Euphyllia deflated

[InvaderJim]

I’m at my wits end here trying to figure out what’s going on with my euphyllia. About a week ago my two torches and hammer just deflated, and the mouthes on my hammer are large and open. They haven’t retracted or started receding yet. I believe it started due to low nutrients but hasn’t gotten any better since dosing to get my levels back up. I was/am having a problem with zoas in the tank also not opening and have even moved a few to my larger tank and they are thriving again.

Tank is a fluval 13.5 with sicce 1.0 return, RFG, running and AI prime 16 hd and koralia nano for extra water movement.

I haven’t tested in a few days other than phosphate and nitrate but parameters before water change were

Salinity: 35.4 ppm
Tem: 78
Alk: 7.6
Ca: (will update when I get home)
Mg: (will update when I get home)
Phos: 0.02
Nitrate: 10

things I’ve tried so far:

- Sent off ICP test (prob won’t get results back for a while)
- Dosed nitrates and phosphates to get levels back up.
- Added a poly filter for a few days to check for contaminates, which return no result
- Water change
- turning down my light intensity

nothing I’ve tried has had any affect on them and I’m worried pulling them and moving them to my new system will stress them out to the point where they may die but at this point it seems like they might either way.

 

[fuelman]

The one thing that jumps out at me is the p04 at 0.02. I normally keep mine in the 0.08-0.12 ballpark but twice it has dropped unexpectedly in the 0.02-0.03 range. both times my two Aussie torches have started closing up, so I checked everything & p04 was out of wack I dosed it back up to 0.10 & continued maintaining it & after about a week or so they returned to normal and have been fine it was the only thing I could find off from normal. What do you normally run your p04 at?

 

[InvaderJim]

I've struggled to keep my p04 up since I started the tank. Which is likely the issue, but it looks like some of the polyps are starting to bail on one of the torches so I'm not sure if it's going to make it.

 

[Pistondog]

My hammers will deflate if toomuch flow

 

[uhgster1]

Have you tried target feeding? Usually too much flow makes them draw tight. Are they bleachy looking?

 

[InvaderJim]

Have you tried target feeding? Usually too much flow makes them draw tight. Are they bleachy looking?

I used to target feed them with reef roids for a while but haven’t in a bit. They have been in the tank since March and have always been happy looking regardless of water quality issues. Recently I was doing some tank cleaning and moved a power head slightly and was maybe blasting them with flow for a few days but moved it back to its original position. They never re-inflated since then. The two torches and hammer were in different spots in the tank as well. Large torch is starting to bailout on a few heads, smaller torch hasn’t started bailing but has lost most of its tentacles, and hammer all the mouthes are gaping really bad and it has shrunk up so much it doesn’t even look like a hammer anymore.

 

[HermitFish]

I agree with fuel man. At .03ppm PO4 and below it inhibits algae growth. Not just nuisance algae, all algae and our corals rely on the algae inside them too. If your running GFO or some other PO4 remover it maybe contributing to your corals problem. Good Luck try not to get discouraged this is an always learning hobby