What is wrong with my brain?

[Explicit]

Hi,
I bought this open brain coral about two weeks ago. It was really nice and healthy looking in the store. I brought it home and it plumped up really well for the first week and a half. It deflated a lot at night time though. but come morning it would be huge again. I asjusted the light timer so that there was only 8 hours light. Now in the last couple days it hasnt really expanded during the day at all.
My params are pretty good I think

PH 8.2
Nitrate ~2
Nitrite, Phosphorus Ammonia 0
Calcium 500
KH 130
Temp 79
Salinity 1.0255

I fed him the first day he was in there and he ate it up. (Silver shrimp)
Is there a reason he wont expand any more? or is he going to die?

 

[Explicit]

So I may have just answered my own question.
I just fed the fish and put some reef roids in the tank. I then noticed that he was in a pretty high flow area. so I moved him to another area with pretty low flow. Hopefully that works.

 

[wetshirt]

The move to lower flow is a good start, but since it is a red var. you may want to try shading it more. Red ones are a deeper water var. than green ones
and it may be suffering from mild light shock. Also try offering something like zooplex at night to get a feeding response. With luck and a little TLC you have a good chance .

 

[coralreefdoc]

Do you run PO4 remover i.e. PhosBan, RowaPhos, etc. ?

The Ferric Oxide compounds can irritate specimens in the Trachyphyllia genus ...

 

[Explicit]

Okay I moved him to a low flow dark area to see what happens. The low flow area never did anything for him. He hasent really changed much (except he mouth) in the past couple days I am a bit scared.
No I don't run any phosphate remover chemicals.

 

[Explicit]

He has made a recovery as far as I can tell.
He plumps up a lot now, I have not seen him eat other than when I put reefroids in the tank he usually takes a chunk of it in. Weird thing is that he plumps up and deflates a bunch of times a day sometimes. Is this normal? any reason he would do this? He does look a little more awkward now like not all of his areas plump up like before as you can see in the pic.

 

[Cidcaltrop]

What kind of lighting are you using? IME my brain is incredibly finicky, and loves low flow and mid-high light.

 

[Explicit]

I have four T-5's with a timer unit. Full light is about 12hrs then 1 hour in front of and behind full light time. With LED's for night.

 

[Cidcaltrop]

That should be enough light, is it under an arch of some sort?