LPS corals not fully extended for weeks/months

A

ajb123

New member
I will try to keep it brief.

My frogspawn (4 heads) and one of my torch corals (3 heads) have been closed up with just the ends poking out for the past two months (roughly). They were fine before and the tank is over a year old with ideal lighting and good flow suited for the corals.

One of the heads on the frogspawn has extended more so recently but not much. I am surprised they have stayed like this for so long and not died?

I have other soft corals in the tank which are doing great, along with reef safe fish (although I've just removed a file fish which I suspect could be nipping them so I shall see what happens). The odd thing is that my other torch coral is doing great....

My phosphates/Nitrates test as 0 (haven't tested cal or mag)
I suspect it's a KH swing so have tested all week.

Carried out a 20% water change as I do every sunday, tested monday and it was 10.7, Tuesday 10.7, Wednesday 10.6, didn't test thursday or friday but by saturday it was 10.1. Now its sunday I will be doing a water change and testing again.

Is this too much of a swing that could be causing the problems with these corals?

I cant think what else it could be... please help!

Thanks
 
My tanks kh swings more than that each day, with no ill effects. Just what are you running for lights? Set too high? And you should check your calcium. Pictures?
 
Thanks for you responses chaps. See images attached.

I have TMC ilimenair lights, sett at the correct (slightly less) brightness for the depth of the tank (day time 8 hours). I can't see it being a lighting issue as they were fine two months ago with the same setting. Also, the torch that is not doing well is on the same level (sand bed) as the torch doing well.
 

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Try moving the unhappy corals to a different spot on the bottom and spot feed them with something like their favorite pellets or a bunch of tiny slivers of fresh clam ect...... I recently had a bubble that went from happy to just about done and moved him to low light, low flow and fed him . Within a few days he looked a lot better.
 
Lighting plays just as big of a role in a corals heals as water parameters do. For instance if you had T5 lights after 8-9 months the bulbs need changed, but since you have LED's that isnt the problem as far as lights wearing out. But just looking at your sad corals one or the others is suspect even more now since seeing them, Lighting or water parameters. 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates are not good for most LPS corals especially Euphyllia's Too clean of water is bad for them.
 
I have tried moving them but makes no difference so I have put them back in there original spot where they were doing fine before they got sad. What can i do about the 0 Phosphates and 0 nitrates? Would the other torch coral (and other small hammer coral i forgot to mention) not be looking sad also if it was a problem with the water quality? Im lost as what I can do really... I really don't want to loose them.
 
I think your "clean" water issue crept up on the two existing corals and they are use to it. What are you doing for phosphate or nitrate export? You can also feed a little heavier
 
I agree with Dkuhlmann on the too clean water issue. Spot feeding may go along way to negating it's impact.
However to raise your nutrient levels you may want to back off a bit on your skimming, say go part time ect... You can add something like rocket fuel or acro power and add a bit of fine coral food like coral frenzy daily and do your testing to see where you are.

Also you could just cut back on the water changes. How about 5% a week instead of 20%. You are exporting a lot of your nutrients there.
 
The reason I ask is . Something could be nipping them like you said, a fish . When they are disturbed like that they don't come out. I had some weird looking bristle worms in a rock , they were pea sized and colored pink and purple like coralline algae. I never noticed them until at last resort I was going to take the tank down and start anew. When I removed the frogspawn and hammers . The bristlleworms fell off of them. Dipped the corals removed the rock where they were hiding and let them die. Now corals extend big and are happy. .
 
Thanks for all your comments, I've taken note. So two weeks in without doing a water change my levels are..

Cal - 420
Mag - 1480
Kh - 9.3 (10.7 two weeks ago)

I had a Nitrate test and it was 9...so there is some nutrients in there.

I will reduce the water change but I'm not sure that is going to make a difference to be honest? The file fish (the only fish that could be nipping them) has been removed for two weeks and still no change...he's back in again now.

Could it be a problem with Iodine? I don't know enough about it...
I will also check the corals with a torch at night for pests :)

Its driving me mad! :hammer:
 
You could try taking the one that is higher up next to the xenia , right under the lights and moving it down and way from the direct light. Once they are stressed the idea is to give them a supportive, low stress enviroment. So even if they were previously doing well in certain spot with high lighting and stronger flow, now that they are clearly stressed for awhile, it is prudent to move them to a low light, gentle flow spot in the tank and feed them.
 
Ocean envy said:
You could try taking the one that is higher up next to the xenia , right under the lights and moving it down and way from the direct light. Once they are stressed the idea is to give them a supportive, low stress enviroment. So even if they were previously doing well in certain spot with high lighting and stronger flow, now that they are clearly stressed for awhile, it is prudent to move them to a low light, gentle flow spot in the tank and feed them.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have tried that since you posted. Ive tried that before with no success but have tried again. A few days in and they look worse.. but shall see what happens.
 
If you feed mysis or any other dirty frozen food try gently basting them with the cloudy water a couple days in a row with the pumps off to get it to linger on them. This gets my euphilla happy again after they sulk. I also feed them some brine every 7-10 days and it seems to keep them out.

I do realize that many people keep all euphillia without any special feeding but for me it seems required. I do not know why but it works out, they stay extended and they also seem to get stickier with occasional feeding helping them catch other food that moves past.
 
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