Why is my sun coral not opening?

LordJoshaeus · Nov 1, 2018

Hi everyone! A few days I tried to add a HOB overflow and a refugium to my 10 gallon. It was a disaster...not going to recap the story here, but suffice to say it made a mess, I haven't seen my royal gramma since (REALLY hoping I didn't crush him) and my sun coral has refused to open fully since. It opened a little this morning, but when I tried putting some plankton food on it to convince it to open more it promptly snapped shut even though I had put it on gently. What is wrong? Nitrogen is 5-10 ppm (I struggle to read the nitrate test) and phosphates read out at .25 ppm. Since this is a non photosynthetic coral, it needs to open soon or else it will perish of starvation. Thanks!

TheHarold · Nov 1, 2018

It’s not a coral friendly to beginners. Just try to maintain good parameters and keep at feeding. Perhaps it would open to a powder like reef roids.

LordJoshaeus · Nov 1, 2018

What baffles me is that it readily opened prior to trying to add the overflow, but now attempting to coax it out with planktonic foods (seachem zooplankton and phytoplankton) sends the polyps retracting into the skeleton.

GatorGuys · Nov 1, 2018

You may have stirred up a lot of sediment - which could be irritating the coral. It is also possible the coral was feasting on the detritus you stirred up doing these changes and it does not need to eat - yet. Give it some time. It will not melt away in the matter of a few days. Just try to get your parameters stable.

LordJoshaeus · Nov 1, 2018

OK. Thanks...I will hold out hope.

Dr. Dendrostein · Nov 1, 2018

LordJoshaeus said:
Hi everyone! A few days I tried to add a HOB overflow and a refugium to my 10 gallon. It was a disaster...not going to recap the story here, but suffice to say it made a mess, I haven't seen my royal gramma since (REALLY hoping I didn't crush him) and my sun coral has refused to open fully since. It opened a little this morning, but when I tried putting some plankton food on it to convince it to open more it promptly snapped shut even though I had put it on gently. What is wrong? Nitrogen is 5-10 ppm (I struggle to read the nitrate test) and phosphates read out at .25 ppm. Since this is a non photosynthetic coral, it needs to open soon or else it will perish of starvation. Thanks!

What test kits you have? Also LFS can test your H2O. I think NH3

saltyhog · Nov 1, 2018

Is it possible that adding the HOB overflow changed the quantity/quality/pattern of the flow in your tank? That also could have something to do with it? If it doesn't open in a couple of days try that. Also observe it after lights out because a lot of it's opening probably goes on when you're not looking at the tank.