Duncans not doing well

[Orcrone]

The last couple of days my duncans are not looking well. The tendrils (not sure what they're called) are not fully extending and in the evening some look totally non-existant. Everything else in the tank looks good. It's a 125 gallon tank, total water volume about 145 gallons.

My parameters are:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 1.0
Calcium - 450
Alkalinity - 10.5
Phosphate - .05
Salinity - 35 ppt
pH - 8.1 to 8.3
Temp - 79 to 80

I do 15% water changes weekly. I'll try & post some pics tomorrow.

Any ideas?

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

sorry to hear about the duncans. What fish, corals, & inverts do you have in the tank?

I've had a number of things bother my duncans in the past. One time a ctenophore was sticking its feeder tentacles out and stinging the duncan, another time a maroon clownfish was taking bites off of it.... look close around the coral for anything that could be bothering it.

 

[Orcrone]

I have two tangs (a blue hippo and a sailfin), two clowns (percula), two PJ cardinalfish, a scissortail goby and an engineer goby. For inverts there's three shrimp (coral banded, skunk cleaner and fire) along with your usual snails & hermit crabs.

Corals: Zoas, frogspawn, bubble coral, montis, birds nest, xenia, wells, meteor shower, but nothing too close.

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

hmm...no red flags immediately stick out to me, maybe someone else can shine some light on this one?

I'd say just watch the tank for anything funny & look around at night for anything crawling around. It took me a while before I saw my large maroon clownfish bite on my duncan but I moved it & all has been well. If you can get a good picture of it , maybe someone could spot something?

 

[Orcrone]

Update

Update

Rechecked my params and all looks good. Nitrate was 0.5 and magnesium is 1500. Here's a couple of pics.

This first one shows the ones in back look good, but the ones in front are drawn in & their stalk is green.

The second pic is to show how far away the other corals are.

Could the nearby rocks be crowding them?

 

[BigFeesh]

Maybe move them under more direct light. Do you feed them?

 

[Orcrone]

Once or twice a week I feed them brine shrimp through a baster. They're pretty much in direct light (250 watt DE metal halide) but at the bottom of the tank.

 

[BigFeesh]

HMMM idk maybe try something with more protein like PE mysis.

 

[Orcrone]

They were doing great until 2 or 3 days ago. Just doesn't make sense.

 

[kingfisher62]

Yeah, mine are not looking that great in this heat either!
My tank has been getting up to 84 on hot days but I guess that is not your problem according to your params. Mine seemed sensitive to high or low salinity. make sure you calibrate your refractometer it could be off.

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

there's not too much flow coming off the top of those rocks by it?? the second pic kind of looks like some of the heads are getting blown around.

 

[kingfisher62]

One more thing . Do you have vermatid snails? They are those little smoke stack columns you may have on your LR. They send out invisible webs that can irritate corals.If you stir up the sand bed near your duncans if there are any webs the sediment will stick to them and you will be able to see them.

 

[Orcrone]

Yeah, mine are not looking that great in this heat either!
My tank has been getting up to 84 on hot days but I guess that is not your problem according to your params. Mine seemed sensitive to high or low salinity. make sure you calibrate your refractometer it could be off.

I have a chiller so temp stays very stable. Just calibrated refractometer yesterday. Was within 0.5 ppt.

 

[Orcrone]

there's not too much flow coming off the top of those rocks by it?? the second pic kind of looks like some of the heads are getting blown around.

I have Vortechs so the flow if pretty variable. Should they have lower flow?

 

[Orcrone]

One more thing . Do you have vermatid snails? They are those little smoke stack columns you may have on your LR. They send out invisible webs that can irritate corals.If you stir up the sand bed near your duncans if there are any webs the sediment will stick to them and you will be able to see them.

Don't think I do; just Turbos, Astrea & a few Narcissus. But I'll try it in the AM.

 

[Orcrone]

Thought of one other thing. My engineer goby sometimes plows into them after getting food. Wonder if he's irritating them.

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

One time I adjusted my powerheads & my duncans were getting some heavy flow over a nearby rock, they started to pull in quite a bit. Try adjusting the flow if it's not too much of a pain..

 

[kingfisher62]

I like to give mine low to moderate light and flow.

 

[Orcrone]

One time I adjusted my powerheads & my duncans were getting some heavy flow over a nearby rock, they started to pull in quite a bit. Try adjusting the flow if it's not too much of a pain..

I like to give mine low to moderate light and flow.

Probably have to move them as you can't direct a Vortech. Just got them two weeks ago. You may be onto something although they got a good deal of flow before the new powerheads.

Thanks!!!!!!

 

[LAKEM0NSTER]

+1 I'm with ya there kingfisher


No prob. I'm sure they'll perk back up