Sun Coral Question

I bought a nice Sun Coral Colony at the lfs a couple weeks go. It wasn't open as the lights were all on, but the employee at the store said he's seen it open at night and has fed it mysis shrimp successfully.

I've been trying different locations in my tank over the last two weeks. More flow, less flow, upper in tank, lower in tank. I've read they like low flow dark areas and this coral has been in a dim low flow area for about 4 days now and I still haven't gotten it to open up. One night about two of the polyps were partially opened, but that's the best it's done yet.

Anybody have any suggestions of what I can try next? I'd really like to keep this coral but don't want it to starve to death cuz it won't open and can't feed.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Mine open when I target feed my other coral. I just shoot a small stream on them of the liquid food and they open up every time... Try it and see if it works

 

sun corals dont need any light [nonphotsynetic corals], and they need enough flow to keep debre from building up so i would say med to high. i know people have theirs in high flow and they are happy as a clam...haha
have you feed it at all? because it doesnt need light it needs alot of meaty food.
this is what you do to feed:
wait about 2 hr after all lights go off then turn off you flow that goes over him. squirt alittle food at him [i use turkey baster] and wait 5-10 min till he comes out and the feed him the rest. i do it about 2-3 times a week

keep in mind thats a lot of uneatten food that will float around so watch your params;D

 

I've tried that as well. The polyps will extend a ways out at night, but they don't open up so you can see the tentacles. They're just extended and closed. Then they retract back in during lights-on

 

Water quality? How did you acclimate? Temp?

 

I drip acclimated them for about 1.5 hours. I keep my temp at about 79-80. My water params are as follows:
Calcium: 520
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
dKH: 8
Salinity: 1.024

 

i have some at the bottom of my tank underneath an overhang. I never direct fed them and when i first put them in my tank they never really opened much. Some here some there, but never really a nice bloom.
Lately they've looked beautiful! I've got no reasoning except maybe the water quality has gotten better, but i'm not really sure.
My only advice would be to give them time. Mine just seemed to take off after being in my tank for about 5 months.

 

Why is your ... Calcium: 520, seems high..
I run mine around 440.. ??

Good Luck. Larry

 

Oh wow, it took 5 months to fully bloom for you, maybe I'm worrying over nothing. It's only been a couple of weeks, I'll give them more time, they do seem to be extending more polyps now than when I first got the colony. Hopefully they'll start opening up soon.

 

I dunno why my calcium is at 520, it just is, has been running pretty stable at that for months. Maybe my test kits aren't reading right? It's been stable and everything else is doing great so I haven't really worried about it.