Help with candy cane coral

[tennisstar28]

Hey everybody,

Please help me with my candy cane coral, I got it about a week ago and it was doing fine until yesterday. I noticed when I came home all the heads on it are shriveled looking instead of full like when I got it. Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks for any advice.

[ckusnierek]

are your parameters ok?
enough lighting?


do you have a pic?

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by ckusnierek

are your parameters ok?
enough lighting?


do you have a pic?

What kind of flow? we need more info!

[tennisstar28]

Yes, all my parameters are where they are suppose to be, I have a power compact light that puts out 2 watts per gallon, not sure if that is enough and it is in a place of moderate water flow.

[tennisstar28]

I have never posted a pic, so hopefully it will show up on this one.

[ckusnierek]

2w/g is probally not enough lighting.... especially with PC. watts/gallon is really antiquated..
Whats the tank size and total watts. how high are the lights and how high are the CC?

[betamed]

They don't look too bad in the pictures. Mine have days where they are not inflated. Any way info on tank size, lighting, filtration and your source of water would be helpful. I know when I switched to RO DI water a few years ago it made a huge difference.

[tennisstar28]

I moved the candy coral almost all the way to the top. I am not sure the total watts of the compact but when I find the information I will let you know. They look like they are doing a tad bit better. I did a water change and move them almost all the way to the top. I will let you know how it is doing. Thanks guys!

[Bender 2]

Do the feeding tentacles come out at night? If so, perhaps try feeding it sone brine or mysis shrimp. It can't hurt.

[tennisstar28]

I feed it some brine shrimp this morning and it ate them. It seemed to be doing a tad bit better but I rather not take a chance. In a couple of days if it is not doing better I will have to sell it to someone who has a metal halide.

[hairbear]

I have compact flourescent lights and candy cane coral and it is doing ok. Sometimes it closes up at night but the feeding tenticles come out and it will open back up in the morning when the lights come on. Mine is placed in medium current and in the top 1/3 of my tank. Hope this helps.

[tennisstar28]

Hey,

Thanks for all the info, this coral is really weird b/c it will look beautiful one day and then the next day it looks bad. Most of my corals have a good consistency of looking the same everyday but not this candy cane coral. Today it looks bad but I am sure it will look better tommorrow. I put mine all the way at the top of my tank with moderate water flow also. I also add calcium to my tank to help the corals.

[Jnicho]

Originally Posted by tennisstar28

Hey,

Thanks for all the info, this coral is really weird b/c it will look beautiful one day and then the next day it looks bad. Most of my corals have a good consistency of looking the same everyday but not this candy cane coral. Today it looks bad but I am sure it will look better tommorrow. I put mine all the way at the top of my tank with moderate water flow also. I also add calcium to my tank to help the corals.

When you say you add Ca do you test for it too? Do you have a set off recent tank params for us...it could be that your water chemistry is a little off. If you only add Ca this could cause your Alk to fluctuate.

[tennisstar28]

I will have to get back to you with new water parameters, at work suppose to be working but on this forum instead.

[reefjunkie77]

Candy canes are usually pretty hardy corals, just keep it up high with pretty good flow, and I think that it will perk up in a couple of days. I think that you will find that corals can adapt to different lighting conditions if given time to acclimate. Feeding it will also help it maintain color if kept under less than optimal conditions. Try feeding it a little and see if the condition improves. HTH