Cyphastrea not opening after 3 days?

cypike · Mar 16, 2023

Hey guys I’m back with another question, this time about a coral I bought as a canary for the tank to see if I can keep corals. It’s been about 2-3 days since I got this dude from WWC and it doesn’t seem to want to open up. Do they typically take time to adjust to a new tank or should it be opening up?

here’s a picture of a zoanthid I also bought from the same place. It opened on the first day.

SchrutesReefs · Mar 16, 2023

Parameters would probably help get you an accurate response. Also, your rock looks very new, maybe too new for some LPS or SPS, IMO

cypike · Mar 16, 2023

SchrutesReefs said:
Parameters would probably help get you an accurate response. Also, your rock looks very new, maybe too new for some LPS or SPS, IMO

I’m aware it might be too new, I’m using this as kind of a tester coral. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work.

I’ll post up some params after work

D3DPrintedThingz · Mar 16, 2023

it is a beautiful coral

if your salinity and temp are on point, corals will be happy. How did you acclimate the coral? Also not too much flow and not too much light to start with. They can take a while to get used to a new tank. As long as you don't see anything turning white , you've got a solid chance.

I have killed a GSP frag, a cyphastrea, and a birds nest. For some reason, they don't like my tank. Everything else is happy. You might find your set up is great for many kinds of coral but not everything. It is not easy to pull off the mixed reef with all kinds of stuff with different requirements.

exnisstech · Mar 16, 2023

ilikefish69 said:
I have killed a GSP frag, a cyphastrea, and a birds nest. For some reason, they don't like my tank.

I have had similar experiences with some of my LPS. I have a large pectinia, Acanthophyllia and Trachyphyllia in one tank that I would rather have in my 180g tank. When I moved them into the 180 tank they deflate and stay deflated. I have tried moving them twice and left them in for few weeks to acclimate and they never inflate. I move them back to the original tank and within 24 hours they are fully inflated. I have lps sps and softies in the 180 that are fine but these particular lps pieces just do not like the 180g for some reason.

D3DPrintedThingz · Mar 16, 2023

exnisstech said:
I have had similar experiences with some of my LPS. I have a large pectinia, Acanthophyllia and Trachyphyllia in one tank that I would rather have in my 180g tank. When I moved them into the 180 tank they deflate and stay deflated. I have tried moving them twice and left them in for few weeks to acclimate and they never inflate. I move them back to the original tank and within 24 hours they are fully inflated. I have lps sps and softies in the 180 that are fine but these particular lps pieces just do not like the 180g for some reason.

these are some of the mysteries I don't think we will ever get answers to. Coral reefs man. LOL!!

cypike · Mar 16, 2023

ilikefish69 said:
it is a beautiful coral if your salinity and temp are on point, corals will be happy. How did you acclimate the coral? Also not too much flow and not too much light to start with. They can take a while to get used to a new tank. As long as you don't see anything turning white , you've got a solid chance.

I have killed a GSP frag, a cyphastrea, and a birds nest. For some reason, they don't like my tank. Everything else is happy. You might find your set up is great for many kinds of coral but not everything. It is not easy to pull off the mixed reef with all kinds of stuff with different requirements.

I acclimated it according to wwc instructions, which is dump corals and water into bucket and add tank water and let sit for 15 minutes.

cypike · Mar 18, 2023

cypike · Mar 19, 2023

My phosphates are high but is this the cause of them not opening? I got some stuff to bring the phosphates down.

cypike · Mar 19, 2023

Still closed today, any ideas?

Reef-_-Noob · Mar 19, 2023

New tank, make sure you have good flow. Probably the lighting is affecting. A new tank requires you acclimate to the lighting.
What kind of photo period do you have?

I started with a cyphastrea. Took a while to adjust and start growing. But excellent coral to start with bc as your tank stables you can see the encrusting growth and measure the success

cypike · Mar 20, 2023

Reef-_-Noob said:
New tank, make sure you have good flow. Probably the lighting is affecting. A new tank requires you acclimate to the lighting.
What kind of photo period do you have?

I started with a cyphastrea. Took a while to adjust and start growing. But excellent coral to start with bc as your tank stables you can see the encrusting growth and measure the success

I’ll try to take a screenshot after work.

Reef-_-Noob · Mar 20, 2023

I'm a newbie here so I had to figure out the light schedule. I have a controller for my lights and found that going to peak in 2 hours with the blue spectrum maintaining for couple hours and decreasing start with 8 hour photo period and increase to 12 hours. Then add whites. The whites on my lights are really strong and they acclimated really well with that. And keep it in flow!!!

nothing_fancy · Mar 20, 2023

Probably my favorite type of coral. First experience with cyphastria I put a couple of frags in a fairly new system, was running only for a few months. Corals browned out after a week or so, completely brown. Took several months but came back with the right coloration. IME they are, like any stony coral very sensitive to a big change in dKh, salinity, and nutrients especially phos. Judging by your charts it looks like you have some goals for parameters. Just go slow and the coral will probably go through some adjustments, might stay closed, might lose color. Once you have some long term stability you can quickly acclimate this type of coral for temp, dip if you choose and set in there with a better likelihood of no issues.

jhadaway · Mar 20, 2023

My meteor shower prefers shade. For that matter all but my branching cyphastria prefers shade. I have meteor shower, seagrass, butterscotch and superman ( or some superhero). Like in the shadow low light.

cypike · Mar 20, 2023

jhadaway said:
My meteor shower prefers shade. For that matter all but my branching cyphastria prefers shade. I have meteor shower, seagrass, butterscotch and superman ( or some superhero). Like in the shadow low light.

Im going to put something on the egg crate to create a shadow over this dude and see if that helps at all

nothing_fancy · Mar 20, 2023

cypike said:
Im going to put something on the egg crate to create a shadow over this dude and see if that helps at all

Ya, second that. Mine have done best down low, getting around 100-125 par

Reef-_-Noob · Apr 28, 2023

My Cyphastrea lately does not have great polyp extension. It is still encrusting on the live rock and has excellent color.

I have noticed the part of coral on the live rock does not have the same mature polyps as the frag plug.

I have also started raising magnesium around 1500