Sinularia Shriveled & Drooped over

[jandakay]

Good afternoon,

I have a 22 gal long tank, with a toadstool, singularia, kenya tree, frogspawn, derasa clam, and a pulsing xenia. The tank is 11 months old.

My biggest worry is my Sinularia coral.

I recently went on a 3 week long TDY to florida, and had my mom take care of my tank while I was away. I typically do a 10% water change a week, but only had my mom do a 20% (2 gallon) water change on the second week I was away. Since I’ve gotten back, some of my coral haven’t been happy. I did a water change as soon as I got back.

My Sinularia was happy until about 2 days ago where it’s started to wrinkle and leans away from the water flow. It is super drooped over. I have had it next to the flow of the filter since April and it has done fine. I bought it in January, and it rarely ever extends its Polyps. It consistently sheds skin but hasn’t grown. It almost looks like it is sloughing off skin.

My Toadstool was shriveled up & leaned over, but after a water change it is back up straight, but has been only semi-open during the day. It has stated this way since August 27. I’ve had it for 10 months with no real growth.

The last coral I’m worried about is my new Pulsing Xenia. I bought it at the beginning of August. It was doing perfect until after about 3 weeks, where it turned to a dark purple in color, shrunk, & stopped pulsing. It was placed on the sandbed with minimal water flow. I noticed an Aptasia Anemone on the frag plug, which i immediately removed. A few days later, I noticed two more Aptasia Anemones on the plug which I again removed, then tried moved the coral to a higher flow. It has been about a week since then, and it still doesn’t look like it’s recovering at all.

Also, on the day I got back my Mushroom coral shrunk into the rockwork and disappeared overnight with no prior signs of stress. I’m not sure if it died or moved somewhere different. Other than that, my Frogspawn, Kenya Tree, and Clam are doing well.

My parameters were as follows on Sept 6:
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Magnesium: 1275
DKH: 9
Calcium: 465
Salinity: 1.023

Last night I did a 40% water change which seems to have dropped the Nitrate to about 10 ppm.

I dose 4 ml of AquaLife Amino-Glow daily, and recently started dosing 4 ml of Aqualife Phyto-fin 2x a week to feed my clam. (I was told at the LFS that this would raise my phosphates, so maybe that’s the issue? I don’t dose the Amino-Glow on the same days I dose phyto.)

I talked to an experienced LFS owner over email. He suggested I add an Iodine supplement and do a water change. I bought a Phosphate test kit that should come tomorrow.

I have a USA Orbit Marine LED light. Any tips or answers on possibly why my corals aren’t happy would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It does get moody sometimes, for a few hours up to a few days, its very normal. Usually it is in process of shedding to clean itself. I just leave mine alone and it perks back up again after a while

"Drooping over" can be a sign of low flow, it needs flow to help it stand up

It does need flow, it you mean the "flow of the filter" is a hob filter, thats not flow, thats water trickling onto the water surface. Flow means a powerhead pushing water from one side of the tank to the other.

 

[jandakay]

It does get moody sometimes, for a few hours up to a few days, its very normal. Usually it is in process of shedding to clean itself. I just leave mine alone and it perks back up again after a while

"Drooping over" can be a sign of low flow, it needs flow to help it stand up

It does need flow, it you mean the "flow of the filter" is a hob filter, thats not flow, thats water trickling onto the water surface. Flow means a powerhead pushing water from one side of the tank to the other.

I hope that’s all it is. Yeah it is under just a hob filter, but it’s only strong enough that I can see the water pushing on the Singularia a bit.

I purchased a wave maker that should be coming in the mail today because my tank doesn’t get enough water movement.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If it doesn't improve after a day or so, you can use a turkey baster to gently blow it and help it out. Mine often perk up again after that.

 

[jandakay]

Well, my sinularia fell completely apart on October 1. My water parameters were fine and the coral never showed improvement, even after moving it to different locations to see if it would get any better. I was in communication with my lfs owner & they aren’t sure why it died either.