Elegance Never Fully Open

Nutrient_Spike · Dec 7, 2020

Hi everyone,

The past few months my elegance coral has not been doing tis best, it used to be huge and be so plump, but now its very small and not very happy. I cant work out why considering all of my corals are thriving exept for this one. I've tried dipping but that hasn't worked, and my parameters havn't changed either.

10.0-KH
1.025-Salinity
4-NO3
8.25-pH
1230-Mg
420-Ca
0.03-PO4
0.00-NH3
0.00-NO2

Mkvc · Dec 7, 2020

I'm not an expert so I'd wait for others to respond about your params, but my elegance gets unhappy for one of two reasons:

1. Water is not "dirty" enough. Every time I've done a large water change, all of my LPS corals get angry with me. I feed them for a few days while my tank re-stabilizes and they go back to normal.
2. Flow issues. I moved a powerhead the other day and the elegance didn't have enough flow, so it wouldn't open. I moved it to a second spot and it had too much, so it curled up. The trick is for it to be waving gently but not look like a palm tree in a hurricane.

Good luck!

BlennyTime · Dec 7, 2020

Mkvc said:
I'm not an expert so I'd wait for others to respond about your params, but my elegance gets unhappy for one of two reasons:

1. Water is not "dirty" enough. Every time I've done a large water change, all of my LPS corals get angry with me. I feed them for a few days while my tank re-stabilizes and they go back to normal.
2. Flow issues. I moved a powerhead the other day and the elegance didn't have enough flow, so it wouldn't open. I moved it to a second spot and it had too much, so it curled up. The trick is for it to be waving gently but not look like a palm tree in a hurricane.

Good luck!

I’d agree with both of these, one or the other is likely the cause. You could try to put it somewhere different, to see how it reacts.

homer1475 · Dec 7, 2020

I have noticed, they like more subdued lighting too. Both of mine are under overhangs in less then 100 par.

dennis romano · Dec 7, 2020

Do you feed it? Mine likes mysis at least twice a week.. Always nicer after a meal.

kichimark · Dec 7, 2020

Mine opens up huge when it is placed off to the side out of direct light. Also likes gentle flow as another poster has mentioned.

Nutrient_Spike · Dec 8, 2020

Thank you for all of your answers!

It is in very much direct light, the only thing that confuses me is that it has been in the same place since i got it, i dont understand whats changed. I feed it twice a week and the flow has not changed, but ive tried puttting it under a overhang and post again with an update.

GoReefin · Dec 9, 2020

They don't tend to do well in direct light. Should move him to a less direct light and slowly acclimate him to your light over several weeks.

GoReefin · Dec 9, 2020

Mine is finally opening up after several weeks of acclimation to my AI prime.

PghReef · Dec 24, 2020

Are the tentacles still sticky? A happy elegance should a have sticky feel to it almost like an anemone. Wave you hand over it in the tank and the tentacles should almost stick to you palm and give a tingling sensation. Also will it still eat?

An unhealthy elegance will those that first, then IMO expand less and less, open minimal in the morning and shrivel smaller the longer the lights are one, tissue recession and exposed skeleton, then death.

I've read if your coral is on this path then treatment with FW dips is the only real option

bruno3047 · Mar 14, 2021

It’s all about the lighting. Elegance corals, especially Indo elegance corals, prefer subdued lighting until you can acclimate them to your preference. It takes a while. A respected poster on another board did extensive research on the subject.

Nutrient_Spike · Mar 14, 2021

Wow thank a for all of your replies, I didn't realise how many replies this post had!

Just an update, so my nitrates are always between 3 and 10. I have put the elegance out of direct light with a decent amount of flow for about 2 months now and I feed it twice a week and I've tried to dip it twice with an iodine dip and the polyp lab dip.

But still no luck, really doesn't look very good, it hasn't got worse in 3 months, it's just not getting any better

Any other suggestions?

Nutrient_Spike · Mar 14, 2021

bruno3047 said:
It’s all about the lighting. Elegance corals, especially Indo elegance corals, prefer subdued lighting until you can acclimate them to your preference. It takes a while. A respected poster on another board did extensive research on the subject.

I've put him in the shade for over 2 months now and no improvement! Used to look so lovely my elegance

Nutrient_Spike · Mar 14, 2021

GoReefin said:
They don't tend to do well in direct light. Should move him to a less direct light and slowly acclimate him to your light over several weeks.

Well the thing confusing me is that it's been in my tank for about a year and it's been absolutely fine until about 4 months ago. And nothing in the tank has changed

bruno3047 · Mar 14, 2021

Nutrient_Spike said:
Read up.

Nutrient_Spike said:
https://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1109727&highlight=elegance+coral+theoryI've put him in the shade for over 2 months now and no improvement! Used to look so lovely my elegance

bruno3047 · Mar 14, 2021

I just posted a link to something from another board. Explains everything about how lighting affects Elegance corals. Read up.

homer1475 · Mar 14, 2021

UMM.....

That thread is from 14 years ago. And contains about 0 pertinent info. Specially when they mention "it is a new coral to the hobby".

EDIT:
Also since Indo has been shut down for a couple years and only recently opened back up, it's highly doubtful the OP has an indo elegance.

Also OP, you should push it down into your sandbed. They like to be able to lay their polyp open on the sandbed and be supported by the sand. When they stick up out of the sand like your pic, they can actually tear and irritate their polyp which would also make it close up more then usual.

GoReefin · Mar 14, 2021

After 4 months or so my happy elegance coral wouldn't open up for about 2 weeks and finally is back happy again. From what others were saying they tend to go through this type of thing every once in a while. Do you feed yours at all? I feed mine once a week with human grade shrimp. He eats like a pig.

Pic from when he wasn't opening fully.