Elegance coral not opening

drewsreef · Mar 29, 2018

I have had my elegance for about 3 months now and it seemed to be doing very well. Until about 3 days ago. I had a maxima clam that died as well as an ich outbreak or velvet that pretty much wiped out my fish. I came home from work 2 days ago to see my tank's glass green. I looked around and there were dead fish everywhere. I toom them out and did a large WC 50% after that ive noticed the elegance coral hasnt opened up completely. I gave it a dip today in coral rx but it didnt seem to help. Any tips? I included some pics of what it looks like now and what it looked like a few days ago. My water parameters were iut of wack...mainly my phosphates and nitrates. I have brought them down with small water changes everyday

Da Ghost · Mar 31, 2018

What are you Params now? How old is the tank? I might consider an ATI water analysis to run a complete test of my water. I use ATI there are a few others available. There is a local one IPC or ICP can’t remember but I really did not care for them too much, maybe just me. I do like ATI be abuse they check my RODI water as well. Sometimes we overlook that. Just some thoughts. Good luck.

drewsreef · Mar 31, 2018

Da Ghost said:
What are you Params now? How old is the tank? I might consider an ATI water analysis to run a complete test of my water. I use ATI there are a few others available. There is a local one IPC or ICP can’t remember but I really did not care for them too much, maybe just me. I do like ATI be abuse they check my RODI water as well. Sometimes we overlook that. Just some thoughts. Good luck.

Parameters are ph 8.2, cal 460, alk 10, mg 1360, temp 75, nitrates are back to 0, phosphates 0.0-0.04, ammonia and nitrites are 0. The tank is almost 2 years old

Da Ghost · Mar 31, 2018

drewsreef said:
Parameters are ph 8.2, cal 460, alk 10, mg 1360, temp 75, nitrates are back to 0, phosphates 0.0-0.04, ammonia and nitrites are 0. The tank is almost 2 years old

Take this with a grain of salt but I think your alk may be to high in comparison to your nutrients. Sounds like you might be running a LNS. Corals need some amount of phosphate and nitrate to grow and as I have heard when the phosphates and nitrates are zero and the alk is above 8 you run the risk of problems. I would have someone here with far more experience in corals fillin the gaps. Good.

drewsreef · Mar 31, 2018

Da Ghost said:
Take this with a grain of salt but I think your alk may be to high in comparison to your nutrients. Sounds like you might be running a LNS. Corals need some amount of phosphate and nitrate to grow and as I have heard when the phosphates and nitrates are zero and the alk is above 8 you run the risk of problems. I would have someone here with far more experience in corals fillin the gaps. Good.

Yeah i read online that keeping low nitrates is a good thing but it sounds a bit hard to keep at a stable and low amount

Ulee · Mar 31, 2018

Sucks but don't take it to heart, the elegances coming from Indo do well the first two to three weeks then they start to close up and recide. Check underneath the flesh and look for signs of tissue reciding,

drewsreef · Mar 31, 2018

Ulee said:
Sucks but don't take it to heart, the elegances coming from Indo do well the first two to three weeks then they start to close up and recide. Check underneath the flesh and look for signs of tissue reciding,

Yeaj the tissue does look like its reciding

Ulee · Mar 31, 2018

up to you, u can use a light iodine solution, partially submerged elegance, 4 min dip. or not do anything at all. When it bounces back, feed a little..

drewsreef · Mar 31, 2018

Ulee said:
up to you, u can use a light iodine solution, partially submerged elegance, 4 min dip. or not do anything at all. When it bounces back, feed a little..

The question is. Will it bounce back if i don't do anything?

Ulee · Mar 31, 2018

I re-read ur post.

The decaying particles of leftover clam is serious suspect. But sounds like u took care of the water. I would of run some carbon for a day , but that is it.

I would suggest to let the elegance do its thang, and not do anything.

drewsreef · Apr 1, 2018

Ulee said:
I re-read ur post.

The decaying particles of leftover clam is serious suspect. But sounds like u took care of the water. I would of run some carbon for a day , but that is it.

I would suggest to let the elegance do its thang, and not do anything.

Yeah i have been running fresh carbon this whole week. Beem changing it every other day. Thanks for the tip

Zack K · Apr 1, 2018

What was the timeline of all of this? If you did this all in a week I can understand the decline. The nutrients are a big problem at 0. Elegance Coral being an LPS, more specific a Euphyillia, need both small amounts of Nitrates and Phosphates in the water. I’ve found 5-10 for NO3 and around .1 for Phosphates.
I have also found elegance corals to be very similar to an Anemone in the way that they both need stability. Reading about the tank crash, I wouldn’t be surprised if you lose it.

As for going forward. You could give it an iodine dip, then let it sit for a few days (2-3). If it worsens, dip again. Keep your parameters stable and try to make minimal changes.

Best of luck,
Zack

drewsreef · Apr 2, 2018

Zack Klabunde said:
What was the timeline of all of this? If you did this all in a week I can understand the decline. The nutrients are a big problem at 0. Elegance Coral being an LPS, more specific a Euphyillia, need both small amounts of Nitrates and Phosphates in the water. I’ve found 5-10 for NO3 and around .1 for Phosphates.
I have also found elegance corals to be very similar to an Anemone in the way that they both need stability. Reading about the tank crash, I wouldn’t be surprised if you lose it.

As for going forward. You could give it an iodine dip, then let it sit for a few days (2-3). If it worsens, dip again. Keep your parameters stable and try to make minimal changes.

Best of luck,
Zack

The month of march was a low month for my tank. I lost my maxima clam then within 3 days i lost most my fish which just threw my parameter out of control. As soon as that happened my elegamce wouldnt open. I did a 50% WC then smaller once during the following week until my phosphates came down to where they are now. My nitrates have steadily increasing but not too high

Rispa · Jul 1, 2018

Updates?

drewsreef · Aug 21, 2018

Rispa said:
Updates?

The elegance hasnt opened up but it hasnt died. Sorry i havent updated i have been really busy

Rispa · Aug 22, 2018

drewsreef said:
The elegance hasnt opened up but it hasnt died. Sorry i havent updated i have been really busy

No problem. I'm happy it's still alive, but also a little surprised. What have you done to try to get it to open? Move it? Change light or flow?

drewsreef · Sep 10, 2018

Rispa said:
No problem. I'm happy it's still alive, but also a little surprised. What have you done to try to get it to open? Move it? Change light or flow?

I havent done anything really. Im just making sure the parameters dont get out of control. The elegance hasnt really changed. It will open more every now and then but wont completely open[emoji848]