gorgonian help

[shabreeson]

I have a small 20 gallon low light set up and i have had some problems with my gorgonians. i got three of them about a month ago and two of them opened up nicely while the third didn't open up at all. i thought time would bring polyps but i found that my red gorgonian stoped putting out its polyps. i'm afraid that both would starve to death. at the moment all i have on the tank is a 60 gallon filter,when i put my 70 gallon backpack protien skimmer on it for a while it seemed like it made the matter worse. was that a mistake? should i do more water changes? i just did one a few days ago and nothing changed

all I have is a sun coral and the three gorgonians. I feed the sun coral mysis shrimp. could all that mysis shrimp cause enough waste to do this? should i leave the protien skimmer on for a while?

 

["Umm fish?"]

should i do more water changes?

What are your nutrient levels? A water change won't hurt anything so, sure.

What's the water motion like in the tank (probably way too low)? Are these non-photosynthetic gorgonians? What are you feeding them?

Pictures?

It costs corals energy to extend their polyps. (Coral muscles work like that. Relaxed muscles makes the polyp fatter and shorter. Contracted muscles makes the polyp thinner and longer.) If they aren't extending, then the return isn't worth the effort for the corals. Probably not the right food and/or flow. The coral that never opened might be so starved by now that it doesn't have enough energy reserves left to extend polyps. If that's the case, then there's probably nothing you can do.

That should get us started.

 

[Justin James]

Gargonians can be tricky. I've keept a few in the past. If your gargonians have white polyps then they need to be feed more than they need light. This kind is harder to keep and needs "filter feeder foods". If your gargonians have colored polyps then they need light so give it lots of light. Thats the basic idea of keeping Gargonians. Umm,fish is right also by saying supply lots of flow.