Who Gives A Fish Forums

I'm still stuck on this. I've had my coralife biocube 29 for a while now, with stock lighting, and I'm using filter floss, chemipure, and purigen in the back. My duncan has been in the tank for a couple of weeks with two small heads. I'm using wp10. I've tried everything I can think of, but it just won't open up. I've placed it in low, middle, and high spots in the tank. I've put it right in the flow and completely out of it. Nothing seems to work. I even did an iodine dip yesterday, but it's still shut up today. My water parameters are looking good, with

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate is around 10, judging by the color
Calcium is 440
dkh is 6
No pH tester, unfortunately
Salinity is 1.024

When I first got the duncan, it would take food when I spot-fed it. It never fully opened, just had short, fat tentacles. Now it won't even catch food. My tank is filled with ro and topped off with ro. Any ideas? My other fish are doing great, though - 2 clowns, 2 damsels, crabs, and shrimp. One thing that's weird is that my gasp is also not opening. Same story as the duncan.

I'm curious, do you have other corals thriving in the tank? I've found that a GSP not opening can be a sign that something's off with the water. My duncan does great on the sand bed, out of direct flow - it goes through phases of being closed, but nothing like three weeks straight. How often do you move it around? Are you giving it enough time to settle between moves?

Here it is tonight for reference.

It's been in its best spot here, stupidly I moved it from this location and now it's back to this. I usually give it a few days between moves. I'm thinking I should just leave it alone now. The GSP still hasn't opened since I got it, and my peppermint shrimp really went to town on it when I first introduced it - that was a week before I got the duncan.

I'd say just give it some space for a couple of weeks. Mine took about a week to open up when I first got it, and I didn't touch it at all. Stop messing with the duncan, no more dipping or moving it around, and I think it'll start to open up for you.

Your dkh is a bit on the low side, I'd recommend aiming for 8.5 to 9. Also, check your magnesium levels, they should be between 1260 to 1350 ppm. As for your nitrates, they're at the upper limit, so you might want to keep an eye on that.

I'll leave it be and see how it goes. Appreciate the advice on alk and mag, gonna look into adjusting those.

I've been hands off with it, and the craziest thing is it's opening up at night. The tentacles are still short and stubby, but it's nice and big. I've been just watching it, and I'm curious if anyone else has seen this. It's shut up tight during the day, but nighttime is a different story. Maybe I just got a weird one that's nocturnal or something?

I'm curious if something's stressing it out during the day. Maybe one of the fish or inverts is bothering it - a snail or hermit crab perhaps? That would explain why it opens up at night when everything's calm. It's weird though, I've never heard of a coral being nocturnal like that.

I'm at a loss, this thing is in my biocube 29, I've got 2 damsels, 2 clowns, a peppermint shrimp and 4 astreas.

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I have to say, 2 clowns and 2 damsels in a 29g is a pretty bold move. You might want to think about the long-term implications of that combo - it's a recipe for some serious competition and stress in the tank.