Duncan not opening

[Radicalrob1982]

Hi all. Thanks for reading

I've had a duncan for about 5 months now. The first two months it was fine. For the last 3 months it wont fully open. It just kinda peaks out and that's it. I've tried moving it and giving a week or so before the new move. I have adequate lighting. Water is on par. Nothing I can do to make it bloom. I did notice it grew some new heads. The tissue is still nice and healthy. It just wont open up. My clown has a bad habit of trying to host it now and then. Ive tried a lower and higher salinity. I've also tried different flow from low to moderate. I just cant seem to find the problem

Ph 8.15
Alk 7.9
Salinity 1.025
Calc 470
Mag 1440
Nitrate 5 or less (salifert)
Phosphates barely detectable (salifert)

These are my water paramaters. I have an AI Prime and AquaKnight V2 on it and eventually getting a 2nd one. Im about 80% blues and 20% whites on both lights. All other corals are doing fine. Fish also seem more than content. Has anyone had this problem? I can understand closed for maybe a few days or a week for growing heads but this is ridiculous. The only think I haven't tried is dipping it. But I've never had to do that to any corals before. I also keep a rbta and its happy as heck. My parameters stay pretty stable as I test a lot and dose when needed.

If anyone can chime in and give me some advice, that would be great.

Thanks

 

[footgal]

Hi! Duncan’s are really bad about not coming out. My clown decided to host my Duncan and man... the Duncan threw a FIT!! 4 months no polyp extension at all. Then it busted out 4 new heads and fluffed up bigger than it ever was before. As long as the bits you can still see are a nice color (like there isn’t bare skeleton showing, if you have a regular Duncan the skeleton should have green flesh on it). Leave it alone and it will get happy. Maybe protect it from the clown if possible.

 

[KrisReef]

They don't like clowns, ime, and they sometimes close for whatever reason. It yours is growing, stop moving it around and it should keep growing and opening up more.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Hi! Duncan’s are really bad about not coming out. My clown decided to host my Duncan and man... the Duncan threw a FIT!! 4 months no polyp extension at all. Then it busted out 4 new heads and fluffed up bigger than it ever was before. As long as the bits you can still see are a nice color (like there isn’t bare skeleton showing, if you have a regular Duncan the skeleton should have green flesh on it). Leave it alone and it will get happy. Maybe protect it from the clown if possible.

 

[Radicalrob1982]

Not sure if this helps. But my clown never ever bothered my duncan until it started hosting with my giant toadstool leather. My clown just rammed the crap out of the Duncan a lot. It gets very aggressive once it wants to torture my duncan lol. Lately I haven't seen the clown go near it at all. But my duncan seems healthy

 

[jaxteller007]

Ever since moving our Duncan to the bottom of our 180 it has exploded in growth and i can't recall the last time it wasn’t fully opened.
I also stopped fighting to drop nitrates a ton. Our tank is constantly around 15 ppm nitrates and our fish and the Duncan seem extremely happy.