Recovering cynarina

[uscgbeachbum]

My buddy got me a beautiful cynarina about 5 months ago. It acclimated very well. Stayed puffy for about a month, but was slowly declining. Its feeder tentacles could come out at night for about the first 2 months. However, slowly it receded, exposing skeleton, and its tentacles would no longer come out at night. After a lot of research and trial and error I believe I found out that it was my lighting (2xKessil A360we's) that I had the intensity set too low (about 20%) based off of initial reports of how strong they were. I've slowly increased the intensity about 1% every 3 days (currently at 35%) and the cynarina has shown marked improvement. Its flesh has begun populating the previously exposed skeleton, but it still has a far way to go. Despite the recovery to date, the tentacles still do not come out at night. I feed it mysis shrimp 2-3 times/week using an old coke bottle top that's been cut off. I'll squirt 10-12 mysis into the bottle, hoping it makes it into the mouth, but I don't know if it actually eats some/any. The mouth and center of the cynarina get really swollen/puffy at night.

Thoughts on the recovery so far? I think its going well, but i'm worried about the tentacles and how it feeds.

 

[Tweaked]

These things decline fast, and if you paused its decline, I call that a point for your team. Keep it up and it may start feeding again soon. GL, keep us updated.

 

[rockslide123]

Can you let us know how this turned out?
Thanks

 

[uscgbeachbum]

Update.
It still has a fleshy mouth, but hasn't recovered much (I do look at it every day so I might not notice the small changes). The exposed skeleton has started growing algae which I'm sure could impact or slow growth/healing. I've attached a picture from 11/29 (sorry for the crappy picture). Since I originally posted I've increased my lighting slowly to 75% intensity and moved my cynarina up about 6" in the tank while I increase the light intensity towards 100%.

 

[pitmindi]

I have 4 cynarinas. They are on the sand and like it there. I have T5HO lighting and a 6" DSB. My water is on the dirty side, high nutrients. I dont feed heavy and feed Ultra pellets to my corals weekly after dark. I don't think cynarinas like strong light. I think they like low light, not shade. I know they dont like to be near mushroom corals.

 

[uscgbeachbum]

Thanks for the insights pitmindi. Not sure what the watt:watt comparison between LED and T5 lighting is, but how many watts are you running? I don't believe any of the old watts/gallon rules of yesteryear, but just curious. I'm currently running around 135 watts total assuming a linear relationship for intensity setting and total wattage. No matter what I do I can't get my phosphates or nitrates over 0 ppm. I find this hard to believe since I have a minor hair algae problem, but they most likely consume it at the rate that enters the tank. I test with Salifert for nitrates and Salifert AND Hanna for phosphates, but always get 0. Admittedly, I haven't TRIED to increase my phosphates/nitrates by excessively dumping food into the tank. Before raising it about 6" onto some rock it stood by itself on my sand bed. Nearest corals (zoanthids) were 6-8" away and a small (4 polyp) frag.

 

[Fish Biscuit]

Have you tested your water? I've found this to be an easy coral to keep happy. I've only seen mine upset for a day or 2 at most & it's usually due to an issue with water chemistry.

Keep it on the sand bed, they don't need a ton of light.

 

[uscgbeachbum]

Have you tested your water? I've found this to be an easy coral to keep happy. I've only seen mine upset for a day or 2 at most & it's usually due to an issue with water chemistry.

Keep it on the sand bed, they don't need a ton of light.

I test my water about every 4 weeks or so. As I said above my NO3 and PO4 have consistently read 0 ppm (0 ppb with Hanna) with Salifert. Mg = 1350-1400 ppm, Ca = 400-450ppm, Alk = 10.5-11 dkh, pH = 8.3-8.4 (apex monitored), temp = 75 (winter months), 78 (summer months), and slow changes between, total temp swing in any day is +/-0.5 deg, SG = 1.025. Light schedule is an inverted parabola. 10am = 0%, 11am = 35%, 4pm = 75%, 9pm = 35%, 10pm = 0%. I've been slowly increasing the intensity at 4pm higher and then planned on increasing the 11am and 9pm intensities on a 1%/day schedule.

I only have a handful of fish: melanurus wrasse, kole tang, tail spot blenny, 3 clownfish. 2 tiger conchs, handful of trochus snails, 4 handfuls of astrea snails (they reproduce like crazy), 4-5 nassarius snails.

I skim 23 hrs/day where its off during feedings as well as my main pump. Circulation is about 200 gph from the main pump (I hate microbubbles with a passion), and 2 jebao wp25 set on wave mode.

Any ideas?