Corals not opening

[Wafflecopter]

For about a week now my hammer and my zoas haven't opened. The zoas are stretching like they need more light yet they refuse to open and the hammer wont extend a single polyp outside its skeleton. I've had both of these corals for over a year now so it's not a case of acclimating to a new tank. My phosphates are 0.25 or less (test kit wont go lower than 0.25) nitrates are 10ish (a little high but I've seen plenty of successful tanks with higher) calcium is 400 and dkh is at 10. The sinularia that refused to open and began to have tissue death has made a full recovery and expands fully every day. I don't know what the cause can be and it's bothering me that I had more success in my 2.5 gallon than I am with my 10 gallon. 

[Clown79]

If you are using an api phosphate kit, it's useless for reef tanks. You need one that can actually read the lowest levels possible.

 

How stable are the parameters?

[Wafflecopter]

I do weekly 3 gallon water changes using fritz salt and rodi water. The parameters stay pretty consistent with minimal swings. The biggest swing would be salinity going from 1.026 up to 1.027 and back down. I don't know why it would drastically change and be unhappy overnight.

[Jmevox]

Any temperature changes or have you tested ph? 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I don't know about hammers, but I know sometimes zoas won't open if they have detritus that has fallen on them. Have you taken a turkey baster and blown them off? 

[Clown79]

Low to no  nutrients and alk swings are a common reason for unhappy corals and it can appear as though its sudden but Corals will often sustain themselves for a while and then go downhill rapidly 

[Wafflecopter]

Temp doesn't swing more a couple degrees. I have tried blowing the zoas off and it didn't help. Even tried broadcasting reef roids into the tank hoping to entice them into opening for feeding and that didn't work. I have however been battling some nuisance algae and have been trying to keep my levels as low as I can manage. While this has gotten rid of my hair algae I still have the green algae on the rocks that refuses to even scrape off and my crabs and snails wont touch it.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Wafflecopter said:

Temp doesn't swing more a couple degrees. I have tried blowing the zoas off and it didn't help. Even tried broadcasting reef roids into the tank hoping to entice them into opening for feeding and that didn't work. I have however been battling some nuisance algae and have been trying to keep my levels as low as I can manage. While this has gotten rid of my hair algae I still have the green algae on the rocks that refuses to even scrape off and my crabs and snails wont touch it.

Hard green algae isn't usually a nuisance algae.

 

Low to no nutrients can effect corals health, so while starving out algae also means starving the corals.

[Wafflecopter]

6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Hard green algae isn't usually a nuisance algae.

 

Low to no nutrients can effect corals health, so while starving out algae also means starving the corals.

Would you recommend skipping my water change this week and letting the levels rise? I stopped at my LFS today because they've given me lots of good advice and helped guide me through some of my other challenges and they said the same thing. They said since the corals don't appear to be unhealthy or discolored to try letting the levels rise and wait it out. 

[Wafflecopter]

This is what the hammer looks like. It doesn't just look retracted it looks sucked in as if it's eating itself.

[Tired]

Yes, you need to let the levels rise. Corals are animals, and will starve if you don't provide them with some form of food. 

 

If an algae isn't overgrowing your corals, it's not a harmful algae. You're going to have algae of some form in a healthy reef tank, that's normal and good. Let 'er alone.

[Wafflecopter]

Okay. I've been feeding the hammer PE Mysis to keep it healthy while it's retracted. I also picked up a banggai cardinal to help raise the levels a bit. 

[Tired]

Is it actually eating the mysis? Because that would be a good sign.

[jambon]

I think I am in a similar situation... I was skimping on the food trying to starve out the algae... will increasing the food put in benefit the corals or the algae or both?

[Tired]

Both. However, that's a good thing. You want to have some algae in your tank. If you have plenty of biodiversity, slower-growing, non-pest types of algae can take over, and will keep the pest algaes from growing out of control. But for that to happen, you have to have enough food available that the less durable non-pest algaes can grow and do well. 

