Pocillopora not opening today

[chipchipbro]

Hi guys

I just introduced this pocillo 4 days ago.. she was open and happy 3 days.. today the pocillo is not looking great.. but why?

Do I habe too low po4?

po4: 0.01
no3: 0.5
salinity: 1.024 at 25 degrees celsius
kH/Alk: 8.5
Ca: 440

Any ideas?

Tank is pretty new.. 1 week

 

[blaxsun]

Water parameters look good, so the next things to look at might be light and flow (too little, too much).

 

[chipchipbro]

light should be good according to Dana Riddle. Its the AI Prime..
Flow i am not sure.. maybe I need to replace the coral more to the top?

 

[homer1475]

Tank too new for corals, salinity a tad low, nitrate and phosphates way to low.

That .01 depending on the kit may very well be 0 if you add in the error rate of the test kit. Same goes for nitrates.

Tank too new would also deoend on whther the tank was started with dry rock, or actual live rock?

 

[chipchipbro]

Tank too new for corals, salinity a tad low, nitrate and phosphates way to low.

That .01 depending on the kit may very well be 0 if you add in the error rate of the test kit. Same goes for nitrates.

Tank too new would also deoend on whther the tank was started with dry rock, or actual live rock?

Well the tank was startet with carib sea reef shapes and 2 bottles bacs.

I have not notices any nitrite after 3 days and all params, expect kH were on a very good level. I mean I have 0 po4 and no3 but I think inserting early corals should be fine though. However, the pocillo was totally open for 3 days.. and now ok day 4 it wont open up…

I have done a 20% water change and added some powdered fish food now.
I have also added 2 snails and re arranged the coral to the top of the tank with more light and flow.

What else can I do?

 

[fachatga]

I’d leave it alone and concentrate on keeping parameters stable which new tanks tend not to have. Most people wouldn’t add corals in a tank as it’s cycling. It may live. It may not. Your best bet would have been to wait but it might be okay. But I think doing things probably would make it worse since you still have an ugly stage to manage through and such.

 

[chipchipbro]

I’d leave it alone and concentrate on keeping parameters stable which new tanks tend not to have. Most people wouldn’t add corals in a tank as it’s cycling. It may live. It may not. Your best bet would have been to wait but it might be okay. But I think doing things probably would make it worse since you still have an ugly stage to manage through and such.

Well, I will leave it alone now. Maybe it will be ok or maybe not.. I cannot change things (parameters) now and therefore best is just to leave the tank.
I used RODI water and ATI Absolute Reef (salt as a liquid) and some bottle bacs. Ive not seen any growth of algae or something yet. No ugly phase started or is it even possible to skip that maybe?

Not sure, maybe I do have to much flow? Tunze 6040 and the DC runner 1.2.

 

[fachatga]

You’ll probably have an ugly stage. It takes time for the surface area of the rock to populate with whatever will be there. You really can’t tell much after one week. Just keep things stable and tackle problems as they come up. Even in an established tank it could take a while for a new coral to get comfortable.

 

[chipchipbro]

You’ll probably have an ugly stage. It takes time for the surface area of the rock to populate with whatever will be there. You really can’t tell much after one week. Just keep things stable and tackle problems as they come up. Even in an established tank it could take a while for a new coral to get comfortable.

Yeah maybe it will come in the future.. who knows..

Well lets see.. maybe the pocillo will make it, maybe not.. Its just crazy that it was 3 days totally fine and open.. That doesnt make sense to me tbh.

 

[homer1475]

Think of it like this.....

Corals have been in the ocean for thousands of years, Whats 3 days to you, is probably like an hour to the coral.

Something that happened to it months ago, it may just be showing signs of it now.

 

[PNWReefer21]

Mine does this once in a while. No idea why it does it, but it's growing so I ignore it.

 

[chipchipbro]

well today everything seems to be fine again.. dunno.. i ghost feeded a bit yesterday..

 

[homer1475]

Corals have off days too, just like us! I never fret when something isn't open. If it's been multiple days, then I start to worry.

 

[Pistondog]

Yeah maybe it will come in the future.. who knows..

Well lets see.. maybe the pocillo will make it, maybe not.. Its just crazy that it was 3 days totally fine and open.. That doesnt make sense to me tbh.

Maybe the coral was on decline for 4 days, never happy in your tank.
Usually the presence of coralline algae is a good indicator of water quality to grow corals.

 

[chipchipbro]

Well, after disturbing the pocillo yesterday a bit.. she opened up again a bit more.. I replaced it where more light and flow is.. what would you guys say, does the pocillo like the place? I mean crazy light and good flow like now? I still wait until it opens totally.

here the ahort vid: https://youtube.com/shorts/uo73gklEITQ?feature=share