open brain trouble

[xxmoorishmanxx]

i recently bought a coral from my lfs which i beleive to be lobophyllia, or colored brain coral, what ive recently noticed is that in the morining and at night the coral looks awesome, but during the afternoon the fleshy part seems to receed. it has adequette light and all my other corals are healthy. it also accepted a small bit of krill the other day. i was wondering why it might act this way. Thanx JC

[captivereefs]

What type of fish are in the tank? Something may be picking o it. What type of lighting and how deep is the tank?How long has it been in the tank? Where is it placed in the tank. Is it in heavy current? Answers to these questions would really help to figure out what could be wrong.

[xxmoorishmanxx]

i gotta 36 bow front, 18 inch deep but coral is at the top i use [acronym:b35525bdd4="Power compact fluorescent"]PC[/acronym:b35525bdd4]'s an actinic [acronym:b35525bdd4="Actinic lighting"]03[/acronym:b35525bdd4], and a 10000k day. fish arent a bother but ill let you know anywho, 2 false percs, 2 watchmen gobies, a mandarin, a yellow coris, a pacific blue tang (small), fish aren't buggin it and its only during midday when it gets weird (for lack of a better word). JC it is new i got it on halloween and i have been putting chemicals and sand in the tank i believe that this could be causing it mostly cause its new and hasn't learned the scheduel like my other corals, but just wanted another opinion. JC

[captivereefs]

Put the coral on the sand. This is where they are found in nature. What exactly do you mean by chemicals? Are the percs trying to host in it? Being high it could be expelling excess zoxantheallea algea produced during the morning. Does it spew any brown stuff at all?

[xxmoorishmanxx]

no the clowns share a bulb tip, and no it not zooxantheallea, the info i have found on it says that it grows on the rocks it is not the traditional open brain coral, its very similar to blastumussa, by chems i mean, [acronym:b6b0575bcc="Kalkwasser"]kalk[/acronym:b6b0575bcc], and alkalinity buffer, plus i recently added some more araganite.

[captivereefs]

May just be adaptivg to your light! Wat was it unde when you bought it?

[xxmoorishmanxx]

[acronym:54de16da6f="Very high output fluorescent"]VHO[/acronym:54de16da6f]'s 2 actinics and 2 whites

[ReefLady]

I think Darin hit the nail on the head - it sounds as if the coral is having difficulty adjusting to the lighting in your tank which is higher than what it was previously housed under. Is it possible that the [acronym:bd65175999="Very high output fluorescent"]VHO[/acronym:bd65175999] bulbs it was kept under were on the 'old' side?

I would try to move it to a lower spot in the tank. If you like it in the higer spot, you can put it there eventually, just move it up slowly so it can acclimate over time to the brighter conditions.

[xxmoorishmanxx]

good plan i was thinkning the same thing thanx for the advice and [acronym:1e6d844d05="By the way"]BTW[/acronym:1e6d844d05] its lookin better every day.

[specialk]

I also have a brain coral which was doing the same thing. I moved it to the sand bed where it gets a nice gentle flow and now it seems fine. I found it will also do this if it is in to much flow. Hope this helps.

Kaye