 

That's why you see algae surges in new tanks, and then these old tanks, without pest algae surges, that have lots of algae diversity but no problems from it. In the more established tanks, the non-pest algaes (which don't overgrow corals and as such aren't a problem) have taken over. 

[Wafflecopter]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Is it actually eating the mysis? Because that would be a good sign.

It does eat the mysis. I turn my pumps off and use a pipette to feed it. As soon as the mysis touches the tentacles it opens just enough to move the mysis into its mouth then goes right back to being closed. Since the zoas dont really "eat" I've atleast been misting it with the left over juice from the mysis. I did notice last night when making RODI water that it had a pool water smell. I suspect the high chlorine levels used by my city shortened the life of the carbon in the RODI unit. I ordered new cartridges and I plan on doing one last big water change just in case I have a high chlorine content in my tank causing the problem. 

[Wafflecopter]

28 minutes ago, Tired said:

Both. However, that's a good thing. You want to have some algae in your tank. If you have plenty of biodiversity, slower-growing, non-pest types of algae can take over, and will keep the pest algaes from growing out of control. But for that to happen, you have to have enough food available that the less durable non-pest algaes can grow and do well. 

 

That's why you see algae surges in new tanks, and then these old tanks, without pest algae surges, that have lots of algae diversity but no problems from it. In the more established tanks, the non-pest algaes (which don't overgrow corals and as such aren't a problem) have taken over. 

I have noticed growth of purple coralline algae on an old frag plug so I'm also taking that as a good sign.

[Tired]

That's good, yes. Means you're getting into a good shape to grow an assortment of things. 

[Wafflecopter]

So I'm fairly certain chlorine was the problem. The zoas have opened however they look like they have chemical burns. The hammer has lost many polyps but it has stopped receding. I believe that it is now a matter of waiting for them to heal. I have added a couple corals to test the theory and they are open and seem to be happy. My coralline algae has double in size in two weeks and my algae issues are gone. I'd say I'm finally on the road to recovery with the tank.

[Clown79]

11 minutes ago, Wafflecopter said:

So I'm fairly certain chlorine was the problem. The zoas have opened however they look like they have chemical burns. The hammer has lost many polyps but it has stopped receding. I believe that it is now a matter of waiting for them to heal. I have added a couple corals to test the theory and they are open and seem to be happy. My coralline algae has double in size in two weeks and my algae issues are gone. I'd say I'm finally on the road to recovery with the 

The chlorine should be completely removed by the di resin even if the carbon was exhausted.

If your region uses chloramines, that's also another consideration as regular carbon alone doesn't remove it, so the di does all the work. 

 

Normally when you start seeing tds levels rise and psi change is when you should change your filters.

Using a colour changing di resin is also helpful.

[A.m.P]

Is there an area with little-to-no flow you can move it to?

[Wafflecopter]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

The chlorine should be completely removed by the di resin even if the carbon was exhausted.

If your region uses chloramines, that's also another consideration as regular carbon alone doesn't remove it, so the di does all the work. 

 

Normally when you start seeing tds levels rise and psi change is when you should change your filters.

Using a colour changing di resin is also helpful.

I use the RO Buddie and my resin was about half used when I noticed the smell. Since changing the sediment, carbon and resin the smell is gone and as said above the coral are holding steady. 

 

2 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Is there an area with little-to-no flow you can move it to?

Are you referring to the hammer or zoas? The zoas are encrusted but the hammer I have moved to a calmer area of the tank.

[Wafflecopter]

Thought I'd update the health of the corals. The hammer is opening more and is recovering more every day. The zoas are open fully every day despite looking "burned". The water is a little cloudy and carbon doesn't seem to help. I've been doing three gallon water changes twice a week hoping it will eventually clear up. Any advice to bring my water back to being crystal clear?

[A.m.P]

Filter floss/polyfill might help get things polished again.

[Wafflecopter]

2 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Filter floss/polyfill might help get things polished again.

Thanks I'll try using some.