sinularia closed, how long is too long

[s_tempest]

As the title says, how long is too long?

I have a nice piece of sinularia that was opening its polyps and growing in size in my old nano tank.
It closed up about a month ago as I was moving stuff around in that tank & into a new much larger tank. It has remained closed since then - one month.
Its tissue swells & contracts with the lights on & off, respectively. Its arms are upright and not bent over. It retains color (pale green). Other than the no polyps bit I’d say it’s healthy. I just never see its polyps out like i used too.
I do see some shiny waxy coating (shedding?) which I blasted with a turkey blaster a few days ago, but shine is still there.

It is in moderate flow, about 16” deep, moderate lights. This is a new tank, but nothing in the water chemistry seems out of bounds. I am achieving higher & more stable pH & alk than I had in the nano tank. Maybe it liked roughing it better?

So is four weeks still reasonable to wait it out? Again, the coral seems otherwise healthy.
I’ll try to get a better pic tonight but here is a grainy bad zoomed in one.

 

[motortrendz]

Move it up to more lighting. Mine love the light. And I have mine in decent flow. When they polyps aren't out I usually use the turkey baster pretty aggressively actually and get it all cleaned off. Usually the next day itll open back up

Here's a few pics of mine. They all came from the same colony. Their placement really makes a difference on how they open up and extend.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I had a singular frag that I called "the worm". It jumped it's plug, rubber banding it resulted in it dividing, and that little s*** refused to bind to a rock or even fluff for a WHOLE YEAR. It just traveled around the tank looking gross. Then it bloomed. Then it grew. Gave most of it to a friend when it got like 18 inches wide. He's broken it in half multiple times and given it away and it grows faster than he can get rid of it. Recently he got a new tank and moved it. Now he has a giant worm too. I'm sure it will eventually settle.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Moderate lighting and flow are minimal requirements. Also if youre not, add iodine and iron to your tank 1-2X per week

 

[s_tempest]

Thanks for these suggestions. I wish I had better number-based descriptions than moderate for light & flow. Flow is intermittent from two gyre pumps, enough to wiggle the coral’s arms and to push it over when its base plug wasn’t glued. Light is from an AI Hydra26 set with uv thru blues @ 65%, green red & whites at a few %. I’m still ramping up the lights to acclimate everything in this new setup. I want a par meter at some point .

I moved the coral to a spot with stronger flow and about 4” higher in the tank more directly under the light. Not going to be a permanent place, but if I see the polyps extending I’ll know the experiment worked. I also did the turkey blaster thing again (maybe the 3rd time now since seeing the shininess?), in fact I just held the coral in the flow of my gyre pump for a minute.

 

[s_tempest]

Moderate lighting and flow are minimal requirements. Also if youre not, add iodine and iron to your tank 1-2X per week

Thanks for this suggestion.
I’ve been slow to do much dosing with a new tank. I have the Red Sea trace colors kit, and actually added with last weekend’s water change, but have not yet seen any effect.

 

[motortrendz]

Thanks for this suggestion.
I’ve been slow to do much dosing with a new tank. I have the Red Sea trace colors kit, and actually added with last weekend’s water change, but have not yet seen any effect.

You wont really see any change unless your nitrates(2-5ppm)and phosphates(0.02-0.08) are in check.

 

[s_tempest]

Here are 2 pics, one under just whites (ugly) and other with more of the blues. It really doesn’t look unhealthy, just no polyps and maybe a bit scrunched up (I did just move it to higher flow a few hours ago).