Trouble With Euphyllia!

[Marcus Rogers]

Hi All,

All my Euphyllia seem to be having a hard time. I am going to try and be as detailed as possible, please ask questions if I miss things. They all seem to be either retracted or not fully opened. Tank age is about 3 months.

Parameters:
Ammonia(red sea): 0
Nitrite(salifert): 0
Nitrate(nyos): ~7
Ca(red sea): 420
Mg(red sea): 1500
KH(red sea): ~7-7.4
Phosphate(Hanna): 0.07

Lighting:
2x Radion g5 xr30
using LPS Lagoon template running at 30% schedule intensity
tank is 80 gallons and the dimensions are about 48 inches long

Tank condition:
I am currently battling dinos and recently added one does of neonitro and neophos to increase my nutrients to help combat the dinos. I raised them from 0 (both) to ~7 nitrate and to .07 phosphate.

Flow:
one MP40, reef crest, about 50%

I am not sure what else could be going wrong, I have included pictures. I have acans that seem to be doing fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

**this one has looked like this for about 1.5 months(the first torch i bought), I have tried moving it etc, still no change but seems to be trying to hang on lol

 

[Wolf89]

I would raise alk to 8.5 or 9 over 3-5 days.

 

[Wolf89]

Are your other corals doing alright?

 

[Marcus Rogers]

The only other coral I have are acans which appear to be doing fine. I have also been doing about weekly 15% water changes. I stopped this week and planned to do them only 2x a month since it was not helping things.

 

[Marcus Rogers]

Update:

I lowered the flow in my tank to try and help but not sure if it did anything.

I have the tropic marin hydrometer as well as a cheap floating arm hydrometer to test my salinity. I tested it with the tropic marin hydrometer and it read 1.025. I tested it with the cheap coral life floating arm hydrometer and it read 1.030!

I tend to trust the the tropic marin hydrometer, but should this be a concern in regards to my euphyllia? My acans are doing great, just the euphyllia...

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Update:

I lowered the flow in my tank to try and help but not sure if it did anything.

I have the tropic marin hydrometer as well as a cheap floating arm hydrometer to test my salinity. I tested it with the tropic marin hydrometer and it read 1.025. I tested it with the cheap coral life floating arm hydrometer and it read 1.030!

I tend to trust the the tropic marin hydrometer, but should this be a concern in regards to my euphyllia? My acans are doing great, just the euphyllia...

Yea the parameters are a little off and that’s throwing off your euphyllia.

 

[afrokobe]

Update:

I lowered the flow in my tank to try and help but not sure if it did anything.

I have the tropic marin hydrometer as well as a cheap floating arm hydrometer to test my salinity. I tested it with the tropic marin hydrometer and it read 1.025. I tested it with the cheap coral life floating arm hydrometer and it read 1.030!

I tend to trust the the tropic marin hydrometer, but should this be a concern in regards to my euphyllia? My acans are doing great, just the euphyllia...

I would trust the tm hydrometer as long as you are confident on your temperature. I think you could raise your nitrates up a little. My euphyllia seem to thrive in dirtier water. I dont see any sps, so you could try to up the feedings more.

 

[Dave1993]

happened to all the Euphyllia i had thrived for 2-3 month then just closed up for a few week wouldn't open then bailed out my tank was about the same age as urs

​

 

[Marcus Rogers]

Yea the parameters are a little off and that’s throwing off your euphyllia.

which parameters are off?

 

[Marcus Rogers]

happened to all the Euphyllia i had thrived for 2-3 month then just closed up for a few week wouldn't open then bailed out my tank was about the same age as urs

​

How could I avoid this from happening? Is tank age the biggest issue?

 

[Dave1993]

How could I avoid this from happening? Is tank age the biggest issue?

No clue i haven't resolved mine yet although my tank is over 1 year old now so going to try another torch soon good luck resolving it though

 

[LeftyReefer]

I would raise alk to 8.5 or 9 over 3-5 days.

I wouldn't. My LPS are all perfectly happy in any ALK between 6 and 9. An ALK of 7 to 7.4 is not the problem, that is the ALK of the ocean. If corals couldn't thrive in that, we wouldn't have corals. An ALK of 7.4 is just fine.

More than likely its flow and/or lighting with euphyllia. My hammers like less flow compared to my torches and will stay closed if I turn up my pumps for too long.... they prefer less flow in general. Try turning down your flow for a while and see if they respond any different.

 

[vtecintegra]

Has the calibration of the refractometer been checked? The salinity needs confirming. If the tank is 1.030, fix it obviously.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

happened to all the Euphyllia i had thrived for 2-3 month then just closed up for a few week wouldn't open then bailed out my tank was about the same age as urs

​

If they are wild caught (meaning recently pulled from the ocean, not that you have to know their entire pedigree), there's a good chance they just weren't going to do well regardless of what you tried.

 

[afrokobe]

If they are wild caught (meaning recently pulled from the ocean, not that you have to know their entire pedigree), there's a good chance they just weren't going to do well regardless of what you tried.

I found this to be very true. Aquacultured ones or ones I've gotten from other hobbyist are tanks. Where as the newly imported ones, I have had varied success.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I found this to be very true. Aquacultured ones or ones I've gotten from other hobbyist are tanks. Where as the newly imported ones, I have had varied success.

I should clarify... Some wild caught euphyllia do just fine, but IF it's wild caught/recently harvested and doesn't do well, there's a good chance you did not do anything "wrong" (assuming all the things like your other coral is ok, etc).

 

[Marcus Rogers]

I wouldn't. My LPS are all perfectly happy in any ALK between 6 and 9. An ALK of 7 to 7.4 is not the problem, that is the ALK of the ocean. If corals couldn't thrive in that, we wouldn't have corals. An ALK of 7.4 is just fine.

More than likely its flow and/or lighting with euphyllia. My hammers like less flow compared to my torches and will stay closed if I turn up my pumps for too long.... they prefer less flow in general. Try turning down your flow for a while and see if they respond any different.

I was initially leaning towards the cause being lights and or flow. I lowered my lighting to 30% (schedule intensity) and i know the mobius app is confusing so heres what it looks like running WWC LPS lagoon schedule:

I have two g5 radions xr30 over a waterbox 4820 (47.2"×19.7"×21.7")

For the flow I just have one mp40 currently running reef crest at just 10%, when I wrote the initial post it was at about 50%.
So far the corals have not reacted much differently, if anything they might be retracting even less

 

[Marcus Rogers]

Has the calibration of the refractometer been checked? The salinity needs confirming. If the tank is 1.030, fix it obviously.

I don't have a refractometer I just have the tropic marin hydrometer: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/high-precision-hydrometer-tropic-marin.html

and a coral life hydrometer:

So i don't think there is any calibration to be done. The higher quality/more trustworthy source of truth is the tropic marin hydrometer which reads 1.025

 

[Marcus Rogers]

If they are wild caught (meaning recently pulled from the ocean, not that you have to know their entire pedigree), there's a good chance they just weren't going to do well regardless of what you tried.

Thank you for this information! I think they are aqua-cultured, I am local to San Diego and bought from Aqua SD(https://aquasd.com/). Which I think is a very reputable coral shop. (I believe they are also reputable on the forums here as well)

 

[vtecintegra]

Got it on the hydrometers. Miss read thinking one was a refractometer.