Unhappy euphyllia

[Goalie]

I have this euphyllia and I can't make it happy. It was fine about 10 days ago. Then it started retracting. it's been like this since then. I have tried moving it to higher and lower flow, Higher and lower light. Moved it from the middle of the rocks to higher up and now down to the sand. It doesn't get better or worse. I took some water to the LFS to test, everything came up except ALk was low, so I dosed, threw away my old test kit. now ALK is ok. Fish wise all I have is a Blenny and a shrimp. I only have 3 other corals. Everything else seems to be fine, fish is happy, the other corals are fine. It's my first tank so I don't know what else to do or look for.

Alk 8.7
Ca 506
Ph 8.19
Salt 33.8
temp 79

 

[lazycouch]

i think you may have induced more stress while shuffling it around those few times. try leaving it on the sb with little flow and let it acclimate to your light first. if you have high wattage lights i’d suggest dimming them by at least 20%, what was your initial alk reading before dosing?

 

[Goalie]

ALk was 6. Been dosing a little bit each day to get it up.

 

[smm52487]

How long has the tank been running? And did you start with dry rock or live rock?

 

[Goalie]

tank has been up for 6 or 7 weeks. Dry rock, carib sea purple life rock. Finished cycling about 3 weeks ago.

 

[lazycouch]

ALk was 6. Been dosing a little bit each day to get it up.

8.7 is a great level and i suggest you don’t try to increase alk by more than .5dkh every day. i also suggest you do an alk test during the day and evening to check for any swings, euphyllia are very hateful towards alk swings in specific and will act in a dramatic way to tell you

 

[Casket_Case]

That Euphyllia is me

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

How did you go through your cycle process 6 or 7 weeks seams to early for cycling dry rock do you have any other corals in the tank and how are they doing also did you introduce all the fish and coral at the same time you have to be cautious in a newly cycled tank there is only small amounts of live bacteria if you add to much livestock at the same time you can overload what it can handle you need to add it gradually with a week or 2 in between

 

[Goalie]

Used quick start bacteria. In about 7 days it would completely get rid of ammonia in about 24hours. I posted on #askbrs a few times, i was told to dose ammonia to double check. I did that twice and the bacteria ate it all up. I let it be for 3 weeks before i added corals. There is 1 fish in there I added a week later.

 

[Fishko]

tank is still very young, do you know your phos and nitrate. I would try target feeding it with some sort of food like reef roids, dosing aminos might help.

 

[DSEKULA]

Your cycle, tank, etc sounds fine. That is a bit fast to introduce lps coral but you can be fine. This is your first reef the best advice I can give you is, slow down, things take a bit to settle and look happy sometimes. Before you get a piece find out how much light and flow it likes and when you buy it place it in the best spot that you can and don't touch it. Many pieces take a few days or some more stubborn ones take months to settle but hopefully your not buying those yet. While your piece is settling in try to keep everything as stable as possible.

 

[Letterkenny]

Yea need to know nitrates and phosphates as well. Sometimes they just get a bit annoyed. I can’t tell in the photo but is it a torch or hammer and from where?

 

[Goalie]

I’ve been feeding reef roids since i put corals in there. The zoas are growing and spreading. Super bright colors too. Cabbage leather is growing as well and getting a really bright green color on it too.

 

[Letterkenny]

I’ve been feeding reef roids since i put corals in there. The zoas are growing and spreading. Super bright colors too. Cabbage leather is growing as well and getting a really bright green color on it too.

Daily? Phosphates could be high and annoying it. What filtration?

 

[Goalie]

Thanks, so I bought the corals and fish from my LFS , basically went with what they said would be ok and placed everything based on their advice.

Your cycle, tank, etc sounds fine. That is a bit fast to introduce lps coral but you can be fine. This is your first reef the best advice I can give you is, slow down, things take a bit to settle and look happy sometimes. Before you get a piece find out how much light and flow it likes and when you buy it place it in the best spot that you can and don't touch it. Many pieces take a few days or some more stubborn ones take months to settle but hopefully your not buying those yet. While your piece is settling in try to keep everything as stable as possible.

 

[Goalie]

I feed roids about every 2-3 days. I will order a phosphate test kit.

 

[DSEKULA]

Thanks, so I bought the corals and fish from my LFS , basically went with what they said would be ok and placed everything based on their advice.

Right now it seems like your getting ok advice from the lfs. Just keep in mind that they are there to sell you something so a second opinion may be helpful especially as you start to introduce coral that's more picky or holds a high price tag. I've run into some people that will say anything to make a sale and others that will make things up instead of saying they don't know. so, just keep in mind that while some really do have good intentions it's your responsibility to research what can go in the tank.

I'd absolutely get tests for nitrates and phosphate but without a starting number you won't be able to tell if it spiked up recently just keep an eye and make sure the numbers arnt swinging. As far as reef roids go I've found its one of those less is better things mine get a feeding twice a week. Every day is a lot and adds a lot of nutrients to the water.

As far as placement goes without getting specific measurements it's hard to say put it in high light or flow vs low light and flow All the coral you have right now is pretty accepting to a variety of flow and light conditions. If you find someone with the same lights and power heads and see where they had success with specific pieces try to emulate that as you move to more picky species espically. Unless you have a par map and gph of your power heads at certain distance etc to compare with others then go by that.
What I've found is that Euphyllia accept a wide range of light and flow as long as you don't keep changing light and flow. Flow- the tentacles should always be waving a bit but the flesh should not be ripping off or looking like it will because it will. Light wise I've place from high 90s par on my sand bed all the way up to 280 near my sps coral near top of the rocks.