Here is what I posted on another forum trying to get "elegance coral"'s attention.
Anyways, I got an elegance coral from a local shop on Monday. It seemed fine at first and even accepted food. Anyways, since then it has been opening in the morning and in the evenings only. It closes up pretty tightly during the day and I have a feeling this is due to my lights. It was under T5's at the shop in about a foot of water and the lights probably 24" above the tank. In my tank, its under AI Sol Blues (30% white, 40% blues) about 12" from the water and on the sand 18" under the water.
It may be related that I did clean the algae off my glass and blasting my rocks with my spot feeder the day after introducing the coral. It allowed a lot of stuff to float into the water column... a lot more than I had anticipated.
Anyways, tank parameters are all good but I am dosing alk each day to raise it. It is probably about 145ppm (low, but acceptable range) but will test for sure tomorrow when I do some maintenance. Amm (API), Nit (API), Nit (API), Phos (Hanna) all 0. Salinity 1.025. Temp is stable at 78. Cal 450 last time I checked.
Anyways, here are some pics of the tank and the coral. The tank is 36" wide and circulation is done by return pump and an MP40. I feel like Im having a hard time finding a place for this coral to be happy with the flow due to the MP40's flow stream. There is so much "meat" on the elegance that It seems to be easily pushed around.
Do most leave the coral in a low flow area? The area on the right of my tank is low flow but the circulation riding down the glass and back across the sand bed even seems like its to much for the elegance. Right now, I have the coral positioned in the back corner of the right side of the tank. The back is not where I want it at all, but the alternative front corner seems to get to much undertow for this coral (at least from what I have been reading). Anything on the left side of the tank under the pump is to much flow. MP50 maxes at 50% reef crest two times per day for a couple hours.
On another forum, one user said to place the coral higher up but that just doesnt make any sense with how the coral is acting. The towel method one of the previous posters stated sounded pretty good. I may try that tomorrow and see what happens. Shade for this coral is going to be tough for me to find where it wont touch rocks. My best place would be under the anemones in that cave.
If needed, I can screen shot my apex fusion light and flow settings if that will help.
Please tell me what you guys think. My wife tells me to just leave it alone but if I cant find a place that its happy, I would rather return it to the store while its still in good condition and get credit or my money back.
Another thing, it has good color when its open. It hasnt browned or spit out any white web stuff.
In addition since adding this thread, I have taken 4 layers of screen and placed it over that back right corner of the tank where it is located. The coral is getting a lot less light but it still closes up during the day. It readily accepts food and still is open in the morning and the evening.
One thing I was wondering was if it accepts food and closes up during the day, will that sustain it through acclimation or will that hinder acclimation? I really cant lower my lights intensity anymore than it is without other inverts suffering some.
I really want this coral to make it through this tough time. It is probably the only invert in my tank that I am actually stressing about. Everything else is happy.
