Blastomussa not as fluffy

[Abzdot]

Hi, 

I have had a blasto for a month or 2 now and his outer ring has become quite thin. I am using the fluval evo stock lights and have desirable parameters. I have ordered a hydra 26hd and I’m hoping that it will help this little guy out. Do you think the new light will help?

[Tired]

What else is in the tank, and how much do you feed? It might be hungry. I'd suggest directly feeding it. 

[Abzdot]

4 minutes ago, Tired said:

What else is in the tank, and how much do you feed? It might be hungry. I'd suggest directly feeding it. 

I feed all of my corals 2-4 times a week. They are fed mysis and I know that their food isn't stolen nor blown away as I turn my powerhead and pump off until they're mostly done. I have a frogspawn, 2 acans (micromussa?), blastomussa, hammer, pocillopora, zoanthids, gsp, xenia and kenya tree

[Tired]

Huh. Yeah, I got nothin'. Except that, IIRC, blastos don't like high lighting. If I were you, I might try putting it in a lower-light area for a bit, and seeing if it puffs up again. It may be retracting from the light.

 

You should also check that nothing is in stinging range. Something might be just close enough to bother it without outright killing it.

[Wingy]

My blastos like Reef Roids.  

[Abzdot]

18 hours ago, Tired said:

Huh. Yeah, I got nothin'. Except that, IIRC, blastos don't like high lighting. If I were you, I might try putting it in a lower-light area for a bit, and seeing if it puffs up again. It may be retracting from the light.

 

You should also check that nothing is in stinging range. Something might be just close enough to bother it without outright killing it.

I have it at the bottom of my tank but I have moved it to an even less lit area. I think my Kenya tree must’ve been stinging it if anything else. Honestly I never knew they sting, I didn’t buy it, it literally grew out of the sand.

[jservedio]

How long has it been not puffed up? Mine will sometimes be deflated by varying amounts on seemingly random days. I highly doubt they are "hungry" - I don't think I've ever target fed my blastos and I've had them for years and years.

 

They are extremely easy to please as long as you don't blast them with light, they will put up with basically any amount of flow. If it's only been a few days, don't worry. If it's been like a week, do a big water change. If that doesn't do anything, move them to make sure they are out of range of anything.

[Abzdot]

12 minutes ago, jservedio said:

How long has it been not puffed up? Mine will sometimes be deflated by varying amounts on seemingly random days. I highly doubt they are "hungry" - I don't think I've ever target fed my blastos and I've had them for years and years.

 

They are extremely easy to please as long as you don't blast them with light, they will put up with basically any amount of flow. If it's only been a few days, don't worry. If it's been like a week, do a big water change. If that doesn't do anything, move them to make sure they are out of range of anything.

It has slowly decreased in fluffiness over the course of 2 months but hasn’t been obvious until I saw that old picture of it. Everything else is happy except one acan. The blasto is surviving but not thriving. I’m hoping it’s down to the colour spectrum not being big enough as I only have white and blue lighfs

[jservedio]

3 minutes ago, Abzdot said:

It has slowly decreased in fluffiness over the course of 2 months but hasn’t been obvious until I saw that old picture of it. Everything else is happy except one acan. The blasto is surviving but not thriving. I’m hoping it’s down to the colour spectrum not being big enough as I only have white and blue lighfs

I highly doubt it's your light, unless your giving them too much light. If it wasn't enough light, they would look slightly transparent and be stretching out for light.

 

I kept some of mine under nothing but very low power White/Blue LEDs for almost 3 years without issue. They can take a long time to adjust to new lighting as well, so how long they would take to adjust to your lighting would depend on the previous owner's tank. What kind of flow are they getting? They like pretty much anything more than zero flow, but if it's fairly heavy flow, again, they will take a while to adjust.

 

As long as your other corals are happy, really all you can do is make small changes to see what happens. If you suspect it's a little too much light, move them to one of the corners of the tank where there is less light. If you suspect they aren't getting enough flow, move them to a slightly higher flow area. If you think everything is fine - just leave them. As long as they aren't receding and you don't have algae or anything growing up the skeleton and irritating the coral, don't worry too much. You can bring them back from almost anything - they just need time.

[mcarroll]

I like all the answers (and questions) so far.

 

Just to add to the conversation, what are your test parameters like for ca, alk, mg, no3, and po4?

[Abzdot]

18 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I like all the answers (and questions) so far.

 

Just to add to the conversation, what are your test parameters like for ca, alk, mg, no3, and po4?

as of the 28/7/2020 my parameters are:

 

Calcium: 445ppm

Mag: 1380ppm

Kh: 7.5 (ordered some AF buffer and getting delivered tomorrow)

Po4: <0.03

[mcarroll]

On 7/30/2020 at 7:04 PM, Abzdot said:

Po4: <0.03

You want ">" not "<".

 

Phosphate levels this low (too low) creates real problems for corals, especially in new tanks where very little nutrient recycling is yet happening.  

 

"Shrinkage" is one reaction...it reduces their light exposure and the resulting damage they take from photosynthesis under phosphate-depleted circumstances.  

 

If the phosphate depletion goes on or gets worse, including bleaching, tissue loss, even mortality.

 

If you're doing anything to remove phosphates from the system, including water changes, I would stop until levels increase to at least 0.05 ppm.  Even higher would be better in the short term.