Please help my bubble!!

[Beastmaster]

I have had my pearl bubble for about 6 months and he (she?) was doing fine up until a month or so ago - always fully extended and had put on quite a bit of growth. I had a slight re-arrangement in the tank and so moved the coral slightly higher up (from about 20" below the surface to about 17") and since then he has looked pretty sick - even though I have tried several new locations and he is now right at the bottom. He doesn't inflate anymore and has started to recede a bit.
Tank parameters are: 24" cube with 1x 250W MH (10k XM)
NO3 and PO4 are zero (Salifert), pH steady at 8.3, temp 78 degrees, calcium 450, dKH 9, salinity 1.026. Flow is by one 6000 stream and a seio 820, he isn't in a too high a flow area.

I can think of a few possible reasons for his decline: when I moved him it was next to a colony of large Palythoa (sp?) and I think it could possibly have been stung. Also, my calcium dKH has not been stable lately as I have had "issues" dialling in my schuran reactor (which should now be better now that I have a peri pump for it) - though it was looking fine while I was having these problems before. Could one of these be the cause?

I have lots of SPS that are doing great and are growing very well.

Can anyone help me??!!!
Tom

 

[Beastmaster]

No one? Come on guys! There must be someone out there with some idea of what's going on with my bubble! All my params are spot on and my sps are growing well - why the problems?
Help! Help! Help!

 

[Mariner]

Tank params look good.
Fiddling with placement and having problems with calc/alk could account for its sulking.
Are you feeding it?
Mariner

 

[Beastmaster]

Thanks, Mariner. Feed it very occasionally - though is impossible now as it is completely deflated. He has been in his latest spot for nearly two weeks and I am careful not to tear any tissue when moving etc.
Could it be bothered by my fireball angel? I have been trying to get the little sh*t out of the tank for about a month as he is pecking at my trachy and fungia but as yet no success. Haven't seen him anywhere near the bubble though.

 

[Mariner]

Well, since the problems started when you moved it, and have continued since then, I'd say that moving it may have created the problem. And, since you've moved it several times since then, I'd say that moving it has contributed to the problem continuing.
My advice: stop moving it.

BTW, I doubt that your fireball is causing the problem. Mine picks at a lot of things, including things that are on my corals, but it doesn't really seem to pick at the corals themselves. Have your trachy and fungia retracted or do they show signs of damage?
FWIW,
Mariner

 

[Sk8r]

Bubbles are a shade creature. They like low light.

 

[Beastmaster]

The trachy is retracted and I have pretty concrete proof it is the fireball: a short while ago he got spooked and jumped in to the weir, it took a few days for me to fish him back out and in that time the trachy fully inflated and looked fantastic. Within hours of the fish being back it was fully retracted again. Guilty as charged!
Now if only he would do his jumping trick again...

 

[katpurdy]

any chance the flow is too high where the bubble is now? If you have sps then chances are good that there is A LOT of movement in the tank...instead of moving the coral, can you move a rock to shelter it a bit?