Duncan sunken in

[yoshiReefer]

As the title says, my duncan has been closed up for about 2-3 weeks and would see color but no tentacles. This week it started to show tiny bulbs out but is now closed more and also sunken in. My tank has only been up for 4 months and is my first tank of any kind.

2 things-
1. I had a phosphate spike upwards of .37-.39 added a bag of GFO and fed a little lighter over a week or so now the phosphate as of Friday is .27, idk what happened to spike it other than me over feeding.
2. I just turned my light intensity to 60% from 50% I have 1 48" AI Blade Grow and am using the LPS/Softie growth preset from the Mobius app, LFS said I could try turn up the blues a little (to help w my zoas stretching not for the duncan). In my few tries I couldnt figure out how to change individual color intensities without making a custom preset.

I had chalked the duncan closing for the few weeks to the phosphate spike and assumed it would get back to opening up like normal, It also has about 6 or 7 little baby heads growing around it.

Test results as of Friday 11/6:
Alk: 7.9 dKH * Ca: 453 ppm * Mg: 1200 ppm * NO3: 15 ppm * PO4: 0.27 ppm * Salinity: 1.025


What it looked like for first few months. It got moved from sand bed to a rock 2-3in up and was also thriving before the phosphate spike.



Duncan heads

Duncan as of today

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

It might still just be recovering from all the changes. Duncans are one of those corals that can take a minute to recover, so having the phosphate spike and the change in lighting happen in a short period of time will cause a decent amount of stress. I would try not to change anything else and maintain stable levels for now and see how it does.

 

[yoshiReefer]

It might still just be recovering from all the changes. Duncans are one of those corals that can take a minute to recover, so having the phosphate spike and the change in lighting happen in a short period of time will cause a decent amount of stress. I would try not to change anything else and maintain stable levels for now and see how it does.

Thanks! I was told their good to have cause they are the first to show you something is different. I was going to try and move it somewhere else but I will watch closer it over the next few weeks. 1 question is as long as I see color from the head I shouldn't worry too much? Like when it's fully closed up there shouldn't be any color visible on the head.

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

Thanks! I was told their good to have cause they are the first to show you something is different. I was going to try and move it somewhere else but I will watch closer it over the next few weeks. 1 question is as long as I see color from the head I shouldn't worry too much? Like when it's fully closed up there shouldn't be any color visible on the head.

It's no problem, I would just keep it where it is for now and if you see no change after another week or two move it to a spot with less light. At night most of the flesh will recede into the skeleton but if you shine a UV flashlight on it you should still see some fluorescence in the middle.