Poor PE on new millepora

[GroktheCube]

I purchased a gorgeous little millepora frag yesterday, and it isn't showing very good PE. Is it normal for then to take a few days to open up?

I have him about halfway up the tank in alternating turbulent flow that I would categorize as being on the high side of moderate. I keep Ca around 420, and Alk around 7-7.2dkh. 0 readable nitrate, .05 PO4.

Should I move him to a slightly higher flow spot, or let him be for a few days?

 

[chad p]

IME it's normal for them to take not just a few days but possibly weeks. I had a green milli that I got in a trade that looked like garbage when I got it. No PE, no color etc. It took probably 3 weeks to a month before I started to see color and PE. Now it's growing well with great color and PE. Picked up a nicer looking Sunset Milli more recently and it took a week or more before it started getting decent PE.

Leave it be for a while. If you still have bad PE after 3 weeks to a month, then I'd start looking at possible issues. One day after being added to a new tank I'd pretty much expect poor PE. Good luck with it.

 

[haze152]

How old is your tank? in my experience mill like perfect water and a mature tank. I had a mill take almost 3 months to have great PE however now its the fastest growing coral in my tank.

 

[GroktheCube]

Thanks for the advise, I guess it needs to settle in more.

The tank is just about 9 months old now. Still pretty young in the overall scheme of things, but its been stable without any issues (knock on wood) other than some stubborn aiptasia for months.

 

[scolley]

How old is your tank? in my experience mill like perfect water and a mature tank. I had a mill take almost 3 months to have great PE however now its the fastest growing coral in my tank.

I got one particular mille that was crazy hairy when it arrived from the vendor. But within a few hours in my tank there was barely any PE to be seen. It took almost nine month for it to get "hairy" again.

While the tank was only a year old when I put that mille in, I don't think maturity was the issue. I say that because I had lots of other SPS (including some of the tough ones like deep waters) growing well (good PE too) in the tank the whole time. So the conditions were "good" all along.

It appears to me that that mille just didn't like the change, and took a long time to get over it.