Need some human advice on this toadstool

[Jack_L]

my goal was to have a big showpiece in the middle. i've moved this from back corner after a week because it looked bad to the place i wanted it. it continues to look bad. polyps only come out in the dark or not at all, but then somedays its out in the day, but never a full green mat. now its turning white on the edges? is this "bleaching"? the par is 100ish, the the flow random, i don't know how to measure or describe it, but its enough to not let dust settel on it, and since its in the middle, i think it gets the brunt of the two gyres

tonight i noticed missing pieces along the edge.

params, match the rec'd levels posted by BRS reef tanks

looking for some insights from those with experience, my next idea was to move it under a part of the scape were its in shadow and less flow.


thanks

 

[Skippy The Meh]

What other inhabitants are in the tank with it? What exactly are your parameters?

 

[rayadog]

Also curious what other species you might’ve gotten advice from?

 

[Passionate Reefer]

Toadstool can close up for weeks and open up like nothing even happened. But in my experience, something may be irritating the coral. Do you have other leather softies in the tank? They love some flow just enough for the tentacle to move. Try changing out you carbon that way help a ton.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IMO they like good light and a good amount of flow, you can almost treat it like an sps. The way you describe, it sounds like its in a very low flow spot, they need a good amount flow to help them shed and help them stand straight, I would move it into more light and more flow

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What are you testing your parameters with?

What kind of flow is it getting? Toadstools like to have a decent amount of flow

How is everything else doing in your tank?

 

[Jack_L]

hi, thanks all, here are more details based on questions:

Salifert kits: Salinity 1.024, pH 8.15, NH_3 = 0, NO_2 = 0, NO_3 = 5, KH = 7.3, Ca = 410, Mg = 1215, PO_4 = 0.25 (last week was the first i saw phoshates show up) nitrate dropped to 5 from 10 or more, i wasn't expecting that. in FW they always went up and up no matter what i did.

The tank has been running for a few months and is still in the 'ugly phase.' About two weeks ago, cyano decided to join the party. Along with green hair, green film, dinos, and diatoms, they all seem to be on rotation. I’m just trying to be patient and ride it out, rather than throwing the 'kitchen sink' at it.

In the tank, I have frags of bird's nest and stylo (top of the tank) growing, as well as trumpets and a hammer (middle) growing, and a mushroom and zoas (bottom). One head of the hammer is good, but the other is often closed; that might be due to accidentally whacking it with the siphon hard enough that I had to re-glue it. The one mushroom recently split, but the zoas look the same after two months—no growth that I can see. There is also a clump of Caulerpa that is growing.

its getting flow, the GHA tufts behind it are always moving, and the cyano that grows on the base rock will woft away once i blast it loose with the baster. its in the middle, the gyres are now on random, so it is not getting a contstand flow like it was before when i had them on alternating. or at night when they went on slow night mode. then the two flows would hit in the middle and travel down to it. sometimes when i have the pumps off to feed is when i'd see it come out, making me thinkg i liked no flow.

Livestock: CUC of various snails, peppermint shrimp, and an emerald crab. Fish: gobies, tang, cardinal, and a royal gramma. I’ve been doing weekly 10% water changes.

I don’t run carbon and don’t have a skimmer yet, either. In the sump, I run into a sock, then past some live rock, then Poret foam, and back up to the tank. It’s a 140-gallon tank, 25 inches deep.

Last night, after the blues were down to about 1% or 2%, I saw maybe 20% of the polyps were out.

oh, i've also shorted full burn of photo period to 7 hours to see if that helped with algea, but it was acting this way before when i was running around 9 hrs

By 'humans,' I mean you all—not AI or articles written on various websites, which I find plenty of and are often contradicting.