Corals still not opening Help!

[Jake337]

My frogspawn, hammer, and zoas are still closed. It's been about a week since I've seen them open! The candycanes, palys, and gsp are open since. I'm very worried that they will not open and die. My params are all on check and on point. Have been doing wc every week. The sg is at 1.025. Please leave me some advice I'll try anything.

 

[fort384]

What size tank?

What kind of lights?

What is your lighting schedule?

Can you post values of the parameters you are testing for?

pH, PO4, NO3, NH4, Mg, Alk, Ca, Temp.

What kind of flow do you have in the tank? Would you characterize the corals as being in low, medium, or high flow?

How long have you had these corals, and how long did they appear healthy?

 

[Aquaman024]

What parameters do you check? That happened to me once and it was phosphate. Are using RO or RODI water when you mix?

 

[Jake337]

What size tank?

What kind of lights?

What is your lighting schedule?

Can you post values of the parameters you are testing for?

pH, PO4, NO3, NH4, Mg, Alk, Ca, Temp.

What kind of flow do you have in the tank? Would you characterize the corals as being in low, medium, or high flow?

How long have you had these corals, and how long did they appear healthy?

I have a 4 bulb t5. I leave them on from 10 in the morning to 9 at night. (11hrs). I don't have a test kit for calcium, phosphate, or the other elements but I do 10% water changes weekly. I'm getting good amounts of coralline algae growth so I'm assuming there's a good amount of calcium in there. As for ph it's around 8.1 and ammonia at 0 nitrite 0 and nitrates 0. I do have a little bit of brown algae (just started growing 2 weeks ago) and that might be a result of the nitrates being zero? My sg is at 1.025. I keep them on the sandbed so I'd say the frogspawn and hammer are getting low flow. I placed them higher up in the middle with medium flow and they still didn't open. I got these 2 frags about 3 weeks ago and they were opened and healthy. When I did my first wc with them they closed and haven't opened since. Although, I have a blue zoa frag that isn't opening either and I've had it for close to 2 months now. I do use ro/di water to make saltwater and to top off after evaporation. I use reef crystal salt. Those three are my only closed corals and the rest are all open. I'm most afraid of the frogspawn the most because It looks open but the tentacles don't elongate and it has been like that for close to 2 weeks! The hammer is open at times but doesn't open up as much as it did when I first got it. There has to be something wrong with something but I don't know what. I don't know if my water is the prob cuz I keep tract of my params and do weekly wcs. My bulbs are only 3 months old also. Any advice will be appreciated!

 

[bigben2057]

I have a 4 bulb t5. I leave them on from 10 in the morning to 9 at night. (11hrs). I don't have a test kit for calcium, phosphate, or the other elements but I do 10% water changes weekly. I'm getting good amounts of coralline algae growth so I'm assuming there's a good amount of calcium in there. As for ph it's around 8.1 and ammonia at 0 nitrite 0 and nitrates 0. I do have a little bit of brown algae (just started growing 2 weeks ago) and that might be a result of the nitrates being zero? My sg is at 1.025. I keep them on the sandbed so I'd say the frogspawn and hammer are getting low flow. I placed them higher up in the middle with medium flow and they still didn't open. I got these 2 frags about 3 weeks ago and they were opened and healthy. When I did my first wc with them they closed and haven't opened since. Although, I have a blue zoa frag that isn't opening either and I've had it for close to 2 months now. I do use ro/di water to make saltwater and to top off after evaporation. I use reef crystal salt. Those three are my only closed corals and the rest are all open. I'm most afraid of the frogspawn the most because It looks open but the tentacles don't elongate and it has been like that for close to 2 weeks! The hammer is open at times but doesn't open up as much as it did when I first got it. There has to be something wrong with something but I don't know what. I don't know if my water is the prob cuz I keep tract of my params and do weekly wcs. My bulbs are only 3 months old also. Any advice will be appreciated!

In guessing the alk is low but that is just a guess.

 

[Aquaman024]

My guess would also be low alkalinity. You need to get a test kit for calcium and alk. It is cheaper than replacing your corals.

Do you dose a two part calcium supplement ir alkalinity supplement like super buffer or soda ash?

If not I would almost bet low alkalinity is your problem.

 

[Jake337]

How do you know if the water has low alk? What would low alk cause? And how do I increase it? I don't dose anything, just do wc.

 

[fort384]

I too am thinking alk could be an issue. You should get an alk and Ca test kit. The redsea one is great. Mg too. These are fundamental to keeping a reef IMO and really without knowing it would be tough to proceed with any other solutions.

 

[SeanMonster]

I'd check temperature too. My heater went out and I had one of those thermometer strips you stick to the glass (totally inaccurate). Bought a digital thermometer and saw temp was at 68. Bought a new heater, got it dialed in to 77.5 and a week later everything was happy. Also, I would consider backing down your lights. My lfs always recommends less light when coral gets stressed. I run my blues from 2pm to 10 pm and whites from 3 pm to 9 pm. I have a 4 bulb Tek T5.

 

[Jake337]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I'm really stressed myself. I've been doing everything I could to help these corals open back up. But they still stay closed. Here's a picture of the frogspawn. I also have a before and after of my hammer. The quality is kinda bad because I took it on my iPod.

Frogspawn Closed





Hammer before





Hammer after