Duncan coral not opening

jaxteller007 · May 11, 2020

That sucks man

jaxteller007 · May 11, 2020

Here is some quick pictures of ours. You can see the heads that never recovered. I have a friend that is going to come over one day and frag those dead heads off.

Llorgon · May 13, 2020

Well for a few hours yesterday I saw some improvement with it opening up a little bit. Then it closed up again and is still closed up today.

It looks like it had little bit for tentacles... Maybe if I move it again it will open up more.

TrishK · May 13, 2020

Your numbers look good to me too. We got a 1 polyp Duncan in November and he has 6 heads now and long stalks. I have him about 2” off sand bed which puts him about 28” from our Kessil a360WE lights (we have 3 Kessils-6’ tank) He has really grown since we moved him and gave him more flow. I spot feed each polyp twice a week with reef roids and I don’t follow the directions. I make it much heavier and the growth has been crazy. I also spot feed some mixed meaty foods once a week and coral frenzy once a week plus whatever is in the water column. Phytoplankton a few times a week with UV and skimmer off for awhile after.

Here’s our readings. We never tested magnesium before but have been waiting on a test kit for weeks in the mail. We run a UV Sterilizer.
Salinity -1.025
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 5 ppm
Phos .25
Ph 8.2
Temp 79.3
Calcium -520
Alkalinity 9
Iodine .012 per L

Still waiting on Magnesium test kit to arrive

Pictures is after lights out so he’s not as big and fluffy as he usually is.

Llorgon · May 14, 2020

Mine was the same. Started as 1 head in Jan now has about 7. It was fine one day and now it seems to always be unhappy. Very frustrating since it was one of the better growers in my tank

Llorgon · May 20, 2020

So still no luck with this Duncan. How often should I be moving it? Right now if it's not opening I am moving it every 3 days or so.

jaxteller007 · May 20, 2020

Ours took a few days to open up. We left it in place for like a week after we moved it the first time.

Llorgon · May 21, 2020

Ok I will try leaving it in the same place for longer before moving it.

Llorgon · May 25, 2020

Still having issues with the Duncan. It does look better the next day after feeding. Hoping a few days of feedings might get it back.

Llorgon · May 26, 2020

Well after 2 days of feeding the Duncan it's back to looking like this today.

Going to test my water again tonight and see if anything is off.

jaxteller007 · May 27, 2020

Llorgon said:
Well after 2 days of feeding the Duncan it's back to looking like this today.

Going to test my water again tonight and see if anything is off.

That's just wild to me. Ours is such a trooper and our water parameters aren't the greatest.

jaxteller007 · May 27, 2020

Ours right now.

jaxteller007 · May 27, 2020

What lights are you using and what are your parameters? Also what kind of flow do you have?
Mine was doing just ok when we had it in the middle level of the tank, since I moved it down into the sand it has really started opening up.

Llorgon · May 27, 2020

jaxteller007 said:
What lights are you using and what are your parameters? Also what kind of flow do you have?
Mine was doing just ok when we had it in the middle level of the tank, since I moved it down into the sand it has really started opening up.

Unfortunately I ended up having to do OT last night and didn't get a chance to test params. Should be able to do that tonight though.

Light is a radion xr30, set on LPS mode, 20%. Been set to that since before I got the duncan.
For flow there is a sicce 1.5 pump and mp10 set on reef crest max is 80%. Mp10 was cleaned off 2 weeks ago. Been with those settings since before I got the duncan as well.

Llorgon · May 27, 2020

jaxteller007 said:
Ours right now.

Show off!

Alright, no OT tonight so did some water testing.

Tank Params are
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 79
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 0.009
Alkalinity: 9.3
Calcium: 500
Magnesium: 1470

Nothing seems super off in terms of water params. Calcium is kind of hight, but I don't really know how reliable my test kit is.

jaxteller007 · May 28, 2020

I don't know a ton about keeping corals, the duncan is the only one we have. Those parameters seem pretty good to me though. It's weird that ours acts so differently.

New&no clue · May 28, 2020

Sorry to jump in late in the game, but what type of livestock do you have? I had a duncan in my tank that was doing great, it even started to grow another head, than one day is closed and I had no idea why. Everything else in the tank was fine. I checker parameters, I moved it all over it never opened again. It sat in my tank for probably 4 months all closed up. I couldn't bare to throw it out as I could tell it hadn't died it just wouldn't open. Finally I bought another one because I love them so much and put it in the tank. It opened right up and was happy... until... I noticed by female clown was getting really friendly with it, nipping it, rubbing on it and it too closed up. So I took both out of the tank and put them in a different one. Almost overnight the very first one I had opened up again, and within a week there was another new head. The first picture is it in the original tank, the second picture is it in the new tank. It still hasn't fully opened like it once did, but it's working on it.

Miller535 · May 28, 2020

New&no clue said:
Sorry to jump in late in the game, but what type of livestock do you have? I had a duncan in my tank that was doing great, it even started to grow another head, than one day is closed and I had no idea why. Everything else in the tank was fine. I checker parameters, I moved it all over it never opened again. It sat in my tank for probably 4 months all closed up. I couldn't bare to throw it out as I could tell it hadn't died it just wouldn't open. Finally I bought another one because I love them so much and put it in the tank. It opened right up and was happy... until... I noticed by female clown was getting really friendly with it, nipping it, rubbing on it and it too closed up. So I took both out of the tank and put them in a different one. Almost overnight the very first one I had opened up again, and within a week there was another new head. The first picture is it in the original tank, the second picture is it in the new tank. It still hasn't fully opened like it once did, but it's working on it.

I worry about this with my elegance coral. She has really been eye balling it, and gliding over top of it with almost touching it, but not.

Llorgon · May 28, 2020

New&no clue said:
Sorry to jump in late in the game, but what type of livestock do you have? I had a duncan in my tank that was doing great, it even started to grow another head, than one day is closed and I had no idea why. Everything else in the tank was fine. I checker parameters, I moved it all over it never opened again. It sat in my tank for probably 4 months all closed up. I couldn't bare to throw it out as I could tell it hadn't died it just wouldn't open. Finally I bought another one because I love them so much and put it in the tank. It opened right up and was happy... until... I noticed by female clown was getting really friendly with it, nipping it, rubbing on it and it too closed up. So I took both out of the tank and put them in a different one. Almost overnight the very first one I had opened up again, and within a week there was another new head. The first picture is it in the original tank, the second picture is it in the new tank. It still hasn't fully opened like it once did, but it's working on it.

Livestock is 2 clowns, royal gramma and yellow tang. Plus some snails and hermits.

The clowns mostly hang around the frogspawn and hammer corals. I haven't noticed them really pay any attention to the duncan. But I am also not around watching the tank all the time.

All the fish will steal food from it if I don't feed them at the same time as feeding the corals.

I don't have a second tank that is up and ready right now to put the duncan in... unless I setup my QT tank just for the duncan. That might work...

Reefer508 · May 28, 2020

If you have room you could use a upside down clear critter cage with holes drilled in it, to allow flow, over the Duncan. Or any intank quarantine box that you can get over it. You could put a small piece of rock on top to keep it down. This would do a few things for you, not allow your fish to get near it, reduce flow, and also filter out some light. Duncans are pretty hardy coral.
This is what I use, with holes drilled in all sides.