Jason,
Knowing that I am seeing this post 3 weeks later things may have improved, or declined. Just in case, to better understand what happened let me ask you what kind of lighting you have? My thoughts are the coral could have been reacting to an increase in light possibly. you said
tonight it has been expelling loads of brown stringing stuff, in about 3 loads.
Sounds like the coral was expelling symbiotic algae. I say this because of your follow up post statement,
i have turned the lights off and it has shrunk further. It has got all its tenticles out though which i was not expecting. all water readings are good so no idea what is going on.
So it displayed a feeding response when it was in lower light. Tentacles out although shrunken. My thought when I read this was this might be a reaction to your lights.
Something that you may or may not have known is Photo-acclimation. Just like we drip acclimate an addition to our tanks to adjust them to the water chemistry, some corals need to be acclimated to our lights. Every reef keeper should strive to provide ideal conditions, but often the animals we put in our tanks do not come from as good a condition. Since corals cannot move when in brighter light getting burned they shrivel, if their symbiotic algae produce to much nutrients, the coral will expel them. To Photo-acclimate a new coral some hobbyists use small squares of shade cloth over the coral, others reduce the "on" time of their lights for a period of days to weeks, other start with coral placement low and to the corners of the tank furthest away from the intense light. Think of it as how a fair skinned person has to limit their time in the sun to avoid a sunburn.
This problem is encountered even in established reefs when a hobbyist replaces all their old bulbs or fixture with a better model, or experiments with different manufacturers bulbs.
I'm no expert as I learn something new in this hobby everyday. Just felt I should give you my hypothesis.
A Hui Ho,
Erick
