Is this normal behavior for a lobo coral??

Deej1534 · Jul 9, 2022

I have noticed my lobo sitting open with its feeders out all the time. I feed it every other to every three days. It has been doing great but today noticed it was sitting open and not actively taking food. Does anyone see anything I am not seeing. It seems to be a bit receded but also is puffy which I hear is good. Is it that the coral is getting rid of waste from food? Any help would be great! Parameters below: second photo was taken two nights ago

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm
Ph: 8.2
Orp: 344-380 ppm
Salinity: 36.0 ppm
Temp: 79.0
Alkalinity: 9.0 ppm
Ca: 420 ppm
Magnesium: 1450 ppm
Phosphate: .25 ppm

fishguy242 · Jul 9, 2022

hi, feeding mode...

Deej1534 · Jul 9, 2022

fishguy242 said:
hi, feeding mode...

It’s been like this for a few days that’s normal lol? Should I spot feed then is it like saying it’s hungry haha. Sorry this is my first lobo and I thought it was receding or something

fishguy242 · Jul 9, 2022

the more you feed the more response you get from them.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 9, 2022

Not normal although does not look bad.
Salinity is sllight elevated (35ppm)
Phos < .04 - .06 - Yours is elevated
Nitrate- what test kits are you using? (at zero, you should be seeing algaes or dino development)

Moderate light and water flow and assure sand is not getting on coral and irritating it

Deej1534 · Jul 10, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Not normal although does not look bad.
Salinity is sllight elevated (35ppm)
Phos < .04 - .06 - Yours is elevated
Nitrate- what test kits are you using? (at zero, you should be seeing algaes or dino development)

Moderate light and water flow and assure sand is not getting on coral and irritating it

I am in the process with gfo to bring down my phosphates. I have been checking them regularly and adding more to the reactor tomorrow. The nitrates run between 5-10 ppm. I included a photo below of the placement of the coral. I can’t put it on my sand bed because the engineer fish burry things. So I thought here would be good moderate flow and moderate light location. Let me know your thoughts. I have been target feeding every 1-3 days and tried tonight but it did not seem to take it. Parts are puffing up and other parts receded. It’s odd it was doing great 3 days ago but recently started looking more like this. My salinity when I check with a refractor is right on 1.026 or 35 ppm my apex sometimes reads high so I always try to double check it. Any help would be great. I love this coral and don’t want to see if die away. The flow is coming from the right side of the tank so my thinking was the rock is giving it good cover. When I look at the other corals like torch’s and hammers they have very good moderate flow. My only though would be every 30 mins a larger 3650 gph power head turns on for 1 min to add in some directional flow. When this happens the other powerhead shuts down.

Deej1534 · Jul 10, 2022

The coral is looking even worse today. I turned off the powerhead on its side completely in hope maybe it was just getting blasted with flow and it’s too much. I ordered a new Red Sea kit to run my parameters checks with which will be here Tuesday. I am wondering if my test kit went bad. Also ordered a bunch of coral nutrient/vitamins/ and food for the whole tank which will be here Thursday. Just hoping this one pulls through has to be my favorite coral
Ran the phosphates agai and they are dropping came in at a .21 still high but no where near where they were when the coral went into the tank 3-4 weeks ago

vetteguy53081 · Jul 10, 2022

Deej1534 said:
I am in the process with gfo to bring down my phosphates. I have been checking them regularly and adding more to the reactor tomorrow. The nitrates run between 5-10 ppm. I included a photo below of the placement of the coral. I can’t put it on my sand bed because the engineer fish burry things. So I thought here would be good moderate flow and moderate light location. Let me know your thoughts. I have been target feeding every 1-3 days and tried tonight but it did not seem to take it. Parts are puffing up and other parts receded. It’s odd it was doing great 3 days ago but recently started looking more like this. My salinity when I check with a refractor is right on 1.026 or 35 ppm my apex sometimes reads high so I always try to double check it. Any help would be great. I love this coral and don’t want to see if die away. The flow is coming from the right side of the tank so my thinking was the rock is giving it good cover. When I look at the other corals like torch’s and hammers they have very good moderate flow. My only though would be every 30 mins a larger 3650 gph power head turns on for 1 min to add in some directional flow. When this happens the other powerhead shuts down.

iodine dip and return to tank, Did you adjust any of the elevated and low numbers ?

Deej1534 · Jul 11, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
iodine dip and return to tank, Did you adjust any of the elevated and low numbers ?

The new parameters are below along with a picture of it today. What type of iodine do you typically use?

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm
Ph: 8.15
Orp: 344-380 ppm
Salinity: 35.5 ppm
Temp: 77.6
Alkalinity: 9.0 ppm
Ca: 400 ppm
Magnesium: 1400 ppm
Phosphate: .21 ppm

The only things I have recently done are add water conditioner to my ro water because it was reading on the tds meter and used it as a precaution. Added variable flow with a stronger power head which is on the lobo’s side and kicks on every 30 mins for a minute (just shut it down tonight it’s a 3600 gph) I started dosing with acro power (amino acids) about 2 weeks ago. I use half the recommended dose daily. I am pretty sure that so it. I started using gfo a month ago and today incase there was bacteria i added carbon to the tank. I think that sums it up Could it be the acro power? Or is dosing daily too much?