Porites Xmas tree rock being moody.

[Tasty Joe]

Hi all.

Got a porites rock about a week ago and it was doing great in the bottom left of my tank.

Then overnight I noticed some fine mucus buildup on some of the hard spa coral. Over the next few days this mucus left and the coral was slightly whiter (bleached perhaps) underneath.

I was worried that it either got too much light or died off from not enough so I moved it more central and it hasn't got any worse.

However since then the Xmas tree worms haven't been seen really, apart from a few times at night.

I worry that the light may be too strong. I have a 95g tank with one AI Hydra LED. I want more but can't afford yet.

What are the lighting needs of this coral. Some say high lighting some say more shade.

The coral isn't dying off it seems but it's not happy.

Also I recently had a dumb eureka moment when I realized that's rinsing your test vials in tank water gives you false high readings. Thus my magnesium was low. Around 1260. It's now back up towards the 1300 mark but is this hurting it too?

Should I move it in to a more shaded area or focus on water quality or both?

Picture below.

 

[Tasty Joe]

Anyone have advice please?

 

[Tasty Joe]

....and that's why I don't use this forum.

 

[triggerfish55]

these corals usually come from high light and high flow areas , i would recommend keeping it in the upper part of the tank unless you lighting is very bright, keep in in good turbulent flow, the Christmas tree worms are generally very hardy and do not require any special care as long as they are in a mature tank, the mucus buildup seems somewhat familiar, i think i recall my porites going through some sort of similar phase where the polyps would not show for a few days and then they would come back as normal.