Receding Clavularia

Reefer_Marc

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Hello everyone

I have a small problem with my clavularia.
I bought it around 6 months ago, and first she was doing well. Even got bigger and had some offspring on the rock beside the plug.
While i was away on holiday there was a bit of a crash, and my nitrates spiked to over 64ppm, and my phosphates were at around 0.1. I think my skimmer didnt really work at that time, because after 3 weeks coming back, it hadnt skimmed anything.
Lost my Euphyllia and my Goniopora to this (assuming it is the spike, because they did well before my holiday too).
Its been about 3 months since then, and thanks to water changes i managed to bring my nitrates back down and also changed my skimmer.
My Clavularia seemed to get smaller since i got back from holiday. Every week it seems smaller than before. So i did an ICP Test 2 weeks ago. Everything seems well, here a quick overview:
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.4
dKH: 9.9
Magnesium: 1370
Calcium: 463
Iodine: 0.01
Nitrate: 11
Phosphate: 0.04

I checked the whole ICP test results with my LFS, and we started dosing some iodine because its quite low. We thought maybe thats why my Clavularia is not opening well.
I also moved her to a spot with less flow and less light (recommended by my LFS). That was a week ago, and she seemed to recede even more. So i googled and found an article on Tidal Gardens about care for Clavularia.
It said strong flow and low light, and vertical position. So i tried to do that as good as i could, few days ago. Tweaked the light and flow a bit.
I also have a bit of problem with macro algae growing in my display tank, i try to keep the corals free of it as good as i can and take out the algae weekly together with my weekly 12% water change.

Could this receding still be from my spike? Or did the algae disturb too much?
Im not sure how quick the effects of repositioning should be, but i have the feeling since i moved it a few days ago it got smaller still. Weird for me is, that the polyps are usually opening nicely, and extending too. In all the places i put her. Just seems to get smaller. Attached are pictures when i first got her and from last night.

Sorry for the long post, wanted to give as much information as i could.
I appreciate every help!

0AFD2B1F-3655-4B81-A78A-4346F56BFC05.jpeg IMG_9783.jpeg
 
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Reefer_Marc

Reefer_Marc

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So, thought i‘d Update again, since i think i found at least one of the reasons my Clavularia is not doing so well. It seems to have stabilized more or less on this size, and just yesterday night i saw my sea urchin walking around the tank, with about 6 polyps and some of the „pipes“ of the Clavularia on him.
Also while doing the waterchange last sunday, i found a few polyps lying around on the sandbed in other corners. So i guess my sea urchin has been stealing the polyps to use as a hat.
Maybe someone has had similar problems with their corals, always check your sea urchins!
 

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