting at all!

i have a par 38 bulb suspended above the tank about 12 inches from the surface, but still had to place the coral in the dark shade before it opened

also on a side note this coral absolutely doesn't like to be handled too much, it will stay closed for a period of time if so.

 

[plunderisley]

I will try moving it to the sand bed today. It is not looking well. The bottom is closed up and pale.

 

[jfingers8]

It's probably from Indonesia, which means it most likely has "elegance disease" and will not make it. The only ones that seem to do well are the ones from Australia. I've had my Aussie one for a couple of years now without and problems.

 

[plunderisley]

Its from Australia.
I moved the coral to the sand bed away from any other corals and it opened up a bit more than yesterday. I'll see how it will look tomorrow.

 

[cjk76]

This "elegance disease" has not been proven. Others have had a lot of luck with reducing light and letting the coral adapt to the new levels of lighting slowly.

Also, I wonder how many elegances that come from Indo are being sold as Aussies...