Is my euphyllia okay?

[dsmattice]

I have a euphyllia that was purchased three weeks ago as a torch, but looks a lot more like a frogspawn. There are two heads that seem to alternately look great. One will expand and look very happy while the other retracts for a couple of days. They have alternated like this pretty regularly until a couple of days ago. I'm into the fourth day of very little activity from either polyp. They are retracted, but their color has never looked better.

They are in a 125 reef approx. 6 mos old (though set up from 5 year old 55g and 29g) Water params exceptional, ca, dkh, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc. I had a malfuntion in my skimmer that dumped the organics back into the system, could this have an impact?

 

[Bcollins111900]

A good indicator if the skimate is the problem is to look at other euphylia corals in your tank and see if they are having the same problems. If you don't have any, how are the other corals doing in the tank. If it is just happeing to just this one coral and it is a new addition to the tank I would guess it is an issolated issues with that coral. Is it willing to eat at all if you spot feed it? What light conditions did it come from and what kind of lighting do you have on your tank?

 

[dsmattice]

Thank you,
It is the first Euphyllia in the tank and the only other coral in the tank as yet are GSPs that are going crazy. I have been spot feeding mysis once a week and it has responded to the feeding. I noticed this morning that hair algae was forming on one section of LR. I've been forced to get my RO/DI water from LFS until my new unit gets here. Phosphates are testing non existent, and nitrates are undetectable but something has to be providing nutrients to the hair algae.

I've read that torches are particulary sensitive to phosphates, so I'm going to have the water from LFS tested again. I've never had hair algae before. Would even trace phosphates cause stress to the Euphyllia?

 

[dsmattice]

Sorry, I forgot to address your lighting question. The euphyllia came from PC/VHO unknown wattage to my 3-175W MH/4-65W PC actinic lighting. Since this was only the second coral introduced to the reef I was able to acclimate it to my lighting schedule slowly to where it was opening more and more when the lights were on longer.

I should explain that this euphlyia was "rescued" from LFS by a family member who gave it to me as a gift. Euphyllias are some of my favorite corals, but I really wanted more experience and research time before I started adding them to my tank. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bcollins111900]

I have had red slime algea which is caused from phosphates (when my RO unit was messed up) and my 9 headed torch and 3 headed frogspawn along with everything else did well, no receading. Sounds like the coral is still going through an adjustment phase. Whats your calcium and alkalinity look like?

 

[dsmattice]

Ca 460 and dkh 9.8....

My water topoff has been manual for the last week to the tune of 1 gallon in the a.m. and 1 gallon in the p.m. Do you know if fluctuations in salinity might cause it? The change in my system can't be that dramatic with 130gallons total water volume. At max water level SG stays right at 1.025

 

[Bcollins111900]

Yeah one galon is not going to flucuate it enought to cause a problem. Everything is right on target. sing your alk is good I would assume your PH is 8.2 So currently both hads of the coral are in recessions? if so I would try to dip it in coral dip which can be picked up from and good LFS for about $10-$20.

 

[dsmattice]

pic from a week ago

pic from a week ago

Here is a pic from a week ago, left hand side open right hand side receeded. I'll try to get pic tonight to show where they are now.

 

[papagimp]

for what it's worth, the calcium in my tank used to run between 4 and 5 hundred, and my euphyllia (1hammer, 2frogs) looked horrible, I had high phosphates but everything else was okay. well, I run my calcium around 650 now and even though I still have detectable phosphates (not has high as they were) my frogs and hammers have started showing new growth again. I don't believe the phosphates are hurting the euphyllia directly but they render calcium unusable and in turn cause euphyllia not to be able to produce skeletal material, My hammer had almost completely receded and was barely hanging on the bone, he's made a full recovery now.

 

[dsmattice]

Thank you very much for the info, I just came across a very similar article to what you summarized. I'll see what I can do from here. The good news is today one head is out and happier than ever...