Favites (war coral) sunken & washed out

[s_tempest]

What could cause a war coral to looked faded and washed out? Also, the polyps seem really deep-set and sunken, and I never see tentacles or get a feeding response. Any ideas what I could do?
Background: all three frags have been like this since August which is when I started the tank. The two small ones were bought new then and looked fuller/richer at the LFS. The larger piece in the back came from another tank of mine where it looked good. There’s been zero growth since August. No tissue recession either - just a whole lotta nothing but for this slow fading and polyps getting really deep set.

Parameters:
lights: 2 AI Hydra 26hd, PAR measures ~150 where the pieces are placed. Settings/schedule a riff on AB+. (photo taken under all whites to highlight poor color and sunken polyp)
tank - 96 gal tank + 30 gal sump

alk - 8.0 +/- 0.2 dKh
Ca - 425 +/- 20 ppm
NO3 - 12 +/- 4 ppm
PO4 - 0.1 +/- .03 ppm
Mg - 1450 +/- 50 ppm
it‘s a new tank & I’m working on stability. But these +/- reflect the range I’m measuring over the past three months.

 

[Saltyreef]

Parameters and lighting look real good.
Do you have confirmed 0ppm RODI water for mixing salt and top off?

 

[s_tempest]

Parameters and lighting look real good.
Do you have confirmed 0ppm RODI water for mixing salt and top off?

Confirmed? I get 0 tds on my meter. But that meter could be off.
I sent a sample off for an icp-oes test earlier this week that will give results for my saltwater and ro/di - I’ve wondered if I have some excessive metals.

I‘m frustrated. Nothing in the tank looks awful - these favites are the worst (I think the green one with yellow eyes might be a favia though). But a lot of stuff just looks faded, tired, washed out, dull - euphyllia, some of my montipora, my elegance. I’m starting my questions here on R2R with these guys because they’re the oldest in my tank & only they show these sunken polyps.

 

[Saltyreef]

Have they been moved up from the sand bed at all?

 

[s_tempest]

Have they been moved up from the sand bed at all?

Yes. In fact they were not on the sand until today. Sorry for that confusion. They were mounted on my rock about 12” deep. I pulled them off the rock just today, to put them together for the photo and this post and to move them into much lower light.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Do any feeder tentacles extend day or night? When they were on rocks were they near other corals or sweeper tentacles?

Frequent water changes To replenish elements?

 

[s_tempest]

Do any feeder tentacles extend day or night? When they were on rocks were they near other corals or sweeper tentacles?

I have 3 different Favities and they grow fast. Yours look lifeless and drab.

Frequent water changes To replenish elements?

Not near anything’s else except One piece next to some zoas.
Lifeless and drab - exactly!
Maybe the icp will tell me if something is depleted. I do ~15% wc every two-three weeks, but would adjust this if warranted.

 

[s_tempest]

.

 

[SliceGolfer]

1. Any feeder tentacle response, day or night?
2. Do you have any PolypLab Booster you could try to induce feeding response?
3. Do you dose aminos like Fuel? I had a time when things went flat. Zoas didn’t open, coral was plain. Fuel made a difference and with continued dosing everything is back on track and colorful.

 

[s_tempest]

1. Any feeder tentacle response, day or night?
2. Do you have any PolypLab Booster you could try to induce feeding response?
3. Do you dose aminos like Fuel? I had a time when things went flat. Zoas didn’t open, coral was plain. Fuel made a difference and with continued dosing everything is back on track and colorful.

1. No. That large piece did show tentacles in my former tank but nine of three do in this tank.
2/3. I dosed Red Sea Reef Energy once every two weeks until my old bottles ran out, then bought Brightwell CoralAmino and have been dosing that more often for the past month. The green piece with yellow eyes (favia) opens its mouth when I give aminos, but no tentacles or other response. I could easily enough get PolypBooster.

in addition to suggestions on how to bring these back, I’d like to get ideas on any causes - so I don’t make the same mistake!

 

[Triple.T]

What's your light schedule? How many hours on and off? What % for how long etc? Reason I ask is my corals ALL looked like this. Turns out I was frying them under my lights ( my tank is also new ) . I turned everything down and only went to 8 hours on my lights TOTAL 12p-8pm the rest of the time my lights off I was running 100% or more now I don't go over 70% on any spectrum. Using AI prime 16HD on a 26G bowfront .

This has done numbers for me, I thought I had some gone frags. 2 weeks in new schedule and everything seems extremely happy. My corals are vibrant colored again and my easier corals have doubled in size since the transition. ( red tree Kenya, pulsing xenia ) . I don't know if this is your problem and I'm not a pro, I had good parameters and was scratching my head trying to figure this out and it was my LFS that told me they were getting to much light! So if all else fails here's an option that's easily skipped over.

 

[s_tempest]

What's your light schedule? How many hours on and off? What % for how long etc? Reason I ask is my corals ALL looked like this. Turns out I was frying them under my lights ( my tank is also new ) . I turned everything down and only went to 8 hours on my lights TOTAL 12p-8pm the rest of the time my lights off I was running 100% or more now I don't go over 70% on any spectrum. Using AI prime 16HD on a 26G bowfront .

This has done numbers for me, I thought I had some gone frags. 2 weeks in new schedule and everything seems extremely happy. My corals are vibrant colored again and my easier corals have doubled in size since the transition. ( red tree Kenya, pulsing xenia ) . I don't know if this is your problem and I'm not a pro, I had good parameters and was scratching my head trying to figure this out and it was my LFS that told me they were getting to much light! So if all else fails here's an option that's easily skipped over.

Two weeks to see a change? That’s great!
Lights are something I wonder about. I tend to rely on measuring things and comparing to other tanks (for example taking PAR measurements) because I don’t have a sense what “high” or “medium” or “low” is.
I’m running near 100% on the Vu, violet, royal blue and blue channels, 25% on the other 3. On for 6 hours with 2 hour ramp up and down.
I’ll have to think about dialing back the lights. But I’ll wait on the icp results first - one thing at a time.