Button polyps will not open-any advice?

[Aquarius16]

When we first brought them home a year ago they opened fully. 6 months later they stopped and we do not know why. All of the other corals we bought at the same time are doing wonderfully. (Our Zenia is practically taking over every surface!). Last month the button polyps (on a rock) were at the top of the tank in full light and now I have moved them to the bottom, out of the direct light-but no improvement so far. Are there any additives that might benefit it?

 

[Sadielynn]

Try placing them in moderate flow , take a turkey baster and blow them off to remove any excess ditrus .
You said you had them for about a year , and have xenia , is it touching the xenia ?
Have you added anything to the tank such as fish or inverts?
Check for hitchhikers that maybe irritating them such as nudis , spiders , or crabs.
You may wish to take them out place some tank water in a bowl and place about 1/2 cap full of lougals iodine dip in let them set for about 15 minutes and replace to the tank ... Try not to move them more than 1 x a week this will stress them and continue to keep them closed .
What are your perameters .
Ammonia
NitrAte
NitrIte
How old and what is your lighting ?

 

[Aquarius16]

White spots spotted

Dear Sadielynn,

Thank you so much for your quick reply.
There are small white spots on the curled in lips (at first I thought they were grains of sand). Is this debris or could it be something else like a fungus? I am embarrassed to admit I do not have a turkey baster, but I will get one and try to gently flush that away. And I wont move it again this week!

 

[Devilishturtles]

You can accomplish the same thing as a turkey baster with your hand. Try just waving it over the button polyps.

Also, what other corals are in your tank? Something nearby that could be irritating it?

 

[melosu58]

The ladies have given you pretty good advice but I still would like to know your water test results. When was the last time you did a PWC. PWC`s will add all the additives you need.

 

[Aquarius16]

Hi! We do our partial water changes every 10-12 days. The last one was on the 15th. The values are: Nitrate 20, Nitrite 0 and Phosphate 0. The salinity is a bit high right now at 24, but the polyp issue started way before this. I just did the half cap of iodine mix dip that Sadielynn suggested for 15 minutes and used a mini turkey baster-the syringe from the test kit while it was in the bowl. I dont see any change as of yet but I am hopeful. To answer Devilishturtles question, we have a cleaner shrimp that is often near the button polpys and sometimes walks over them. Could that be the cause? And if so, how should I keep it off of them? Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Sadielynn]

Aquarius
yes the shrimp walking over it can cause closure however IME they should only close for a temp time and open once the irritant is gone , you may find that you will need to do successive dips to remedy this if there is something on them . You will not want to do this more than once or 2x aweek ... after the dip gently swish them around to just drop anything off that came loose from them .Try to get those nitrAtes down below the 20 mark by increasing your water changes to once a week . I keep my spg at 1.025 on our reef tank ...Just becareful that the syringe from the test kits have no reagent on or in them as this will further irritate an already irritated colony. Try to keep these away from any other corals that could be giving off a bit of a chemical warfare, this can also cause them to close up . Try adding new carbon, chemipure or purigen (carbon should be change monthly or so depending on your bioload and rinsed weekly if you have a larger bioload replacing biweekly should be fine still rinsing weekly , The other medias should be rinsed weekly and changed out every 3-4 months IME ) I have already lost zoas for no appearant reason .
What kind of lights are you using PC, NO , MH , T5 or other ?
How old , are the bulbs and when was the last time they were replaced ?