Chili coral hasn't opened in a long time

[oldpaddy]

Hi all, so I have a chili coral that hasn't appeared to have opened in months. He's not melting or covered in anything that I can see. I've had him for at least 2yrs now and he hasn't been moved in over a year. All my other corals are doing great.
Any ideas?

220gal, approx 30gal in sump. Led, mixed reef.
1.026 +/-
No3&Po4- non detectable
8.5dkh+/-
540ppm Ca- this is a recent issue. I don't know if my doser went out of sync or if I accidently added Ca supplement from a jug of water meant for another tank. A few weeks ago, and for many months prior, I was at 400ppm Ca.

Tank has good growth and I haven't had any problems other than the recent Ca swing in a long time. Typically a very stable system. I do 30gal water changes every 2wks.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hey! I'm in the same boat!
Really interesting that it hasn't melted isn't it?
Although I still haven't found a consisten win yet, I have fount that flow matters. It really does respond to those changes.
Is it in high light zones?

I had a smaller piece that did just fine mid way up my tank in fairly high ligh but great flow.

I hope a chili coral expert shows up.

 

[oldpaddy]

Hey! I'm in the same boat!
Really interesting that it hasn't melted isn't it?
Although I still haven't found a consisten win yet, I have fount that flow matters. It really does respond to those changes.
Is it in high light zones?

I had a smaller piece that did just fine mid way up my tank in fairly high ligh but great flow.

I hope a chili coral expert shows up.

Yeah, I'm surprised he hasn't melted either. He's in the shade. He's at the opposite end of my tank from the gyre, but he appears to have good flow. The anemones who are not that far away seem happy and I find they like a good amount of flow. Two years ago he would open day and night. That slowly changed to night only, and now not at all. Though it is possible he's opening up and closing during the wee hours of the morning. I almost never see the tank from 11pm-4am.
Unfortunately moving him really isn't a possibility due to where and how he's situated. I'd have to do a big breakdown of the rock and that would disturb a lot of corals.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea Im up against a rock and a hard place too(lol)
I think they need just under what would be considered SPS flow. I just don't have a shady spot with that. The last spot I had it was great big flow and I used less light and it seemed to work , but once I went back to regular light it stopped. really odd, considering how well the last one did in actually high light. hmmm

 

[oldpaddy]

Yea Im up against a rock and a hard place too(lol)
I think they need just under what would be considered SPS flow. I just don't have a shady spot with that. The last spot I had it was great big flow and I used less light and it seemed to work , but once I went back to regular light it stopped. really odd, considering how well the last one did in actually high light. hmmm

Hmmmm Now that I think about it, and it might have nothing to do with my chili coral, I dosed with Fluconazole around the same time it stopped opening. That's the only big change I can think of in the last year.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hmmmm Now that I think about it, and it might have nothing to do with my chili coral, I dosed with Fluconazole around the same time it stopped opening. That's the only big change I can think of in the last year.

Lol
Mine has been the same since the fluc and bryo. I moved it after the treatment and it opened, kinda, and went back to grumpy.

 

[Scott.h]

Easy fix. Mix up twillards formula for stump remover and buy some seachem phosphate. Dose 5 ml no3 every day over 2 doses. You wont see this read on a test kit for awhile with that water volume, but hold steady. Then dose 1/2 ml a day of the p04 for a few days until its present consistently. 1 ml raises .01 per 100 gal. OR remove gfo. Call me in 3 weeks.

 

[oldpaddy]

Easy fix. Mix up twillards formula for stump remover and buy some seachem phosphate. Dose 5 ml no3 every day over 2 doses. You wont see this read on a test kit for awhile with that water volume, but hold steady. Then dose 1/2 ml a day of the p04 for a few days until its present consistently. 1 ml raises .01 per 100 gal. OR remove gfo. Call me in 3 weeks.

So you think it's from low n03 and p04? You could be right, but even though I have undetectable levels with my api kits, I highly doubt I'm actually running a ulns. I have a lot of fish and feed them 2+ times a day. I don't run gfo. I do have a dsb in the sump and I have chaeto, which gets big.
My system is sps dominant, but I do have a all too healthy Kenya tree and xenia.
You could be right though.

 

[Scott.h]

So you think it's from low n03 and p04? You could be right, but even though I have undetectable levels with my api kits, I highly doubt I'm actually running a ulns. I have a lot of fish and feed them 2+ times a day. I don't run gfo. I do have a dsb in the sump and I have chaeto, which gets big.
My system is sps dominant, but I do have a all too healthy Kenya tree and xenia.
You could be right though.

Its hard to say, but you really need a good test kit to see what the numbers are. I use Red Sea pro for nitrates and Hanna ultra low phosphorus. When you said undetectable.. well, API isn't a good source for low range accuracy. I've chased issues like this. Ironically I have certain acans that don't mind really low levels. Like .005 P. Right next to those I'll have some one that if I get lower then .01 I can see it. Everyone is running around trying to run low conditions. Once I threw out gfo, later started daily dosing those two elements, within three or four weeks my lps started coloring and opening up like the pictures I seen of them on line previous. It's crazy. Forget amino's. But get true numbers first. It could be other things.

Fish don't necessarily matter. I was over feeding them before I started dosing to keep from having to dose. Still too low.