grube's gorgonian not opening

[PaulK]

I've had an ORA Grube's Gorgonian that was growing very well. Over the course of a year or so it grew from a small 4" frag to a full 12" or so with many branches. The weird thing is that a couple of months ago it stopped extending its polyps and now seems to be dying--it's starting to get covered in algae and isn't opening at all. Any idea what could cause this?

The tank parameters have been stable: Alk is always around 7.5, nitrate and phosphate have always been undetectable (I feed heavily but never get detectable readings). Tank is a Red Sea 525; lighting is three Hydra 26's. It's a mixed reef and everything else is thriving (acros, lots of other SPS, euphyllias, elegance coral, bubble coral, etc). Here's a tank shot I just took--you can see the gorgonian behind the green acro and purple stylo at the top middle. Any ideas on what could be wrong?

 

[Sea MunnKey]

I'm no gorgonia expert but they do require a lot of water movement to shed & extend it's polyps

 

[reef lover]

Has the flow changed or been reduced at all?

 

[jefra]

I'd move it to the front of that rock structure so it gets blasted by your return and powerheads.. Gorgonians are my only corals that like intense DIRECT flow and my Grube's is no exception.

 

[PaulK]

Thanks! The flow hasn’t changed but I’ll try increasing it and see if that helps.

 

[reef lover]

Only ask cause once mine got covered in algae in a couple days...started inspecting equipment and found my cat had knocked the power cord out of one of the vortechs....plugged her back in and the gorg was ope. In a couple hours.