coral wont open fully

[HoCkEyGmC]

like the title says, my new green-tip frogspawn wont open fully. its on the bottom of the tank, about 1 1/4 feet away from the halide, mid flow(what should it be? high low or mid?) also i thought that they were supposed to extend at night, mine gets really small (i have blue LED's that i use at night) its been in the tank for about 3 days now and yeah. its extending to about 1/2-3/4 to its full potential shown in the store. im going to try to get some type of phyto asap. anyways, please help.
Thanks!

[ccCapt]

They are like most LPS....moderate light and moderate flow.
What kind of lighting was it under at the store you bought it from?

[Fierro Nights]

your coral may just need to get used to the new lighting and water chemistry.

[HoCkEyGmC]

k, thanks! ummm, i dont know what they were running but it didnt look actinic or like halides, im guessing just strong pc's.

[pat8you]

When you are making big jumps between light quality like from your LFS to your quality MH lighting you should try to photo acclimate your coral. It stresses the coral and can lead to bleeching. I would suggest moving it down to the bottom of the tank and slowly bringing it up to where you want to keep it over a couple weeks. Also if you move it to the side of one of your MH bulbs instead of directly under the lighting will be a little less. Keep a close eye on it and it will adjust over time.

[Kurt_Nelson]

A couple things... frogspawns don't need (and don't really like) that much lighting. Maybe move it farther away from the halides and it will extend more. They normally retract at night and will extend during the day.

Don't bother with the phyto as it isn't its food of choice, but instead feed it small pieces of meaty food like mysis, chopped clams, etc.

[melosu58]

I agree with Kurt. Feed mysis or vitamin fortified brine. I have mine under VHO lights. 2 50/50 and 2 super actinic. Mh`s might be too much.

[HoCkEyGmC]

it extended fully todayits kind of hard to move it away cuz i got a nanocube and theres nowhere really to move it to. would brine shrimp work? and how is a hammer coral? good, hard, easy, perfect, <opposite of that, ect?

[melosu58]

They both need space between them.

[pat8you]

I've heard frogspawn and hammer corals both have long sweeper tenticles so you may want to reconsider putting both of them in a nano or you may run out of space. Not positive i would do a little research. As far as care a hammer will be similar to a frogspawn i'm pretty sure.

[Innovator]

They can be separated by placing one higher up than the other and situated towards the front of back of the display So basically any sweepers would have to reach down and across/diagnal or up and across/diagnal. My experience with hammers is that they are more succeptible to stings and other maladies than other Euphyllias.

[HoCkEyGmC]

when do the sweeper tenticles come out? the frogspawn is fairly small, when its fully extended, its like 5x3, its branched and forming new ones. the hammer is slightly smaller. in the tank at the store they were practically touching. but yeah, i might get the hammer sometime in a few days, i just love the colors its green tipped and a deep red in the other spots, but i could easily find a spot to put them to keep em seperated. theres so many corals that i want rite now i cant contain myself but i will definatly keep it going slow, my next major addition will be a clown, i really want a yellowstripe maroon but im sure that thats not a good idea. prbly a percula or false percula, still dont know which. yea all the stuffs that i want rite now are, clown, firefish, flame angel, bangaii cardinal, maybe a red scooter blenny, a birdsnest frag, brain corals, lots of mushrooms, cup coral, hammer, torch, plate corals, bubble coral, kenya tree, mushrooms(would they get fried?), other sps corals(would hate for the halides to go to waste), anemone(need help), starfish(linckia?), and maybe a clam. but yeah. oh, i also have pods all over my glass and swiming around everywhere, anything that will controll them? i could just take em out with the mag but i dont want them to go to waste. also, algae is becoming a problem all over the glass.
well thanks!

[pat8you]

Most meat eating fish will eat pods off your rocks and keep them under control. I have noticed that dwarf angels really like to pick off the rocks all day. I don't know what size tank you have though and they are fairly active swimmers.

[HoCkEyGmC]

28gal nanocube, i was origionally planning on getting one (flame angel) but im not sure. and the main problem is on the glass not the rocks. but yeah thx.

[austinsdad]

I'd stay away from any angel in a small tank if it were me.

[HoCkEyGmC]

even dwarf?(confirming). and how does the rest of the stuff look?

[melosu58]

I would be very leary of putting a dwarf angel in with corals. I know it`s hit or miss but I had two dwarfs that decimated some of my corals and I had to remove them. Had to take the tank apart to get them also. I`ve taken the NO angel pledge.

[HoCkEyGmC]

oh ok now i see, ill have to think about it now. hmm...
but how is the other stuff on the list, the main things i wanna know about are an anemone, starfish, and an urchin,mushrooms, a clam, pod control on the glass, all other stock(especially corals/fish).
Thanks!

[pat8you]

Choose your anemone carefully most of them can get quite large and are a bit more challenging to keep in a smaller tank. It can be done. Just saying make sure you do your homework on that one, it will save you a lot of headache

[HoCkEyGmC]

what about a starfish, would a blue linckia work? and for an urchin would a pincussion, longspine, or blue tuxedo be best?