Duncan doomed forever?

[Radicalrob1982]

Hi all thanks for reading. The first pic is my Duncan now. The second pic is my dunkwd before. I've had my tank set up for over two years. No matter what I do it can't look like it used too. I've tried low nutrient. The last 4 weeks I've been about 10ppm no3 and about 0.25 phosphate. I keep my alk at 7.5 to 8. Mag at around 1400 and calc around 440. I've tried my best to dose and maintain to keep params steady. I don't know what else I can do. The only coral that will explode with growth in my tank are zoas. All other corals seem to suffer. But I will say that my acan coral has been looking better once I got the phosphate up to a readable level.

Any advice ?

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Sorry I just want to add that this behaviour has been going on for almost a year . Can't figure it out. Fish are happy though lol

 

[homer1475]

I mean you have gone from 2 heads to 6(at least thats what I can count?). Not sure what the issue is other then the tentacles being short and stubby. Thats just related to flow.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Has your lighting or flow changed? It looks retracted which is normally an indication of increased lighting.

As another point, Duncan corals don't need super clean water.

 

[brandon429]

duncans are known for this, its nothing bad, its a polyp morphology they do. only receding tissue up the base, leading to white areas of skeleton would be a concern, not the actual polyp shape when they close up like that. mine did it years, as it added heads. fully agreed events like adding topoff freshwater etc can cause it, even some feeding events caused that in mine/guess they didn't like the feed

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have found stability in all the Duncans I have bought from the LFS for several months; and then without changing anything in the tank, they seem to go into a gradual decline, usually one head at a time like in your photo. Someone will have an answer as to how to get them to thrive, but not me. I bet there are great videos out there. Best wishes!

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Has your lighting or flow changed? It looks retracted which is normally an indication of increased lighting.

As another point, Duncan corals don't need super clean water.

Do you mean or less? I've tried both with no avail. 2 weeks at a time with no better results . It's like there's something in my tank that's ticking all my corals off minus the zoas lol

I mean you have gone from 2 heads to 6(at least thats what I can count?). Not sure what the issue is other then the tentacles being short and stubby. Thats just related to flow.

I've had moderate and low flow for 3 weeks at a time and it changed nothing for the poor *******. It's grew heads but won't bloom like before

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Do you mean or less? I've tried both with no avail. 2 weeks at a time with no better results . It's like there's something in my tank that's ticking all my corals off minus the zoas lol

I've had moderate and low flow for 3 weeks at a time and it changed nothing for the poor *******. It's grew heads but won't bloom like before

Radical, I saw where you added some Orphek light bars. Maybe that was a bit more light than they are used to.

 

[Reef - Tripp]

Ph?

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Radical, I saw where you added some Orphek light bars. Maybe that was a bit more light than they are used to.

I've tried many lights and left them on for at least a few weeks at a time. It's made no difference. Right now I have a AI prime and an aquaknight v2 and they still look the same. Both dialed in at about 80 percent power. I've tried high light and low light. But I will say since adding phosphate to the water my acan has puffed our a bit more. But in getting maybe millimeters of coral growth over 3 months at a time , except for zoas. They grow like crazy

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I've tried many lights and left them on for at least a few weeks at a time. It's made no difference. Right now I have a AI prime and an aquaknight v2 and they still look the same. Both dialed in at about 80 percent power. I've tried high light and low light. But I will say since adding phosphate to the water my acan has puffed our a bit more. But in getting maybe millimeters of coral growth over 3 months at a time , except for zoas. They grow like crazy

Yea, one if the negatives to lighting is it takes a while for the coral to adjust. 80% power on the AI Prime is pretty high. Anyway you could find someone with a PAR meter and check? The Duncan will recover when you stop changing your lighting and it's great that your acans are reacting.

Hang in there and check on that par meter so you can get a good reading.

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

I have found medium lighting with good flow and elevated nitrates is what all of mine like. Here’s an example below that I bought as a three head frag.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Yea, one if the negatives to lighting is it takes a while for the coral to adjust. 80% power on the AI Prime is pretty high. Anyway you could find someone with a PAR meter and check? The Duncan will recover when you stop changing your lighting and it's great that your acans are reacting.

Hang in there and check on that par meter so you can get a good reading.

I didn't know it takes 4 to 5 weeks for a coral to adjust to new lighting. Especially when the change isn't that drastic. One of my lfs has the same set up I do and I have it on about 20% less than the. They were getting around 220 par where my Duncan is. So I'm assuming I'm getting around at least 180. Butni think I've given up lol. I try new things and leave them the same way for at least a few weeks and nothing changes. I think after all this info I'm just gonna get rid of my corals that aren't doing well and try a new tank. My corals did so much better in the first year than they do now. Maybe I have something in the water that's ticking them off.

 

[mrlavalamp]

My duncans have done something similar except I have a pair of clownfish trying to get the duncan to host them. They try to rub and swim against it so hard the heads close up sometimes, but usually when they are open they are stubby but thick tentacled.

They used to be pointier and I had made changes to lighting and flow trying to get the tentacles to go back, but nothing work so I thought it was related to the clownfish beating it up. I have lost 3 heads to the clownfish so far. They were all small heads burried in the middle so lots of competition for light/space anyways.

I have moved a torch and frog spawn closer to my duncan to try and encourage the clowns to go elsewhere, but so far they wont give up the duncan.

Hoping you find a solution that I can apply too.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I wouldn't give up on your tank yet and I sure wouldn't start over. A simple light adjustment and about 2 months of patience and you will be good to go.

It is up to you of course, but maybe think about it. Don't get discouraged.

 

[Jubei2006]

My duncan polyps vary throughout the day. They even close completely at times during the day. My flow never changes. They are the most extended at night. Both colonies were bought as 1 head frags. Has taken about 1 to 2 years to get this size. Under a kessil tuna blue a160

 

[mindme]

Hi all thanks for reading. The first pic is my Duncan now. The second pic is my dunkwd before. I've had my tank set up for over two years. No matter what I do it can't look like it used too. I've tried low nutrient. The last 4 weeks I've been about 10ppm no3 and about 0.25 phosphate. I keep my alk at 7.5 to 8. Mag at around 1400 and calc around 440. I've tried my best to dose and maintain to keep params steady. I don't know what else I can do. The only coral that will explode with growth in my tank are zoas. All other corals seem to suffer. But I will say that my acan coral has been looking better once I got the phosphate up to a readable level.

Any advice ?

Duncans are weird. I bought a single head duncan a few years ago. For the entire first year I had it, it never grew another head. Instead, the 1 single head just kept getting bigger and bigger. like 5+ inches across.

Then one day it started doing similiar things to what you show. It did this for awhile, a couple of months I guess. It just didn't act the way it had been previously, I wasn't sure why.

Then suddenly it had 6 new heads that started forming all around the stalk. They've all grown out now, and the original head is smaller than it was previously, but all are decent size and act normal.

I don't know if that all happened due to changes I wasn't aware of it, or if it was just being weird. My assumption is something going on in my tank, but the major parameters were fine.

I will say that I now dose iodine for my softies after doing some ICP tests.

 

[Mr Cypher]

My duncan polyps vary throughout the day. They even close completely at times during the day. My flow never changes. They are the most extended at night. Both colonies were bought as 1 head frags. Has taken about 1 to 2 years to get this size. Under a kessil tuna blue a160

That's crazy goes to show no two are alike mine are fully extended during daylight hours then they shrink up to almost closed at night