Corals closing and not opening

RMS18 · Oct 11, 2015

I posted this in general reef section but not one person replied, maybe it was to advanced for that section.

I have hit a wall with coral health/behavior... I believe it has to do with lighting but I'm not sure. They will not open fully some days and others open fully, then throughout the day at times they will close up. Attached are pictures of them at the moment, lights are not dimming yet and some are closed up. From what my lfs said my pars were to low about 60 on sand bed, 80 middle and about 100 up top. So we raised my light level to about 95ish on the sand bed, 110 middle and 120 high. My anemone hasn't been coming out, my orange shroom is shrinking on a daily basis, so one would think I have to much light. However zoas weren't opening and my acans were very wide open with tenticles out during the day, which should mean the light is to low.
Since my levels will be asked for here they are as of this week:
Salinity 1.027
Mag 1320
Alk 9.8
Cal 420
Nh3/nh4 0ppm
No3 0ppm
PH 8.0
N02 0ppm
Po4 0ppm
Temp 78
30 gallon tank running 2 ai primes
Deep Blue 65%
Blue 50%
Violet 50%
Uv 45%
White 12%
Green 4%
Red 4%

The tank doesn't have any fish, there are no bugs or worms only copods, none of the inverts are bothering anything. I had a huge Alk swing 2 weeks ago from what I think was from going with ac all summer to windows and doors being open. Alk went from 11.5 to 9.8 now. Usually when things act up I do a water change and all is good but I have done 1 each week for 2 weeks and nothing.

I'm out of ideas, I need some advise and ideas please.

LivinTheSwreefLife · Oct 11, 2015

Bmwm235i said:
I had a huge Alk swing 2 weeks ago from what I think was from going with ac all summer to windows and doors being open. Alk went from 11.5 to 9.8 now.

FWIW, I had a large Alk swing and it took longer than 2 weeks for my corals to fully recover. Granted those were SPS corals, but still... might be at play here.

biom · Oct 12, 2015

I think the problem is that you keep them in very low nutrient environment. Do you feed them? LPS and softies will not survive in ULNS, they prefer nitrates to be more than 2 ppm even if they are properly fed.
My advice is to start target feeding for LPS (if not doing already) and to add some fish in the tank,which will help you to rise the nitrates in more natural way.
Increasing lightning at this stage will make the thinks even worse - with higher lightning corals will need even more nutrients to survive.

RMS18 · Oct 12, 2015

biom said:
I think the problem is that you keep them in very low nutrient environment. Do you feed them? LPS and softies will not survive in ULNS, they prefer nitrates to be more than 2 ppm even if they are properly fed.
My advice is to start target feeding for LPS (if not doing already) and to add some fish in the tank,which will help you to rise the nitrates in more natural way.
Increasing lightning at this stage will make the thinks even worse - with higher lightning corals will need even more nutrients to survive.

I do target feed 3 times a week with reef roids, my lfs has one I have and also some frozen foods to keep my biological filter running while my fish are in my qt for ich. They come out in 2 weeks.

shornik · Oct 12, 2015

It might help to also increase your whites, you seem overly skewed towards the blues.

Tahoe61 · Oct 12, 2015

Those par numbers sound wrong for two primes on a 30 gallons.

Turn the UV down, I run mine 15% and whites at 60%. I run the AI Hydra. Ramp time is 4 hours and total time is 10 hours.

Unless you're using a refractometer that you're calibrating with a tested SG solution I would double check that SG value.

Personally I would put the Yuma or what ever variety it is in a more shaded area. Check zoanthids for the usual suspects with regard to pests. Move that one closed zoanthid around until it finds it's spots.

Over all everything looks very good. But turn down that UV for starters. My tank is pretty much solely sps so I need a lot of light a UV of 45% would bleach everything out, and it might be the issue with your anemones.

RMS18 · Oct 12, 2015

Tahoe61 said:
Those par numbers sound wrong for two primes on a 30 gallons.

Turn the UV down, I run mine 15% and whites at 60%. I run the AI Hydra. Ramp time is 4 hours and total time is 10 hours.

Unless you're using a refractometer that you're calibrating with a tested SG solution I would double check that SG value.

Personally I would put the Yuma or what ever variety it is in a more shaded area. Check zoanthids for the usual suspects with regard to pests. Move that one closed zoanthid around until it finds it's spots.

Over all everything looks very good. But turn down that UV for starters. My tank is pretty much solely sps so I need a lot of light a UV of 45% would bleach everything out, and it might be the issue with your anemones.

I rented my lfs par metwr twice same numbers each time. I just turned down the uv to 30%, think that is good? I do lose some color in my corals compared to when they first arrive in my tank, so the uv might be due to that. I am using a refractometer, water comes from my lfs so I don't mix at my house.

RMS18 · Oct 12, 2015

shornik said:
It might help to also increase your whites, you seem overly skewed towards the blues.

I like the blue look because the corals glow better. I thought you could grow under blue, I always see frag tanks blue and members tanks blue along with my lfs. But at this point I don't care, rather have healthy corals than a blue tank. I changed it 16k from 20k. So values are at:

Deep Blue 55
Blue 55
Violet 55
Uv 30
White 15
Green 5
Red 5

Tahoe61 · Oct 12, 2015

All I can compare to is my tank and Aqua-illumination Lighting.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tahoes-30-jbj-rimless-nano.189368/

I feel like I run too much light and I have a ton of light loving corals. I always expect some color shift. Usually they lighten up and then color up over the course of a couple months. I feed quite a bit, as well.

Both Blues as 100%: Acclimation 20%.
Red 50%
Green 60%
Uv 15%
Whites 75%

That is my current lighting.

RMS18 · Oct 12, 2015

Tahoe61 said:
All I can compare to is my tank and Aqua-illumination Lighting.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tahoes-30-jbj-rimless-nano.189368/

I feel like I run too much light and I have a ton of light loving corals. I always expect some color shift. Usually they lighten up and then color up over the course of a couple months. I feed quite a bit, as well.

Both Blues as 100%: Acclimation 20%.
Red 50%
Green 60%
Uv 15%
Whites 75%

That is my current lighting.

How much more powerful do you think your lights are to mine? Currently my primes are at 14 watts each according to the app. So far today my frogspawn had been 100% closed. If it's not one coral it's another. Little frustrating.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 12, 2015

biom said:
I think the problem is that you keep them in very low nutrient environment. Do you feed them? LPS and softies will not survive in ULNS, they prefer nitrates to be more than 2 ppm even if they are properly fed.
My advice is to start target feeding for LPS (if not doing already) and to add some fish in the tank,which will help you to rise the nitrates in more natural way.
Increasing lightning at this stage will make the thinks even worse - with higher lightning corals will need even more nutrients to survive.

I agree. If you are not adding enough foods they may be starving.

I'd feed until you start to see some rise in nitrate and phosphate. 3x per week may not be adequate.

bboyvital · Oct 12, 2015

I am having this same very frustrating issue. tagging along.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 12, 2015

Excessive aluminum in the water can also cause soft corals to open and close or just close.

RMS18 · Oct 12, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Excessive aluminum in the water can also cause soft corals to open and close or just close.

I just feed the tank, which I will do every other day now and I changed the uv levels as someone else recommended along with raising the whites a bit more. I'll see how this goes over the next few days.