Help with acanthophyllia

[Bogey93]

I have an acanthophyllia that I've had in my tank for about 4-5 months now and it hasn't been fully extending like it use to and has slowly been losing its color. It has been eating and I've been feeding it as much as it can take. Tonight I turned off all pumps etc to feed and watched it for a while and noticed once it finished eating that it moved the leftover food off to the side into the sand and shortly after tentacles expelled out of the mouth. I'm not sure exactly what this means. Anyone with some knowledge about those corals please do help. I can't seem to find anything online about the subject.

 

[rt67ghy]

What are your water parameters, lights and what kind of flow is it getting?

 

[Bogey93]

Ph 8.2, nitrates nitrites phosphate 0, calcium about 410, mag 1300, sg 1.026. Not sure what other parameters to list. I had aqua illumination leds and it is getting low to medium flow. The loss of color started even when I had power compacts

 

[rt67ghy]

Your parameters look good but I'm wondering if they're too good ( 0 nitrates and phosphates). Maybe the zooxanthellae aren't getting what they need for survival and that is what's causing the bleaching (colour loss). How are your other corals doing and are you running GAC?

 

[ChimolaFish]

Params seem fine. I'd test your alk as well. Also, what type of lighting are you using? I wouldn't think your params are 'too good', although I suppose it MIGHT be possible, it's just a little silly to even think of in our tanks usually. I would try looking at different flow patterns\areas of the tank although what you listed was fine. Depending on your light, you might want to increase or decrease light, the color loss is probably from pc lighting, give it time to color up. As for pushing food out, its possible you gave it too much. The tentacles being extended could have been a response to that action...

 

[Bogey93]

The only reason they read 0 is because of my chaeto. My other corals are doing great. I have acans right next to it and they are somewhat closely related. I'll have to test my alk. I think flow would be the biggest reason why it's retracted but as far as color I'm not 100% sure. I also don't know if the expelling of the tiny tentacles at the mouth are a good or bad thing. I guess the good thing is that it's still eating. I fed it frozen food thawed with bright well restor last night. Seems to be expanding a little more than usual. I'll have to check on it when I get home. And no I'm not running gac

 

[rt67ghy]

If your chaeto is growing then I don't think you have a problem of nitrates & phosphates being too low and since your other corals are doing fine it should not be a water quality issue. You may want to try changing the position of this coral to a place of lower flow and see how it reacts.

 

[Bogey93]

Now becomes the problem of needing a bigger tank. There is only one spot large enough for that coral. Fully expanded is probably close to about 10 inches. I'll have to play around with direction of flow or cover it with something to reduce the flow and see if that helps.

 

[rt67ghy]

Now becomes the problem of needing a bigger tank.

Don't we all wish for a bigger tank? lol. You may try stop feeding it for a while to see if over-feeding is the problem. Since it's not clear what is causing it to stress, the only way to find out is to change only one thing at a time so you can eventually nail it and not have a future re-occurrence.