unhappy elegance coral

[reefer gladness]

Hi folks, I have an elegance coral added about 1 week ago that's not too happy right now. Everything else in my tank from mushrooms to SPS corals and my big RBTA are absolutely thriving right now. Water parameters have been stable and are as follows:

Alk-8.9dKH
Calcium-430
Magnesium-1340
pH range 8.18 to 8.30 through the day (controller doses kalk when pH drops to 8.18 and raises it to 8.22, always overnight after pH drops naturally)
Temps - 77.5 to 79.0 max range each day.
Salinity - 1.024

Not able to test for nitrates or phosphates right now but no indicators of any problems in the form of nuisance algaes etc. either. I use RO/DI to mix fresh saltwater and top off.

I purchased the coral from Petsolutions and took a full 2 hours acclimating with lights off until the next day. Here it's looking pretty good on day 2.

It's been shrinking a bit the last few days and here it is this morning, there was a tiny bit of mucous I blew off.

After doing a bunch of research this morning (that I should have done before purchasing...) I understand the Indonesian corals aren't nearly as hardy as the Australian elegance corals. Petsolutions didn't specify that I bought an Indonesian elegance coral but they DO list Australian elegance corals separately and with a much higher price than what I paid so... I'm guessing I bought an Indonesian elegance coral.

Two other things I read this morning that I'm hoping somebody might have experience with and be able to help.

1. Elegance corals react very poorly to any kind of ozone in the water and UV sterilizers are not recommended. I just turned off my UV sterilizer this morning after reading that to test that theory but wondering if anyone else has experience.

2. Elegance corals prefer 6500k-10k lighting and do poorly in 20k lighting. I run a combination of 5-watt neutral white LED's and 3-watt royal blue and UV LED's that are tuned probably to about 20k although I have no way of testing that. I also run a 1 hour actinic only phase in the morning and evening. Does anyone have experience keeping one of these corals under similar lighting?

 

[dmatt88]

I've tried two elegance coral boat indio coral. Both died. Both were kept in 3 different tanks to see what they like. Sorry man. My guess is its a goner. Id contact the lfs to get store credit. They just continue to deteriorate until all that's left is skeleton. Push it to a spot away from light like under a ledge n leave it alone. Oh n pray. Sorry dude

..........its 5:00 somewhere

 

[merman]

I also have tried three elegance corals over the past 6 months to have them all die. I swore i would not try another however a LFS had one in so i started watching it to see how well it would do. they had it for two weeks and it was still looking great so I brought it home it started out great then started closing up in the day time opening at night so i thought maybe something was picking at it in the day and i was correct i HAD a pyramed butterfly that decided it had a taste for the elegance so i returned the butterfly. It has been two weeks now and the elegance it doing great i think i finally found one that will make it.

 

[jjmoneyman]

I had one for quite sometime until my shrimpy decided it tasted good. I no longer have that shrimp.

 

[cheeks69]

Elegance corals are very difficult to keep long term although years ago they used to be an easier coral to keep, unfortunately no one really knows why the change, I had one for about 18 months. They don't do very well under strong lighting so I'd recommend you place it under a ledge under indirect light and try to feed it some frozen cyclop-eeze or other type of zooplankton. They should be target fed often and hopefully you can succeed in keeping it and keep us updated.

Here's a good read:
The Elegance Coral Project by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Jetbkk]

I've had Elegance corals from Thailand (I live here) and they have absolutely thrived for 2 years. One got so huge I had to give it away as it was stinging other corals. I see you have it in the sandbed and I wouldn't recommend that. Put it right up top and blast it with full light. They seem to love as much light as I can throw at it and I don't think the sandbed is where it belongs.

 

[fsamir]

I have seen dozens of Elegance corals dying in the last 10 years, until I moved to Australia and had such a good surprise. The Ozzy ones are tough just like hammer heads.

 

[cheeks69]

I see you have it in the sandbed and I wouldn't recommend that. Put it right up top and blast it with full light. They seem to love as much light as I can throw at it and I don't think the sandbed is where it belongs.

