Duncan killer

[Rjmul]

Hey guys so I'm relatively new to this, about a year in.
At this point I have a mixed reef, torch, frogspawn, gorgonia, sad acan, some slow growing zoas, three types of thriving monti, thriving birds nest, thriving favia, and I'm about to kill my second Duncan. I'm pointing out what's doing well and whata not in hopes of someone helping me figure this out

Flow is good.
Sg is 1.025
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .03
Alk 10
Calcium 425
Mag 1235

Is there a missing puzzle piece to Duncans that I'm not catching ?

 

[Webslinger]

do you feed it, lighting? mine like good flow

 

[Joekovar]

Mine eats every day. I Target fed it mysis at first, then realized it gets plenty of food (mysis, fish eggs, pellets) floating right into it when I feed the fish.

 

[Rjmul]

do you feed it, lighting? mine like good flow

Don't feed it much. Tank is heavily stocked and I feed the fish a lot. Lighting is black box, but it's growing SPS

 

[Phildago]

They definitely don't need to be fed. Maybe they like it but I wouldn't know. I feed my fish and maybe use some reef roids but never teaget feed and my Duncan's are beasts.

Do you have clown fish?

 

[AC1211]

Just to note some tanks simply cannot keep certain corals and duncans like most lps seem to be most prone to that random wierd issue likely caused by bacteria. I think bacteria diversity matters for some lps. Odds are however this is not the problem but there are people who have lost 10+ duncans or 10+ elegances or torches due to bacteria diversity issues.

Chances are though that if you raise you magnesium a tick it might help.

 

[Rjmul]

Mine eats every day. I Target fed it mysis at first, then realized it gets plenty of food (mysis, fish eggs, pellets) floating right into it when I feed the fish.

I'll try feeding it if it opens up again

 

[Joekovar]

Just to note some tanks simply cannot keep certain corals and duncans like most lps seem to be most prone to that random wierd issue likely caused by bacteria. I think bacteria diversity matters for some lps. Odds are however this is not the problem but there are people who have lost 10+ duncans or 10+ elegances or torches due to bacteria diversity issues.

Chances are though that if you raise you magnesium a tick it might help.

Might be worth mentioning I used 3 or 4 different sources of bacteria when I started my tank.

 

[Uncle99]

Are they close enough to either the torches or favia, both will sting their neighbors.

 

[Rjmul]

Are they close enough to either the torches or favia, both will sting their neighbors.

Non issue

 

[Rjmul]

They definitely don't need to be fed. Maybe they like it but I wouldn't know. I feed my fish and maybe use some reef roids but never teaget feed and my Duncan's are beasts.

Do you have clown fish?

I have clowns, they're not hosting anything

 

[Rjmul]

Just to note some tanks simply cannot keep certain corals and duncans like most lps seem to be most prone to that random wierd issue likely caused by bacteria. I think bacteria diversity matters for some lps. Odds are however this is not the problem but there are people who have lost 10+ duncans or 10+ elegances or torches due to bacteria diversity issues.

Chances are though that if you raise you magnesium a tick it might help.

I don't REALLY wanna dose mag, though I thought the same thing. I use all for reef. So I don't want to throw that out of whack. I do have some micro bacter 7 I've never used. I could try the bacteria route

 

[Rjmul]

I don't REALLY wanna dose mag, though I thought the same thing. I use all for reef. So I don't want to throw that out of whack. I do have some micro bacter 7 I've never used. I could try the bacteria route

I also carbon dose so I would think bacteria is doing well, but maybe I'm missing something

 

[Phildago]

I have clowns, they're not hosting anything

I went through a period of not having any nems where my Duncan's were closed, but the clowns were not visibly hosting anything. They're sneaky and could be just rubbing it every once in a while.

Keep an eye out just in case. Because with your params it just doesn't make much sense that this would happen otherwise.

 

[Rmckoy]

There are some lps I have never been able to keep .

Zoas , elegance
My Duncan’s aren’t looking too great ( 2 heads only partially open )

 

[lilgrounchuck]

What’s the flow and light like?

 

[Webslinger]

I have 100 heads of different frogspawn, 100s of hammers . They both are like weeds in my tank. Can't keep a torch alive for more than a few months now since a faulty heater caused tank crash a few years ago. The hammers and frogspawn came back great, torch got brown jelly and haven't been successful with them since. Bacteria might be the key??

 

[Jet915]

Duncans are weird. Had 2 heads for like 1 year. Sprouted another head and afterwards, they shrunk and were barely open for like a year. Then last 6 months they are now wide open and 3 new heads. Not sure what I did different....

 

[AC1211]

I don't REALLY wanna dose mag, though I thought the same thing. I use all for reef. So I don't want to throw that out of whack. I do have some micro bacter 7 I've never used. I could try the bacteria route

I also use all for reef so I get it.

 

[AC1211]

I have 100 heads of different frogspawn, 100s of hammers . They both are like weeds in my tank. Can't keep a torch alive for more than a few months now since a faulty heater caused tank crash a few years ago. The hammers and frogspawn came back great, torch got brown jelly and haven't been successful with them since. Bacteria might be the key??

I believe so also source of torches. IMO until you try multiplp varieties or sources of torches you cannot tell for sute that it is bacterial but likely so.