How do you know if a coral is unhappy?

[pdiehm]

Back story:

Picked up my first corals yesterday, a zoanthid and a frogspawn (at least what I was told in the store, some here think it's a hammer).

I set my light to coral acclimation mode, and placed it about 2/3 of the way up my rockwork. In about 4 hours, it came out, and the koralia nano 425 is above it, off to the side, so it gets some glancing blows of current, but nothing constant or overpowering.

When it opened 4 hours later, I figured it was a good sign, both that my water is in good shape, the salinity on point, etc, and it's located in a good spot.

It's still out, blowing in the current, but having said all that, I don't know what to look for if it becomes unhappy.

 

[NewJack]

it will not expand if it's unhappy. You might want to move somewhere with less flow. Frogspawns don't really like heavy flow. Just very gentle movement of the tentacles. The Zoa's can be placed anywhere. Most people find places low in the tank for them.

 

[pdiehm]

It's not in heavy flow. Very much a gently flow.

 

[scooter31707]

You should be good for as flow, but monitor it once your lights comes out of acclimation mode, they also like low light. Also not just flow and light can cause stress to corals, parameters and water quality can also cause stress for them. IME, most of my LPS does better when the water is a little dirty, meaning my nirates hover around 5-10ppm.