Elegance corals are lagoonal corals and are found in the SB, not sure why you would say this and to say blast them with light would be a serious mistake.

Eric Bourneman:

The species can be locally common to abundant in protected turbid or lagoon areas with soft or muddy bottoms (although they may be found in other areas), and in inter-reef areas where they commonly share space with seagrasses.

Elegance Corals: Sustainability and Disease Impacting Catalaphyllia jardinei (Wells 1971) in the Aquarium Trade by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Jetbkk]

I've had several Elegance for the last 2 years and they THRIVE up top right under 2 400w MH. We put one in the sand because we didn't have space and it shrunk by 75%.

I don't know if the Thai variety is different but I have no doubt at all that they love very strong light!

 

[cheeks69]

Any coral must be acclimated to intense lighting even SPS corals when introduced to a new tank, blasting them with light particularly if they have not been properly acclimated would lead to bleaching especially if the bulbs have high PAR levels. When I changed to a new tank from PC'S to Metal Halide that's when my Elegance started to decline I would not recommend this. These corals usually come from turbid waters and are not exposed to intense light.

 

[Nanoprincess]

Could you send me one??? I have a space right up top..would love to test out a Thailand type.

Shoot I want any kind that would survive.... And kind.......

Hugs
Carol

 

[reefer gladness]

Thanks all for the replies. With regards to the lighting I would expect the polyps to be fully open to catch as much light as possible if that was the issue. If anything I would suspect my LED system of being on the high-end so I made some adjustments yesterday to reduce the light exposure.

The polyps did open a bit more yesterday and it accepted some mysis shrimp at feeding time which I took as a good sign. Especially since the coral isn't really being fed by photosynthesis with the polyps mostly closed.

Today there was more mucous than the previous 2 days which I sucked off again with the swiss army knife of the aquarium - a turkey baster :smirk:
It's more closed than it was the previous 2 days also but on the plus side I don't see any signs of detioration yet either.

Anyone have any thoughts on negative effects of ozone from the UV sterilizer on corals? I'm inclined to believe the article was BS as the author went on to say no reef tank should ever have a UV sterilizer. I've only been running one for about a month but my tank has more pods now than ever before and every coral except this elegance is about the happiest I've ever seen them too.

 

[cheeks69]

I have no experience with ozone but know people who use them in reef tanks and I see no issue using it unless it's improperly setup.

Here's a good read on ozone and the reef tank by Randy Holmes-Farley:

Ozone and the Reef Aquarium, Part 1: Chemistry and Biochemistry by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[reefer gladness]

Thanks, that was a good read. It won't hurt to leave it off for a few days but I've pretty much eliminated the UV sterilizer as a factor now.

The flow rate is in the correct range for a reef aquarium for the model sterilizer I have. Any doubts about micro-organisms reproduction being inhibited were gone within the first week. I started with a new sandbed and LR and water from my other aquarium and the new sandbed had a healthy population of amphipods a week later.

Funny thing too I never thought my old aquarium had any issues with water clarity but when I had both aquariums set up side-by-side my old aquarium looked like it had dishwater in it and they both have low-iron or starphire glass.

 

[Clutch]

Elegance corals are very difficult to keep long term although years ago they used to be an easier coral to keep, unfortunately no one really knows why the change, I had one for about 18 months. They don't do very well under strong lighting so I'd recommend you place it under a ledge under indirect light and try to feed it some frozen cyclop-eeze or other type of zooplankton. They should be target fed often and hopefully you can succeed in keeping it and keep us updated.

Here's a good read:
The Elegance Coral Project by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com

Very good advice here and a good link. It's a shame these animals cannot live better in captivity. I for one, have stopped trying as they need to be just kept in their natural environment until more concrete research is published.

P.S. Besides the diseases in the above link, some folks say our typical water in salt water aquariums lack the nutrients these animals need. By researching what types of water environments these animals actual come from is shocking they actually thrive in the wild. I think our aquarium water is just too clean for these creatures!