Hello

I have had my nano going since August and have tried to take things slow - only just recently added a few corals. All my button polyps seem to be doing well, but my sunburst polyps are not really opening. I have tried moving them to a more shaded location in the tank to see if they come out more. There also seems to be a small colony of pulsing xenia on the rock those polyps are on that looks like its doing ok.

I have a coral frag with 4 Ricordea mushrooms ( I think) on it and they look a little sickly. The rock fragment they are on got knocked down by one of the snails and one of the mushrooms was up against the glass for a week and another was touching the gravel. I wasn't watching the tank too close and moved the rock they are on to a better spot. Its hard to position because of the odd placement of the mushrooms. 2 are going to make it I think but I am not sure about the other 2 - they have little bits and pieces breaking off and the color on all 4 appears a little bleached. Could they be getting too much light? I have a 12 hour photo period and they are placed near the bottom of the tank.

Should use crazy glue or epoxy to glue my less stable rocks together so the snails can't knock them over?
And also to glue the small rock fragments w/ the corals on them to the larger pieces of live rock? I am concerned this will be a bad idea if I ever have to clean or move things - sometimes you need to experiment w/ placing to get a good idea of where a coral will do best. I do have coralline algae growing like crazy so I guess that is a good sign, right?

Any advice?

Hi.

They are fairly indifferent about light. What they need is food. You need to spot feed the polyps mysis shrimp (everyday at the same time would be good).

I doubt that it's too much light. Rics like a bit of light.

Glue them on to small stable rocks. Then they won't get knocked over and you can still rearrange.

It's a good sign; however, as more grows, it will consume more calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium.

Ok - how much do they require in the way of food? I notice there are only a few coming out now, and I"m wondering if the others have died. Are brine shrimp ok? How do I feed them, w/ a pipette or eyedropper? Do xooanthids/button polyps need to be fed in the same way? Do I need to worry about my mushrooms/ricordea or should they bounce back?

Also, I noticed in your reply you placed emphasis on the part where I stated the mushrooms were up against the glass, etc. How bad was this? Fairly bad I am guessing.

I'd feed each polyp one or two mysis (brine shrimp are usually less nutritious, but are better than nothing) each day. If you feed during the day (at the same time) they will be more likely to open up when the lights are on (their instinct is to feed at night).

Sure or some tubing, or even a turkey baster.

They are photosynthetic and get most of their nutrition from good lighting. Some larger palythoa will eat small bits of meaty food.

Hopefully you don't have a predator. They are usually pretty tough. Larger rics will also accept some meaty food. My guess is that they will bounce back.

Not that bad. They probably didn't appreciate the crash. It will help if you can keep them stable on the rock in decent (but not direct) flow and with a reasonable amount of light.