sun coral help

[PXH_Blackmagic]

After a fantastic month and a half with my sun coral, suddenly it has decided not to extend it's polyps for it's nightly feed, (mysis shrimp, white fish and some marine mix (not all at once though!) has been sat dorment for about 5 days, wafting food in a top hat arrangement does not even provoke a response:( !,

any one got any ideas?,

Regards

si

ps.
fed directly with a 15ml syringe adapted with some air line tubing, was feeding them nightly, but they are not accepting any food at the moment,

[sky1ine]

Hi,

That sounds a bit bizarre! I'd say somethings changed that it doesn't like (not meant as obvious as it sounds!)

Have you changed the flow in your tank recently?

Added any fish or shrimp that may be annoying it?

Or have your water parameters changed/ how stable are your water params? And what are your params?

Changed lights/lighting period? (although there obviously not that bothered by light, i've noticed mine play up if the lighting patterns change might not be the case with all sunnies though?)

Sorry for all the questions just trying to think of it from every angle! :o

All the best
Marc

[PXH_Blackmagic]

ok things that have happend in the last week - err

25% water change,
salinity and tempreture matched,

removed a watchman goby that was having a rough time from a tankmate

added 4 (small) hermits (have not seen them near the sun coral)

moved the coral from the sand to a piece of rock after seeing some advice on here (original position from when I recieved it)

mmmmm parameters were ok when I last tested before water change am 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10ppm, Ph 8.2, KH9, SG 1.025


I will post a photo later to show what they look like,

si

[PXH_Blackmagic]

out of interest here is a photo of the polyps at the moment

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2007Q2/P1010758.JPG

regards

si

[PawsReef]

Five days does seem a while, it may just be the move and changes in the tank that it needs to get used to but you definitly need to get rid of the algea on it (The red and the green stuff)

Does it open at all? If you can tempt it even a little bit then syringe food onto the polyp it should do better the second day and begin to open regularly again

[Zeus]

Hi,

Is that hair algae in between the polyps? If so get rid of that as it may well be annoying the polyps. I have found that if even one of the polyps is sufficiently annoyed the whole colony closes up.

HTH
Campbell

[sky1ine]

ok things that have happend in the last week - err

25% water change,
salinity and tempreture matched,

removed a watchman goby that was having a rough time from a tankmate

added 4 (small) hermits (have not seen them near the sun coral)

moved the coral from the sand to a piece of rock after seeing some advice on here (original position from when I recieved it)

mmmmm parameters were ok when I last tested before water change am 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10ppm, Ph 8.2, KH9, SG 1.025


I will post a photo later to show what they look like,

si

Personally, i think it may be because you've moved it, but i'd also say the phosphates won't be helping, although unless really bad i doubt they would be stopping it from opening. (Im currently have a right game trying to keep my P04 levels down, one or 2 of my sun corals have bits of algae on them here or there but the colonys still open fine)

If you do try and remove it, don't hurt or scrape the coral.

Do you use any phosphate remover?

You missed the important tests, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate aswell.

[PXH_Blackmagic]

Well, yesterday, thankfully it started to open up again!, all polyps open'd and had a good feed of mysis shrimp. After a chat in my LFS it seems that they can go "inactive" for a while if they are growing (of which I have noticed 4-5 new poylps appear ) so not sure if that is the end of that little period!.

as far as water quality goes - I understand about the mag, and phosphate tests (KH is representative of calcium), and planning on getting my water tested through Muzzy's service from now on. And as far as phosphate remover goes, I run it with active carbon in an external canister.


any one got any good Ideas to remove the algae?, just pluck it off?

regards

si