HELP: Trachyphyllia not opening

rongy · Sep 30, 2023

Hi reefers, I just got a trachy last week. It was doing fine first few days. It opened during the day and takes frozen mysis. However, last couple, I’ve noticed that it closed up during the day. Today, I saw that one of its mouth is open. It is placed next to a scoly on the sand and scoly is doing well. Not to mention, I had a plate coral which closed for couple weeks and eventually melted this week (I have another plate coral right next to it and it’s been doing great)
Here’s my parameters:
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrate: 3
Phosphate: 0.01 (trying to get it up with extra feeding this week)
Calcium: 410
Alk: 8.3
Mag: 1260

Any idea what’s going on? How can I save it?

rongy · Sep 30, 2023

Scoly and trachy touched each other when fully inflated at first, but I moved the trachy away. I didn’t see physical damage on Trachy. Do they sting each other?

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 30, 2023

it likes low light and low flow. My trachy took about 5-6 months before it finally looked fluffy and happy. Not all corals can acclimate in hours, some corals take days, or weeks, or even months.

To me, you corals look fine, I don't see skeleton or any other damage, I would suggest to leave it alone.

With that said, you phosphate and nitrate are very low for lps corals.

rongy · Sep 30, 2023

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
it likes low light and low flow. My trachy took about 5-6 months before it finally looked fluffy and happy. Not all corals can acclimate in hours, some corals take days, or weeks, or even months.

To me, you corals look fine, I don't see skeleton or any other damage, I would suggest to leave it alone.

With that said, you phosphate and nitrate are very low for lps corals.

Thank you! It concerned me because the trachy fully inflated for a day or two then deflated

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 30, 2023

rongy said:
Thank you! It concerned me because the trachy fully inflated for a day or two then deflated

same with me, it inflated the first day, then got skinny for about 6 months, then was fluffy and happy all the time. Give it time, but also keep a close eye on your low nutrients. Long term the coral will need nitrate and phosphate. My phosphate is at .1 and nitrates usually between 10 and 20.