Stringy, shriveled elegance after light decrease.

[dakotap]

I have an elegance coral that has been doing not so well for 2 weeks. Only thing that has changed was I was able to borrow a par meter and decreased my lighting from 200-300 par across the entire tank to more around 100-165 across the tank, as I run a mixed reef with hardly any sps. It appears to have some stringy stuff across the face of it and it’s not opening up anymore. Water parameters have stayed stable and nearly the same the whole time. Any ideas? The tank was previously happy at the high par. Even the softies. Should I increase it back or do you think this is just coincidental? Below is just over two weeks ago and then yesterday afternoon and this morning before lights. All other coral in the tank is looking good.

Temp 78~
Salinity - 1.025
Alk - 9.4
Calc - 415
Mag - 1320
Po4 - 0.03
No3 - 5

 

[BanjoBandito]

You have direct evidence that (barring that this was the only change) your change in lighting has caused an issue. Why would you doubt that? Also, why would you change the light if everything was doing well? The problem is you can't just yo yo lights back and forth at this point, you would need to bring them back up slowly. It does not look happy in that second picture....is it still showing color/tentacles today? Does it have slime on it? Ellegances can be finicky....a lot of people claim they die randomly. I don't really believe that but it's known as a tougher one to keep. I keep mine on the sand bed and it is doing fine, but I haven't messed with lighting in who knows when.